Kirk Wise
Encyclopedia
Kirk Wise is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 film director, animator and screenwriter best known for his work at Disney. Wise has directed such Disney movies as Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Atlantis: The Lost Empire is a 2001 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. Written by Tab Murphy, directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, and produced by Don Hahn, it is the first science fiction film in the Disney animated features canon and the 41st overall. The film...

, The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1996 American animated drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released to theaters on June 21, 1996 by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirty-fourth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, the film is inspired by Victor Hugo's novel of...

and Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third film of the Disney Renaissance period...

. He also directed the English voice version of Hayao Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki
is a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films. Through a career that has spanned nearly fifty years, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of animated feature films and, along with Isao Takahata, co-founded Studio Ghibli,...

's
Spirited Away
Spirited Away
is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy-adventure film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film tells the story of Chihiro Ogino, a sullen ten-year-old girl who, while moving to a new neighborhood and after her parents are transformed into pigs by the witch Yubaba,...

.

Career

Wise graduated from Palo Alto High School
Palo Alto High School
Palo Alto Senior High School, known locally as "Paly," was founded in 1898 and is one of the oldest high schools in the region. Located in Palo Alto, California, United States, Paly is nestled in the heart of Silicon Valley, and is adjacent to Stanford University. Paly is known for its academically...

 and went on to study character animation at California Institute of the Arts
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...

. Early in his career, Wise worked as an animator on Disney's Sport Goofy in Soccermania
Sport Goofy in Soccermania
Sport Goofy in Soccermania is a Disney cartoon. During its 1987 debut it was preceded by a mockumentary showing past Goofy cartoons of him always getting everything wrong, and leading into the cartoon special where the audience is finally shown a competent, athletic Goofy who is the hero.-Plot:In...

, The Great Mouse Detective
The Great Mouse Detective
The Great Mouse Detective is a 1986 animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, originally released to movie theaters on July 2, 1986 by Walt Disney Pictures...

and The Brave Little Toaster
The Brave Little Toaster (film)
The Brave Little Toaster is a 1987 animated adventure film adapted from the 1980 novel of the same name by Thomas Disch. The film was directed by Jerry Rees and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film is set in a world where household appliances and other electronics have the ability to speak...

, as well as Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...

's Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories (TV series)
Amazing Stories is a fantasy, horror, and science fiction television anthology series created by Steven Spielberg. It ran on NBC from 1985 to 1987, and was somewhat erratically screened in Britain by BBC1 and BBC2 - billed in the Radio Times as "Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories" - with episodes...

episode "Family Dog". Returning to Walt Disney Feature Animation
Walt Disney Feature Animation
Walt Disney Animation Studios is an American animation studio headquartered in Burbank, California. The studio, founded in 1923 as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio by brothers Walt and Roy Disney, is the oldest subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...

, he began work on Oliver & Company
Oliver & Company
Oliver & Company is a 1988 American animated film in which a homeless kitten named Oliver joins a gang of dogs to survive on the 1980s New York City streets. The film was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and became the twenty-seventh animated feature released in the Walt Disney Animated...

as an assistant animator, but eventually joined the story department, where he was reunited with former CalArts classmate Gary Trousdale
Gary Trousdale
Gary A. Trousdale is an American film director known for directing movies such as Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Atlantis: The Lost Empire. He frequently directs films with Kirk Wise....

. After working as storyboard artists on The Rescuers Down Under
The Rescuers Down Under
The Rescuers Down Under is a 1990 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution on November 16, 1990...

and The Prince and the Pauper
The Prince and the Pauper (1990 film)
The Prince and the Pauper is an animated short film directed by George Scribner and starring Wayne Allwine as Mickey Mouse, inspired by the Mark Twain story of the same name. It was Disney's final use of the Xerox process, which the studio had used for three decades.The film was released on...

, Wise and Trousdale were responsible for helming the celebrated Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast is a traditional fairy tale. The first published version of the fairy tale was a rendition by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, published in La jeune américaine, et les contes marins in 1740...

(1991), the first animated feature to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...

.

