Movie Thoughts: Klaus (2019)

• Released: 15 November 2019
• Directed by: Sergio Pablos, Carlos Martínez López
• Running time: 1 h 36 min
• Rating 4/5

Synopsis

An origin story for Santa Claus involving a snobbish mailman moving north and befriending an old woodsman, resulting in the two of them bringing two warring clans together through their good deeds.

My Thoughts

For a while on this blog, I had a strict "no more Christmas movies" rule, mostly because of my apathy/disdain for the holiday. However, I have to admit that there's quite a few (childhood) Christmas movies I'd like to revisit at least one more time for the sake of a review. Heck, I did this for Annabelle's Wish and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer: The Movie, didn't I? So after a year-long Christmas review hiatus I'm bringing it back. With some rules.

One: No Christmas movie suggestions. I'll only decide to take a look at a Christmas-related movie because I want to. Two: Only in the months of November and December. I'm not going to go into it earlier/later than that. Three: No overly "Christian" holiday movies. I get that the holiday is simply a Christian holiday, however due to my slight disdain for the Christian faith (I have some bad experiences) I'll only be taking a look at movies I can at least somewhat separate from the whole "this is a holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus"-thing. So more Santa, flying reindeer and elves and less church, singing hymns and praise the lord and all that.

With that out of the way: Klaus. I watched this when it first came out, but the only reasons I did so was because I wanted to experience the beautiful 2D-animation. Other than that I caught myself zoning out in quite a few moments and overall I didn't retain much of what I watched after the fact, other than it looking good. But upon this re-watch, I'm glad to say that this is indeed a beautiful movie.

I'll just get the visuals out of the way first: they are outstanding. While it does use CGI on occasion, most of it is some of the best 2D-animation I've seen in recent years. It has this extra modern polish that the latest 2D Disney movies just didn't seem to have. Heck, at points I even found myself wondering if the 2D wasn't actually 3D. Spoilers: it is not, it's just done incredibly well and the shading adds another three-dimensional layer to everything. The character designs are also wonderful and the environments are full of personality. 

For a movie about a warm holiday, you really wouldn't expect most of the color palette to be rather muted grays and whites, but they somehow make it work. And things do gradually get more colorful as the two clans start getting closer, but I liked how things didn't start out all colorful in Smeerensburg.

Other than the visuals, the movie is quite the treat. Our main character Jesper starts out unlikable, but he's supposed to be. The movie really is about him slowly opening up and learning to do the right thing for the right reasons, not for selfish gain. Yes, there is a liar revealed moment, but it's luckily over rather quickly. He does start out setting up his Santa-gig with Klaus just to meet his mail quota, but he soon really starts to realize where his heart lies.

Then there's Klaus, an absolute giant of a woodsman with a soft heart. I probably enjoyed his character the most. He's very silent and doesn't talk much, but he honestly doesn't has to. And it makes it sweet when he does eventually open up more and talk about his past. He's just an all-round great guy.

The other characters can be quite enjoyable as well. Alva felt a little bit like an afterthought at times, but I liked how she re-discovered her passion for teaching, even giving up her own savings just to be able to teach the Smeerensburg youth. The boatsman was rather funny and Margu was absolutely adorable. 

Honestly, the only characters I really couldn't get into were our villains, they felt rather one-dimensional, but honestly, I kinda feel like they're supposed to be. They're not supposed to be over-the-top memorable villains, they're just your basic antagonists created to pose a threat to Jesper and Klaus' good deeds. So I didn't get into them much, but I didn't really mind, either. 

The story was rather sweet and I also loved how it was the children that started to bring together the two opposing families. They've been taught for as long as they can remember that the opposing side is evil, but they just kind of figure out on their own through the gifts Klaus and Jesper bring them that it's really not that bad, which then slowly starts to spread to the adults of each clan. It's just really sweet to see these people who have been at odds with one another since apparently the dawn of time work through their differences and improve!

Another heartfelt moment was Klaus opening up about his backstory. Like said before, all the time before he has mostly been a quiet and stoic giant who does have a soft side, but we really know nothing about him. When Jesper accidentally reveals the wood carving he made for his deceased wife, he obviously really snaps for the first time, but after that Klaus slowly starts to open up to Jesper about the past he kept quiet for years. It's heartfelt moments like these that make the movie really hit you in the feels.

And of course, the whole Santa origin story. I really expected things to get fantastical sometimes, with the implied magical snow wind and stuff, but it's thankfully kept very toned down. The reindeer don't really fly, they just accidentally jump really far and one of the kids misinterprets it as Santa flying. Other things (such as coal in socks, why "Santa" likes cookies) also get explained, with Jesper doing most of these. 

When Klaus does finally pass on, I really expected Jesper to honestly be the next Santa Claus, but the ending rather surprised me and does contain the only really implied supernatural element: it's heavily hinted at that Klaus returns once per year at Christmas to spread joy and meet up with Jesper one more time. Implied, but never shown, which I honestly like. It's good to keep it up to interpretation like this.

So overall, Klaus is a really beautiful and heartfelt movie. I dare even say that people like me who don't like Christmas can probably enjoy it. At least give it a try if it peaks your interest.