Klaus, dir. Sergio Pablos

Wiz RECOMMENDS Klaus For the first thirty minutes of Klaus, I had the most acute sense of deja vu: did the filmmakers seriously just copy/paste The Emperor's New Groove from the main character to the humor? Honestly, it sure as hell felt like it: Jesper can easily be a stand-in for Kusco with his smarmy, rude sense of humor that might as well have been David Spade. The only difference is that in Emperor, the humor isn't nearly as dark. Klaus is not pitch black, to be fair, but it features a lot of fighting, dread and misery that tries to maintain a biting humor. Tries is the key word: the humor in Klaus doesn't really work in this thirty minutes. I'm not sure if it's because of how close it feels to Emperor, but the attempts in humor doesn't land all that well. For what is supposed to be a comedic family film, that can be a death knell. But Klaus has something that more than makes up for it: a heartwarming, beautiful emotional center. The story picks up when you are introduced to Klaus, a burly, lonely woodsman who is voiced with a surprising sensitivity by J.K. Simmons. This character turns the film from an unfortunate Emperor knock-off to a warm, loving story about the power of selfless deeds and neighborly love. It can't be understated how well done this character and the evoking power he has: the film turns into a wholly different narrative that honestly is more powerful and beautiful than I was expecting. On top of that, the hidden story of what could be considered the Santa Claus origin story is creatively and emotionally well done. What's more: the animation is subtly beautiful. The film has characters that look like nutcrackers come to life which gives the characters a warm, detailed look. When the film concluded, it shot up to being one of the best Christmas films I've seen in a long time. But it's definitely a film that I warmed to than absolutely loved: the humor in it just doesn't work as well as the gooey, warm emotional center. But even then, it's a film I would love to watch next Christmas to get me back into the spirit of the holiday.