Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Netflix’s first full-length animation feature Klaus is a thrillingly gorgeous testament to the power of kindness. Selfish and spoiled postman Jesper (Jason Schwartzman) is sent to the remote snow-capped town of Smeerensberg, the meanest place on earth. However, when Jesper reluctantly teams up with a kind toymaker named Klaus (J.K. Simmons) to deliver presents to the lonely children of the town, Jesper sets off a chain reaction of events that profoundly change the face of Smeerensberg and create the myth of Santa Claus to boot.
Klaus is more than just a sweet yuletide story, though. It’s a triumphant new take on traditional 2D (or hand-drawn) animation. Klaus is the brainchild of writer, director, and animator Sergio Pablos, a Disney alum who founded The SPA Studios, his own animation outfit, in 2004. The dream was always for Pablos to direct his own original animated feature, but he got a little sidetracked developing concepts for other animation studios — most notably the mega-hit Despicable Me. In 2010, Pablos came up with the idea of making an origin story for Santa Claus, but to tell the story using 2D animation in a brand new way. SPA Studios would work to revolutionize the way light and texture were used in animation, updating the look of hand-drawn animation for the 21st Century.
Ironically, Klaus — an artistic tribute to the power of hand-drawn animation — hits Netflix the same week that Disney has hurled itself into the streaming game. Disney+ launched with a robust library showing off the company’s evolution from hand-drawn shorts to 2D feature film classics to a slate now wholly devoted to computer animation and live action remakes. Klaus‘s arrival on Netflix this week therefore feels like a pointed rebuke to Disney’s recent 2D animation slump.
According to Sergio Pablos, though, Klaus‘s timing is a total coincidence. When Pablos took his idea to Netflix, they were staunchly against the idea of investing in feature animation and were instead looking to bulk up their slate of Christmas content.
“There were three meetings [with Netflix],” Pablos told Decider. “The first two, the answer was, ‘We don’t do feature animation.’ And the third one was, ‘We don’t do feature animation, but we are looking for Christmas films. So maybe we’ll sneak this one in as an exception.'”
The exception soon became the rule. In the years since Klaus was greenlit, Netflix has built a whole animation division devoted to creating original films and shows. “We suddenly found ourselves spearheading a slate that wasn’t there when we started. So we witnessed that transformation while it was happening,” Pablos said.
Netflix’s ambitious new animation slate includes 2020’s Over the Moon, a whimsical computer-animated musical directed by Glen Keane (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin), 2021’s My Father’s Dragon, a 2D fantasy feature from The Secret of the Kells director Nora Twomey, and Guillermo del Toro’s long-awaited R-rated stop-motion animated retelling of Pinocchio, also due in 2021. There’s also Maya and the Three, Wendell & Wild, and the project that Pablos himself is most personally excited for, Jacob and the Sea Beast. However, everything starts with Klaus.
Klaus isn’t merely Netflix’s first ever animated feature, but a remarkable step forward for traditional hand-drawn animation. Determined to revolutionize the way light is used in 2D animation, Pablos sought out the assistance of a French production company called Les Films du Poisson Rouge. They had new software called Houdoo that let animators paint with light and add texture to animation cells. Combined with SPA Studio’s 2D style, this technology succeeds in making hand-drawn animation look more alive than ever before. Thus, Klaus feels like what would happen if Disney had kept experimenting with 2D animation, merely using computer technology to enhance what was done by hand.
Even if Klaus‘s timing is coincidental, the film’s style is completely influenced by early Disney feature animation. As a young animator, Pablos worked on such Disney films as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Tarzan and Treasure Planet. That experience shapes the aesthetics of Klaus.
“I am clearly influenced by Disney because I spent so much time there,” Pablos said. “I loved those days. I had so much fun, and it was all about pushing my own limitations to get better, which is what I love about it.”
However, Pablos’s tenure at Disney coincided with the company’s move away from traditional hand-drawn 2D animation in favor of 3D computer animation, and Pablos wasn’t as comfortable in this new technology-driven medium.
“I felt like whenever I get stuck in 2D, I am the one who needs to break down that barrier to break my own limitations. But when I get stuck in 3D, it’s always about calling someone else in to help me out. I don’t enjoy that as much because I don’t think I’m growing as much as an artist,” he said. “So nothing against CGI, but I realized that a person who loves to draw and who loves to tell stories should still have access to a medium to do so.”
Thankfully for Pablos, Netflix has provided him with the opportunity he so longed for. Not only did they support his plan to make Klaus in 2D, but they also granted him creative freedom as the director of his very own animated feature.
“Once you get [to Netflix], they basically tell you, ‘Go make your film,’ and they really stood out of the way. You would still get notes, but the notes were suggestions. And if you disagreed with the note, the answer was always, ‘It’s your film, don’t do it,’ Which I never, ever in my career have seen that happen,” Pablos said. “The downside to it is if the film is bad, I have no one to blame, but the upside is we did really get to make the film we wanted to make.”
However, Pablos admitted there was one concession that came with working with Netflix. Because Netflix is a streaming service, chances were most viewers would never get to see SPA Studios’s spectacular artistry on the big screen.
“I had to do away with the romantic love of watching the film in cinemas,” Pablos said. “But I’ve come to realize that maybe Klaus is the kind of film that can be better enjoyed with the family around Christmas, wrapped in a blanket with hot cocoa. That could be actually the perfect viewing experience for this. So I’m actually very much in line with the pairing of Klaus and Netflix.”
However, Netflix isn’t just available on living room televisions. Many people also watch Netflix’s original content on their laptops, tablets, and of course, phones. Pablos said this became a behind-the-scenes joke for the animation team.
“Whenever my production designers were getting too precious about like, ‘We still see a sliver of light there,’ I was like, ‘Do you know how many people are going to be watching this on an iPhone sitting on their toilet?'” Pablos said with a laugh. “But the truth is, there are 150 million accounts, and those have several profiles, so I’m sure plenty of people who want to watch a film in the best conditions will make it so. We’re not too worried about that. We made the same film we would have made. The size of the screen never factored into our decisions.”
The film that Pablos and his team made is an aesthetically beautiful, tenderly sweet parable about the power of kindness. Pablos said, “I try not to be preachy, but I like to have a truth that I believe in in all these projects. I believe that children change your life when you become a parent, and that’s the central truth of Despicable Me. And I believe that kindness is contagious. I believe that your outlook on your day changes if someone holds a door for you, you’re likely to do that for someone else. I’ve seen it happen and it’s a true thing.”
“I don’t start my stories with a moral, but I try to find a truth,” he said.
Klaus is now streaming on Netflix.
