Klaus
Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Rashida Jones, J.K. Simmons, Joan Cusack, Will Sasso, and Norm MacDonald
Director: Sergio Pablos
Screenwriters: Sergio Pablos, Jim Mahoney
Companies: Netflix
Dinner was on, wood was chucked, wife was working, so I looked in Netflix and wound up watching an animated Christmas movie.
Don’t look at me like that. There have been some pretty good ones over the years, starting with the Grinch. The last one I saw, Arthur Christmas was a clever British production. Santa’s getting old and senile, and his oldest son, an ooh-rah West Point type, has given the operation a makeover. Santa’s Sleigh is basically the Starship Enterprise.
Sometimes you can look at just a single frame from an animated movie, and you know instantly that the animators and writers understand funny. I looked at the Netflix promo image for Klaus, and thought, “that looks promising.”
Jesper is the son of the Brigadier-General of the Post Office, which greatly resembles a Navy Seal boot camp. Postmen apparently have to meet some pretty high standards, and Jesper isn’t interested in meeting any standards at all. He’s spoiled and self-centered, and finally Papi decides enough is enough, and sends him to a hell-hole post at the end of the world, a remote northern island called Smeerensburg. His mission: take the derelict and moribund post office there and raise postal traffic to 6,000 letters by the anniversary of his posting, which (surprise!) happens to be Dec. 25th.
Sm’burg has a few problems. It’s Whoville as written by Stephen King and filmed by David Lynch. The main hobby of the residents is that of trying to kill one another, and as a result, there’s isn’t much in the way of letter writing going on. Odd, since they don’t have wifi, or even telephones. The local schoolmarm doesn’t have any children worth educating, so she sells fish in order to raise enough money to get the hell out of Dodge. Or Lower Slobbovia. Or Randall Flagg’s Las Vegas, or whatever the hell this place is.
Jesper, realizing this is the armpit of the universe, desperately seeks ways to escape. His father has told him that he will be cut off without a penny if he fails, and he’s beginning to think that’s the preferable option.
But then he hits on a scam: have the children send letters (stamped, of course) to a mythical gift-giving figure in order to get toys. He’s found a grouchy old recluse who just happens to have a workshop full of toys. You can sorta figure out what’s going to happen there.
The humour is mostly visual, complemented by some fairly remarkable characters and good, rapid-fire dialog. Someone involved in the art work lived in the North for a long time; it was one of the most convincing depictions of a Lappland snowscapes around.
It has a sentimental ending because Christmas movie (Well, you can’t have Jimmy Stewart deciding, “Oh fuck this” and jumping off the bridge anyway, can you?) but it’s not particularly mawkish or contrived. It does have an original take on the Santa legend, and plenty of LOL moments. It’s meant for kids, but done well enough that adults will have fun watching. At least for the first dozen times or so.
Now on Netflix.