- I was just looking for that next great idea,
that's where the whole slew of origin stories
kind of started.
So I made a list of historical and fictional characters,
and you could find names like Joan of Arc or Napoleon
or Dracula or whatever.
And I got to Santa Claus and I said, "Huh...
"Nah," and I just moved on.
(gentle music)
- [Klaus] Ho ho ho!
(Klaus laughing) - Wait wait wait.
Time out, really?
That's how you laugh?
- When I thought Santa Claus origin story,
I was like, "I'm not sure I wanna do that."
But then once you say there's something there.
Let me see if I can find that non-corny version of this.
(snowball thuds) - Ow!
- (laughs) Ho ho, you loser!
- Oh yeah, well, if I'm a loser,
then you're a, you're a...
You're too far, you're gone.
- I try to have a kernel of truth
underneath all this fantasy,
and found this list of the human settlements,
the Northern most human settlements in history.
In the 1600s there was this place called Smerenburg,
without the S,
and it used to be a Dutch and Danish whaling post.
- There she is, Smerensburg.
- I thought, if you hold off the magic, hold it off.
- What happened here?
- Oh, colorful local traditions,
quirky folklore, that kind of thing.
All part of this quaint town's vibrant culture.
- 'Cause this is a prequel to your Santa,
how much can we hold off on the magic
until that moment comes across?
You know, it has to come in.
And I thought that was the fun of it.
(child gasps)
(reindeer whooshing)
(sleigh screeches)
Magic in film can't be a cheapskate.
That's why things like "Harry Potter" work,
'cause there's rules to everything.
- He's huge, but he can squeeze on any chimney.
- Really, how? - I don't know.
Magic, I guess.
(Jesper thuds) - Ow!
(Jesper thuds) Ah!
(chimney whirring)
- I am at heart a traditional animator.
I started in traditional animation
when CGI was just starting out,
but I got into animation because I love to draw.
When we kinda click at your drawings to come alive
and to feel and to think,
that's the ultimate form of drawing,
and that's what got me into animation.
So when CGI came along, I embraced it,
I thought it was more of a split in the road.
I didn't quite realize that it was being looked at
as some evolution,
and I never really agreed with the reasons that I was given
for that decision.
We'd been in a trend in CGI where
every advancement was uninspiring
and realism seemed unattainable.
So then we got to the point where now it looks real,
and now we're bored. (laughs)
We wanted all of the elements,
no matter where they came from in the pipeline,
to feel like they were painted by one single hand,
and the people that need to do this lighting system
are people who know to paint light.
The bulk of the team was a very young crew
of kids out of school
that most of them not had one single professional job,
and all of a sudden you put in them to work on something
where the bar is this high, right?
It was interesting to see 45 to 60-year-olds,
and then 20 to 27-year-olds, and nothing in the middle.
That's where the CGI bomb exploded
and nobody got trained into animation for all that time.
But there's a resurgence in the interest by students
that wanna learn that technique, and it's great.
I felt like I create the environment
in which I would love to work at myself.
We got really luck, we had great casting directors.
They sent a list of their proposals
for the character of Klaus.
On the top of the list was J.K. Simmons,
and I just put it down and said, "Yes, please." (laughs)
I didn't even look at the others.
And he said yes, so a week later they told me,
"Yeah, he's in."
I'm like, "Really?"
And J.K. was a true professional.
He did that whole monologue of him telling his backstory,
and he did the whole thing in one take,
and we were in tears.
We were in the booth going,
"Yes, that's pretty good." (laughs)
It was amazing.
And then Rashida was a godsend
because she's a writer herself,
and she would say, "I'm not sure
"that's how Alva would say it,"
or, "I'm not sure Alva would even say that at all."
And, man, I let her school me.
And then she improved almost every line.
Norm was fantastic, too.
Norm was just such a great, honest, timid,
you wouldn't imagine, timid guy.
But then once we'd start rolling,
he became this larger-than-life sarcastic boatman.
(Mogens whistling)
- Is the weather always like this.
- Eh, we're having a bit of a heat wave.
- The one that was the hardest to figure out was Jesper.
- Jesper Johanssen, postman.
We were never properly...
(Klaus grunts) (wood creaks)
(Jesper gulps)
- There's a real danger
when you have a character like Jesper
that he might become unlikable to the audience.
And if people decide, "I don't like this guy,"
they shut the door
and they don't go on this journey with him,
then you don't have a story.
But you still have to make him,
you know, a bit of a jerk.
- Forgive me, I'm kind of a dreamer,
but isn't that why we do it?
Hm hm?
(Alva grunts)
- So you need someone who can pull it off,
and Jason turned out to be the perfect guy for that
'cause even when he's doing horrible things,
you still like him.
He loves to improvise.
He did this thing with a little kid's voice.
"Remember when I would help you with the letters?"
- Daddy, can I help you mail the letters?
Can I help you put the medals in the letters
then put them in a stamp with the,
wait wait wait wait wait!
- We just cracked up, and it was like,
and it became such an iconic moment for the character.
- A true selfless act always sparks another.
The whole film is just to convey
the most poetic version of that message.
It is true.
If someone holds a door for you,
you like to hold a door for someone else.
It's just human nature,
and it's good to remind people of that.