'Klaus' is one festive mess of holiday cheer — Oscars spotlight review

When Smeerensburg’s new postman, Jesper, befriends toymaker Klaus, their gifts melt an age-old feud and deliver a sleigh full of holiday traditions.

See the rest of Jane’s 2020 Oscar spotlight series here.

I wanted to like this. Truly I did. I appreciate any director who really wants to showcase hand-drawn animation. Director Sergio Pablos highlights color, character design and action so much that you remember what CGI can miss and what hand-drawn animation can elevate. That’s the only positive aspect of Netflix’s new holiday film Klaus. It is a run-of-the-mill Santa origin story that offers nothing new and fails to be anything but uninspiring. 

The story begins with a voiceover telling the audience that no one actually remembers where the myth of Santa comes from. That’s not the case as people clearly remember as this film is in a long line of better Santa Claus origin tales (Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, The Santa Clause). The plot is about a spoiled, self-entitled brat named Jesper (Jason Schwartzman) who is sent to the Arctic Circle by his Father who owns The Postal Service? Sure. Jesper needs to make a quota of delivering mail or else be cut off from his family’s finances. Unfortunately for him, this town has two feuding clans who have come from a long line of hating each other and don’t have time to send letters.

He finds a loophole in the form of an isolated Klaus (J.K. Simmons) who sends toys to children if they send him a letter. The two begin to forge a partnership and strangely the unlikeable postman begins to create all the traditions you love about Santa Klaus. To ask for more toys, the children seek the help of the local teacher in town, Alva (Rashida Jones in a thankless role) and begin to make their own destructive town a better place to be. This displeases both leaders of the town, Tammy Krum (Joan Cusack) and Mr. Ellingboe (Will Sasso) who then make an alliance to remove the yuletide distractions from their daily debauchery. Besides that, you get every cliche checked off in bland plotting. A throwaway love interest? Check. A dead wife to inspire your tragic backstory? You got it. A big reveal that shows what Jesper has been up to all along? You betcha.

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That wouldn’t make Klaus bad just worn out territory (Seriously, did they just watch Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town and switch some things around?). Here’s what makes it bad: All throughout the film, the moral message is that doing good for others inspires others to be good. However, the film doesn’t really separate doing good for the sake of doing good versus doing good for your own gain. The children turn the town around but only because they were promised a reward. They never actually learn anything that inspired the heart of Christmas: selfless acts of generosity. 

Oddly enough, the film points this out several times and makes you believe that there would be some payoff by the film’s conclusion, but we never dive deep enough beyond the shallow writing to see a believable change in the town. To some degree, Jesper changes but by the time he does, you’re already so sick of his presence that you wish the film spent more time with the Saami tribe and little girl Márgu (the only time the film actually inspires heartfelt emotion). 

This begs the question: How? How does this film get nominated for an Oscar? My bet is that the voters had this on mute in the background during the holiday season and were impressed by the visuals. I love the character designs. Big broad Klaus against thin stick Jesper is a ton of fun to watch. The villagers’ designs (if heavily borrowed from film *cough* Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town) come in many diverse shapes, sizes and colors. It’s arguably the most creative part of the film. So if you are a lover of holiday films and animation, put this on. Just make sure the sound is off.

Random thoughts ?

• The voice acting of the film is more or less good although I never got lost in any of the performances. One exception is Joan Cusack who is a blast to listen to and gets the only chuckles I had in the film.
• It’s funny, for a film that seems to want to sugarcoat you with sentiment, I thought it was odd that the film didn’t focus on Jesper and his Dad’s relationship at all.
• Probability of winning an Oscar: Not likely. The Academy rarely gives out accolades to seasonal themed films and with the holidays just recently over, I don’t see them handing out an award to a Christmas film. However, this film is very popular (93% on Rotten Tomatoes!) with critics and audiences. So maybe it’s just the cynic in me that can’t get behind this film.

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