Oh, My Garland! Santa is a Girl!-Exclusive Interview with Producer Suzanne Todd

Oh, My Garland! Santa is a Girl! Wait, what? Santa is a girl? Yes, you read that right. Because, why not, right?  OK so I might have given the biggest spoiler to a movie right in the title of the article.  But, Noelle has been streaming on Disney Plus for over a week.  You must have seen it by now.  I mean, you did get my spoiler free review ahead of time. Right now, we need to go deeper and talk about our Exclusive Interview with Producer Suzanne Todd.

Oh, My Garland! Santa is a Girl!

You can never get too many gifts under your Christmas tree.  So, I admit this was a bit predictable. Nevertheless, it was done without the in your face feminist plight/fight.  Not only was Noelle uplifting, but the film had several important messages to head too.  From my review, you know it pulled hard at your heartstrings.  Perhaps those moments were the ones that made the movie hit home hard and fast.  One thing is for sure, I started my end of the year good deads early thanks to the fact that Santa is a Girl and her journey to becoming Santa moved me.

Exclusive Interview with Producer Suzanne Todd

After several good ugly cries, Suzanne Todd joined us at the Disney lot theater.  She got us out of our sniffles with a fun game.  Then, she sat down with us to talk all things including Christmas and Noelle, of course.

The Girl Power Talk

Wow, when Santa is a girl you know girl power has transcended. Susazanne Todd explains that Noelle is raising the bar on girl expectations in a very sweet entertaining Christmas family movie kind of way.  It is a great way to at least plant the seed of that,and for people to think about the possibility.  It gives a young girl watching the movie the chance to think about it differently.

So Where Do Men Fit In With All The Girl Power?

In today’s world we are constantly reminding everyone about equality.  We all can do whatever we want.  As Noelle calls on all girls to reach for their dreams, what is the message we are sending little boys?  Suzanne Todd begins by explaining that she has a girl and two boys.  She goes on to say: “I think for Bill Haderin his part as the brother,  builds character. He clearly was set on a path that was not actually the right path for him. He wasn’t really good at it. And he was being forced into that for all the wrong reasons. He actually had the courage to step off the path and leave town and find his joy. I think,  that’s a nice message for boys and men and all of us.

Supporting Each Other

A wonderful thing we appreciate in Noelle is the sibblings supporting each other.  Noelle tries to cheer and give her brother confidence.  Her brother also knows his sister and supports her.  To that Suzanne Todd remarks that is preciesely what Noelle is. Women need to support women, women also need to support men, men, or women. And I love that you have that in Noelle. It’s also this idea of connection. We all live in this very tech world these days, where there’s so much interaction and so much communication that isn’t really face to face. I think what you get to see with Bill’s character is that he really sees her. He  present with her, and he really can kind of see her for who she really is.  That’s so powerful

The Cast

The starring role goes to Anna Kendrick.  Director Mark Lawrence always liked her from the start. Suzanne Todd says:”it was actually a rare thing because she was the first person we went to and actually got her that almost never happens on any movie that you make ever. But yes, she wanted to do it. She loved the idea of doing the Christmas movie. She’s also very into Christmas and Christmas music and singing and everything else.  You know, Mark, Mark had some very specific ideas of who he wanted. I think for us,  we thought it was a stretch, frankly. It’s one of those kind of painful moments that you think “Oh, yeah. Let’s go to Shirley MacLaine”. Thankfully, she wanted to do it and you know with Bill Hader with Billy Eichner. I think we got all the people that we wanted, which doesn’t happen very often. But, you know, the movie is very sweet. And I think, like almost everything you’re going to watch on Disney Plus, it has, like a heart to it. Also something to say, the thing that I like best as a mom about the plan for Disney plus, which is that all of the entertainment will be kind of under this umbrella of global citizenship.

A Rollercoaster of Emotions

Watching Noelle, we were crying our hearts out one minute, and the next we were belly laughing hard.  What was ist like putting it all together? Suzanne Todd explains: ” Well, I don’t know if you know, for me and I’ve seen the movie literally hundreds of times. And you know, with these movies that have so many visual effects, you know, the post production is so long, you know, we shot the outdoor scenes at the North Pole, Christmas of 2017. So I’ve been working on this movie, literally for years, even since we started after development and everything, and I feel like it all it just all kind of comes together. And then usually what happens what happened with us here is when we have an earlier cut, and you have some scenes that aren’t cooking the way they need to then we went back and we did some reshoots, and we did some adjustments. And sometimes,  you’ll change the music slightly, or you’ll recut the scenes. So it’s a little bit different in everyone. But I started to say for me even like my 100 and 50th time watching a cut of the movie, when we have those moments of like, I call this Santa magic when Anna’s like something’s happening, but she’s not really clear yet on what it is that’s happening, but then you see it kind of kick it every time it’s Joe gets me and I’m like, Oh, she Doesn’t know, but she’s really good at that. So, aspirational, I think, especially girls will have such a strong connection.

Noelle Now on Disney Plus

Yes, Noelle is a fun holiday movie. It has tons of easter eggs to find.  I think Noelle carries a Kringle punch,  I found at least 6 powerful messages not to be missed!  Plus, of course, you need to start counting all the fun Christmas phrases they come up with, like the tittle of this article 🙂

Want to know more about what is going on now on Disney plus?  Check our my Lady and the Tramp live-action movie review!

 

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