Lilo & Stitch Guide - Crew Biographies
The Filmmakers
Dean DeBlois (left) and Chris Sanders (right)
(c) Disney Enterprises
Chris Sanders (Director/Screenwriter/Voice of Stitch) makes his directorial debut on “Lilo & Stitch” following a distinguished animation career as an artist, designer and story supervisor. He came up with the original idea for “Lilo & Stitch” and guided it through all stages of its creative journey from story sketch to the screen in his role as screenwriter/director (along with Dean DeBlois). Demonstrating yet another facet of his talent, Sanders also provides the voice of the mischievous title alien, Stitch.
A 1984 graduate of CalArts (where he majored in character animation), Sanders joined Walt Disney Feature Animation in 1987 as the first person hired in the newly-formed visual development department. In that capacity, he contributed to “The Rescuers Down Under,” before transitioning to the story department. He went on to storyboard several key sequences for “Beauty and the Beast,” including the Beast’s memorable death and resurrection.
After developing new concepts for “Fantasia/2000,” Sanders moved into a key creative role on “The Lion King,” where he served as production designer and helped to establish the film’s design sensibilities. His major contributions to that film include the colorful and inventive “I Just Can’t Wait to be King” musical sequence and the powerful scene with Mufasa’s ghost.
For the 1998 Disney animated feature, “Mulan,” Sanders lent his talents as co-head of story and screenwriter. His work on that film earned him two Annie Awards in the storyboarding and screenwriting categories.
A native of Colorado, Sanders recalls liking to draw as a kid and being greatly influenced by the outrageous Ward Kimball-animated musical sequence from Disney’s “The Three Caballeros,” when he saw it on “The Wonderful World of Disney” at the age of ten. “It is still the most unfettered, worrisome-free, joyous piece of animation that’s ever been done,” says Sanders. Years later, when his grandmother read an article about the animation program at CalArts, Sanders applied and was accepted. After graduation, he began his animation industry career with a four-year stint at Marvel Productions, where he designed characters for the popular animated television series, “Muppet Babies.”
Click for Chris Sanders' filmography at IMDB.com
Dean DeBlois (Director/Screenwriter) makes his feature film, directing and screenwriting debut on “Lilo & Stitch.” Collaborating with Chris Sanders (the film’s co-director/co-screenwriter), DeBlois helped to shape the story from its inception and oversaw a team of artists and animators based at Disney’s Florida Feature Animation Studio.
A graduate of Sheridan University, DeBlois joined the Disney animation team in 1994 and quickly rose through the ranks from layout artist to story artist and head of story. His first Studio assignment was on the 1998 feature, “Mulan.” He segued from layout to story artist and eventually was named co-head of story (working for the first time with Sanders). In 1999, DeBlois relocated to Florida to begin work on “Lilo &Stitch.”
Born in Ontario, Canada, DeBlois began his industry career as a layout artist on animated programs for an Ottawa television station. This was followed by a four-year stint in Ireland with director Don Bluth and credits as layout artist, key layout and story assistant on such feature films as “A Troll in Central Park” and “Thumbelina.”
Click for Dean DeBlois' filmography at IMDB.com
• • •
Clark Spencer (Producer) brings his vast experience in animation to his role as producer of Walt Disney Pictures’ delightful, new, animated comedy, “Lilo & Stitch.” His association with Disney stretches over 12 years. Just prior to this assignment, he held the post of senior vice president and general manager of Disney’s Florida Feature Animation Studio, where he oversaw all aspects of operations and production.
Spencer joined The Walt Disney Studios in 1990 as senior business planner, earning subsequent promotions to manager of studio planning in 1991 and director of studio planning in 1992. During this time, he was involved in the launch of the Disney Channel in Asia, the acquisition of Miramax Films and the creation of the business plan for Disney’s Paris-based animation studio.
In October 1993, Spencer transferred to Walt Disney Feature Animation as the division’s director of planning and was promoted ten months later to vice president of planning and finance. The Hollywood Reporter ranked him in its class of 1995, among the “Next Generation” of emerging young executives under the age of 35. In 1996, he was named senior vice president of finance and operations for Walt Disney Feature Animation and Theatrical Productions, a post he held until his move to the Florida studio in September 1998. A native of Seattle, Washington, Spencer is a 1985 graduate of Harvard University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in history. He spent three years on Wall Street as a financial associate with Bankers Trust Company before returning to Harvard Business School, where he received his M.B.A. in 1990. An avid world traveler, Spencer has worked on a Nissan assembly line in Japan, journeyed down the Amazon River, and explored the jungles of northern Cambodia.
