Far From the Tree is a new hand-drawn Disney animated short film that will play before Encanto in theaters beginning November 24th. Following a successful debut screening through the Annecy festival earlier this year, director Natalie Nourigat (of Short Circuit entry Exchange Student) and producer Ruth Strother are thrilled to share their sweet raccoon story with families worldwide.

Jackson Murphy: Natalie, I love the storybook look of this short. Tell me about the inspiration for it.

Natalie Nourigat: This was coming right on the heels of Exchange Student, where we got to explore 2D and CG hybrid that allows for that beautiful cartooning and simplified art style that we all love. If you’re a child of the ’80s like me or if you grew-up with Disney films, a lot of people are nostalgic for that 2D cartooning style. With the hybrid style, we’re able to get these complex camera moves [and] more nuanced character acting. And I just wanted to push that further with Far From the Tree. Looking at the themes and the story content compared to Exchange Student (which was pretty humorous and cartoony and light): going into these darker themes, a longer story, the setting of the pacific northwest, the moodiness of it. Looking at watercolors and copic markers and the artwork of Manu Arenas… it just felt like a really nice fit for this world.

JM: When I saw puffins in this, it took me back to 4th Grade and learning about puffins in elementary school. Ruth, what relationships do you have to the creatures in Far From the Tree?

Ruth Strother: What a great question! Our puffins we love because one of our colleagues at the studio, Kelly Feeg, who’s another production supervisor, she just got engaged at Cannon Beach and came home and said, “You know what you guys need in this movie? Some puffins. There are a lot of puffins on the beach up there.” We did some research and she was right. There are a lot of puffins! I’m Australian, so I still get excited seeing raccoons on the street because we don’t have a lot of them. It was an exciting adventure researching all these animals I didn’t grow up with and finding a deep, deep love for raccoons, which Natalie already had.

JM: Natalie, I like how you take [the story] to the next generation. Obviously, we don’t want to spoil it for the Animation Scoop readers, but what inspired you to create this story and then all of a sudden take it to the next generation?

NN: I think it was always a multi-generational idea in my mind. But the deeper that we got into these themes of family and parenting vs. childhood, it felt like, “Okay, the main character has to go through both.” So let’s see them as a child and how they envision the world before ever getting hurt or seeing anything bad in it. And let’s see how they feel coming back to the same situation with the wisdom and the experience and the backage of an adult and synthesizing that in the end.

JM: Ruth, what do you like the most about the music? I think the music doesn’t make it overly sweet, which is great.

RS: We really love it. We worked with Nami Melumad. She’s this up and coming, amazing… composer. When she came on board, she was so moved. The first time we showed her the reels, she was so emotional and said, “I know exactly what this needs!” She really worked at some organic noise in making sure everything was very woody and not over the top, as you said, but a very organic feeling. You feel like you’re in the wilderness in the pacific northwest. We’re so grateful for what she did because it’s amazing AND we’re so grateful we recorded it in February 2020. We got to go to the soundstage and watch the orchestra.

NN: All in person. Huge room. Back when it was safe.

JM: Good. Glad you were able to get that in. This short is going to be in theaters with Encanto on November 24th. What does that mean to you, Natalie, that this is going to be… as of this moment in time… on the big screen?

NN: I’m so happy. When we started working on this, the idea was, if we make this good enough it could be a theatrical short. What an incredible legacy to be a part of. Let’s make our best possible film and hope it gets attached to one of these movies. To be attached to not just any movie but Encanto, which I got to board on, we’ve got an emotional connection to it. And the themes line-up so well: family, forgiveness, the complexity of each person’s life. It’s a dream come true, and it means that when I’m back in Oregon for Thanksgiving with my family, we can go to a theater together and watch it. I’m looking forward to that so much.

JM: That’s gonna be awesome. Disney’s gotta follow you to the theater in Oregon and do some video pieces or photos. That’s great. Now, your work on Encanto…

NN: I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say I have a scene with Julieta and Mirabel. There’s a scene with the two of them.

JM: Okay. Great. Now the pacific northwest as an inspiration… I saw a movie a couple years ago called Where’d You Go, Bernadette? with Cate Blanchett. And that was [set] in Seattle. I became immersed in the pacific northwest and the vibe of what [Richard Linklater] created. Natalie, what did you get the most out of the pacific northwest in the overall feel and the weather to incorporate into this?

NN: I grew-up in Oregon and [went] to this beach, Cannon Beach, all the time as a kid. It was really important to me that it didn’t look like a Hawaiian beach or a California beach or an east coast beach. It’s specific. That wildness. The forest that comes right up to the water. All of the nature. The sand is not white. The water is not crystal blue. But it’s beautiful. It’s a different kind of beautiful. The moodiness, the shifting weather, the fact that we get to show rain. I mean: come on. It’s Oregon. It rains all the time. It was so fun to look at it on the screen in the end and say, “That’s where I grew up. That’s my home. And it’s in a Disney movie.”