Klaus focuses on Jesper, voiced by Jason Schwartzman, who is deliberately attempting to flunk out of the postal academy. So his wealthy father attempts to teach him a lesson by sending him to the Arctic Circle, telling him he must post 6,000 letters in a year, otherwise he’ll be cut off from the family. While in the town of Smeerensburg, he meets a lone woodsman named Klaus, voiced by J.K. Simmons, who has an abundance of handmade toys. In an attempt to easily reach his goal, Jesper tells all the children of Smeerensburg to send Klaus a letter requesting toys, which he’ll deliver himself. When Klaus obliges the children’s requests, he quickly becomes one of the town’s most beloved figures.
As the holidays roll around, here comes an origin story of Christmas’ most well-known figure, Santa Claus. And this film is an awfully sweet take on how he came to be. The film has a very heartwarming feel, often filled with a subtle, yet upbeat soundtrack that never feels like it’s looking to manipulate the audience’s emotions or try too hard at pulling on their heartstrings.
And it’s gorgeously animated as well, evoking the feel of older Disney animated films from the 1940’s, or even looking like a higher quality version of an old-time Christmas special from that time period. The style is simple, yet it captures so much, from the nuanced looks on characters faces, to some truly breathtaking backgrounds, particularly in the town of Smeerensburg itself. More than anything, this film is absolutely stunning to watch and is a true visual treat.
One of the biggest highlights though is J.K. Simmons as the title character. It’s sometimes easy to forget that while the Oscar-winning actor is mainly known for his loud, larger-than-life roles such as in Spider-Man or Whiplash, he does have a softer side to him as well, as evidenced in his roles in many of Jason Reitman’s films. And he pulls no punches bringing that side out to the forefront here. There’s a scene in which he speak of his life before the film’s events and it’s truly one of the most heartbreaking moments in the film. He sometimes speaks at just above a whisper, and his delivery perfectly captures that air of vulnerability that’s rarely seen when watching anything related to Santa Claus.
Jason Schwartzman is also very charismatic to watch as Jesper, and brings with him a high level of energy to balance out some of the film’s subtler moments. However, while he’s enjoyable to watch, what does bog the movie down is his whole arc. A lot of his journey feels somewhat predictable. When the movie starts, his character is quite annoying. He’s loud, lazy, and is really selfish to the point that it’s hard to care about him. And of course, the whole point of him being placed in the Arctic is for him to learn a lesson, and he does eventually come around.
It’s easy to predict where this movie is headed right from the get-go and that’s the one thing that truly holds it back. Everything is predictable. There’s a love interest, voiced by Rashida Jones, who doesn’t particularly care for him at first, but eventually warms up to him. He’s sneaky, so he lies to most of the townsfolk of his intentions, and he’s eventually found out. And there’s even antagonistic townspeople, led by Joan Cusack and Will Sasso, who are essentially just evil for the sake of it, and are there to get in Jesper and Klaus’ way because they don’t like the spirit of what eventually becomes Christmas.
It becomes quite distracting, as it undermines so many of the film’s nicer moments. So do the moments in which this tries to be funny. There are a lot of typical comedic tropes used throughout the film. There are pratfalls, moments of over-the-top slapstick, and comedic misunderstandings, such as when Jesper initially thinks Klaus is going to kill him. And unfortunately, these moments simply don’t work, and there’s this sense that the film is trying too hard to appeal to a broad audience. And it’s not a bad thing that it wants to do so, but the types of jokes it goes for just feel so overplayed in countless other movies, that there’s a sense this film could do so much better. There are also moments where the film will sporadically use modern rock tracks, such as The Heavy’s “How You Like Me Now,” to give it this sort of “hip” energy, that kind of take the audience out of the moment, especially for a film that otherwise tries to evoke such an older feel.
Klaus is a good-natured holiday-themed film that will be a nice treat for the whole family. It’s gorgeously animated, heartwarming at times, and has some wonderful voice-work from J.K. Simmons. However, the film is held back from potential greatness due to its predictable story, sometimes unlikable main character, and moments where it tries too hard to be either funny or cool. It’s certainly worth checking out, though it’s unfortunately too uneven at times to be a new holiday classic.
Recommendation: Proceed With Caution
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