Moviegoers who saw Encanto in theaters a while back were treated to a delightful seven-minute short before the film entitled Far From the Tree. Since many of us are streaming our movies right now, there’s a good chance you missed it. I highly recommend watching it with your family for two reasons: First, it’s a poignant story about parenting told beautifully through adorable raccoons. And second, the gorgeous landscape will definitely look familiar to Oregonians.

About three minutes into the piece, the baby raccoon takes off running on the beach and is unmistakably on the Oregon coast. It’s cool to see such a familiar sight animated so beautifully using a seamless mixture of 2D computer and CG animation. It feels like the hand-drawn movies of our youth but also has the modern-day polish of Disney favorites like Moana and Frozen. 

I did some digging to find out who was responsible for this ode to our coastline and was not surprised to discover the writer and director of Far From the Tree was an Oregon Kid herself. According to her website, Natalie Nourigat “grew up splashing through creeks, climbing trees and curling up with books in Portland.” She stayed in Oregon for college and studied business and Japanese at the University of Oregon. But she still always had her sketchbook with her.

During college, Natalie interned at Helioscope Studio (Periscope at the time) in Portland and was hired when she graduated. She gained invaluable experience there before taking a year off to be an au pair in France and finally landing in the training program at Disney, where she is currently Head of Story.

According to Natalie, when she first pitched her idea for Far From the Tree, it “was not fully baked.” It was simply “something that feels really personal to me about growing up in Oregon, going to this specific beach with my family, and the way it feels as a kid to get to spend the whole day with your family in a beautiful place.” After doing some parent round tables at Disney, this charming idea evolved to take on much deeper, universal themes, as you’ll see when watching the piece. However, the thrill of a trip to the Oregon coast remains and serves as an exhilarating background to the story.

Like so many Disney masterpieces, Far From the Tree was worked on by countless creatives. Nevertheless, it’s clear that Natalie is the heart and soul of the piece. In fact, raccoons were selected over other Pacific Northwest wildlife because they are Natalie’s favorite animal, and growing up, she even had a stuffed raccoon named “Racoony.”

The film tackles some pretty intense multigenerational themes. When asked where this multigenerational idea came from, Natalie points explicitly to her childhood trips with her parents and brothers to Cannon Beach (Haystack rock features prominently in the flick.): “I loved getting to do that with my parents….am I ever going take a little person here? I don’t know if that’s part of my story, but I love the idea of passing these wonderful memories of childhood on and introducing somebody to this beautiful place that we live in.”

As parents, it can be easy to get caught up in the details of a trip to the beach. (Did we pack enough crackers? Is the diaper bag still in the car? Where’s your little brother?) But this message from a little Oregonian who has gone on to create beautiful things for us all to share is important – they won’t remember the details. They’ll remember how they felt. So keep that in mind this summer as you pile everyone into the car.

At the end of the piece, there is a dedication that reads, “To parents everywhere who are doing their very best, we want to say thank you.” And thank you to Natalie Nourigat for reminding us all why we do it.

You can watch Far From the Tree on the Disney+ app. It is also included in the Special Features on the Encanto DVD. Natalie Nourigat has also written two books entitled “I Moved to Los Angeles to Work in Animation” and “Between Gears.”