History WesternAnimation / Klaus2019

* AnAesop: As Klaus says himself, "A true selfless act always sparks another".

-->'''Sergeant:''' Sir, I'm all for discipline but... Smeerensburg? Isn't that a bit excessive? \\

* PeopleOfHairColor: The Krums have black hair and the Ellingboes have red hair. Jesper, Alva, Márgu and the Saami, who aren't part of the town of Smeerensburg, have blonde hair.

* AchievementsInIgnorance: [[spoiler: When Jesper risks his (and inadvertently Klaus' life) to save decoy presents, Olaf saves Pumpkin during an accident in the ensuring chase, peacefully uniting the Krums and Ellingboes.]]

* AchievementsInIgnorance: [[spoiler: When Jesper risks his (and inadvertently Klaus' life) to save decoy presents, Olaf saves Pumpkin during an accident in the ensuring chase, peacefully uniting the Krums and Ellingboes).]]

* PoorCommunicationKills: Jesper doesn't tell anyone his initial motive for delivering messages and helping children, which was to win back his inheritance and carefree lifestyle. His secrecy, even after his motives changed [[spoiler: cause a PlotMandatedFriendshipFailure when they are revealed]]. When he tries to make amends [[spoiler: he risks his (and inadvertently Klaus') life at risk to save a sack of decoy presents]].

* AngryGuardDog: Jesper encounters two of them when trespassing on the Krum father's property.

''Klaus'' is a 2019 animated Christmas film directed by Sergio Pablos (best known for creating the ''Franchise/DespicableMe'' franchise, and as the supervising animator of [[WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet Dr. Delbert Doppler]] and [[WesternAnimation/{{Tarzan}} Tantor]]) which serves as an [[JustSoStory origin story]] for SantaClaus. It's the first feature film to be produced by Pablos's homegrown studio, Sergio Pablos Animation[[note]]Not to be confused with the other animation studio whose initials are [[Creator/SonyPicturesAnimation SPA]].[[/note]] in Madrid and stars the voices of Creator/JasonSchwartzman, Creator/JKSimmons, Creator/RashidaJones, Creator/JoanCusack, Creator/WillSasso and Creator/NormMacDonald.

* StunnedSilence: At the climax, [[spoiler: the assembled mob is so flabbergasted by Jesper's antics that they sit and stare as the sled slowly slides away before coming to their senses and giving chase]].

* AnAesop: As Klaus says himself, "A true selfless act always sparks another".

* ActorAllusion: This isn't the first time Creator/NormMacDonald has [[WesternAnimation/MikeTysonMysteries played the snarky foil to a taller, more effeminate character]].

* BabiesEverAfter: [[spoiler: Jesper and Alva end up married with two children, although the kids' young ages and Jesper's greying hair in the finale suggest they didn't settle down right away.]]

-->'''Jesper''': And he hugged me. Can you believe that? I thought he'd be mad.\\
'''Márgu (in Saami)''': You know that I can't understand you yet, right?

* CloseOnTitle: The audience doesn't see the title until the very end, after [[spoiler: Jesper narrates that Christmas Eve is the one time of the year he gets to see Klaus's spirit.]]

** If you listen carefully, during Jesper and Klaus's first ride using reindeer to pull the wagon, you can hear the latter almost slip into his traditional "ho ho ho" laugh.

-->'''Mogens''': Oh, folks around here only have one thing to say to one another...\\

'''Mogens''': And they're getting their point across pretty well without mail.

--->'''Ellingboe''': So, we must join together in peace to help stop this peace?

-->'''Mrs. Krum''': One down, one to go.\\
'''Mr. Ellingboe ''' (opening his mouth)...\\
'''Mrs. Krum''': If you ask me "who" right now, I swear!

* SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler:The Krums and Ellingboes would've been successful at destroying the presents ''if'' it hadn't been for Alva learning about the plan from her students.]] Conversely, [[spoiler: they'd have felt encouraged for having destroyed the ''decoy'' bag of "presents" and left peaceably, except Jesper, being LockedOutOfTheLoop, treated them like the ''real'' toys, and thus started a high-stakes chase]].
-->'''Alva''': But then you showed up. And made it complicated. As usual.

-->'''Mrs. Krum''': There was the hundred-day brawl of '45...
-->'''Mr. Ellingboe''': ... which we totally won! ...
-->'''Mrs. Krum''': The maritime GameOfChicken...
-->'''Mr. Ellingboe''': The Great {{Mooning}} of '86...
-->'''Mrs. Krum''': So, if there's something we know...
-->'''Mr. Ellingboe''': ...going back as far as we can remember...
-->'''Mrs. Krum''': ...it's that a Krum despises an Ellingboe...
-->'''Mr. Ellingboe''': ...and an Ellingboe can't stand a Krum!

* WatchWhereYoureGoing: During the climactic ChaseScene, Pumpkin and Olaf bump into each other while [[https://youtu.be/crUBNWy4f7w?t=3 trying to snatch Jesper]].

* WhamShot: Whilst trying to plan for Klaus' Christmas stunt, Jesper stumbles upon [[spoiler: the decorative shelf that Klaus and his wife intended to represent their would-be family.]] The whole thing speaks for itself.

