The writer and director of the film is never credited in the opening or closing credits (in the former, their name is written as a bunch of smudges on the doll name tag). This is apparently because they disowned the film and did not want to be associated with it. Despite this, Steven Paul is listed as director and writer on the back of the DVD and Blu-ray cover, even though Stuart Paul is the actual filmmaker.
Marmalade in the film is supposed to be a French immigrant woman who's settled in America. Alix Villaret in real life is fluent in both English and French.
The odd disembodied voice of Marmalade was a stylistic choice, to suggest that she is one with the dolls. She is meant to talk the way a doll would, in that she doesn't move her lips and the voice just comes out, like someone pulling a pull-string on a doll to activate the voice box.