Oscars: Klaus

Since the days of Blockbusters, we’ve had a lot of choices when it came to movies. Now, with streaming services, the options seem endless, which means two things. The first is that there are no longer eighteen-year-olds staring daggers at the slackers strolling into a movie store at 9:57 PM, inspecting each shelf as if there were Faberge eggs. The second, more relevant to what I am going to talk about today, is that we could end up missing a marvelous gem.

It was Christmas time when Adam and I nearly fell victim to choice. We have a long list of favorites we like to get to from Frosty the Snowman to National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. An odd night where we couldn’t make up our minds found us scrolling through Netflix’s offerings. The cursor landed on Klaus. After some deliberation, Adam shrugged his shoulders and said, “Well, if it stinks, it’s not like we can’t turn it off.”

Just a fair warning, this reminder was repeated about five minutes into the actual movie. Klaus is one of those movies you have to battle a little to get past the exposition. Moulin Rouge is my best example of an audience having to trudge uphill to get to the good stuff. If you can’t get past the green fairy, you’ll miss out. Klaus isn’t nearly to that caliber of drudgery. Don’t let this count against the film in any serious way. As you might be able to guess, we never hit the eject button.

Written and directed by Sergio Pablos, Klaus opens on Jesper, voiced by Jason Schwartzman, who is possibly the most self-centered Christmas protagonist yet. His father, the Postmaster-General, sends him to Smeerensburg with an ultimatum: 6,000 letters in one year or say goodbye to all of those beloved creature comforts. He sets off with every good intention of sticking it to dear old dad; however, Smeerensburg has other plans.

On his way to the town, he meets Mogens, the Smeerensburg ferryman. Voiced by Norm MacDonald, the ferryman helps make it clear to both Jesper and the audience Jesper is in way over his head with his signature dry wit. The only thing exchanged in the faraway town is hatred. Mr. Ellingboe, voiced by Will Sasso, and Mrs. Krum, voiced by Joan Cusak, along with their children, preside over the town. The Ellingboe and Krum clans have been embroiled in a feud as long as anyone can remember. For those who can’t remember, there are separate museums in town to document the hostilities.

As Jesper settles in for a long, uphill battle, he encounters Alva (Rashida Jones), the town’s fishmonger and occasional teacher, and Klaus (J.K Simmons), a reclusive giant of a man. Neither appears to be an ally in his quest to accomplish what his father demands of him. But, never count out a man with motivation. In this case, the motivation is silk sheets, but hey, everyone’s got to have their thing, right?

The credits hadn’t even finished rolling when I had decided this was going into our Christmas repertoire. Klaus pulls together all of the traditional components of the Santa Claus myth and reinvents them with humor and heart. Simply put, this movie is going to hit you right in the feels. And it’s going to dazzle you with its beauty while it does it. Christmastime has passed, but if you haven’t watched this movie yet, go do it. You will not be sorry.

Klaus, Netflix’s first original animated feature, is up for the Best Animated Feature Oscar. You might call it “the little engine that could” entry in this year’s race. Rather than go the digital animation route, Pablos opted to bring this project to life by using traditional animation techniques. Yup, this beauty was hand-drawn. In an age where digital reigns supreme, it’s not hard to believe this project was labeled as risky. Good thing Netflix didn’t think so.

I have yet to see most of the other contenders in the category. Either way, Klaus has stiff competition this year, seeing as Pixar’s entry is Toy Story 4. My label of “little engine that could” might be excessively optimistic. Everyone loves an underdog, though. And, with the Toy Story franchise already having a Best Animated Feature win as well as a Special Achievement Award, perhaps the body of voters will turn away from the obvious choice.

If you have read my review of Toy Story 4, you know I loved it. I don’t want to argue against a beautiful, emotional film. The latest Toy Story has all of the components to make an excellent case for being the top animated movie of the year. But, I feel its most significant attraction is the attachment to the series as a whole rather than to this one particular segment of the Woody and Buzz saga.

Klaus is, at its core, a retelling of a very familiar story. There are endless Santa origin stories. This one, however, took to its task with fresh eyes and played with the common elements of the other tellings. The power of the story is not Santa. Instead, it is in the growth of all of its characters.