Klaus (film)

Klaus is a 2019 animated Christmas adventure comedy film co-written, co-produced, and directed by Sergio Pablos in his directorial debut, produced by his company The SPA Studios and distributed by Netflix. Co-written by Zach Lewis and Jim Mahoney, and co-directed by Carlos Martinez Lopez, the traditionally animated film stars the voices of Jason Schwartzman, J. K. Simmons, Rashida Jones, Will Sasso, Neda Margrethe Labba, Sergio Pablos (in a dual role), Norm Macdonald (in his final film role released in his lifetime), and Joan Cusack. Serving as an alternate origin story of Santa Claus independent from the historical Saint Nicholas of Myra and using a fictional 19th-century setting, the plot revolves around a postman stationed in an island town to the Far North who befriends a reclusive toymaker (Klaus).
Klaus was released on 8 November 2019 and received critical acclaim for its animation, story, emotional depth, humor, narrative, and vocal performances. It won seven awards at the 47th Annie Awards, including Best Animated Feature, and also won Best Animated Film at the 73rd British Academy Film Awards. The film was also nominated at the 92nd Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature, making it the first animated film from Netflix to be nominated for an Academy Award, as well as the first animated film released by a streaming service to be nominated, alongside I Lost My Body (also Netflix), Klaus lost to Toy Story 4, which also starred Joan Cusack who was reprising her role as Jessie from Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3. Simmons would later portray Santa Claus in the 2024 live-action film Red One.
In 19th-century Norway, the Royal Postmaster General has enrolled his son, Jesper Johansen, into the Royal Postman Academy. Jesper deliberately underperforms in his training, intending on returning to his privileged lifestyle. Jesper's father gives him an ultimatum, assigning him as the postman of the distant, northern island town of Smeerensburg and tasking him with establishing a post office there and posting 6,000 letters within a year. If Jesper fails, he will be cut off from the family's fortune.
Jesper finds Smeerensburg comprised almost entirely by two feuding familial clans, the Ellingboes and the Krums, who have been in conflict with each other since the stone age. Desperately seeking letters from the townsfolk to no avail, Jesper finds an isolated house far outside of town, discovering it to be filled with handmade toys and inhabited by an elderly, reclusive woodsman named Klaus. Terrified by Klaus' imposing appearance, Jesper flees, leaving behind a drawing from one of Smeerensburg's Krum children. Klaus forces Jesper to enter the boy’s home to secretly deliver a toy, which delights the child.
Word of the toy delivery spreads to the other children, who go to Jesper the next day believing they will receive a toy if they send Klaus a letter. Jesper capitalizes on the idea to make progress on his goal and asks Klaus if he can donate his toys; Klaus reluctantly agrees, provided they operate at night and Jesper continues to deliver the toys in secret. The Krum boy's toy leads him to play with an Ellingboe girl, much to their clans’ outrage. As more children write letters to Klaus, Jesper tells a boy who had earlier ridiculed him that Klaus knows whenever any child misbehaves and only gives toys to good children. This prompts the children to perform acts of kindness, which gradually inspire the rest of the townsfolk to end their ancient dispute and make Smeerensburg a happy town. The children ask bitter teacher-turned-fishmonger Alva to teach them to read and write so they can send letters; her faith restored, she uses her escape savings to reopen her school.
Noticing that Klaus's toy supply is running out, Jesper tries persuading Klaus to make more toys in time for Christmas, but Klaus refuses; when Jesper happens upon a keepsake of Klaus's late wife Lydia, Klaus forces him away. Motivated by Márgu, a Sámi girl who can't write or speak in Norwegian, Jesper works with Alva to help Márgu write a letter asking for a sled, which he then attempts to build alone. Seeing Jesper's effort, Klaus reconciles with him and the two finish the sled. Upon delivering it and seeing Márgu's joy, Jesper is genuinely moved. Klaus reveals he had made the toys for the children he and Lydia hoped to have but could not conceive before she grew sick and died. He agrees to the Christmas plan, and Márgu arrives with the rest of her people to help. As the town and Jesper's relationship with Alva flourish, Jesper finds himself conflicted about whether to leave Smeerensburg.
