Klaus is a 2019 animated holiday film about a new postman who befriends a toymaker, his gifts melting an age-old feud in delivering a sleigh full of holiday traditions.
Giving barely a whiff about his appointment to the Royal Postal Academy, Jesper (voiced by Jason Schwartzman), the son of the Postmaster General (voiced by Sam McMurray) himself, thinks he’s got nothing to worry about, that his dad will continue to carry him through life. But he gets a rude awakening when his father, disgruntled with his son’s lack of motivation, promotes him and gives him one year to establish a working post office in Smeerensburg, an isolated frozen island far to the north. If he doesn’t get the job done, he’ll lose his chance at the family fortune. Once there though, Jesper learns from a cantankerous ferryman, Mogens (voiced by Norm MacDonald), that the town needs no letter carrier, the people in a long standing feud between the Krums and the Ellingboes. However, when Jesper delivers a letter to a woodsman named Klaus (voiced by J.K. Simmons), he becomes a partner in helping children get presents that becomes the start of world-wide tradition.
Directed by Sergio Pablos, Klaus is a delightfully original new holiday story with a fun animation style and plenty of well-earned laughs, thanks mostly to a terrific voice cast who help a lot in giving the unusual story some life. Schwartzman echoes a bit of David Spade in Disney’s The Emperor’s New Groove, Jesper an heir to great wealth suddenly left to fend for himself, but gives the wiry postal worker plenty of personality on his own. Even with the similarities, there’s a lot about Klaus that sets itself apart, having some real fun with the traditions and mythology of the Santa Claus legend.
This makes for an interesting mix of over-the-top slapstick antics and some genuinely charming moments of holiday ‘magic’ as poor Jesper gets caught in the middle of a generations-old squabble between Mr. Ellingboe (voiced by Will Sasso) and Mrs. Krum (voiced by Joan Cusack), pitting their hapless families against each other in a series of reckless shenanigans and winter-born pranks. That’s mostly the comedic relief while Jesper eventually befriends the woodsman, who is at first intimidatingly scary. Then there’s the local school teacher (voiced by Rashida Jones), forced to sell fish because no one goes to school. And she’s only looking for a way out. These are funny bits. But it’s the misunderstood and ultimately very imposing Klaus teaching Jesper’s about the power of kindness – putting the postman to work for him – where film creates a number of ‘firsts’ that we recognize as Saint Nick standards. It’s clever and imaginative.
However, it all comes down to some superior artwork, direction, and music that sell the whole show, the film subverting much of what we’ve come to expect in how modern animated movies should look. It’s not at all treading that thin line of exaggerated ultra-realism that Disney and Pixar so successfully made ubiquitous – as great as most are – the production’s attention to detail and storybook look making this a joy to watch. Klaus is a well-made and energetic family film that earns its way fast into the queue of must-see Christmas movies, one that will surely become a tradition all its own. Highly recommended.