Review of Klaus (2019) by Davrosdaleks1 — 17 Nov 2019

Klaus is the new animated film on Netflix, which is about how the legend of Santa Claus started involving a reclusive woodsman and a selfish postman. This is a truly inventive, good-hearted Christmas film.

The film uses old-fashioned animation with digital techniques to bring a 2 1/2D look to it. This looks AMAZING. I don't think I've seen something quite like this. The painted appearance to the backgrounds and characters looks great. The designs of the characters and locales are all distinctive, especially the characters. There is a wide cast here and they are so stylistically designed. The movie takes place around this town where two clans are at war. The townspeople are such a wonderfully diverse group of grotesques. I also loved the look of Klaus (voiced by J.K. Simmons) who is given a large, broad-shouldered figure. The character movement is also really fluid.

The story is equally good. Although the film ultimately goes the way you predict it will, the storytelling in this is so well done that it doesn't much matter. The idea of the story of Santa Claus being told through non-magical reasons and happening through the actions of a postman is definitely something different from most attempts at Santa origin stories. The warring clans part brings a nice dab of dark humor while the sentimental bits are done nicely. All the characters are likable.

I highly recommend you check this out. This is just a really well-done family Christmas movie.