Klaus
Please excuse our lateness of this review! We are covering every Academy Award nominee of 2020, so we’re cleaning up the films we forgot to critique earlier.
As a feature debut film for Sergio Pablos (one of the Despicable Me minds, and a former designer for Disney works), Klaus is exactly what you would expect. Typical family-animation cuteness, and substance being replaced by jokes, blueprint emotions, and conventionality. It feels a bit like a drawback, because there is actually a lot going on in Klaus that is worth celebrating, despite these shortcomings. It feels as though Pablos has been itching to make a film like Klaus to revive 2D animation at any cost. Here, drawings come to life with a breakthrough gimmick: the use of CGI only to lighten scenes. The result is an illusion that fumbles with your head a bit (in a good way): is this very subtle 3D animation, or painstakingly designed 2D animation? The concern begins to fade away, and you are left blessed with animation as engaging as can be. You can only hope more studios follow suit (Disney can absolutely make films that look like this and market them, surely).
The story backs up the visuals enough. Where delivery can be a bit flat, Klaus makes up for it with a strong narrative design. Meant to be another option for Christmastime, Klaus is the ten thousandth recreation of why we celebrate Christmas. In a fictional reality, Jesper is an unmotivated mailman sent to the frozen island of Smeerensburg in spite by his father (the general of the postoffice Jesper works for). He has to do a good enough job in order to regain his dad’s trust and be allowed to come back. The problem is Smeerensburg is divided by two families that despise one another for backwards, stupid reasons. Who’s communicating in a hateful town? By trying to worm his way out, Jesper begins to work — as if by accident — with a woodsman named Klaus; you can start to see where this is heading. All of the Christmas traditions we know now are stumbled upon by Jesper in his efforts; he once wanted to go back home, but now he wants to cure a sour community.
The marriage between two dimensional drawings and CGI lighting effects makes Klaus a worthy watch for its unique style alone.
You will quickly find yourself forgiving any stale jokes, forced-in autotuned songs, and obvious turns. Klaus is just a very pleasant film with tons of warmth, meant to unite families. It’s a fun ride for young ones, a reinterpretation of the tales of old for older viewers, and an artistic spectacle for hardcore cinephiles. I can imagine Klaus will be like Elf or Arthur Christmas: modern alternatives for holiday film viewing that manage to stick for years. Klaus has just enough magic in it to propel forwards. For a film this typical, it’s far more nuanced than you may expect. It’s Pablos’ way of playing it safe, while finally pushing his favourite medium beyond its easiest comfort levels. I don’t think this will become my Christmas tradition, but I do feel soothed by it, and appreciate seeing what effort went into this dazzling little effort known as Klaus.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.