'Welcome to Smeerensburg, home of the world's finest feuds'
Klaus 7.7
Jester, a cocky and overly-entitled trainee postman destroys his own chances of graduating to live an easy life on his family's money. His dad has different ideas and sends him to a remote island post office for a dose of real life, where he meets and teams up with a woodsman toy maker. His character arc is fairly obvious, it's the tried and tested formula of learning respect and what really matters through others, and probably helping them in the process. Of course as a sophisticated mainlander he thinks he's better off in the life of luxury and of course he will learn. It has been done many, many times before, including the classic scrooge tale. This isn't a complaint as it is done in a new, memorable, very engaging and entertaining way and sets itself apart from the crowd by rewriting perhaps the most known folklore of the Western world, the story of Santa Claus. In this slightly satirical sense it reminded me of Shrek, although it's not quite as complete for me, it may well gain similar classic status in years to come.
It does what is expected of a family animated Christmas film (and crucially it should play well to adults and children) but alot of it is done in a fresh way. After he arrives he meets a teacher/fishmonger who is desperate to get off the island. This was always likely to be a love interest but I like how, even though they are together ar the end, it wasn't really done in the normal soppy way, it just happens in the background whilst we are focused on the main story, which cleverly avoids coming over clichè and formulaic. It does the same thing with the plot point of the 2 warring clans on the island, it is in the background but never really a main focus. Most of the film's running time is spent on Jester's arc and the creation of the Santa myth.
We get a new (as far as I'm aware at least) entirely natural, almost believable take on the origin of Santa Klaus. For me this kind of modern reimagining is far more interesting than just another overly soppy tale of Christmas magic. The script works all of the aspects of the lore into the story, all with real world explanations without the main man himself ever being a supernatural or magical figure. In a strange way it reminded me of Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ, which tells the story of the ascent of Jesus but he is basically unconvinced of his divinity so we get a very different 'origin story'.
Rightly, the story is more about the kids than the warring adults. The kids do help break down the barriers and unite the feuding sides, but the story of the two sides coming together is so far in the background that I don't think kids in the audience will pick up on it really. When it comes to the target audience for this, I'm not sure what kind of age would be suitable. Younger audience members will go for the animated fun but at the same time alot of the myth of santa coming together feels like it's being done with a wink and a nudge to the adults. This is a story with layers and I imagine it would be as good or better the second time round.
It was less funny but sweeter than I expected it to be. As with many of these types of family entertainment, it was a touch too sweet for me in places but only slightly, and that's a personal thing. Also It was about the perfect length for this kind of thing, with no boring bits.
For me the finest aspect of the film, besides the ingenuity of the concept, is the look. To start with, before the island, the animation is bright and colourful and shows very realistic backgrounds with the classic characatured humans. Once on the island things look a little different, things get darker in lighting and tone, the buildings are all at odd sharp angles. The people look different also, some of them look like they're out of Tim Burton animated films or maybe a Gorillaz video. I thought it looked really great throughout. It manages to have a classical, gothic look but a completely modern feel with are a few beautifully animated moving sequences.
I do like all sorts of animation and animation styles. The design of this is pretty unique from what I've seen but it still reminded me more of things like Iron Giant, The Illusionist (the French animation, not Ed Norton magician film) than any of the classic Disneys.
I'm not overly a Christmas film fan, I'm too much of a scrooge. Muppets Christmas Carol is pretty genius and It's a wonderful life is almost universally considered to be the greatest, which I totally agree with, it's a 9 easy. It's not so much about Christmas itself, it's more of a universal life affirming story that works all year round. This is very christmassy of course and I think it should rate well among others of the genre.
Commentaires