My Review of 'Klaus'

Klaus is another re-imagining of the origin of Santa Claus. I wasn't sure if I should watch it but I had some time to waste and thought it would be nice to watch a Christmas movie.

First off, I was a little worried because this movie is a Netflix exclusive. Netflix exclusive movies don't tend to be the highest of caliber movies out there. The art kind of captured me though. It looks similar to Dreamworks animation style but when they used to do 2d animations.

In terms of visuals, it's kind of a hit and miss. There's certain scenes where you wonder why the animation is choppy but then there are grandiose scenes that are truly beautiful. For the most part the animators wanted to make this movie look more 2d than 3d and I think that was a wise decision. It gives the movie more character and feels a little warmer than if it was made into a fully 3d animated movie.

I like how they used the lighting and the colors to help tell the story and the progression of the story. I liked their choices of voice actors. Surprisingly they had a few stars voicing the characters of the movie.

The movie itself is about a postman named Jesper, voiced by Jason Schwartzman. He's a spoiled brat that doesn't want to follow in his father's footsteps but he must or else he's cut off the family fortune. One day the father is so fed up with Jesper's antics that he sets Jesper up in a post up north in Smeerensberg.

Smeerensberg is a desolate town under war between two feuding families. No one writes letters to one another because they hate each other. Jesper's isolated in this small decrepit town with no way of getting out unless he can get them to start sending letters.

He soon finds a guy in the area by the name of Klaus who has a mysterious past. He finds out the guy isn't as bad as he thinks and I guess I should leave you there because anything more would be basically giving away the movie. You probably already know what's going to happen though.

It's obvious this movie will be predictable and happy because it's an animated family friendly movie but watching this movie I can say I did get a sense of joy by the end of it. They did a good job developing the characters despite the fact that the character development was semi formulaic.

It's that time of the year though. I just kind of embrace these types of movies and enjoy them for what they are. You don't really go watching these movies expecting The Godfather. It's a good distraction if you have free time on your hands. There are times you want something a little different from the classics you're used to watching and this movie could be it. It's a little different from the classics you're used to but not so unfamiliar that you kind of lose the sense that it's trying to be a classic Christmas movie.

Overall, there were some slowdowns in the beginning of the movie to get it started up but not too many. This movie had a good pace to it and I enjoyed it from beginning to end. I would say that if you're looking for a new family friendly Christmas movie this is worth checking out. That's why I'll have to give Klaus a 7.5 out of 10. I wasn't impressed with all of the visuals. It was weird that they would allow some of the stuttering animations to stay in the final cut of the movie. You'd think that there's some sort of quality control but then again, I keep reminding myself it's a Netflix exclusive movie. They tend to rush these things out like a factory.