Klaus (film)

Klaus is a 2019 animated Christmas comedy film written and directed by Sergio Pablos in his directorial debut, produced by Sergio Pablos Animation Studios (also known as the SPA Studios) with support from Aniventure and distributed by Netflix as its first original animated feature. Co-written by Zach Lewis and Jim Mahoney, the film stars Jason Schwartzman, J. K. Simmons, Rashida Jones and Joan Cusack. Serving as a fictional origin story to the myth of Santa Claus, the plot revolves around a postman stationed in a town to the North who befriends a reclusive toy-maker (Klaus).

Plot
Jesper (Schwartzman) comes from a wealthy family in the postal business, and is a selfish brat with no life ambitions whatsoever. When Jesper's father puts him in the royal postal academy in an attempt to teach him that hard work pays and being from a rich family is not a shoo in to wealth, he deliberately distinguishes himself to be the academy’s worst student, and so his father comes up with another plan to teach him a lesson: he is stationed on a island above the Arctic Circle by his father, with the ultimatum that if he doesn't post 6,000 letters in a year, he will be cut off from the family.

He gets into the island's town of Smeerensburg and is shown around by a sarcastic ferry boat skipper who tricks him into ringing a bell to start the reception, instead revealing that the town inhabitants hardly exchange words let alone letters; they are divided, feuding locals filled with anger, bitterness, hatred and animosity. Trying desperately to come up with a way to get the town locals to send letters, he notices on the map in his office a far off little establishment. Investigating, he finds a woodsman named Klaus (Simmons), with a skill of woodworking and a house with lots of handmade toys.

Jesper is just about to finally give up when unexpected events unfold that give him the idea of having Klaus donate the toys in his house to the town kids who would ask him for them, and who, by doing so, would send letters. When Jesper goes to Klaus with his proposal of donating the toys, he agrees, provided the deliveries will be at night, so he can accompany Jesper on them. When Jesper finds out that many of the kids can't write, he tells them they can simply learn at school, and so they go to Ms Alva (Jones), a qualified teacher who Jesper met back on his first day in town, to learn how. The increasingly developing actions of Jesper and Klaus delivering of toys becomes the talk of the town kids, with the nature of said actions making them believe Klaus is not only solely responsible, but he also has certain quirks. Some of these quirks are also said to be magic, such as he can enter homes through any chimney and can never be seen: the most astounding of all is he has a reindeer-pulled sleigh that can fly. When Jesper says to the kids that Klaus would not give toys to bad kids, he goes on to say Klaus always knows whenever any kid is naughty, and their attitude changes, even the town bully, as he also wants Klaus' toys. Their resulting acts of kindness inspire the other townsfolk to do the same.

Jesper eventually finds out Klaus lost his wife and they could never have children, but he loves making kids happy and had made all the toys in his house for the ones he thought they would have. They soon receive help from a small community of kind Sámi people to fulfill Jesper's prior idea of a delivery run to give toys to the kids on Christmas, but not only that, Jesper begins to change himself, no longer being selfish.

While all of this has been happening, the heads of the town's feuding families, through the families' clearly inextinguishable, and thus, also, very long-standing hatred to each other, have been trying to stop Jesper and Klaus to preserve this tradition, and they agree on joining forces to do it. They eventually come up with a plan that involves making Jesper leave by using his past against him, but he ultimately makes his decision final to stay in Smeerensburg, and proceeds to do everything that he can to stop the rest of their plan. Though he finds out Klaus and Alva already knew what was coming and had made preparations to foil the plan, his actions cause events that make the families find themselves as in-laws.

As things in Smeerensburg keep getting better, Jesper and Klaus continue delivering presents on Christmas, with their operation expanding further and further as time continues on. Then, on the twelfth year, Klaus suddenly disappears without a trace, joining his departed wife. Jesper and Alva get married and have two children together, and every Christmas Eve, Jesper gets to see the spirit of his friend, as he continues to deliver toys to kids around the world.

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, a postman who proves to be the worst at the academy.
 * J. K. Simmons as Klaus (Santa Claus), a carpenter who makes toys.
 * Rashida Jones as Alva, a school teacher turned fishmonger who is Jesper's love interest, later, his wife.
 * Joan Cusack as Mrs. Krum, an old woman who is enemies with the Ellingboes.
 * Will Sasso as Mr. Ellingboe, a man who is enemies with the Krums.
 * Norm Macdonald as Mogens, a boatman who lives in Smeerensburg.

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 a 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, who perceived 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 were 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 October 7.

The film is dedicated to animator and scene checker Mary Lescher who died on June 2, 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 November 8, 2019, and was released digitally through Netflix on November 15. It is the first original animated feature film to appear on Netflix.

Reception
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 89% based on 39 reviews, with an average rating of 7.39/10. The critical consensus reads "Beautiful hand-drawn animation and a humorous, heartwarming narrative make Klaus an instant candidate for holiday classic status." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 62 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

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, features in the trailer.