Awesome / Klaus (2019)

• The way the story ties in just about every traditional lore there is about Santa Claus.
• Jesper's father gets one when, after exhausting his resources to get his layabout son to be self-made, he takes a sink-or-swim approach and gives Jesper an ultimatum: Either get 6,000 letters outgoing from Smeerensburg in a year, or don't and lose his entire inheritance. By stationing his son in Smeerensburg, he's not exactly giving Jesper the best chance of succeeding. And yet, the pressure notably motivates Jesper to think smart and keep trying.
  Jesper's Father: 6,000 letters will suffice. Stamped by your own hand. And listen carefully, Jesper. If you fail to get those letters, you're cut off. No more fancy apartments, stagecoach, clothes, galas. All gone. You can look forward to a cozy spot in the gutter. 6,000 letters. One year. You can't cheat, bribe, or squirm your way out of this one.
• Klaus himself is awesome:
  • From Jesper's experience, Klaus has the ability to suddenly appear when no one's looking, and without a sound.
  • The way Klaus intimidates a couple of Mr. Krum's dogs with just a single glance. That is all.
  • Klaus' immense physical strength is a thing worth noting: he can bend iron bars and split timber using his bare hands alone.
• The entire scene where Jesper invents the lore about the naughty list in order to convince the local bully to be nicer to him. He had nothing but nerve and a bluff, and it works!
  Jesper: Devilish little tadpoles like yourself don't get toys from Klaus.
  Bully: Oh, yeah? And how would he know what I'm up to unless you ratted on me?
  Jesper: Oh, I didn't have to. He knows.
  Bully: What do you mean?
  Jesper: He sees everything, you know. Every mischief, prank and dirty deed. He keeps a list. The...Naughty List, he calls it.
  Bully: You lie!
  Jesper: Trust me. You do not want to be on the Naughty List. So, you still wanna throw that snowball?
  (The bully hesitates.)
  Jesper: (smirks) I didn't think so.
  • Followed by his swagger back to the post office, set to "That's What You Get When You Mess With The Postman".
• The Krums and the Ellingboes haves been sworn enemies since the dawn of man. That sounds like a very difficult feud to end. And yet, Jesper and Klaus do just that, indirectly end the feud with a few acts of kindness.
• Jesper preparing Klaus' workshop and the Christmas pitch in such short time and without Klaus knowing until it was ready. Selfish intention or not, that's impressive preparation skills.
• Alva courageously standing up to the Krums and Ellingboes when they threaten to destroy the Christmas presents. Sure, it's just an act to convince them to destroy the decoys, but it's not too far off from her usual self.
• Jesper coming to the rescue to save the Christmas presents! They're just decoys, but this is where we see how determined he is to protect them.
  • That moment he grabs the sled and tries to keep it from falling off the cliff, with nothing but his own measly strength to slow it down. The awesome part is, this is the same Jesper who used to be highly self-preserving and would run away or cower anytime he thought his life was on the line. Here, we see him nearly risk his life for the Christmas presents without any ulterior motive whatsoever.
• After Mrs. Krum seemingly destroys the Christmas presents, she gives our heroes a Breaking Speech that Smeerensburg's a hateful, feuding town that will never change. Without looking up, Jesper calmly responds "A true act of goodwill always sparks another". To make his point, he tells her to turn around and gestures at Pumpkin and Olaf, who have fallen in love with each other because of said act of kindness. What makes it especially awesome is how Jesper maturely handles it instead of boasting or rubbing it in Mr. Ellingboe or Mrs. Krum's faces. At this point, he's bigger than that.
  • In fact, Jesper is so mature about not retaliating that he's content with the simple karma that Mrs. Krum and Mr. Ellingboe are stuck being in-laws after their children marry.
• The reveal that the presents Mrs. Krum destroyed were really firewood wrapped up to look like presents. How did this plan come about? The school children were talking about it, and as a good teacher, Alva listened to them.
  • Fridge-Awesome: The firewood ties in with Klaus's wood-chopping skills. While there's no indication of the time span between when Alva told Klaus about the bad guys' plot and the time the latter arrived, it's impressive that he managed to chop so much firewood with enough spare time to wrap them to look like Christmas presents.
• The epilogue showing how Klaus' present-delivering operation grew in the coming years, spreading throughout Europe and possibly even further.
  • Despite the years catching up to him, Klaus never quite lost his amazing strength.
  • Even death isn't enough to stop Klaus, resulting in him transcending the mortal coil to become the genuinely magical Santa Claus we all know him as.

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