Klaus (film)

Klaus
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Sergio Pablos
Screenplay by	Sergio Pablos Jim Mahoney Zach Lewis
Story by	Sergio Pablos
Produced by	Jinko Gotoh Sergio Pablos Marisa Roman Matthew Teevan Mercedes Gamero Mikel Lejarza Ortiz Gustavo Ferrada Romila Parsekar
Starring	Jason Schwartzman J. K. Simmons Rashida Jones Will Sasso Neda Margrethe Labba Sergio Pablos Norm Macdonald Joan Cusack
Edited by	Pablo Garcia Revert
Music by	Alfonso González Aguilar
Production companies	Sergio Pablos Animation Studios Atresmedia Cine
Distributed by	Netflix
Release date	8 November 2019 (2019-11-08)
Running time	97 minutes
Country	Spain
Languages	English Northern Sami
Budget	$40 million

Klaus is a 2019 English-language Spanish traditionally animated Christmas adventure comedy film written and directed by Sergio Pablos in his directorial debut, produced by his company Sergio Pablos Animation Studios and distributed by Netflix. Co-written by Zach Lewis and Jim Mahoney, the film stars the voices of Jason Schwartzman, J. K. Simmons, Rashida Jones, Will Sasso, Neda Margrethe Labba, Sergio Pablos, Norm Macdonald, and Joan Cusack. Serving as an alternate origin story of Santa Claus different from the historical take of Saint Nicholas of Myra, with a fictional 19th-century setting, the plot revolves around a postman stationed in an island town to the Far North who befriends a reclusive toymaker (Klaus).

Klaus was released on 8 November 2019 and received positive reviews for its animation, story, and vocal performances. It won seven awards at the 47th Annie Awards, including Best Animated Feature, and also won Best Animated Film at the 73rd British Academy Film Awards. The film was also nominated at the 92nd Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature, making it the first animated film from Netflix to be nominated for an Academy Award, alongside I Lost My Body, but lost to Toy Story 4.

Plot

Jesper Johansson (Jason Schwartzman), making an opening narration of the story, is the selfish, lazy and spoiled son of a very wealthy Postmaster General, who has made another attempt to reform Jesper by enrolling his son into his postman training academy. Jesper deliberately underperforms, forcing his father to finally send him to the distant northern island town of Smeerensburg with the task of posting six-thousand letters within a year. If Jesper fails, then he shall be cut off from the family estate. Upon arriving at the town, Jesper meets ferryman Mogens (Norm Macdonald), and teacher-turned-fishmonger Alva (Rashida Jones), who explain to him the source of the town's nature: its perpetually warring families—the Ellingboes and the Krums—comprise nearly all of the populace, and hardly exchange words, let alone letters.

Desperately attempting to find a way to post letters from the town, Jesper notices on the map in his office that there is an isolated dwelling at the far end of the island. Investigating, he discovers a reclusive woodsman named Klaus (J.K. Simmons) with a house filled with handmade toys. The man’s imposing appearance makes Jesper flee upon coming face-to-face with him, inadvertently leaving behind a sad drawing made by one of Smeerensburg’s children he found earlier, after which Klaus forces Jesper to lead him to the boy's house depicted in the drawing, and then to secretly deliver a toy to the boy inside.

Word of this event spreads to other children, who go to Jesper the next day, each believing they will receive a toy if they send Klaus a letter. Jesper capitalizes on the idea and goes to Klaus with the proposal of donating the toys in his house; Klaus agrees provided they operate at night, and Jesper continues to deliver the toys in secret. Soon, more and more children begin writing letters to Klaus and, by Jesper's recommendation, those who can't write go to Alva for her to teach them how. One night, however, Jesper leaves coal in the stocking of a child who previously bullied him. After being confronted by the same child, Jesper, trying to intimidate him, tells the children that Klaus only gives toys to good children and always knows when any child misbehaves, keeping track of misdeeds with a ‘Naughty’ List. The acts of kindness the children subsequently perform gradually inspire the rest of the townsfolk to end their ancient disputes, and Alva begins using her funds (which she previously was planning to use to leave Smeerensburg) to reopen her school.

Eventually, Jesper and Klaus begin running out of toys to give to the children. With the end of the year and Jesper's deadline coming up, he tries persuading Klaus into making more toys in time for Christmas. Klaus initially refuses, and he pushes Jesper away after a misunderstanding. The duo then reconcile by working together on a sled for a small Sámi girl named Márgu, who lives in an isolated settlement with her people and had previously met Jesper while trying to deliver a letter. After this, Klaus finally tells Jesper about his wife, Lydia, and explains he made the toys to give to the future children the couple hoped to have but never did, and Lydia eventually died from illness. Klaus has realized their work has been spreading joy to the children and agrees to the Christmas plan, with Márgu and the rest of the people from her settlement arriving to help them. The town flourishes and Alva begins to have feelings for Jesper, who despite everything that made him hate it before, finds himself wanting to stay in Smeerensburg.

