[1] A native of Wichita, Kansas, Buck was inspired to explore animation by the first film he ever saw in a movie theatre as a child: Pinocchio (1940).

[2] His family eventually moved to Placentia, California, where he graduated from El Dorado High School.

[4] Buck helped develop several films at Hyperion Pictures and served as a directing animator on the feature Bebe's Kids.

He storyboarded Tim Burton's live-action featurette Frankenweenie (1984) and worked with Burton again as directing animator on the Brad Bird-directed Family Dog episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories and as director of the subsequent primetime animated series.

[6]: 6, 11  After it was put on hold during 2010,[7] the film was officially announced in December 2011 under the title Frozen, with a release date of November 27, 2013.

[12] The tragedy was an inspiration for the song "The Next Right Thing" in Frozen II, as well as a character named "Ryder.