How the Long Way North Creators Made an Ending That Did Justice to Their Female Adventurer’s Arc

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Long Way North was one of my favorite animated movies of 2016 because it gave me an adventure story starring a young girl that rose above all convention and expectation.

If you didn’t get a chance to watch it, the film is out on DVD and Blu-Ray January 17th thanks to Shout! Factory. This includes both English and French audio tracks, along with behind-the-scenes featurettes, an interview with producer Henri Magalon and Rémi Chayé, still galleries of the character design and concept art, and animated storyboards.

In the clip above, Magalon and Chayé discuss the rareness of seeing a strong female character. Magalon calls Chayé a “feminist in a very concrete way,” something that definitely shows in the film. They spoke a bit about this in our interview with them as well, and how the story steers away from the love story in favor of Sacha’s priority, which is the journey to the North Pole and the survival of the crew. As for the idea of setting money, glory, or love as her main motivation, they say, “that’s not something I want to say to girls and women.”

You can pre-order a DVD here, I wholly recommend it especially in this winter!

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