Meanwhile, family elders Aksel Ellingboe (Will Sasso) and Tammy Krum (Joan Cusack) form a temporary truce in order to stop Jesper and Klaus so that the families can resume their traditional feuding. They trick Jesper's father into believing Jesper had posted fourteen-thousand letters, and he arrives on Christmas eve to congratulate his son, inadvertently revealing to Jesper's friends his initial, selfish reasons for his deeds. Just as they are about to leave town, Jesper's father notices his son's remorse, and after a talk that reveals everything, he allows Jesper, of whom he is finally proud of, to stay in Smeerensburg. Seeing the elders and their gang going to destroy the Christmas toys, Jesper tries to stop them, yet apparently fails and all the toys in Klaus’ bag are sent over a cliff. However, over the course of the chase that ensued, Mr. Ellingboe's daughter and Mrs. Krum's son fall in love. Just as Jesper begins accepting the Christmas plan is ruined, Alva and Klaus reveal that Alva had been informed about the elders' plot by the town's children, and so she and Klaus had already replaced the toys with decoys.

Now redeemed, Jesper delivers the presents with Klaus to Smeerensburg's children, and later, the marriage of their children forces the family elders to grudgingly end the families' feuding at last. Jesper marries Alva and raises two children, and on Christmas for eleven years after, he and Klaus continue to deliver presents in Smeerensburg and beyond. Then on the twelfth year, Klaus follows wisps of wind (which guided him when he first met Jesper) up a sunny hill alone, and disappears, seemingly to join his departed wife, leaving Jesper with no idea of what had happened to him. Jesper concludes his closing narration of the story by telling of how he spends every subsequent Christmas Eve: at that point no longer asking any questions about it, he sits beside the fireplace waiting to see Klaus as his spirit delivers toys to children around the world, of which will continue what he and Jesper inadvertently started, the legend of "Santa Claus".

Background

Pablos said Smeerensburg is a deliberate misspelling of Smeerenburg, a former Dutch and Danish whaling station in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.

Voice cast

• Jason Schwartzman as Jesper Johansson, a postman who befriends Klaus and helps bring a good Christmas to Smeerensburg, while getting accustomed to a life outside of his self-centred comfort zone.
• J. K. Simmons as Klaus (Santa Claus), a initially-reclusive woodsman who makes toys.
  • Simmons also voices Drill Sarge, the assistant head of the Johansson family's postal department (uncredited).
• Rashida Jones as Alva, a schoolteacher turned fishmonger who unexpectedly becomes Jesper's love interest.
• Will Sasso as Mr. Aksel Ellingboe, the family patriarch carrying on an ancient feud of his family with the Krums.
• Norm Macdonald as Mogens, the sarcastic ferryman of Smeerensburg who enjoys humor that comes at others' expanse.
• Neda Margrethe Labba as Márgu, a little Sami girl who befriends Jesper.
• Sergio Pablos as:
  • Magdalone, Mr. Ellingboe's daughter whose only word is "mine".
  • Olaf, Mrs. Krum's son who just makes sounds.
• Joan Cusack as Mrs. Tammy Krum, the family matriarch carrying on an ancient feud of her family with the Ellingboes.
• Reiulf Aleksandersen and Sara Margrethe Oksal as adult Sami voices.

Additional children voices by Evan Agos, Sky Alexis, Jaeden Bettencourt, Teddy Blum, Mila Brener, Sydney Brower, Finn Carr, Kendall Joy Hall, Hayley Hermida, Lexie Holland, Brooke Huckeba, Matthew McCann, Tucker Meek, Leo Miller, Joaquin Obradors, Víctor Pablos, Lucian Perez, Bailey Rae Fenderson, Maximus Riegel, Emma Shannon, Ayden Soria, Sunday Sturz, Hudson West, Gordon Wilcox, Emma Yarovinskiy and Julian Zane.

Additional adult voices by Brad Abrell, Catherine Cavadini, Bill Chott, Daniel Crook, Brian Finney, Stephen Hughes, Neil Kaplan, Sam McMurray, Amanda Philipson, Alyson Reed, Dee Dee Rescher, Dwight Schultz, Lloyd Sherr, Helen Slayton-Hughes and Travis Willingham.

