Chris Sanders has been a leading force in animated cinema for over 20 years, delivering memorable vocal performances, as well as writing and directing movies that combine exhilarating joy and emotional depth.
His major credits include Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch” (2002)—which he co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in—a heartfelt exploration of family dynamics set to the music of Elvis; and DreamWorks’ “How to Train Your Dragon” (2010), which he co-wrote and co-directed. In the latter, Sanders masterfully balanced the thrill of taking a flying reptile out for a test drive with the heartbreak of losing a limb.
His latest writing-directing project is “The Wild Robot” (in theaters Sept. 27), an adaptation of Peter Brown’s 2016 sci-fi novel series. The film follows a robot (Lupita Nyong’o) who, after being shipwrecked on an island inhabited only by animals, attempts to survive while caring for an orphaned gosling (Kit Connor).
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Beyond its incredible, painterly look, what makes “The Wild Robot” unique is its minimal use of dialogue. According to Sanders, the script includes about half the amount of lines that animated films from major studios tend to have. “It means that the dialogue we do have is very critical and needs to be very effective,” he explains. As a result, Kris Bowers’ soundtrack carries a significant amount of the movie’s emotional and narrative weight.
For Sanders, directing an animated film is a highly collaborative process between himself and the ensemble. “Part of the art of this whole thing is really listening to [actors] and allowing them to help shape their own characters.”
For “The Wild Robot,” the filmmaker spent the first part of every recording session discussing the arc of each role with the actor playing it, which allowed their performances to dictate the story. Because vocals are usually recorded before the animation is done, voice actors play a crucial role in setting the tone of a movie.
Sanders’ approach to directing doesn’t change much whether he’s working with a cast of professional voice actors or with A-listers like “Wild Robot” stars Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, and Catherine O’Hara. But he says that the bigger the names, the harder it is to build out the ensemble. “[Celebrities are] always very busy because they’re so good at what they do, so it’s harder to get them together.”
His favorite part of the recording process is when multiple actors are in the booth at once. “On ‘How to Train Your Dragon,’ we had a rare occurrence where we had three of our lead characters in the same place at the same time,” he recalls. “And we did a very intensive recording session over two days, where we put all three characters together in their different combinations. That was amazing.”
Sanders also often steps into the recording booth himself—most notably giving voice to the iconic alien in “Lilo & Stitch.” Interestingly, he only decided to voice Stitch to avoid bringing on another performer.
“If we hired a real actor, the studio might have come back and asked why we’re only doing three or four words and asked us to give the character more to say,” he explains. “That would’ve really thrown the whole movie off balance. We never intended Stitch to speak actual words—just baby nonsense.”
When Stitch did speak in English and Hawaiian, Sanders had to think more seriously about his performance, which he’d initially thought of as a temp voiceover to accompany the storyboards. He recalls telling his co-director, Dean DeBlois, “ ‘Today, I’m an actor and you’re a director.’ I go into the booth and do what he asks, thinking that if it doesn’t work, we would recast and find a real actor. He did a good job directing me, and we got through it.
“That experience forced me to be better at communicating the intent of a line when [I’m] directing,” Sanders continues. “You always want to make sure the actors know what you’re thinking of, but [also to] never give an actor a line reading that impacts their performance.”
This story originally appeared in the July 11 issue of Backstage Magazine.