A Santa Claus Origin Story
Reviewing Klaus and All its Holiday Magic
Netflix Ad for Klaus
At one point in Klaus, Jason Shwartzman’s character faces a choice where he must come to a realization of what actually matters most to him.
All of the work put into the creation of Klaus was rewarded with a well deserved BAFTA (British Academy Film and Television Awards) award. Spanish Director, animator, and screenwriter Sergio Pablos (Despicable Me, Rio), in his debut movie as a director managed to have the movie nominated for an Oscar.
The genuine emotion generated from Klaus is something very few Christmas movies are capable of doing. Not only does the audience become invested quickly, but they start to feel for the characters, and some may even relate.
The film begins as newly-made postman Jesper Johansson (Jason Shwartzman; Rushmore, The Darjeeling Limited) arrives at a frozen barren town, he’s tricked by dockmaster Mogens (Norm Macdonald; Norm Macdonald Live, Dirty Work) into ringing what’s known as the “battle bell”.
As a massive multigeneration turf war breaks out, Johansson narrowly escapes to a schoolhouse after discovering the reason why the town of Smeerensburg is the way it is. Once things start to cool off, Mogens shows Johansson to the post office. Through the next couple days, Johansson tries everything he can think of to collect letters, but nothing works. Eventually he discovers one last house to visit. Klaus’s house (J.K. Simmons; Whiplash, Spiderman).
The animation style used in Klaus is different compared to most animated films we see today. Director Pablos used a technique known as volumetric lighting which allows the characters to react to light sources in the scenery.
There’s a scene in the movie where the main protagonist is searching through a house. The animation shows how the air is cold by showing his breath and fogging a window when he exhales. With every step or movement a character makes, their clothes react as if they were real. As light moves in a dark area, certain parts of the surroundings light up and dim down. Even shadows react to the light based on the position of the light source.
Klaus isn’t just a Christmas movie, it also teaches us about giving. The reason the main protagonist was sent to the town had to do with maintaining his lavish lifestyle. However he starts to experience the beautiful feeling of giving to others. It has similarities to The Grinch in the way that the main character is selfish and has little care for others until someone causes a change of heart.
If you’re somebody who loves a cute, sweet movie, there’s no reason to not check out Klaus. The movie puts the audience through a rollercoaster of emotions, while keeping them hooked. The story itself is somewhat of a tearjerker, but mixed with the music and animation it just makes it that much better.
The music adds so much more emotion because of how well it matches the scenes in the movie. The sweet heartwarming moments become so much more real when mixed with goosebump giving music.
Regardless of what your personal movie preference is, there is no good reason to not watch this movie. The animation mixed with the emotion expressed through the characters voices, opens up a whole different look on animated movies.
