To the animating world, Chris Buck is the heralded director of well-known Disney films like “Frozen” and “Tarzan,” but to his son and wife, he is just a calm, patient goofball. 

“He is a clown,” Chris’s 31-year-old son, Woody Buck, said. “He’s a big clown and a big goofy man, and it’s been so much fun.”

“He’s the calm to my storm,” Shelley Buck said about her husband of 36 years. “He’s patient beyond words … He laughs at the most ridiculous stuff, and I’m just like his wet blanket in the corner … He finds the silly in everything and has been a great dad.”

The School of Digital Arts hosted Chris and Woody to be the first speakers for the College of Fine Arts Connoisseur series, a collection of events where a multitude of speakers and artists come to Wichita State to talk to students. Chris reminisced on his time animating and directing, and shared lessons he learned over the years. 

“I think I’ve learned to, especially as a director, to really trust the artists that I’m working with,” Chris said. “When you first start directing, you’re insecure, and you kind of over-direct and you over-manage people. And I think the more you can kind of ease off and let the artists do, just guide them a little bit, and let them do what they can do.”

Shelley said she has seen a boost in confidence from Chris over the years of their marriage. 

“He’s gained more confidence in his voice. He is willing to say what he thinks and expresses opinions without really second-guessing himself,” she said. “He does second-guess, but when it comes to him being in a room with story people, I know that he speaks softly, but he carries a big stick. It’s like people listen because he speaks softly, and because he speaks his truth, it carries more weight.”

While Chris wasn’t at work, he spent time with his family. Woody said he demanded to be read to every night before bed when he was a child, and Chris obliged, even if he was falling asleep in the middle of the stories. 

“He would be so tired coming home from work, and I’d be like, ‘You have to read. Keep going,’” Woody said. “He’d be so sleepy, and I smack him on the back of the head. I’m like, ‘Keep going,’ and he’d be like, ‘Okay, scratch my head. Scratch my head, and I’ll keep reading.’ So I would, and then eventually he’d still pass out. And I’m like, ‘Okay, I give up.’” 

Chris said he always had a love of drawing, especially characters from the “Peanuts” comic strips, even though no one in his family was interested in the arts. 

“They (his parents) asked my teachers, ‘What would you do?’” Chris said. “They just said, ‘Give him lots of supplies, paper, crayons, pencils, whatever it is  — and just so he has enough to draw.’”

Chris, when he became a father, helped foster his children’s imagination. Creating art was normal for Woody, even though it wasn’t for some of the other kids in his kindergarten class. 

“Going to kindergarten, and just it was so normal to me that I was like, ‘Well, okay, so nice to meet you. What movie did your daddy direct?’” Woody said, smiling with his mom. 

Learning to use his imagination wasn’t the only lesson he learned from his father. Woody said one of the most important things he learned from Chris was his humility. 

“His humility is something that I’ve always aspired to, and it’s difficult. It’s very difficult,” Woody said. “You kind of have to build yourself up to have that armor of ego a little bit… I’m still in awe of the humility that he sort of goes through life with.”

Woody said his favorite memory of his father was when he was touring colleges. He said his mother would “stress him out” despite her being the one he usually did everything with.

“I knew that I needed the calm waters of my dad to be with me,” Woody said. “And he jokes that … ‘I knew that I needed to be a coat rack while I was with you, just to hold things and be there for you. And it was more supportive than I could have imagined, and really grounded me in one of the most stressful times in my life.”

Woody may not be searching for his college anymore, but the father-son duo still traveled to Wichita State to share Chris’s stories and advice to students aspiring to become artists.

“Be a sponge,” Chris said. “Meaning that you observe and you take in all of life around you … and you never know where that’s going to come out in your world. There’ll be an authenticity to the characters, something unique that you hadn’t thought of, you can’t think of on your own. Sometimes, you know, you’ll see it and be inspired by something else.”