BWN Nerds’ Movie Review: Klaus (2019)

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Nerd Review!  Every week the Nerds give you their take on a different classic from the Nerdosphere.  This week Dave and Patrick continue their holiday film reviews with the Netflix original holiday film Klaus!

The Flick:  Klaus

What’s it About:  A selfish postman is assigned to a remote village and tasked with delivering 6,000 letters in one year in order to earn his inheritance.  While there, he encounters a village torn between two feuding families who spend their days fighting one another.  When the postman meets a reclusive toy maker who asks the postman to help deliver a toy to a sad child in the village, the postman gets an idea that will forever change the town for the better.

Metacritic Score: 65

The Nerds’ Take on Klaus (2019):

Patrick:  This week Dave and I moved in a different direction for the Nerd Review and aimed for something much more family oriented and recent.  In 2019, Netflix released a charming animated film Klaus. Written and directed by Sergio Pablos and Carlos Martinez Lopez, Klaus is a charming retelling of the Santa Claus origin story highlighted by a dynamic voice cast and beautiful animation.

The story is narrated by Jesper Johansson.  Jesper is a cadet in the Royal Postal Service and son of the Postmaster.  Jesper’s life is filled with comfort and he cares little for his duties as a postman.  So, his father leaves him an ultimatum: report to the distant village of Smeerensberg and deliver 6,000 letters in one year or be cut off from his life of luxury.  Jasper arrives to find a village is dominated by a generations long feud between two clans: the Krums and Ellingbones.   Jasper quickly learns that the village does not care to do anything but battle one another.  The schoolteacher, Miss Alva, has given up on her dream to educate the children of the village and turned to fish mongering in effort to save enough money to leave the village.

Jasper, on the other hand finds it impossible to deliver mail as the village is too busy fighting one another.  Jasper’s fortunes change when he comes by a sad child who loses a drawing of himself locked away at home.  Jasper keep the drawing after a bad encounter with the boy’s father.  This becomes important later when Jasper learns of a cottage on the outskirts of town inhabited by an old woodcutter.  Jasper startles the man and leaves the drawing behind.  The woodcutter sees the drawing and asks Jasper to meet him that night.  Together, they visit the boy’s home and secretly deliver a toy.  The boy is so excited he tells other children in the village who bring their letters to Jasper in hopes of getting toys of their own.  Jasper sees this as an opportunity to deliver his 6,000 letters and leave the village.  In the year that follows, Jasper and the Woodcutter, named Klaus, work together to deliver toys to the children of Smeerensberg, much to the dismay of the feuding village elders.

It’s pretty clear the direction of the story from here.  What starts as one or two toys soon gives birth to the explanation of the Santa Claus legend.  We learn everything from how reindeer where brought into What follows is a familiar formula to the origin of the Santa Claus legend.  We learn everything from how reindeer enter the equation to how Klaus “knows” if a child has been good enough to earn a toy.  That scene was one of my very favorites as Jasper completely works the children into being better people.

The voice cast for Klaus is top notch.  Headlining as Jasper is Jason Schwartzman, one of the all time great smarmy voices and a perfect spoiled child who transforms to better person at film’s end.  Voicing Klaus is the great J.K. Simmons and Rashida Jones voices Miss Alva.  But the best voice of the bunch in this feature has to be Joan Cusack, who portrays the matriarch of the Krum clan.  Her comedic timing is always on point and she just has one of those grating voices that lends itself very well for the primary villain.  It never ceases to amaze me the quality of animation we see these days.  Klaus is no exception.  The film looks like a moving painting on a wood surface.  It’s almost like you’re watching one of Klaus’s hand painted toys in motion.  I found it beautiful.

Klaus is a terrific first effort from Pablos and Martinez Lopez.  They tell a familiar story, but bring a uniqueness in their approach that makes the movie feel fresh.  It’s perfect for all ages to watch and is sure to please children and adults alike.  I love Christmas films and have a list of them that I watch annually.  Klaus is a delightful film that will be in my rotation for years to come.

Patrick’s Rating: 4.0/5.0

Dave: Klaus is a wonderful Christmas movie that will have just about anyone feeling nostalgic. Given that the Holidays can trigger some pretty jaded reactions these days, it is not everyday that an animated feature will come along and feel like the children’s classics many of us grew up with. Klaus, however, is one of those rare movies.

Klaus is really a retelling of the legend of Santa Claus, set in the past, but with a bit of a modern feel to it. Jesper Johansson is a spoiled brat of a son who has been a constant disappointment to his father. Fed up with his son’s lazy attitude towards life, his father makes him a postman and sends him to the town of Smeerensburg which looks, on the map anyway, to be pretty much where one might expect the North Pole to be. Jesper’s father challenges him to deliver 6,000 letters in one year or face being cut off from his father’s money. Jesper soon discovers that two, for lack of a better term, clans (the Krums and Ellingboes) have been feuding with each other for years and he also meets Alva, who had aspirations of being a teacher but is now relegated to a raw fish dealer. Jesper struggles to find any logical basis by which anyone in the delipidated town would want to send anything by way of the post. He comes across Klaus, a reclusive woodsman who has a cabin of toys just lying around. The two reluctantly strike up a partnership which involves delivering Klaus’s toys to children all across Smeerensburg. It begins as Jesper’s plan as to how to get to 6,000 letters posted, but it evolves into so much more.

Many of the traditional Santa Claus mythos gets gradually revealed as the movie progresses. What makes Klaus special is that the story presents the legend of Santa in a logical, non-magical; way. It provides a variation on how letters to Santa got started in the first place, Santa’s sleigh, the reindeer (quite non-magical by the way), the elves, the naughty list, bad children getting coal in their stockings, and so forth. It is actually Jesper who does the toy delivering, including descending down chimneys. As this is going on, it is the children who are the catalyst to the rejuvenation of Smeerensburg as it transforms from an arctic wasteland into a colorful, vibrant, and wonderful locale. Alva rediscovers her love of teaching and the children of both clans become her students. Jesper learns about Klaus’s past and what he has lost. Jesper also learns a great deal about himself and, like all great movies of this type, he ends up being redeemed as much as Smeerensburg is. To say that Klaus is immensely heartwarming does not do it justice.

Animated movies are always unique and this one is no exception as it is a 2D animated film that you will swear is actually 3D. It received a ton of critical acclaim and was Netflix’s first animated feature ever nominated for an Academy Award. The accolades are well deserved. Klaus is excellent on all levels and is one of those films that I fully anticipate to become a family Christmas Classic in the years to come. If you are looking for a virtually flawless film to watch with your kids this Holiday season, give Klaus a chance. You will not be disappointed.

Dave’s Rating: 4.5/5

Overall Nerds’ Rating on Klaus (2019): 4.25/5.0