Anna Kendrick Talks Noelle's Bonkers Sets and Sleigh-Ride Laughs

On the set of Disney+ original comedy Noelle, Anna Kendrick shared how the elaborate production design, hilarious chemistry with Bill Hader, and her love of Christmas movies drew her to the holiday film. Noelle streams on Disney+ starting November 12, 2019.

Disney+ launches November 12, 2019 with a holiday treat in tow: Noelle, the original comedy starring Anna Kendrick as the free-spirited daughter of the late Kris Kringle. Kendrick sat down on set to share what makes this Santa-family caper tick, from jaw-dropping sets to co-star chemistry that kept breaking everyone on camera.

A Holiday Story Built for the Disney+ Launch

In Noelle, Kendrick plays the cheerful Noelle Kringle, who lives for Christmas but is expected to let her brother Nick, played by Bill Hader, take over the family business. When Nick crumbles under the pressure and disappears on a vacation that turns into a disappearing act, Noelle sets out to find him and save Christmas. It's a cozy, heart-forward premise tailor-made for the service's debut holiday season alongside classics like The Santa Clause and Mickey's Christmas Carol.

"Bonkers" Production Design and On-Set Chaos

Kendrick described the production design as "bonkers," with the Kringle cottage folding away to make room for completely new elaborate sets. The cast was equally impressive: Kendrick and Hader had so much fun together that they could barely hold it together on camera. "If I break, he breaks," she admitted.

I love Christmas movies, and I think this script is really funny and fun, and there are lots of fun set pieces in it. And that made me want to do it, you know?

Kendrick confessed her love of holiday movies was as much a reason she signed on as the script itself. She described filming the mechanical sleigh sequences, where the sleigh was mounted on a gimbal controlled remotely, as "a personalized rollercoaster" that she found impossible to take seriously.

The sleigh is on this big gimbal, and there's a guy across the room holding a remote. And he just throws you around. I couldn't stop smiling, because it really feels like you're on a personalized rollercoaster. So I ruined a lot of takes because I could not contain how happy it made me, and I was supposed to be really scared.

What This Means for Disney+ Fans

Noelle arrives as one of the earliest Disney+ original films, setting the tone for the service's ambitions in family-friendly holiday programming. With Kendrick's genuine affection for the genre and Hader's comedic instincts, it's positioned to become a new annual tradition for streaming families at Christmastime.