Klaus: A Childishly Superficial Santa Claus Origin Story
I’m baffled at the fact that Klaus was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. This shallow study of the myth of Santa Claus follows egotistical brat Jesper Johansson (Jason Schwartzmann) who gets sent to the far-away village of Smeerensburg by his father. He is tasked to deliver 6,000 letters in a town that doesn’t even write letters, as a constant feud between two clans, the Ellingboes and the Krums, divide the town. Johansson meets Klaus (J.K. Simmons), a recluse toymaker and the two of them start to deliver toys for the children, as a means to get Johansson far away from Smeerensburg as possible (as he forces children to write letters to Klaus), but he starts developing an affinity for the town and Klaus.
Klaus represents everything I hate with modern animated movies — shoddy animation, a terribly cringeworthy script riddled with bad humor aimed to appease small children and a highly predictable story with superficial characters. Every story element in Klaus follows a precise checklist of “mainstream animated film” fare. We’ll start with the egotistical protagonist who likes to be pampered at and will evolve as someone more caring in the end. Sure, Jason Schwartzmann does a good job voicing that character, but, tell me, how many times have you seen THAT character trait in animated movies? (More recently, it was done better in Spies in Disguise) Of course, he will evolve by the end and finish with a love interest (Rashida Jones) who will also evolve from egotistical brat to tolerable. The only compelling character in the movie is J.K. Simmons’ Klaus — the only character that has any mature depth and is worth telling the story. I’d much rather see a movie solely comprised of him, the life he had with his late wife and how he became Santa Claus to transmit her legacy. Simmons’ vocal performance is terrific and he brings a lot of humanity to a character that feels larger than life. So I’ll give him props for that. That’s more interesting than spending the time with a “verbomoteur” who can’t seem to shut his mouth and/or say something interesting. Most of the jokes involving Johansson are childish and unfunny, I was left baffled at the fact that THIS is in the conversation to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film. I will say that there were some funny bits and pieces (that I will not spoil) here and there with Jesper & Klaus.
Speaking of animation, the mix between “hand-drawn” 2D animation and a 3D-rendered world feels weird and unnatural — and the limitations in budget makes the world of Smeerensburg feel relatively empty and flat, even if the supporting characters are quite colourful. I did like Will Sasso as Axel Ellinigboe and Joan Cusack as Tammy Krum. You can tell that both of them have fun with their roles and the ongoing feud between the Ellingboes and the Krums is a fun recurring joke. What killed Klaus for me, however, was its insanely predictable and paint-by-numbers story of the history of Santa Claus. Every “trope” that Santa Claus is known for is usually shoved-in for “convenience”. The sleigh, the reindeer, the “suit” (which is now Saami for some odd reason) and the laugh are all brought by convenience. Klaus’ laugh: “HO HO HO”, is one but many of the examples of a creatively inept film that riddles its screenplay with convenience instead of a whimsical adventure that will enlighten and entertain the true believers of Santa Claus and adults as well.
Klaus is probably the most overrated animated film of 2019 — with Jérémy Clapin’s I Lost My Body. It lacks a truly mature story and an original twist on the mythos of Santa Claus, instead of creatively shoving everything that people know of Santa Claus by convenience (exactly what Bong Joon-ho did in the epilogue of Parasite) instead of beautifully building-up Klaus’ rise to fame and him becoming the man in the red suit. I did like the epilogue of the movie, that transmits a great message and solidifies that Santa Claus is a myth, and the performances of J.K. Simmons, Will Sasso and Joan Cusack, but it isn’t enough for me to recommend Klaus to anyone. The music is absolutely horrendous (especially the songs that they put in this unlocked my PTSD of Lily and the Snowman), some of the characters have no place being in this movie (case in point: the Saami people) and the story is way too “been there, done that” for me to actually care about anything that’s happening on screen. To be perfectly honest with [all of] you, I was bored. I was bored because Klaus has so much potential to rise up from an artistically inept and creatively dull script to a truly great origin story on Santa Claus. The film is watchable, but not as amazing as the shills of the world tells you it is. “Don’t like it”, as one famed critic once said.
✯✯
