TACOMA, Wash. — Oregon animator Steve Cowden likes to say “Chocolate Cake & Ice Cream”, a short film about friendship, owes its existence to what he calls a God moment.
“Because you would not be able to recreate the way we were all together and how it all came together,” he said in a Zoom interview that included his twin brother Scott Cowden and son Trent Cowden, a recent Seattle Pacific University grad.
Cowden family reunions are usually fun, even silly, but last winter they reunited in grief. Steve’s nephew, Blake Cowden, had died unexpectedly. The night of the funeral, while waiting for dessert, Scott and Trent came up with the chorus of the song that inspired the film.
“And it was really sweet because it was like this little reprieve from a lot of the grief we were experiencing,” says Trent Cowden.
The song is a bit of an ear worm.
“If you want to get that song out of your head you're gonna have to sing ‘It's a Small World’ ten times in a row ,” laughs Steve Cowden, who wrote the lyrics and sings the theme with his son. An off key piano adds to the charm.
Cowden then called upon his skills as a graphic artist to make the film.
He says “I just came up with the idea ‘what if Ice Cream was a cat and Chocolate Cake was a dog?'”
It took Cowden nearly a year to complete. "Chocolate Cake & Ice Cream” is a film that is so emotionally pure, your heart will break and mend and fill with joy all in the span of three minutes.
“I cannot tell you how many people are crying at the end of this video,” he says. “ It's unbelievable”.
Trent Cowden was also moved to tears.
“When my dad sent me the video l last week I sat down and watched it and even though I was literally part of writing and recording this song and had seen the storyboard at the end I was tearing up,” he says.
“This one was different,” says Scott Cowden. “ I knew it was going to touch a lot of people and I just love the message of the movie because some things are better when we're together.”
The film, dedicated to Blake Cowden, is getting shared during the holiday season when many people feel loss and a need to connect.
“All three of us we're just blown away by what is going on with this thing,” says Steve Cowden. “It's just taken off. It just hit a chord with people, so to speak.”
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