What to Watch - Klaus

by Chelsea House, GGR Contributor

Ahh the Christmas movie season! People are hesitantly putting up their Christmas trees while making sure Thanksgiving mobs aren’t standing out their windows with pitchforks, hot chocolate is starting to become the reg, and pumpkin spice is slowly transitioning to peppermint everything. I’m not a huge movie watcher, but this time of the year I settle down on the couch, give my knuckles a good crack, and grab my remote with the “bring it on” mentality of a true couch potato. This brings me to my first Christmas movie of the season, Klaus.

This movie is a little unorthodox in the ways of traditional Christmas movies. You don’t get a sappy romance, a corny jingle, or an elf gobbling up chewed gum in New York City. Instead you get a refreshing new take on a Christmas origin story that is so oddly relatable. 

Jesper, the spoiled and entitled son of the post master, fails purposefully in his royal postman training. This causes his father to decide to crack a whip and show his son how to be a little less of a mooch by sending him to a cold hearted, dark, and dreary town delightfully named Smeerensburg. The goal? He has to establish a post office in this place by sending x amount of letters, and THEN he’s free to go home to his silk sheets and privileged bell ringing life. From there, the story takes quite a few quirky twists that lead up to Jesper finally running into the big man, or in this movie’s case Klaus, himself. Together they start a toy delivery gig that slowly changes the town, and themselves, for the good. Here are some of the awesome takeaways I have from this movie

1. The Kids Change the Town

It is often agreed upon that kids are wise beyond their years due to the simplicity and innocence in which they view life. This movie was such a beautiful nod to that! The town of Smeerensburg has had a feud between its two prominent families that has dated all the way back to the stone age, and they are happy to keep it that way. It is through one child that the snowball of change begins to roll, and it is through this touching scene that you see that “set in their ways” isn’t always a concrete fact. When the children learn of the “naughty” list they suddenly begin to do random acts of kindness and good deeds which leads to more. As Klaus says “A true selfless act always sparks another.” The truth of this is seen as the hate filled people of Smeerensburg slowly begin to show a smile. It’s beautiful to watch the unfolding of a new future for this town as the children unknowingly reverse this ancient gear and launch everyone into a time of cheer and peace.

2. Don’t Ever Let Dreams Die

There is a woman in town, Alva, who was originally hired as the town’s teacher. She soon learned that the rivaling families of Smeerensburg would rather be caught dead than see their children learning together in the same classroom, therefore making her position pointless. In desperation, she then becomes the owner of a fish shop. When we are introduced to her she is broken, angry, and filled with spite. When the kids begin to see the value of learning to write (because of letters to Klaus), she begins to let her guard down and begins to let her dreams become reignited. One of the most empathy-inducing scenes of the movie is watching her hesitantly reach into her savings to buy books for the kids. You can see the torn look on her face, the understanding that she is on the razor sharp edge of letting her dream live again or not. How often do we have that similar fear when a dream doesn’t go quite as planned? 

These two were my biggest takeaways, but without spoiling the movie, there are so much more to get out of it!

This movie is visually stunning to watch! The animation is literally captivation. Am I watching hand drawn characters, or CGI? I couldn’t really tell, and honestly didn’t really care. The colors, the play of facial expressions, the attention to detail, it was all simply amazing and magical to watch, which is pretty much a must for a Christmas movie. The humor is also something that adds sooo much to the film without being too much or too little. It’s dry and appropriate and just feels natural.  Adults and children alike where giggling through the film at the subtle and not so subtle jokes. 

Two big thumbs up from me and I think will be one to add to my yearly Christmas classics!