Klaus (film)

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Klaus

Theatrical release poster

 Sergio Pablos
Directed by
 Carlos Martínez López (co-director)

Produced by  Jinko Gotoh

 Sergio Pablos
 Marisa Roman
 Matthew Teevan
 Gustavo Ferrada
 Mercedes Gamero
 Mikel Lejarza

Screenplay by  Sergio Pablos

 Zach Lewis
 Jim Mahoney

Story by  Sergio Pablos

 Starring  Jason Schwartzman
 J. K. Simmons
 Rashida Jones
 Joan Cusack
 Will Sasso
 Norm Macdonald

Music by  Alfonso G. Aguilar

Edited by Pablo Garcia Revert

Production  Sergio Pablos Animation Studios

company
 Atresmedia Cine
 Aniventure

Distributed by Netflix

Release date  November 8, 2019 (United States)

Running time 96 minutes

Country Spain

Language  English
 Saami

Budget $40 million

Klaus is a 2019 Spanish animated Christmas comedy film written and directed by Sergio Pablos in
his directorial debut, produced by SPA Studios with support from Aniventure[1] and distributed
by Netflix as its first original animated feature. Co-written by Zach Lewis and Jim Mahoney, the film
stars Jason Schwartzman, J. K. Simmons, Rashida Jones and Joan Cusack. Serving as a fictional
origin story to the myth of Santa Claus, the plot revolves around a postman stationed in a town to the
North who befriends a reclusive toy-maker (Klaus).

Contents

 1Plot
 2Background
 3Voice cast
 4Production
 5Release
 6Reception
 7Soundtrack
 8See also
 9References
 10External links

Plot[edit]
Jesper (Schwartzman) is a young man who comes from a wealthy family in the postal business, and
is a selfish brat who has no life ambitions whatsoever. When Jesper's high-positioned father enrolls
him into the royal postal academy in an attempt to teach him that hard work pays and being from a
rich family is not a shoo in to wealth, he deliberately distinguishes himself to be the academy’s worst
student, and so his father comes up with another plan to teach him a lesson: he is stationed on a
frozen island above the Arctic Circle by his father, with the ultimatum that if he doesn't post 6,000
letters in a year, he will be cut off from the family.
He gets into the island's town of Smeerensburg and is shown around by a sarcastic ferry boat
skipper who tricks him into ringing the town bell so he can meet the welcoming committee, but
instead he finds the town is full of feuding locals who hardly exchange words let alone letters; the
towns people are divided and filled with anger, bitterness, hatred and animosity. Trying desperately
to come up with a plan for him to get the town and locals to send letters, he notices on the map in his
office of a far off little establishment. Investigating, he finds a woodsman named Klaus (Simmons),
with a skill of woodworking and a house with lots of handmade toys.
Jesper is about to finally give up when unexpected events unfold that give him the idea of Klaus
donating his old toys to the town kids, who would ask for them by sending letters. Klaus agrees to
Jesper's request of donating his toys, provided that the deliveries will be at night, so he can
accompany Jesper on them. When Jesper finds out that many of the kids can't write, he tells them
they can simply learn at school, and so they go to local teacher Ms Alva (Jones), who Jesper met
back on his first day in town, to learn how. The increasingly developing actions of Jesper and Klaus
delivering toys becomes the talk of the town kids, with the nature of said actions making them
believe Klaus is not only solely responsible, but he also has certain quirks. Some of these quirks are
also said to be magic, such as, despite being a large man, he can enter homes through any
chimney, and can get into said homes, leave the kids the toys for them and get out all without being
seen: the most astounding of them all is he has a reindeer-pulled sleigh that can fly. When Jesper
says to the kids Klaus would not give any toys to bad kids, he goes on to say Klaus always knows
whenever any kid is naughty, and their attitude changes, even the town bully, as he also wants to
have toys. Their resulting acts of kindness inspire the other townsfolk to do the same.
Jesper eventually finds out that Klaus had lost his wife and they could never have children, but he
loves making kids happy and he had made all of the toys in his house for the children he thought
they would have. They soon receive help from a small community of kind Sámi people to fulfill
Jesper's prior idea of a delivery run to give toys to the kids on Christmas, but not only that, Jesper
begins to change himself, no longer being selfish.
While all of this has been happening, the heads of the town's feuding families, through the families'
clearly inextinguishable, and very long-standing hatred to each other, have been trying to stop
Jesper and Klaus to preserve this tradition, and they agree on joining forces to do it. They eventually
come up with a plan that involves getting Jesper to leave by using his past against him, but he
ultimately makes his decision final to stay in Smeerensburg, and proceeds to do everything he can
to stop the rest of their plan. Though he finds out Klaus and Alva already knew what was coming and
had made preparations to foil the plan, his actions cause events that make the families find
themselves as in-laws.
As things in Smeerensburg keep getting better, Jesper and Klaus continue delivering presents on
Christmas, with their operation expanding further and further as time continues on. Then, on the
twelfth year, Klaus suddenly disappears without a trace, joining his departed wife. Jesper and Alva
get married and have two children together, and every Christmas Eve, Jesper gets to see the spirit
of his friend, as he continues to deliver toys to kids around the world.
Background[edit]
Pablos said Smeerensburg is a deliberate misspelling of Smeerenburg, a former Dutch and Danish
whaling station in the Artic archipelago of Svalbard.[2]

