Kirk Wise
American film director
title: "Kirk Wise" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["20th-century-american-artists", "21st-century-american-artists", "american-animated-film-directors", "american-animated-film-producers", "american-storyboard-artists", "american-voice-directors", "animators-from-california", "california-institute-of-the-arts-alumni", "film-directors-from-san-francisco", "film-producers-from-california", "living-people", "palo-alto-high-school-alumni", "walt-disney-animation-studios-people", "universal-animation-studios-people", "year-of-birth-missing-(living-people)"] description: "American film director" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk_Wise" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American film director ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Kirk Wise |
| birth_place | San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| occupation | |
| yearsactive | 1985–present |
| :: |
| name = Kirk Wise | image = | caption = | birth_date = | birth_place = San Francisco, California, U.S. | occupation = | yearsactive = 1985–present
Kirk Wise is an American film director, animator and screenwriter best known for his work at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Wise has directed Disney animated films such as Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Atlantis: The Lost Empire. He also directed the English-language translation of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away. He frequently works with Gary Trousdale and Don Hahn.
Career
Wise graduated from Palo Alto High School and went on to study character animation at California Institute of the Arts. Early in his career, Wise worked as an animator on Disney's Sport Goofy in Soccermania (1987), The Great Mouse Detective (1986) and The Brave Little Toaster (1987), as well as Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories episode "Family Dog".
Returning to Walt Disney Feature Animation, he began work on The Great Mouse Detective (1986) as an assistant animator, but eventually joined the story department, where he was reunited with former CalArts classmate, Gary Trousdale.
After working as storyboard artists on The Rescuers Down Under and The Prince and the Pauper, Wise and Trousdale were responsible for helming the celebrated Beauty and the Beast (1991), the first animated feature to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
Wise, a known fan of Hayao Miyazaki, was brought in by Disney to supervise the North America release of Spirited Away along with John Lasseter.
Filmography
::data[format=table]
| Title | Year | Role | The Great Mouse Detective | Amazing Stories | Sport Goofy in Soccermania | The Brave Little Toaster | Oliver & Company | Cranium Command | The Rescuers Down Under | The Prince and the Pauper | Beauty and the Beast | Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey | The Lion King | The Hunchback of Notre Dame | Atlantis: The Lost Empire | Spirited Away | Open Season | Oceans | Waking Sleeping Beauty | 2012 Disney History Connections: Colonial America | Chimpanzee | Aldabra: Once Upon an Island | Beauty and the Beast | Bobbleheads: The Movie | Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Assistant animator | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1987 | Principal animator (1 episode) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Animator | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Animation director (development) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1988 | Writer, animating assistant | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1989 | Voice of Hypothalamus, opening sequence director | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1990 | Storyboard artist | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1991 | Director, creative consultant (uncredited) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1993 | Executive producer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1994 | Additional story material | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1996 | Director | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2001 | Director, story | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2002 | Director, ADR Director (U.S. production) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2006 | Special thanks | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2009 | Executive Producer: Disneynature | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Himself, caricaturist | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2012 | Director (short) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Creative consultant | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2017 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2020 | Director | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2022 | Additional voices | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| :: |
References
References
- Cavallaro, Dani. (2006). "The animé art of Hayao Miyazaki". McFarland & Co..
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