• • •
Alan Silvestri (Composer/Songwriter), a multiple Oscar®- and Grammy-nominated composer, brings elements of adventure, comedy and emotion to his impressive score for “Lilo & Stitch.” He also collaborated with kumu hula master Mark Keali‘i Ho‘omalu in creating the two Hawaiian-themed songs heard in the film. Silvestri has written the music for an extraordinary number of hugely successful films, including the “Back to the Future” trilogy, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” “Father of the Bride,” “The Bodyguard,” “Predator,” and perhaps his most familiar score, the Best Picture Oscar®- winning “Forrest Gump.” Within the last couple of years, Silvestri has added several megahits to his resume: the Mel Gibson comedy “What Women Want,” the Tom Hanks drama “Cast Away,” and the summer blockbuster “The Mummy Returns.” These films, plus the John Cusack romantic comedy “Serendipity” and the Robert DeNiro/Eddie Murphy action comedy “Showtime,” comprise the latest of his more than 70 scores written over the past three decades. Among his most recent composing credits are the upcoming “Stuart Little 2” and the Jennifer Lopez comedy, “Chambermaid.” Silvestri was born in Manhattan, raised in Teaneck, N.J. and attended Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music before joining a Las Vegas band as a guitarist. His performing and arranging skills earned him work in Los Angeles, including an accidental gig scoring a film. Later, he wrote the music for more than 100 episodes of television’s “CHiPs,” which, in turn, led to the composer’s first major film, 1984’s “Romancing the Stone” directed by Robert Zemeckis.
Zemeckis and Silvestri have made nine more films since then. Their collaboration has spanned 17 years and, next to that of Steven Spielberg and John Williams, it’s the longest-running, most successful directorcomposer relationship in Hollywood.
For other filmmakers, Silvestri has written equally diverse, alternately powerful and touching music, including a dark and suspenseful score for John McTiernan’s “Predator;” one embodying the wonder of “The Abyss” for James Cameron; soaring, celebratory music for Charles Shyer’s “Father of the Bride;” a memorably melancholy theme for Whitney Houston in Mick Jackson’s “The Bodyguard;” a delightful cat-andmouse score for Rob Minkoff’s “Stuart Little;” and faux spaghetti-western music for Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt in Gore Verbinski’s “The Mexican.”
A resident of Carmel for the past 13 years, Silvestri is an instrument-rated pilot and has recently begun a second career as a vintner. Within the next three years, he expects to be in full wine production on his 300-acre vineyard in Carmel Valley. Active in the fight against Juvenile Diabetes – a disease that afflicts one of his three children – he has testified before a Congressional committee on the issue and has written a song, “Promise to Remember Me,” which became a rallying song for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.
Click for Alan Silvestri's filmography at IMDB.com
• • •
Elvis Aaron Presley (Recording Artist/Actor /Entertainer) was born, in the humblest of circumstances, to Vernon and Gladys Presley in a tworoom house in Tupelo, Mississippi on January 8, 1935. His twin brother, Jessie Garon, was stillborn, leaving Elvis to grow up as an only child. He and his parents moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 1948, and Elvis graduated from Humes High School there in 1953.
Elvis’ musical influences were the pop and country music of the time, the gospel music he heard in church and at the all-night gospel sings he frequently attended, and the black R&B he absorbed on historic Beale Street as a Memphis teenager. In 1954, he began his singing career with the legendary Sun Records label in Memphis. In late 1955, his recording contract was sold to RCA Victor. By 1956, he was an international sensation. With a sound and style that uniquely combined his diverse musical influences and blurred and challenged the social and racial barriers of the time, he ushered in a whole new era of American music and popular culture.
He starred in 33 successful films, made history with his television appearances and specials, and knew great acclaim through his many, often record-breaking, live concert performances on tour and in Las Vegas. Globally, he has sold over one billion records, more than any other artist. His American sales have earned him gold, platinum or multi-platinum awards for at least 131 different albums and singles, far more than any other artist . Among his many awards and accolades were 14 Grammy nominations (3 wins) from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, which he received at age 36, and his being named One of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation for 1970 by the United States Jaycees. Without any of the special privileges his celebrity status might have afforded him, he honorably served his country in the U.S. Army.
His talent, good looks, sensuality, charisma, and good humor endeared him to millions, as did the humility and human kindness he demonstrated throughout his life. Known the world over by his first name, he is regarded as one of the most important figures of twentieth century popular culture. Elvis died at his Memphis home, Graceland, on August 16, 1977. Among Elvis Presley’s highest posthumous honors are his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (1986), the CMA’s Country Music Hall of Fame (1998) and the GMA’s Gospel Music Hall of Fame (2001). No other artist is a member of all three.
Click for Elvis Aaron Presley's filmography at IMDB.com
-- Source: Disney Media Kit
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