Meanwhile, family elders Aksel Ellingboe and Tammy Krum form a temporary truce to stop Jesper and Klaus so the families can resume their feud. Together, they discover Jesper's initial motive and forge enough letters to meet well over his target. Jesper's father arrives on Christmas Eve to congratulate his son, inadvertently revealing Jesper's scheme to his friends. Just before they leave town, Jesper's father notices his son's remorse; after a private talk, he allows Jesper to stay. Jesper tries to stop the elders and their angry mob from destroying the Christmas toys, resulting in a chase during which Aksel's daughter Magdalone and Tammy's son Olaf fall in love. Tammy seemingly destroys the toys; however, Alva and Klaus had already replaced the toys with decoys after the town's children warned them of the mob's ambush. Still, Jesper's actions have redeemed him to Klaus and Alva, and they then deliver the Christmas presents to the town.
Magdalone and Olaf are married, ending their families' feud much to the elders' annoyance. Jesper marries Alva and they raise two children. He and Klaus continue to deliver presents in Smeerensburg and beyond for eleven years. On the twelfth year, Klaus mysteriously disappears. Every subsequent Christmas Eve, Jesper waits for Klaus, who returns every year to deliver toys across the world.
Additional children voices provided by Evan Agos, Sky Alexis, Jaeden Bettencourt, Teddy Blum, Mila Brener, Sydney Brower, Finn Carr, Kendall Joy Hall (who voiced Annelise Ellingboe), Hayley Hermida, Lexie Holland, Brooke Huckeba, Matthew McCann, Tucker Meek, Leo Miller, Joaquin Obradors, Víctor Pablos, Lucian Perez, Bailey Rae Fenderson, Maximus Riegel, Emma Shannon, Ayden Soria, Sunday Sturz, Hudson West, Gordon Wilcox, Emma Yarovinskiy, and Julian Zane.
Additional adult voices provided by Brad Abrell, Catherine Cavadini, Bill Chott, Daniel Crook, Brian Finney, Stephen Hughes, Neil Kaplan, Sam McMurray, Amanda Philipson, Alyson Reed, Dee Dee Rescher, Dwight Schultz, Lloyd Sherr, Helen Slayton-Hughes, and Travis Willingham.
After setting up his animation studio in Madrid, Spain, director Sergio Pablos, who had worked on Disney Renaissance films such as 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 the 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 animators James Baxter, known for Beauty and the Beast, and Andrew Chesworth also worked on the film.
The first teaser for the project was released in April 2012; at the time, the studio was seeking investment, co-production, and distribution partners. It was shopped around to various studios, but most studios rejected the movie viewing 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 was 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 is dedicated to animator and scene checker Mary Lescher who died on 2 June 2019 of cancer. She had worked on Klaus, as well at both Disney Animation and DisneyToon Studios from 1989 to 2006. Pablos said Smeerensburg is a deliberate misspelling of Smeerenburg, a former Dutch and Norwegian whaling station in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.
Klaus was released theatrically in select theaters on 8 November 2019, and was released digitally through Netflix on 15 November. It is the first original animated feature film to appear on Netflix. In January 2020, Netflix reported the film was watched by 40 million members over its first four weeks of release.
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 95% based on 78 reviews with an average rating of 7.7/10. The critical consensus reads "Beautiful hand-drawn animation and a humorous, heartwarming narrative make Klaus an instant candidate for holiday classic status." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, writing: "Sergio Pablos' Klaus invents its own unexpected and very enjoyable origin story for the big guy who gives out toys every Christmas eve. Shaking off most Yuletide cliches in favor of a from-scratch story about how even dubiously-motivated generosity can lead to joy, it contains echoes of other seasonal favorites (especially, in a topsy-turvy way, Dr. Seuss' Grinch) while standing completely on its own." Peter Debruge of Variety gave the film a mixed review, calling the film over-complicated and saying: "What goodwill the movie does inspire owes more to the splendid visual world than to anything the story supplies."
According to data provided by Netflix to Reuters, the film racked up nearly 30 million views worldwide in its first month. The film beat Toy Story 4 for Best Animated Film of 2019 on Animation Magazine.
Deseret News named Klaus on their list of underrated Christmas movies to watch in 2023.
"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 is featured in the trailer.