YMMV / Klaus (2019)

• Accidental Aesop: A more literal interpretation of "a true selfless act sparks another" can be "good acts beget additional good acts, regardless of motivation." Jesper only starts off doing what he does to avoid being cut off from his father's money and the children only start ramping up their niceness to avoid being on Klaus's nonexistent naughty list, which Jesper only made up to threaten a child who was harassing him. The adults' gestures of goodwill towards their neighbors start out of begrudging obligation. This shows that, while empathy is a learned skill, compassion is intrinsic because Good Feels Good.
• Accidental Innuendo: During the Hard-Work Montage of the Sami workers helping Klaus, Jesper, and Alva build more toys, there's a brief shot of Alva and Jesper snuggled together under a blanket by the fireplace, with Jesper looking down at Alva adoringly and only their upper bodies being visible. Despite the two of them clearly being clothed, they're only shown like that onscreen for about five seconds at most, leaving more inattentive viewers with the (incorrect) impression that the two just finished having sex.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Smeerensburg is based on a Dutch/Danish whaling post from the 1600s in northern Svalbard called Smeerenburg.
• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: The only way to change outdated, stagnant traditions is to replace them with happier, newer ones, as seen with the Ellingboes vs. Krums feud being traded for the yearly celebration of Christmas.
• Applicability: Though undoubtably a coincidence due to both Production Lead Time and the film's many years in Development Hell, more than a few viewers felt the Ellingboes vs. Krums feud was a surprisingly germane reflection on the United States' political climate circa 2019: a town split in two groups Color-Coded for Your Convenience in Red and Blue, with entire generations of deep rooted hatred for each other, who can't seem to agree on anything other than the other side being the one who's wrong. The adults are full of so much hatred they don't care how their own children are being hurt by their crusade and living their lives in constant never-ending bickering, and the feud only begins to end when their youngest generation educate themselves, learning to look past dogmatic beliefs and seeing that there can be common ground between them.
• Award Snub:
  • It failed to get nominated for Best Animated Motion Picture at the 2019 Golden Globes, enraging a number of fans.
  • It also lost the Academy Award for Best Animated Film to Toy Story 4, which sparked yet another heated debate on how the Academy seems to favor Disney/Pixar films over everything else, as well as accusations of bias against the film because it was released on Netflix instead of getting a wide release.
• Awesome Art: The combination of Sergio Pablos's excellent character designs, "paperless" traditional animation (via Toon Boom) and the groundbreaking lighting effects make this one of the best-looking "tra-digital" (traditional/digital) animated films ever.
• Awesome Music
  • "Invisible", the film's theme by Zara Larsson.
  • The score that accompanies the scene when the Krum boy opens the first present Klaus and Jesper delivered and then starts joyfully playing with it is also quite stirring.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Invoked with the inexplicable hip-hop music that plays under Jesper swaggering back to his post office after scaring the Ellingboe boy who bullied him with a lie about Klaus keeping a "naughty" list. It wouldn't be nearly as hysterical if it didn't come right the hell out of nowhere.
• Broken Base: There's some debate among fans over which voice was better for Jesper: the British one from the proof-of-concept teaser or the American one in the film proper.
• Crosses the Line Twice
  • The montage of Jesper, framed like a shady drug dealer, talking all of the kids into writing letters to Klaus.
    "Hey kid. Wanna new toy?"
  • If a real person responded to someone speaking a language they didn't understand by asking "What's wrong with her mouth?" it'd be considered tactless and offensive^note Indeed, the Norwegian dub omits this joke, as a Norwegian-speaking person saying this about their country's indigenous population would've come across as downright racist.. Jesper saying it when he first hears Márgu happily speaking to him in Saami? Hilariously in-character. The same goes for when the two show up at Alva's house and Jesper asks, pointing at Márgu, "Can you understand... this?"
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Despite being a relatively minor character, Mogens is very popular thanks in large part to Norm Macdonald's hilariously sarcastic vocal performance. It helps that he's the first to really put Jesper in his place, and then helps Jesper's father understand he doesn't actually want to leave.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Jesper and Klaus, also called "Merry Husbands", which is more popular than the canon Jesper/Alva. For example, Jesper/Klaus has 94 of the 179 fics on Archive of Our Own, while Jesper/Alva only has 14. These fans are helped by the large amounts of Ho Yay between Klaus and Jesper, as well as them feeling that they have better chemistry than Jesper and Alva. That said, Alva manages to avoid any Die for Our Ship from these shippers due to still being well-liked by the fandom.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Claiming the film looks like CGI will frustrate anyone who knows that this was not Sergio Pablos's intention with the film, but rather to give the characters the same amount of shading and texturing as the backgrounds and promotional material to avert Conspicuously Light Patch and Detail-Hogging Cover.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • Has gained a noticeable one with Frozen II, another 2019 winter-themed animated family film set in Scandinavia, featuring Saami people, due to the latter being a Contested Sequel to a film that has gained a lot of Hype Backlash.
  • It spawned one with Toy Story 4 after it won Best Animation Feature over it at the 2020 Academy Awards despite the odds being in its favor.^note  This may have to do with the fact that after Pixar’s last film Incredibles 2 lost to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, whose animation and visuals were praised more than Pixar’s animation and many hope that this is a step up for the Oscars. Some even believe that the stigma of 2D animation no longer being as popular as it was before led to the Academy choosing Toy Story 4 over Klaus, which added to the vitriol.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: Well, some fans (see Broken Base above). Some preferred that that fim have kept Jesper's british accent from , the teaser, feeling its more memorable and suiting of the character.