Voice cast[edit]
 Jason Schwartzman as Jesper, a postman who proves to be the worst at the academy.
 J. K. Simmons as Klaus (Santa Claus), a carpenter who makes toys.
 Rashida Jones as Alva, a school teacher turned fishmonger who is Jesper's love interest, later,
his wife.
 Joan Cusack as Mrs. Krum, an old woman who is enemies with the Ellingboes.
 Will Sasso as Mr. Ellingboe, a man who is enemies with the Krums.
 Norm Macdonald as Mogens, a boatman who lives in Smeerensburg.

Production[edit]
After setting up his own animation studio in Madrid, Spain, director Sergio Pablos, who had worked
on Disney Renaissance films such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, and Tarzan,
decided to develop a new traditionally-animated feature film. Pablos wanted to explore how the
medium would have evolved had western animation film studios not switched to producing
mostly computer animated films since the 1990s. For the film's look, the studio sought to overcome
some of the technical limitations that traditional animation had, focusing on organic and volumetric
lighting and texturing to give a film a unique look, while maintaining a hand-crafted feel. Proprietary
tools from Les films du Poisson Rouge, a French company in Angoulême, were used to allow the
team to produce a variety of visual development styles, with the aim of getting away from the
standardized style of "characters looking like stickers put on painted backgrounds."[3][4] Fellow Disney
animator James Baxter, known for Beauty and the Beast, also worked on the film.[5]
The first teaser for the project was released in April 2015; at the time, the studio was seeking
investment, co-production, and distribution partners. It was shopped around to various studios, who
perceived it as "too risky." [6] In November 2017, Netflix announced that they had acquired the global
rights to Klaus; at the same time, the casting of Schwartzman, Jones, Simmons, and Cusack were
announced along with a Christmas 2019 release date. [7] In March 2019, it was reported that Netflix
was planning an Oscar-qualifying run for Klaus in theaters, and it was listed as one of ten films
Netflix was negotiating with chains to give limited releases prior to their online debuts that
August.[8][9] The film's release date was announced, alongside the debut of an official trailer, on
October 7.
The film is dedicated to animator and scene checker Mary Lescher who died on June 2, 2019 of
cancer. She had worked on Klaus, as well as other animated features such as Beauty and the
Beast and The Lion King.

Release[edit]
Klaus was released theatrically in select theaters on November 8, 2019, and was released digitally
through Netflix on November 15.[10] It is the first original animated feature film to appear on Netflix.[11]

Reception[edit]
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 89% based on
36 reviews, with an average rating of 7.32/10. The critical consensus reads "Beautiful hand-drawn
animation and a humorous, heartwarming narrative make Klaus an instant candidate for holiday
classic status."[12] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 62 out of 100, based on
10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[13]

Soundtrack[edit]
The song "Invisible" by Zara Larsson, features in the film.[11] The song "High Hopes" by Panic! at the
Disco, features in the trailer.

See also[edit]
 The Star
 Arthur Christmas

References[edit]
1. ^ Amidi, Amid (February 9, 2016). "Cinesite's New Montreal Mega-Animation Studio Will Employ 500
and Produce 9 Features, Including 'Klaus'". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved October 25, 2019.
2. ^ Klaus director pushed past the limitations of traditional animation
3. ^ Amidi, Amid (June 1, 2015). "Sergio Pablos Talks About His Stunning Hand-Drawn Project
'Klaus'". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
4. ^ "The Origins of Klaus". YouTube. October 10, 2019. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
5. ^ Desowitz, Bill (June 13, 2019). "Annecy: Netflix Premieres Footage from First Original Animated
Feature 'Klaus' In Innovative 2D". IndieWire. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
6. ^ Grobar, Matt (October 10, 2019). "'Klaus' Director Sergio Pablos Gifts Netflix With Its First Original
Animated Feature". Deadline. Retrieved October 12, 2019.