Klaus

Ever wondered how the idea of Santa Claus ever came about? Apparently the team behind Klaus did and as a result, they made a marvelous animated feature out of it! So, it all started with a letter. A letter that assigns our protagonist Jesper (voiced by Jason Schwartzman), a postmaster general's son to a faraway land cut off from the world as a lesson for being a spoilt brat! The challenge is simple: If he can deliver 6,000 letters in 1 year, he can crawl back to his riches. But the trick is, the place Jesper's heading to… is not that simple.

Imagine the most horrible place you could think of on this planet… Jesper's new destination Smereensburg is worse! It's one of the coldest-ridden abomination on Earth, both literally and figuratively! In this deserted harsh winter island that gives Antarctica a run for its money, the inhabitants are aggressively aloof, unwelcoming and the worse of all, attempts to kill each other at every chance they get! The two clans in town known as the Krums and Ellingboes despise each other since the beginning of time. There's even a hilarious history lesson on this by the antagonists that shows how this vile notion is passed down from the old to the young, generations after generations! So the biggest question here remains: How is Jesper going to deliver letters in this hell and meet his goal? His struggle to do so is worth your time and money to find out!

Writer-director Sergio Pablos must have crafted his little masterpiece here by stripping off all the elements that make up the titular, primordial Christmas legend! From the costume, gifts delivery via chimney, flying reindeers cart, toys production workshop to the size and look of the figure himself, you will have it all explored and explained with fictitious origin. While the filmmaking is outstanding, it's the script that's the backbone of this fabulous motion picture! Like in all great movies, Jesper is a protagonist with a moving character arc! What he began doing out of selfishness, he reverts it by doing it selflessly, thanks to the lessons he learns. Fantastic lines and meaningful background storytelling adds a brilliant dynamic layer to the overall narrative!

Just like Santa Claus and the holy time of Christmas, this here is a celluloid filled with soul, purity and goodness! The theme goodwill is palpable throughout! From the moment the first kid receives his first toy from Klaus (voiced by J. K. Simmons) to old Klaus disappearing one day after having transformed lives in Smereensburg, it's a nonstop tearjerker, with scenes like town kids performing kind acts so that they don't drop into the naughty list, time for Jesper to leave the island, kids wanting to learn how to write their own names, foreign-tongued girl arriving at Jesper's doorstep asking for a sled toy, kids who were enemies starting to play with each other and the prosperous coming-together of the townspeople as one being the events that fill the aforementioned range! Even the antagonists form a truce to work together against their common opposition, oh the perfect irony! Subplot revolving the teacher who came to Smereensburg long time ago with the hopes and dreams of educating the kids in town is well integrated to push our protagonist's growth. The climactic sled chase to save the presents is nerve-racking, but once the final twist about the presents being fake is revealed, it's an instant turnoff.

The animation quality is on a whole other pedestal! At first it may seem like it's in 3D, but the closer you look, the sooner you'll realize how all of it were hand-drawn in 2D animation with expert lighting effects to separate the highlights and shadows! The shapes, colors, contrasts, production design, aesthetics and visual transitions are landmarks! On top of it all, it's gorgeous here, gorgeous there, gorgeous everywhere! Chicken crammed in letter shelf and Jesper putting his kids to bed alike sending letters are two of the cutest animated instances, ever! Alfonso González Aguilar's score is remarkable, in the sense that he's able to transliterate the emotional essence of an occurrence onscreen flawlessly with his musical instruments!