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Friday, December 14, 2018

Chris Sanders - my 416th pick to be given the Disney Legend honor

Director and artist Chris Sanders is my 416th pick to be given the Disney Legend designation.

He directed the film Lilo & Stitch, and provided the voice of Stitch in mostly all Western areas of the franchise. He also voiced 627 in Lilo & Stitch: The Series and Leroy in Leroy & Stitch. Additionally, he provided the voice of Little Brother from Mulan.



Sanders began his career as a character designer for Muppet Babies. He also served as a storyboard artist, artistic director, production designer and character designer on Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Aladdin, The Rescuers Down Under and Mulan before ultimately bringing life to Lilo & Stitch.

On December 16, 2006, several internet animation fan sites, including AnimatedNews.com, reported that Sanders had been removed as the director of the upcoming Disney animated film American Dog by John Lasseter. A New York Times interview with Lasseter later revealed that Sanders was negotiating his exit from Disney. After the departure of Sanders from Disney, directing duties were handed to Chris Williams and the film was retitled Bolt. Sanders has since worked for DreamWorks Animation, directing How to Train Your Dragon (2010) and The Croods (2013), and serving as executive producer for How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) and its upcoming sequel.

Despite his departure from Disney, Sanders still reprises the voice of Stitch in new Disney projects when needed. However, he did not voice the character in either Stitch! or Stitch & Ai, both of which were produced in East Asia, despite the latter series having American animators contribute to its production.

In 1985, Sanders created a character named "Stitch" for an unsuccessful children's book pitch. When Sanders was the head storyboard artist for Disney Feature Animation, then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner decided that, in the wake of a number of high-profile and large-budget Disney animated features during the mid-1990s, the studio might try its hand at a smaller and less expensive film. Chris Sanders was approached by Thomas Schumacher to pitch that idea, and Sanders reused the "Stitch" character he came up with. The story line required a remote, non-urban location, so Sanders chose KauaŹ»i as the location. Stitch became the central character of the 2002 film Lilo & Stitch, which Sanders co-directed and co-wrote with Dean DeBlois. Sanders would also end up voicing the character he created for the film. The film's commercial and critical success spawned a franchise with three sequel films and three television series,
 

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