Filmography

  • Waking Sleeping Beauty
    Waking Sleeping Beauty
    Waking Sleeping Beauty is a 2009 American documentary film directed by Disney film producer Don Hahn and produced by Hahn and former Disney executive Peter Schneider, which documents the history of Walt Disney Feature Animation from the making of The Fox and the Hound in 1981 to the release of The...

    (2009): Himself / Caricaturist
  • Oceans
    Oceans (2009 film)
    Oceans is a 2009 French nature documentary film by Jacques Perrin distributed in the United States by Disneynature. It was released on April 22, 2010 in 1,200 theaters in the US for Earth Day. The film explores Earth's five oceans. It is Disneynature's third release following Earth and The Crimson...

    (2009): Executive Producer (Disneynature
    Disneynature
    Disneynature is an independent film label of The Walt Disney Company, founded on April 21, 2008 as a division of the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group...

    )
  • Open Season
    Open Season (film)
    Open Season is a 2006 computer-animated comedy film, written by Steve Bencich and Ron J. Friedman and directed by Jill Culton, Roger Allers, and Anthony Stacchi, and production designed by Michael Humphries...

    (2006): Special Thanks
  • Spirited Away
    Spirited Away
    is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy-adventure film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film tells the story of Chihiro Ogino, a sullen ten-year-old girl who, while moving to a new neighborhood and after her parents are transformed into pigs by the witch Yubaba,...

    (2002): Director (U.S. production)
  • Atlantis: The Lost Empire
    Atlantis: The Lost Empire
    Atlantis: The Lost Empire is a 2001 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. Written by Tab Murphy, directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, and produced by Don Hahn, it is the first science fiction film in the Disney animated features canon and the 41st overall. The film...

    (2001) Director / Story
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame
    The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)
    The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1996 American animated drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released to theaters on June 21, 1996 by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirty-fourth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, the film is inspired by Victor Hugo's novel of...

    (1996): Director
  • The Lion King
    The Lion King
    The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...

    (1994): Additional Story Material
  • Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey
    Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey
    Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey is a 1993 American remake of the 1963 film The Incredible Journey, which was based on the best-selling novel The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford. Directed by Duwayne Dunham, it was released on February 3, 1993...

    (1993): Executive Producer
  • Beauty and the Beast
    Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)
    Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third film of the Disney Renaissance period...

    (1991): Director
  • The Prince and the Pauper
    The Prince and the Pauper (1990 film)
    The Prince and the Pauper is an animated short film directed by George Scribner and starring Wayne Allwine as Mickey Mouse, inspired by the Mark Twain story of the same name. It was Disney's final use of the Xerox process, which the studio had used for three decades.The film was released on...

    (1990): Storyboard Artist
  • The Rescuers Down Under
    The Rescuers Down Under
    The Rescuers Down Under is a 1990 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution on November 16, 1990...

    (1990): Storyboard Artist
  • Cranium Command
    Cranium Command
    Cranium Command was an attraction at the Wonders of Life pavilion at Walt Disney World Resort's Epcot theme park. The show was a humorous presentation on the importance of the human brain....

    (1989): Voice of Hypothalamus / Opening Sequence Director
  • Oliver & Company
    Oliver & Company
    Oliver & Company is a 1988 American animated film in which a homeless kitten named Oliver joins a gang of dogs to survive on the 1980s New York City streets. The film was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and became the twenty-seventh animated feature released in the Walt Disney Animated...

    (1988): Animating Assistant / Story
  • The Brave Little Toaster
    The Brave Little Toaster
    The Brave Little Toaster is a novel by Thomas M. Disch intended for children or as put by Disch, A Bedtime Story for Small Appliances...

    (1987): Animation Director (development)
  • Sport Goofy in Soccermania
    Sport Goofy in Soccermania
    Sport Goofy in Soccermania is a Disney cartoon. During its 1987 debut it was preceded by a mockumentary showing past Goofy cartoons of him always getting everything wrong, and leading into the cartoon special where the audience is finally shown a competent, athletic Goofy who is the hero.-Plot:In...

    (1987): Animator
  • The Great Mouse Detective
    The Great Mouse Detective
    The Great Mouse Detective is a 1986 animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, originally released to movie theaters on July 2, 1986 by Walt Disney Pictures...

    (1986): Assistant Animator

External links

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