Chris Sanders, the writer and director of The Wild Robot, came of age at Disney during the era of laborious hand-drawn animation. He’s seen major changes in the industry since then, and he acknowledges both the good and the not so good impact of CG animation.
“Once we got CG stuff, we got so many wonderful tools,” Sanders says. “But we lost touch with what I would call ‘that analog warmth’ that only came from hand painted things. That's the big thing about The Wild Robot; we finally got back to hand painted backgrounds.”
Chris Sanders meets the KCRW record wall. Photo courtesy of KCRW.
Sanders talks about his experience of working at Disney under Jeffrey Katzenberg and why he eventually left the studio after John Lasseter took over Disney animation in 2006. Sanders has been based at Dreamworks ever since, co-directing How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods before writing and directing The Wild Robot. He tells us why so many animated movies kill off mother characters and he discusses his very special relationship with Stitch, of Lilo and Stitch.