Trivia / Klaus (2019)

• Actor-Shared Background:
  • When his acting career was just starting out, J. K. Simmons (Klaus) worked as a Mall Santa.
  • Like her character, Márgu, Neda Margrethe Labba spoke no English at the time of filming, and so had to communicate via an interpreter.
• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • In Spain, Luis Tosar, Quim Gutiérrez and Belén Cuesta lent their voices for Klaus, Jesper and Alva respectively.
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, Klaus is voiced by Mexican actor Joaquín Cosío, who many English-speaking viewers can recognize him as Scorpion in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Likewise, Jesper is voiced by the Colombian singer Sebastian Yatra.
  • The Brazilian Portuguese dub has Rodrigo Santoro as Jesper.
• Descended Creator: Sergio Pablos voices both Mr. Ellingboe's daughter Pumpkin and Mrs. Krum's son Olaf.
• In Memoriam: The film wad dedicated in memory of animator Mary Lescher who died of cancer five months before the film's release.
• International Coproduction: Between Atresmedia and Sergio Pablos Animation in Spain and Netflix in the US.
• Network to the Rescue: The proof of concept teaser made its rounds on the internet for two years and appeared to fizzle out of public consciousness by the time Netflix agreed to finance and distribute the finished film in 2017. They then went the extra mile by heavily promoting it on their main page and giving it a limited theatrical release.^note Interestingly enough, it wasn't the film being 2D that scared off most investors, rather it was the fact that it was a Christmas movie, as the other studios believed that it wouldn't stand a fighting chance against whatever Disney would release during the holiday season.
• No Budget: At least by Hollywood standards; even with its extensive technological development, the film only cost $40 million, which is the typical budget for a 2D feature but inexpensive for most other American wide-release CGI features, which more often have budgets well into the nine figures.
• Reality Subtext: Sergio Pablos chose to cast a real Sami girl, Neda Margrethe Labba, in the role of Márgu; while this added realism and sincerity to the use of Sami people on the film, it came with the complication that Neda didn't speak any English and the director doesn't speak Sami but they still found a way around this and eventually became friends despite not speaking each other's language. This was mirrored by the film in Jesper's relationship with Márgu and it's one of the reasons why the Sami language is not subtitled in the film.
• Similarly Named Works: This film has nothing to do with the Grant Morrison comic book of the same name, despite both being a Santa Claus origin story.
• Throw It In!: Sergio Pablos estimates that only about 40% of Jesper's scripted lines made it into the film while the rest of it is Jason Schwartzman improvising.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Sergio Pablos toyed with a few historical or fictional characters to do origin stories of before deciding on Santa Claus. Other possibilities included Joan of Arc, Napoleon and Dracula. He almost passed on the idea of doing Santa Claus because he felt it was too corny and magic was too easy as a subject for animation, but eventually decided he liked the idea of a Santa origin story with little to no magic.
  • Jesper was originally going to have a British accent, as seen in the original pilot teaser from 2015.
  • As mentioned in Early-Installment Weirdness, Klaus had a distinctly different design, looking similar to a Viking.
  • Mogens was originally going to be a drunk. For obvious reasons, this was cut.
  • Jesper was originally a poor chimney sweep, beaten down by life, who overhears the postmaster general offering the Smeerensburg post while stuck inside a chimney and volunteers, thinking it was his chance to move up in the world.
  • The original ending would have revealed Klaus to be alive and well living at - where else? - the North Pole, where he'd invite Jesper and Alva to come live with him to continue their Christmas tradition together. Despite the crew loving it, everyone else found it too confusing and not emotionally impactful enough, so Klaus' fate was made more ambiguous and the recognizable piece of Santa Claus mythology was changed from living at the North Pole to waiting up for him on Christmas Eve.
  • Initially, in February 2016, it was announced that the film would be co-produced with studio Cinesite, as part of their new animation effort. Finally, in May 2017, it was announced that the film would not be made with Cinesite and that Netflix had instead acquired the film, financing it and ensuring a 2019 release. The reason why Cinesite dropped Klaus is not known until now. today.

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