• Fandom-Specific Plot: There is a recurring crossover of this Klaus with the Klaus from Rise of the Guardians, and that makes Jesper into some magical being too, often some sort of winged messenger.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Fans of Klaus get along well with those who love Green Eggs and Ham (2019), as both premiered on Netflix at the same time, both were praised for their excellent hand-drawn animation, and the dynamics of Klaus and Jesper get compared to Guy and Sam.
  • The Emperor's New Groove shares a fanbase with this movie, since both involve a snarky, self-centered protagonist from a wealthy background who learns to become selfless with the help of a large, kind-hearted man. Even the heroes of both films bear slight resemblances to each other, which was not lost in at least one review.
  • Fans of The Road to El Dorado enjoy this movie. Not only does it share a similar sardonic humor and expressive hand-drawn animation style, but it centers around at least one selfish Butt-Monkey Anti-Hero who ends up in a foreign town against his will, cons the locals into giving him something he wants (gold, letters) so he can return home in luxury, yet comes to care for the locals he's conning and ultimately chooses to stay. It helps that Klaus involved a lot of the same former Disney and/or DreamWorks animators who worked on El Dorado.
• Ho Yay: A lot between Klaus and Jesper, to the point some people think that they seem more like the lead couple than the actual lead couple.
  • The second time Jesper goes to Klaus' house plays out like a sort of supernatural Meet Cute, where the force that accompanies Klaus keeps pointing him towards Jesper.
  • When Jesper listens to Klaus laugh for the first time, he's quite impressed and wants to hear his laughter again.
  • There are some moments that actively parallel Klaus' current relationship with Jesper to his previous marriage, including parallels between Jesper and Lydia.
• Jerkass Woobie: Jesper. Prior to his Character Development, he’s careless and full of himself, but you can’t help but feel sorry for him having to spend a year on a freezing cold island living in a beat-up post office surround by two groups of bitter, violent people constantly trying to kill each other.
• Like You Would Really Do It: As if Jesper would actually leave! However, Margu rushing to the dock and just missing the boat, tearfully crying out for Jesper brings the audience investment right back into it, as you now feel for her.
• Magnificent Bastard: The titular Klaus, originally a jolly toymaker, grew to become a grouch after the death of his wife Lydia. Residing in the far corner of Smeerensburg, after noticing the new postman Jesper Johansson, Klaus forces him to deliver presents to the town's children every night, having him risk his life to bring happiness to the kids, all without being noticed. Knowing that the head Krum and Ellingboe are out to stop him from delivering toys on Christmas, Klaus, with the help of the teacher Alva, builds a second sleigh with false presents without telling Jesper this, having him risk his life to protect the fake presents while getting him to admit his faults. Klaus ends the movie reuniting with Lydia in the afterlife, becoming the magical Santa Claus in the process, while still taking time out of his schedule to visit Jesper every Christmas.
• Moe: Pretty much all of the Smeerensburg kids are ultimately kind-hearted and quick to smile adorably, taken up to eleven with little Márgu, the Saami girl who befriends Jesper.
• Older Than They Think: Despite Sergio Pablos' claim, there have been origin stories for Santa Claus in the past, the most notable being L. Frank Baum's The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus, first published in 1902, and the Rankin/Bass special Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town from 1970 (Rankin-Bass also did an adaptation of Baum's book in 1985). It would be the first Santa origin story to have little to no magical elements if not for the 2007 Finnish movie Christmas Story, which tells Santa Claus' origin in a realistic non-supernatural manner, except for the ending where he disappears, is heavily implied to have died of old age and similarly returns as a spirit with flying reindeer to greet his loved ones.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • The Drill Sergeant Nasty instructor at the Royal Postal Academy, due to his hilarious seething anger at Jesper's incompetence and Everyone Has Standards concerns about sending Jesper to Smeerensburg.
  • Several of the Moe Krum and Ellingboe kids (like the cousins of the boy who gets the first toy and the boy who thinks he sees the sleigh flying) only get one notable scene, but are still pretty memorable.
• Questionable Casting: Joan Cusack as Mrs. Krum. While she does a good job expressing her character's emotions, her trademark Midwestern accent, usually associated with cheerful characters, is not the kind one might expect coming out of an evil old hag like her.
• Rewatch Bonus: The scene where the little Ellingboe boy receives the first toy is very sweet on the first watch. But it becomes beautiful after learning that this is the first time Klaus saw the joy he could bring a child after years of never being able to have children himself.
• Signature Scene:
  • Jesper seeing Klaus's decorative shelf, showing him Klaus's dreams of wanting children.
  • Jesper and Klaus delivering Margu's sled to her and her excited reaction.
• Strangled by the Red String: Jesper and Alva ending up together has its share of critics who feel that they have few scenes together and little chemistry compared to the deeper friendship Jesper and Klaus share and that their getting married and having kids in the end feels more like a tacked-on romance.
• Tainted by the Preview:
  • The trailer's use of "High Hopes" caused a lot of worry among fans that the movie proper would have similarly misplaced pop music that'd clash with the "timeless" tone the movie was going for.
  • The trailers for European Spanish dub was criticized due to the monotonous and uninspired voice acting of the main cast.
• Tear Dryer: At the beginning of the third act, Margu runs to the dock and sees the boat sailing away. Believing Jesper is leaving, she calls out his name through tears before breaking down sobbing... then she turns and sees Jesper sitting on the dock.
  Cheer up, little one. I think I may have missed my boat.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: A few fans liked Jesper's British accent from the proof-of-concept trailer more than Jason Schwartzman's American voice.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Definitely one of the many praises about the film. The animation is hand-drawn, but masterfully blends in realistic 3D lightning and shading. There's a reason why some people have mistaken the film for CGI.

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