OVP: Klaus (2019)

Film: Klaus (2019)
Stars: Jason Schwartzman, JK Simmons, Rashida Jones, Joan Cusack, Will Sasso, Norm Macdonald
Director: Sergio Pablos
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Animated Feature Film)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

As promised, not only did we hit Breakthrough and The Lion King this week, but I found time to get to a third missing Oscar nominee.  I make no promises for a fourth picture(though I have hopes for one-we'll see how the rest of real life goes for me), but for now we have Klaus, arguably one of the more obscure nominees this year, but one that it's entirely possible was well-viewed over the holidays (who knows how many people actually tune in for Netflix-don't you wish they'd release the numbers?).  This is the streaming platform's first foray into this category, and with a relatively weak nominations field (you could make a decent case that this is the rare five-way race), it's possible Klaus could score a trophy for the movie.  But before you start giving it that statue, let's decide if it's any good.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is sort of a strange premise, as it's kind of an origin story for Santa Claus (strange because the real-life Santa Claus was based in part on an actual person, Saint Nicholas, a fourth-century bishop, but it's entirely fictional).  Here we have Jasper (Schwartzman), a spoiled son of a postman who is forced to go into the far north.  His father says that he can come back to his old life if he can post 6000 letters in a year, which seems impossible as everyone in the town is split in half, with no schools (to teach writing) and a centuries-long feud between two families.  By circumstance, Jasper accidentally convinces the young children of the city to start writing letters to Klaus (Simmons), a lonely old woodsman who used to make toys, and so he is able to start reaching his scheme by genuinely improving the village and ending the feud.  However, the town elders want the feud to continue, and expose his scheme, just at the same time that he was genuinely starting to like the city and his new life (ain't that always the case).  He comes back, stops the town elders, ends the truce, and watches as his friend Klaus becomes Santa Claus (through magic).

The film was probably cited by Oscar due to its unusual animation style.  Pablos was actually a key animator at Disney during the 1990's (he was integral to the creation of Hunchback of Notre Dame's Frollo and Hercules' Hades) and with this film hearkens back to that era's traditionally-animated feel (rather than computer-animated style).  However, they alter the lighting in this film to make it seem as if those sequences are computer animated, so it looks hand-drawn while also having the luminous quality that would hallmark much of the 21st Century's more significant animated films.  It's really cool, and gorgeous.  I didn't love the character design that much (all of it feels "been there, done that"), but the lighting is fantastic, as are some of the larger scenic sequences, and certainly worth admittance if you're an animation nerd.

That said, the film itself is a bit of a bore.  Jasper has few redeeming qualities, and while we learn he has a heart, we've seen this story so many times (and he's just particularly plodding) that I didn't care that much about what happened to him.  In many ways this is The Emperor's New Groove, but without the humor and site gags.  The plot is mean-spirited, without enough heart, and the gross-out animation  of the villagers isn't particularly inviting.  I left feeling relatively hollow by the story, and wanting to find something to cling to in this movie, but the characters that felt the most authentic or unique (like Rashida Jones' cynical school teacher) change personality the second the script needs them to without any sort of foresight.  The film itself is only intriguing from a visual perspective, and while that's worth checking out, it's not worth putting it alongside Coco, Spirited Away, and Frozen on Sunday.