I can’t even start with how much my eyeballs ache after seeing this movie. Worry not! These are emotional tears, not this-piece-of-media-is-cancer-inducing tears.
Gotta be honest, I wasn’t super interested in this movie, despite seeing the positive reviews everywhere. Why? Because I don’t do Christmas movies, I just don’t like them; the only Christmas movie I have ever watched willingly is the Grinch, and I like that one because one: Jim Carrey plays the main character, and two: I can see myself reflected in the main character.
… idk if Rise of the Guardians counts as a Christmas movie as it features… all the holidays, but I didn’t hate that one, either. Just putting it out there.
So, my initial thoughts about Klaus were among the lines of: “Oh my God, this looks like the same pointless, roundabout and self-conclusive ‘be good and do good’ garbage specials they always put on kid’s channels when I was younger.” Never have I been happier to be proved wrong.
Rather than a Christmas movie, Klaus is its own movie… whose aftermath just happens to be the start of the Christmas tradition as we now it.
First off, I gotta start by praising the animation style. I’ve always been more of a 2D fan than a 3D fan, because I draw and I know how much work goes into a 2D movie, so it’s incredible satisfying for me to watch one. Especially when it is so gorgeously animated as Klaus.
Now, if Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse is a comic book brought to life, then Klaus is like seeing a gouache painting or a kids’ book in motion. It’s cute, but not excessively so, just the right amount to be endearing, but not too much so you can still take the plot seriously. Which is a common problem in Christmas-themed movies.
Anyway, Klaus has two protagonists. First comes the story’s main narrator, and the person whose point of view the story sticks to: Jesper Johansson, a postman whose father sends off to a harsh environment in a last attempt to get him mature.
To sum it up, two quarreling families comprise most of the townspeople Jesper arrives to, and their hatred runs so deep not only they fight upon sight, but they don’t even let their kids go to school because they don’t want the children ‘interacting with their enemy’s kids.’ Stupid, I know. The point is that there’s pretty much no need for a postman in this town, as no one ever sends letters.
Jasper, who has been tasked with delivering six-thousand letters within a year if he doesn’t wish to be cut off of his family, is in a pretty tight spot there. He goes around helplessly checking mail boxes, but naturally, there’s no letters– until, there is!
Eventually, Jasper meets the second protagonist and the man of the legend itself, Klaus: a reclusive woodsman who doesn’t belong to any of the quarreling families. These two characters have a chaotic first encounter, which becomes even more chaotic after Jasper leaves and Klaus stumbles upon the letter, that turns out to be from a sad kid from one of the quarreling families.
Klaus basically shows up in the middle of the night, and gets Jasper to deliver the toy into the kid’s house xD
From there on, the movie acquiesces a funny and livelier undertone and Jasper goes around with all the swag a mailman shouldn’t have, and well. I don’t intend to spoil the whole movie to you. So I’ll just do a rundown of the facts I liked.
The soundtrack was super spot-on and helped to get in the mood while watching the movie. It had a very emotional instrumental, yet the singed themes were unexpectedly modern– it might come off as a shock for some, but they actually play with this rather well. I swear, the unexpectedness made me laugh in one scene, yet I was supposed to laugh anyways, so I’d say they enhanced the effect by putting the right amount of flair at appropriate timings.
Back to the plot itself, I loved how three-dimensional the script was, despite being a 2D movie. We get Jasper’s personal struggle, we get Klaus’ backstory, we get the townspeople’s and how they go from fighting each other to tolerate, cohabit, befriend and eventually, love. We get Alva’s, a teacher-turned-fishmonger who has lose hope. And a cute Sámi child, Márgu, who plays an important role despite being a minor character. And what I love the most is how all these stories weave and come along together.
The ending is… sad, in a way. But it feels just right. It’s not heartbreaking, but it will make you tear up a little, because it gives Klaus’ character the closure he deserves. And ironically enough, by doing this, the ending becomes even more meaningful as it is revealed the tradition is born to remember this man.
So… yeah. I was very impressed by this movie, very satisfied; I’ll definitively watch it again and see how many times it makes me cry like a baby. Superb job, Netflix.
Anyone can enjoy Klaus, and you totally should.