Production

After setting up his own animation studio in Madrid, Spain, director Sergio Pablos, who had worked on Disney Renaissance films such as Aladdin, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, and Tarzan, decided to develop a new traditionally-animated feature film. Pablos wanted to explore how the medium would have evolved had western animation film studios not switched to producing mostly computer animated films since the 1990s. For the film's look, the studio sought to overcome some of the technical limitations that traditional animation had, focusing on organic and volumetric lighting and texturing to give the film a unique look, while maintaining a hand-crafted feel. Proprietary tools from Les films du Poisson Rouge, a French company in Angoulême, were used to allow the team to produce a variety of visual development styles, with the aim of getting away from the standardized style of "characters looking like stickers put on painted backgrounds." Fellow Disney animator James Baxter, known for Beauty and the Beast, also worked on the film.

The first teaser for the project was released in April 2015; at the time, the studio was seeking investment, co-production, and distribution partners. It was shopped around to various studios, but most studios rejected the movie viewing it as "too risky." In November 2017, Netflix announced that they had acquired the global rights to Klaus; at the same time, the casting of Schwartzman, Jones, Simmons, and Cusack was announced along with a Christmas 2019 release date. In March 2019, it was reported that Netflix was planning an Oscar-qualifying run for Klaus in theaters, and it was listed as one of ten films Netflix was negotiating with chains to give limited releases prior to their online debuts that August. The film's release date was announced, alongside the debut of an official trailer, on 7 October.

The film is dedicated to animator and scene checker Mary Lescher who died on 2 June 2019 of cancer. She had worked on Klaus, as well as other animated features such as Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King.

Release

Klaus was released theatrically in select theaters on 8 November 2019, and was released digitally through Netflix on 15 November. It is the first original animated feature film to appear on Netflix. In January 2020, Netflix reported the film was watched by 40 million members over its first four weeks of release.

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 94% based on 62 reviews, with an average rating of 7.59/10. The critical consensus reads "Beautiful hand-drawn animation and a humorous, heartwarming narrative make Klaus an instant candidate for holiday classic status." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, writing: "Sergio Pablos' Klaus invents its own unexpected and very enjoyable origin story for the big guy who gives out toys every Christmas eve. Shaking off most Yuletide cliches in favor of a from-scratch story about how even dubiously-motivated generosity can lead to joy, it contains echoes of other seasonal favorites (especially, in a topsy-turvy way, Dr. Seuss' Grinch) while standing completely on its own." Peter Debruge of Variety gave the film a mixed review, calling the film over-complicated and saying: "What goodwill the movie does inspire owes more to the splendid visual world than to anything the story supplies."

According to data provided by Netflix to Reuters, the film racked up nearly 30 million views worldwide in its first month. The film beat Toy Story 4 for best Animated Film of 2019 on Animation Magazine.

Accolades

List of awards and nominations

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s)	Result	Ref.
Academy Awards	February 9, 2020	Best Animated Feature	Sergio Pablos, Jinko Gotoh and Marisa Román	Nominated
British Academy Film Awards	February 2, 2020	Best Animated Film	Sergio Pablos and Jinko Gotoh	Won
Alliance of Women Film Journalists	10 January 2020	Best Animated Feature	Klaus	Nominated
Annie Awards	January 25, 2020	Best Animated Feature	Jinko Gotoh, Sergio Pablos, Marisa Román, Matthew Teevan, Mercedes Gamero, Mikel Lejarza Ortiz and Gustavo Ferrada	Won
		Best Character Animation in a Feature Film	Sergio Martins (animation supervisor) for "Alva"	Won
		Best Character Design in a Feature Film	Torsten Schrank	Won
		Best Directing in a Feature Film	Sergio Pablos	Won
		Best Production Design in a Feature Film	Szymon Biernacki, Marcin Jakubowski	Won
		Best Storyboarding in a Feature Film	Sergio Pablos	Won
		Best Editorial in a Feature Film	Pablo García Revert	Won
Austin Film Critics Association Awards	6 January 2020	Best Animated Feature	Klaus	Nominated
Detroit Film Critics Society Awards	9 December 2019	Best Animated Feature		Nominated
Goya Awards	January 25, 2020	Best Animated Feature		Nominated
		Best Original Song	"Invisible" Jussi Ilmari Karvinen, Caroline Pennell, Justin Tranter (songwriters)	Nominated
St. Louis Film Critics Association Awards	15 December 2019	Best Animated Feature		Runner-up (tied w/ Frozen II)
Visual Effects Society	January 29, 2020	Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature	Sergio Pablos, Matthew Teevan, Marcin Jakubowski and Szymon Biernacki	Nominated
		Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature	Yoshimishi Tamura, Alfredo Cassano, Maxime Delalande and Jason Schwartzman for "Jesper"	Nominated
Washington D.C. Film Critics Association Awards	8 December 2019	Best Animated Feature	Klaus	Nominated

Soundtrack

"Invisible" by Zara Larsson and "How You Like Me Now?" by The Heavy are featured in the film. The song "High Hopes" by Panic! at the Disco is featured in the trailer.

External links

• Official website
• Klaus on Netflix
• Klaus at IMDb
• Klaus at AllMovie