Chris Sanders

Born: Christopher Michael Sanders
Birthday: March 12, 1962
Location: Colorado Springs, CO, U.S.
Alma mater: California Institute of the Arts
Occupation: Animator, Storyboard, Director
Years active: 1984-present

Chris Sanders was born into an artistic household as the middle child of three. Chris remembers, his father provided Blackwing pencils and computer paper from his workplace. He was always drawing and painting. On Friday nights, the family gathered around the dining room table and painted together.

Aside from drawing, Chris typed out short stories. He shared the finished tales with his family. They encouraged him and asked for more.

Chris drew throughout school and was his high school newspaper’s cartoonist. Sanders never considered a career in art until his grandmother shared an article about the California Institute of the Arts from the newspaper. Chris applied for and got accepted to CalArts’ Animation Program.

After graduation, Sanders went to work for Marvel Productions, and then onto Disney Studios. He was as a story artist for “The Rescuers Down Under,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin,” and “The Lion King,” before he became “Mulan’s” head of story.

As production on “Mulan” drew to a close, Disney’s management invited Chris to develop as story of his own. He drew upon an idea he’d tried to write as a children’s book eighteen years earlier, but had abandoned because it became to long for a short story format. It was about an odd forest creature, unaware of his own origins, and rejected by the other animals. Sanders pitched that story, and management liked it, and suggested changing the setting from the forest to the human world. Chris wrote, storyboarded, and directed “Lilo & Stitch” alongside Dean DeBlois.

Chris left Disney Studios in 2006 to join the creatives at DreamWorks Animation. He directed “How to Train Your Dragon,” as well as writing and directing the feature film “The Croods” with Kirk DeMicco.

Chris and his wife, Jessica Steele-Sanders co-authored the young-adult novel “Rescue Sirens: The Search for the Atavist” in 2015. Sanders also designed the characters and illustrated the cover.

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Lavalle Lee

Lavalle Lee

Lavalle Lee has been creating animated cartoons online since 1999/2000 for his website flashcartoons.org. Many cartoons on the site have gained viral video status reaching millions of viewers online. In 2009, Lavalle started learning hand drawn animation from Don Bluth in his animation classes, as well as attending his Masterclasses in Arizona. He has also personally studied animation and visual effects from Veteran Disney animators in Orlando, FL.

Lavalle is widely known in the animation industry as the creator of the TraditionalAnimation.com website. After seeing that most animation sites were about all types of animation, not any specific to classical hand drawn animation, Lavalle knew Traditional Animation needed to be represented online. TraditionalAnimation.com has become the leading website and social media account for all things 2D. The website served as inspiration for “The Traditional Animation Show” in which Lavalle was both producer and host.

His partnership with Don Bluth began when he championed the Dragon's Lair Indiegogo campaign as lead project manager, editor, voice actor and in-betweener. The campaign reached $730,000 dollars to produce a 7-minute pitch video. In 2017, Lavalle brought the idea of creating a school to Don Bluth, and Don Bluth University was born. After a decade of learning from Don Bluth and working together on multiple pitches and business ventures, Lavalle accepted the position as Vice President of Don Bluth's new company Don Bluth Studios.

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