Whilst I was vaguely aware of the title from seeing it mentioned at the Oscar's, I became aware of Klaus from seeing a large number of fellow reviewers highly praising the film this year,which led to me meeting Klaus.

View on the film:

Revealing later that he had wanted to do a traditionally animated feature film, but he wanted to see how the animation would have evolved without the switch to computer-generated animation, the 20 years spent working in various other animation departments, leads to co-writer/ (with Jim Mahoney & Zach Lewis) and co-director (with Carlos Martinez Lopez )Sergio Pablos make a chart-topping Christmas number one directing debut.

Developing the project for over a decade, Pablos and Lopez ultra-stylised use of volumetric lighting and texturing, (first time to be used in hand-drawn animation) gives the animation a dazzling depth of field appearance, with the detailed, expressive hand-drawn character animation seamlessly blending in with the thick texturing given to the background and buildings drawing a pop-up book elegance.

Later revealed by Sergio Pablos that he had improvised 40% of the dialogue,Jason Schwartzman gives a fantastic turn as Jesper,thanks to Schwartzman voicing his distinctive kookiness with a growing can-do confidence,whilst J.K. Simmons brings a merry, towering warmth in his merry performance of Klaus.

Simply having a wonderful Christmas time in a miserable town, the writers gloriously take the characteristics of Santa (such as flying reindeer)and turn them inside out with hilarious sight gags that soar with excellent drama from Jesper bonding with the locals,and Klaus coming out from the wilderness, to discover the true meaning of Christmas.

Everything about this droll take on the Santa myth is inspired. JK SImmons as the title character, the animation style, the way in which the various elements of the mythos come together organically and so forth all just fit. Even the final moment of magical realism is just right. It all adds up to a heart warming tale of Christmas.

I will be watching this each year for awhile.

Klaus is an amusing new twist on a very old story. It's a heart-warming tale with an uplifting message about kindness, featuring beautifully unique animation, interesting characters, and a clever plot. In the sea of generic Christmas movies that get churned out each holiday season, Klaus stands out because it tried something different and it succeeded.