The Old Man "is like the grandpa everybody talks about at Thanksgiving, but who you never actually met," says Hansen, whose latest short film, "Within the Crystal Hills," is a fairy-tale origin story, one that imagines how the Great Stone Face came to be carved from the mountainside.
Using digital imagery in the style of shadow puppets and cutout animation, the nine-minute film tells the tale of a humble young ironworker who enters a forbidden cave in the White Mountains in search of a precious diamond for his beloved. A modern folk tale that toys with history, the film could soon make an unusual bit of history itself: Three state representatives from Goffstown, where Hansen grew up, are cosponsoring a bill to name "Within the Crystal Hills" the official animated film of New Hampshire.
The film "depicts New Hampshire in a very positive way," said one of the cosponsors, Rep. Joe Alexander, Jr. just ahead of Election Day, when he was hoping to earn his fourth term in the legislature.
"I would consider it a success even if the bill just gets a public hearing and Griffin gets the attention he deserves," Alexander said.
Hansen studied animation at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Georgia, where he met Christina Caralis. She has produced three of Hansen's short films. The first, "The Ten Commandments of Banquet Serving" (2023), featured the voice talents of "Car Talk"'s Ray Magliozzi and the New Hampshire personality Fritz Wetherbee.
The second, a documentary short called "Something's In Plains," visited Jimmy Carter's tiny hometown in Georgia around the time the former president entered hospice care. The two young filmmakers were recently invited to screen the film at the Carter family's 100th birthday celebration for their patriarch.
"Within the Crystal Hills" is narrated by Hansen's maternal grandmother, Francesca Ege Morrissey, a lifelong New Hampshire resident. The idea for the film came about when Caralis visited a hotel in Savannah known for its display of geological wonders.
"I wanted to tell a folk story, a love story," she explained, sharing a video call with Hansen from Atlanta, where they have lived since graduation. She loves ancient Greek mythology, she said, such as the tale of Arachne, who was transformed into a spider.
One recent Christmas, Hansen gave Caralis a tree ornament decorated with the Old Man's profile. Thinking it was supposed to be her likeness, she was at first offended.
"She thought the nose was too big," Hansen said with a laugh.
But when he came up with the story about the poor ironworker who made a deal with Death to become the face of the mountain -- so that he could gaze at the stars forever, as he'd done with the girl he loved -- Caralis was smitten.
To become the official animated film of New Hampshire, "Within the Crystal Hills" will have to go through the state's process of public hearing. Hansen and Caralis hope to get the opportunity to address the legislature if that happens, likely in January.
"It would be an incredible honor," Hansen said. "It would help legitimize animated filmmaking as a serious avenue for storytelling. I think a lot of people maybe write off animated films as kids' stuff."