Chris Butler | |
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Born | Liverpool, England | 12 February 1974
Alma mater | University for the Creative Arts |
Occupation(s) | Animator, writer, director |
Years active | 2000–present |
Chris Butler (born 12 February 1974) [1] is an English animator, writer and director, known for his works at Laika, such as ParaNorman and Missing Link , which were both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. [2]
He studied animation at the University for the Creative Arts in south England [3] and is an alumnus of Hugh Baird College in Merseyside. [1]
On 1 May 2024 it was confirmed that Butler will write the screenplay for the upcoming live action Masters of the Universe film which is due for release on 5 June 2026. [4]
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
2012 | ParaNorman | Yes | Yes | Co-directed by Sam Fell |
2016 | Kubo and the Two Strings | No | Yes | Also head of story |
2019 | Missing Link | Yes | Yes | |
2025 | Wildwood [5] | No | Yes | |
2026 | Masters of the Universe | No | Yes |
Character designer
Storyboard artist
The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature is given each year for the best animated film. An animated feature is defined by the academy as a film with a running time of more than 40 minutes in which characters' performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique, a significant number of the major characters are animated, and animation figures in no less than 75 percent of the running time. The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature was first awarded in 2002 for films released in 2001.
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Laika, LLC is an American production company specializing in stop-motion animation and forthcoming live-action feature films, commercial content for all media, music videos, and short films. The studio is best known for its stop-motion feature films Corpse Bride, Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings and Missing Link. It is owned by Nike co-founder Phil Knight and is located in Hillsboro, Oregon, part of the Portland metropolitan area. Knight's son, Travis Knight, acts as Laika's president and CEO.
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ParaNorman is a 2012 American animated comedy horror film directed by Sam Fell and Chris Butler, and written by Butler. Produced by Laika, the film stars the voices of Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jodelle Ferland, Bernard Hill, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, Elaine Stritch, Tempestt Bledsoe, Alex Borstein, and John Goodman. It is the first stop-motion film to use a 3-D color printer to create character faces, and only the second to be shot in 3-D. In the film, Norman Babcock, a young boy who can communicate with ghosts, is given the task of ending a 300-year-old witch's curse on his Massachusetts town.
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The Boxtrolls is a 2014 American animated fantasy comedy film directed by Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi loosely based on the 2005 novel Here Be Monsters! by Alan Snow. Produced by Laika, the film was the animated film debut of Isaac Hempstead-Wright, who voices Eggs, the main protagonist, and features the voices of Ben Kingsley, Elle Fanning, Dee Bradley Baker, Steve Blum, Toni Collette, Jared Harris, Nick Frost, Richard Ayoade, Tracy Morgan, and Simon Pegg. Set in the fictional European country of Norvenia in the late-19th century, the film tells the story of Eggs, a human boy raised by trash-collecting trolls, known as "Boxtrolls", as he attempts to save them from Archibald Penelope Snatcher, a pest exterminator.
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Kubo and the Two Strings is a 2016 American animated action fantasy film produced by Laika. It is directed by Travis Knight with a screenplay by Marc Haimes and Chris Butler from a story by Shannon Tindle and Marc Haimes, and it stars the voice roles of Charlize Theron, Art Parkinson, Ralph Fiennes, George Takei, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Brenda Vaccaro, Rooney Mara, and Matthew McConaughey. Set in feudal Japan, the film revolves around Kubo, a young boy who wields a magical shamisen and whose left eye was stolen during infancy. Accompanied by an anthropomorphic snow monkey and a human - stag beetle hybrid, he must embark on a quest to defeat his mother's evil twin sisters, Washi and Karasu, and his power-hungry grandfather, the Moon King, who is responsible for stealing his left eye.
Missing Link is a 2019 American animated adventure comedy film written and directed by Chris Butler. The film is produced by Laika and stars the voices of Hugh Jackman, Zoe Saldana, David Walliams, Stephen Fry, Matt Lucas, Timothy Olyphant, Amrita Acharia, Ching Valdes-Aran, Emma Thompson, and Zach Galifianakis. The plot follows Mr. Link, a Sasquatch who, with the help of British explorers Sir Lionel Frost and Adelina Fortnight, travels to the Himalayas to meet his Yeti cousins.
Events in 1974 in animation.
Wildwood is an upcoming American stop motion animated dark fantasy adventure film directed by Travis Knight and written by Chris Butler, based on the 2011 novel of the same name by Colin Meloy and illustrated by Carson Ellis. It is produced by Laika, making their sixth stop-motion animated film. It stars an ensemble cast featuring the voice talents of Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Awkwafina, Angela Bassett, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Amandla Stenberg, Jemaine Clement, Maya Erskine, Tantoo Cardinal, Tom Waits, Richard E. Grant and Frank Welker, the plot follows Prue McKeel and Curtis Mehlberg as they attempt to save Prue's infant brother Mac from the crows led by Alexandra, while drawn into a hidden magical forest.
ParaNorman (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2012 stop motion animated comedy horror film ParaNorman, directed by Sam Fell and Chris Butler for Laika. The film's original score is composed by Jon Brion which was based on his compositions for previous films which were used as temp tracks. The score album was released through Relativity Music Group on August 14, 2012.