Klaus (2019)

(Netflix Streaming, December 2020) December is the time for Christmas movies we would otherwise be unwilling to watch at any other time of the year — but some of them do manage to be more interesting. Usually, the difference is in the non-Christmas portion of the narrative: while Christmas movies should hinge on Christmas, the best of them also have narratives that can be enjoyed on their own. In this regard, Klaus does manage to have it all: as an origin story for Santa Claus, sure, but also as the story of an over-privileged misfit asked to set up a postal service in a small village with two warring families. I’m not sure if there was much of a movie genre for postal comedies before, but Klaus manages to find new and witty elements to use as building blocks to the familiar Claus mythology. Visually, the film is remarkable for its unique art style – two-dimensional animation with an incredible polish that holds up against the now-familiar CGI baseline. The mixture of old-fashioned elements used in clever ways is what helps make Klaus so enjoyable – and perhaps even a new Christmas classic in the running. It’s a remarkable success, not just as a Christmas film or a family film (or worse yet, a Christmas family film), but on its own terms, watchable at any time of the year… but best in December.