** The moment Klaus decides to fully help Jesper in his mission and start building toys again is when [[spoiler:the Sami girl, Margu, who Klaus has never met before, asks Jesper to build her a sled. Despite no one but Alva, who also lacks carpentry skills, knowing about this, Jesper, who has no carpentry experience whatsoever, nevertheless goes right back to Klaus' workshop and works til he collapses from exhaustion to build her one. When Klaus finds a sleeping Jesper slumped over the workbench with his horribly amateurish attempt at building her a sled, he realizes that Jesper's intentions are pure, wakes him up, and teaches him how to build her a proper sled.]]

* HowDidYouKnowIDidnt: When Klaus steers the sleigh into the icicle tunnel to get rid of the minions who jumped on the wagon, Jesper asks how Klaus knew that Jesper wouldn't be hurt. Getting no answer Jesper figures it was pure guessing.

* RumpRoast: While [[ChimneyEntry entering a chimney]] to deliver a toy, Jesper slips and lands with his butt in the fireplace. He dashes out of the house to put the flames out in the snow.

* AnAesop: As Klaus says himself, "A true selfless act always sparks another".

* BigNo: Jesper when the bag with the presents falls off the cliff.

* GetOut: Klaus shouts this into Jesper's face after the latter unwittingly pressed his TraumaButton.

* HeroStoleMyBike: For the ChaseScene, Pumpkin steals a child's tiny sled.

-->'''Jesper''': And he hugged me. Can you believe that? I thought he’d be mad.\\
'''Márgu (in Saami)''': You know that I can’t understand you yet, right?

-->'''Jesper''': And he hugged me. Can you believe that? I thought he’d be mad.//

''Márgu (in Saami)''': You know that I can’t understand you yet, right?

* {{Demythification}}: The film [[DoingInTheWizard deliberately sets out to provide a mundane explanation]] for all the aspects that would eventually become part of the 'Santa Claus' mythology. In this film "Santa Claus" is a DecompositeCharacter between Klaus, who makes the toys and everyone believes delivers the presents, and Jasper, who is the one to do the actual delivering and able to sneak into places that Klaus can't. Never seeing Santa when he delivers the presents and leaving out cookies and milk for him is because Jesper is ''very'' good at sneaking around due to his postman training and got peckish; Santa [[ChimneyEntry coming down the chimney]] is because chimneys are often the ''only'' way to actually get inside the heavily fortified houses in Smeerensburg; the coal-in-the-stocking and the 'naughty list' are created on the spot to scare a young bully who's been a real brat; the flying reindeer come from a half-asleep kid seeing the wagon (later sleigh) actually in the middle of ''crashing;'' [[https://www.polygon.com/2019/11/15/20966847/netflix-klaus-sergio-pablos-interview-despicable-me Santa's helpers are the grateful Sámi rather than elves.]] [[spoiler:The only really magical/supernatural parts are Klaus's wife (apparently) staying with him in the form of the wind, Klaus joining her in the afterlife and whatever happened to enable Klaus to return every Christmas Eve to deliver gifts.]]

* DoingInTheWizard: The film deliberately sets out to provide a mundane explanation for all the aspects that would eventually become part of the 'Santa Claus' mythology. Never seeing Santa when he delivers the presents and leaving out cookies and milk for him is because Jesper is ''very'' good at sneaking around due to his postman training and got peckish; Santa [[ChimneyEntry coming down the chimney]] is because chimneys are often the ''only'' way to actually get inside the heavily fortified houses in Smeerensburg; the coal-in-the-stocking and the 'naughty list' are created on the spot to scare a young bully who's been a real brat; the flying reindeer come from a half-asleep kid seeing the wagon (later sleigh) actually in the middle of ''crashing;'' [[https://www.polygon.com/2019/11/15/20966847/netflix-klaus-sergio-pablos-interview-despicable-me Santa's helpers are the grateful Sámi rather than elves.]] [[spoiler:The only really magical/supernatural parts are Klaus's wife (apparently) staying with him in the form of the wind, Klaus joining her in the afterlife and whatever happened to enable Klaus to return every Christmas Eve to deliver gifts.]]

* ForWantOfANail:
** Mogens at one point pokes his head through the window of Jesper's office to verbally torment him, as the latter failed to deliver a single letter since he came. Flowing through the open window, a gust of wind blows the folded-over corner of Jesper's shabby map of Smeerensburg. Using a broom, he flattens the corner, revealing an isolated structure on the far corner of the island, which Mogens explains to be the home of the woodsman (Klaus) and dares Jasper to visit him. Jasper brings the Krum kid's drawing he took with him, which Klaus discovers while driving him out, prompting him to gift the kid with the frog toy. Had Mogens not opened the window, the movie would be a lot shorter.
** Mrs. Krum and Mr. Ellingboe probably would never have taken issue with Jesper and Klaus' toy distribution gig had Jesper not realized one of the deliveries was for an Ellingboe kid that insulted him earlier in the film, making him put coal in his stocking in retaliation and then making up the mythos of the "Naughty List" to intimidate said kid into showing him more respect, which put the idea into the other children's heads that Klaus would reward good deeds with toys and punish bad ones with coal, leading to their parents acting just as altruistically.

* DramaticIrony: As stated by the Ellingboe leader, his family would form a temporary peace with the Krums just to end their families’ peace.

-->'''Mogens''': People around here only have one thing to say to each other...\\

'''Mogens''': And so far they're getting it across pretty well without mail.