Klaus

Another of the nominees for the Best Animated Feature Oscar is Klaus, a Santa Claus origin story directed by Sergio Pablos. As someone who grew up with the Rankin/Bass Christmas special "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," I reject the story in this film (heresy, really) but it is a charming film, if slight and predictable.

We start at a training academy for postmen (a fanciful idea). The Postmaster General's son is a cadet, but is lackadaisical. To teach him a lesson, dad sends son to the most remote, Northern place he can to establish a post office. If he can generate a certain amount of mail, he can come back to his cushy lifestyle.

Jesper, the son (voiced by Jason Schwartzman) is appalled at giving up his caviar and silk sheets. The island he is sent to is not only cold and forbidding, but is wrought with a long-standing feud between two families. He meets a schoolteacher (Rashida Jones) who is so fed up she uses the schoolroom as a fish market and is saving her money to leave.

But into Jesper's life comes a reclusive woodsman (J.K. Simmons) named Klaus, who also happens to be a toymaker. When a child's drawing accidentally makes his way to him, he and Jesper deliver a toy. The kids of the island learn about this, and suddenly Klaus is inundated with letters. This helps Jesper's plot, but of course he eventually succumbs to the spirit of giving.

There's nothing wrong with Klaus but there's nothing particularly great about it--the animation is fairly routine, and the origins of Santa Claus tropes, such as reindeer and going down chimneys, is explained but not in a particularly clever way. There is even a little filching from other Christmas cartoons, such as How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

Elementary school children are probably the target audience here, while the adults won't be bored. Norm McDonald voices a sarcastic boatman who is very funny. But compared to Toy Story 4 and I Lost My Body, Klaus runs far behind (two more films to see in this category).