Review of Klaus (2019) by Theredsky — 22 Nov 2019

Most of this year’s Netflix releases have been bland and boring but I’m glad to say that Klaus is the exact opposite. I am confident in saying that this could become a Christmas classic although I had some issues that are common in Christmas related films.

The story is a little simplistic. I know that it’s more for children but I wish that these stories had a little more depth and more ideas presented. Even though the story is simplistic, it is still engaging.

I was never bored throughout the course of the film and I was always interested in the characters and what they were doing. For a Christmas film, the characters are pretty good. The villains are kind of boring but the rest of the characters have their own interesting arc that they go through.

This is boosted by some great voice acting from Jason Schwartzman, Rashida Jones, and J.K. Simmons who plays Klaus in the movie. Simmons gives the best performance in the film by far. Jason Schwartzman does a pretty good job although he was given a Christmas cliche that did annoy me.

It’s the standard cliche of a character has different motives that change before the end and has a misunderstanding with the other characters who ignore him. That happens in this film and it was a little obnoxious.

Some of the music choices were pretty weird too. They decided to create an original song for the film and it didn’t fit it that well in my opinion. The animation is beautiful in Klaus. It’s all hand drawn animation and it reminded me of classic Disney films.

The design of the town was pretty great and interesting with all these different characters doing different things. There were some jokes thrown into the film and some of them weren’t that funny but the funniest ones were the jokes you can see in the background.

All of these little visual cues were hilarious in my opinion. There is a lot of heart to this film. I was surprised at how much joy I felt when watching this and the ending was fantastic. It’s sad and joyful at the same time.

This is a film I will probably start watching every Christmas. It’s a satisfying origin story to Santa Claus. Overall, Klaus may be a little too simplistic with weird music choices but its heart, animation, and voice acting make this an instant Christmas classic.