An American animator who began his career working as an artist on films including Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Toy Story (1995), Asbury moved into directing with Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron (2002). His biggest hit was Shrek 2 (2004) before going on to direct Gnomeo & Juliet (2011), Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017) and UglyDolls (2019).