Animation Magazine Article - January 2006

Winter's Warm Reception
By Sarah Gurman

When Andy and Amy Collen, the husband and wife co-founders of Portland-based Happy Trails Animation, began working on their short Winter (En Hiver) they strove for an understated style to deliver a universal message about the nature of coping with hardship. It seems the animation festival circuit has received their message loud and clear, as Happy Trail's six minute baby has garnered honors around the world, including a Telly, the Crystal Heart at the Heartland Film Festival, 2nd place at Bulgaria 's Computer Space and the Audience Choice Award at Melbourne Int'l Animation Fesitval.

Set in an ethereal snow-blanketed countryside in the late 1800's Winter presents the struggles of a young girl dealing with her mother's declining health. Equipped with warm clothes, an orange and her shaggy dog, the girl goes for a walk in the winter wonderland and finds herself challenged physically and emotionally. The obstacles she encounters is the vast white landscape poignantly mirror her complicated home situation.

The film's water colored quill pen on paper look is done almost entirely in black and white with a few key colored elements. Andy and Amy admire Edward Gorey's illustrative style and the work of Hayoa Miyazaki, and they aimed to combine these artist's visual approaches in their short. "We were interested in trying to create a Western style of Anime," Andy explains. The project took two years and initially, the husband and wife team inked the frames by hand, but finding the right pen proved problematic and they ended up completing their shot digitally with the help of Bauhaus' Mirage and Wacom Cintiq tablets.

In addition to Winter's minimal look there are no verbal devices to explain the animation, only the music and images speak for the film. "Animation has been a great tool to cross many barriers," Andy notes "We wanted to create a film that spoke to anyone in any language from any country."

Andy and Amy started Happy Trails Animation, one-stop shop for toon production, in 1991 after spending a few years working freelance. They recently learned that Winter will be featured in the first Golden Stars Short Fest hitting Los Angeles in February, which might just put Oscar in the mood for a snow day.

You can watch Winter (En Hiver) and find out more about Happy Trails Animation at www.happytrailsanimation.com