Klaus Review
Netflix brings us an origin story of Santa Claus that I'm pretty sure no one really needed. Sadly, it also bucks the trend of recent Netflix's recent original content - it's not good.
Klaus is the new Christmas animation film from Netflix. A somewhat jolly, Christmas film it is. But a Christmas classic, it is not.
Klaus is about a young postman named Jesper, voiced by Jason Schwartzman, who lived a life of luxury and decadence only to be humbled by being sent by his father to Smeerensburg. He is given the seemingly insurmountable task of posting 6,000 letters within a year from this town, and is unable to return home unless this goal is fulfilled. In this despotic and ruinous town where civil war rages on, there lives an outcast in the woods who goes by the name of Klaus. What we get in this film, is a rather generic and predictable origin story for the myth behind Santa Clause and the tradition of present giving for Christmas.
The highlights of this film are the way it looks and the way it sounds, but the way it is told is frankly disappointing. For one, I found the animation style to be very unique. And in a world where we’re getting more and more animation films, this one was able to stand out visually. The voice cast is also really good, with my main man J K Simmons voicing Papa Clause. However what I think is just frankly ridiculous is that this doesn’t feel like a Christmas film one bit. Instead, it’s just a film largely about how gifts are given at Christmas, and the only Christmassy themed thing was the fact that there was snow on the ground. Let me give you an example; in one part of the film, of all the songs to choose from, the director chose to use ‘How You Like Me Now?’ by The Heavy. In what Christmas film does this even make sense? Indeed, I think the message behind Christmas in general is lost in an overly convoluted and messy way.
Usually Christmas films have some sort of message or point behind it, and while I won’t spoil what Klaus’s one is – it’s dumb. The notion of Jesper using letters to bring two rival families together, is a premise that belongs in the bin. The most ludicrous element of this is that Klaus is barely even in this film. And my main man J K Simmons has barely any lines of dialogue. Since when did Christmas mean caring about a postman sending letters?
This isn’t a bad film, it’s just not a good one. Any redeeming quality it has is swiftly followed by a punch in the nuts. Much of this film lays the groundwork for other Christmas tropes. Why do reindeers fly? Well because they fell off a cliff. What are the origins of Santa’s little helpers? Fuck knows, it’s too hard to explain in this review. This film shits on my childhood and will crush the dreams of millions more.
Now I do have to cut this film some slack. It’s not a complete pile of garbage, but it’s close. There are sweet and charming elements of Klaus – the kids are cute (I guess?) and there are some nice sentiments along the way. Also, Klaus decides to become Father Christmas in order to cure his depression (good for him I guess?). Rashida Jones voices a fishmonger turned orphan teacher – that’s the kind of character arc I’m always looking for. And Norm Macdonald’s voice is still annoying and not funny, even when he’s got a script in front of him – so this is somewhat realistic.
I’m clearly in the minority as this film is currently 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 8.4 on IMDB. I’m not quite sure how it’s gotten such good reviews, but maybe I am Scrooge. Honestly, I think kids are going to be bored watching this film as its also quite long and much of it is dominated by useless chit chat. The beginning is slow, the middle is average, and the ending is stupid. They set us up to go in one direction, but turn in another in quite a jarring way.
It’s nice to have a few new Christmas film additions every year and I’m all for original ideas, but in this case I would lean more towards watching a Christmas classic instead. Put on The Polar Express, Elf, Love Actually, or anything else for that matter. If you manage to catch it on Netflix and disagree with me, let me know. If you don’t get round to seeing it, thank me later.