--- name: "Chris Butler" canonical: "https://film.one/person/chris-butler" fi1m_id: "chris-butler" imdb_id: "nm2752098" tmdb_id: 154705 wikidata_id: "Q2964669" roles: ["Writer","Director"] born: "1 January 1974" reviewed_on_fi1m: 4 average_fi1m_score: 75 average_as: "writer" average_over: 3 updated: "2026-10-22T02:17:12.501994+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Chris Butler ## Identity Chris Butler - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/chris-butler - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** chris-butler - **IMDb ID:** nm2752098 - **TMDB ID:** 154705 - **Wikidata ID:** Q2964669 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Butler_(filmmaker), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2964669, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2752098/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/154705 Writer and director. Born 1 January 1974 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK. ## Details - **Work:** Writer, Director - **Born:** 1 January 1974, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK - **Active:** 2012–present - **Also known as:** Christopher John Butler - **Titles on Fi1m:** 4: 1 directing, 3 writing - **Frequently works with:** [Travis Knight](https://film.one/person/travis-knight.md), [Arianne Sutner](https://film.one/person/arianne-sutner.md) - **Academy Awards:** 2 Oscar nominations - **Average Fi1m score:** 75, as writer, over 3 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 80 (2), 2020s 72 (2) - **Fi1m against the critics:** 75 to 77 across 3 titles - **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 0 at 60–79, 1 under 60 - **Genres:** Adventure 2, Animation 2, Fantasy 2, Action 1, Family 1, Science Fiction 1 - **Screen time:** 6 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $190m across 2 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Butler_(filmmaker), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2964669, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2752098/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/154705 ## Streaming the US now - **Disney+:** [*Kubo and the Two Strings*](https://film.one/film/kubo-and-the-two-strings.md) (83), [*ParaNorman*](https://film.one/film/paranorman.md) (76) - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Masters of the Universe*](https://film.one/film/masters-of-the-universe.md) (58) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Chris Butler > Chris Butler writes children's films that let the frightening thing stay frightening and the sad thing stay sad. At Laika that gave us *ParaNorman* and *Kubo and the Two Strings*; in live action, with three co-writers, the jokes crowded out the feeling. Halfway through *ParaNorman* (2012), a schoolteacher has her class re-enact a witch's hanging in cardboard hats for a hall of proud parents. It is a scene about a town that has turned an old cruelty into a day out, and the film plays it for laughs and then lets the laugh go sour. We laughed out loud and then winced, because Chris Butler had done what most writers of children's films will not: he let the nasty thing stay nasty. A boy nobody believes, a town with a bad secret, a curse due at sundown; the bones are old, and he takes them seriously. He came up through the drawing board rather than the page: character design and storyboards on *The Tigger Movie* (2000) and *Corpse Bride* (2005), then storyboard supervisor on *Coraline* (2009) at Laika, where he has done his best work. *ParaNorman*, co-directed with Sam Fell, was the breakthrough, and he has called it "John Carpenter meets John Hughes", which is exactly right. He wrote *Kubo and the Two Strings* (2016) with Marc Haimes and ran its story department, directed *Missing Link* (2019) on his own, and now has two scripts out in the same year: *Wildwood* (2026), back at Laika, and the live-action *Masters of the Universe* (2026). Butler's films are nearly always about a boy trying to find where he fits, with something supernatural in the way, and he is at his best when the supernatural is frightening and the boy's trouble is real. *ParaNorman* borrows its slow shuffle and its screaming blonde from the drive-in and plays them straight, with Jon Brion's fairground organ wailing underneath. *Kubo* lets loss stand as something affection cannot simply remove, which is rarer in a family film than it should be, and it is the reason the adventure has any weight. The trouble is the plot, and it is the same trouble every time. Once the dead are up, *ParaNorman* has too many people to move around, and there are three chases where one would do; Christopher Murrie cuts them briskly, but a chase is still a chase. *Kubo*'s mythology gets harder to follow as it goes, and the film keeps telling us that stories matter until it sounds like a lesson. In both, the moral is said twice, and the second time we could feel the script checking that the children at the back had got it. *Masters of the Universe*, credited to four writers, has the opposite problem: each time a boy finding his purpose threatens to move us, a quip arrives to make sure it does not. With Travis Knight, who directed both *Kubo* and *Masters of the Universe*, Butler has had a studio that let his monsters be monsters. His two good films say he should keep them frightening and keep the jokes at the edges. *Wildwood* takes him back to Laika and to a dense book to adapt. We would sooner see that than another joke about the outfit. ## Biography Chris Butler is an English animator, writer and director. He studied animation at the University for the Creative Arts and is an alumnus of Hugh Baird College in Merseyside. Butler is known for his work at Laika, co-directing and writing *ParaNorman* (2012) and directing and writing *Missing Link* (2019), both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. He wrote the screenplay for *Kubo and the Two Strings* (2016) and the live-action *Masters of the Universe* (2026). *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, attitude.co.uk.* ## On Fi1m (4) ### Directed (1) - *ParaNorman* (2012), Fi1m 76, Director, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/paranorman.md) ### Wrote (3) — the average rests on these - *Masters of the Universe* (2026), Fi1m 58, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/masters-of-the-universe.md) - *Wildwood* (2026), Fi1m 85, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/wildwood.md) - *Kubo and the Two Strings* (2016), Fi1m 83, Screenplay, Head of Story — [page](https://film.one/film/kubo-and-the-two-strings.md) ## Complete filmography (14) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Wildwood* (2026), Screenplay — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/wildwood.md) - *Masters of the Universe* (2026), Screenplay — Fi1m 58, [page](https://film.one/film/masters-of-the-universe.md) - *ParaNorman: The Thrifting* (2025), Writer - *The Heritage* (2022), Writer - *The Jungle Book* (2022), Production Design - *Missing Link* (2019), Director, Writer - *30 Nights* (2018), as Dave - *Kubo and the Two Strings* (2016), Screenplay, Head of Story — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/film/kubo-and-the-two-strings.md) - *The Boxtrolls* (2014), Presenter — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/the-boxtrolls.md) - *ParaNorman* (2012), Director, Writer — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/paranorman.md) - *Coraline* (2009), Storyboard Artist — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/coraline.md) - *Corpse Bride* (2005), Storyboard Artist — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/corpse-bride.md) - *Tarzan II* (2005), Storyboard Artist - *The Tigger Movie* (2000), Character Designer ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 2 nominated - 2020: Best Animated Feature (nominated), for *Missing Link* - 2013: Best Animated Feature (nominated), for *ParaNorman* ### BAFTA Film Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - 2013: Best Animated Film (nominated), for *ParaNorman* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/chris-butler