While watching Klaus (2019), the historian in me said, “Huh?”  This is because it is one of the small but strong subset of Christmas movies that talk about the origins of the holiday.  To be clear, this has nothing to do with Faith.  Instead, it is referencing all the things this Catholic finds specious about how December 25^th is celebrated, mainly as they pertain to the title character (voiced by J.K. Simmons), who is obviously intended to be Santa Claus.  According to the film’s Wikipedia page, the movie is set in nineteenth century Norway.  Yet, many of the traditions associated with the day came to the United States from Germany via Queen Victoria of Great Britain marrying Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840 and various waves of immigration.  By the way, if you are unable to place those two principalities from which Prince Albert hailed, just know they are now part of modern Germany.  As such, the film seems to be at odds with the historical record, and you will get a better sense of this from the synopsis.  As a Catholic reviewer, I am much more positive on it and think it could be worth your time, even if it is animated.

There is little that animates Jesper Johansen (voiced by Jason Schwartzman), who is not Klaus, just to be clear.  He is a cadet at the Norwegian Royal Postal Academy, which temporarily fried my history brain.  Regardless, he is no ordinary student.  His father is the Postmaster General (voiced by Sam McMurray), and Jesper uses his privileged position to shirk the training.  This ends one morning when Jesper is summoned to meet with his dad.  Seeing how spoiled is Jesper, the Postmaster General believes some tough love working in an out-the-way location will do Jesper some good.  To this end, the son is sent to be the postmaster for the far northern outpost that is the island of Smeerensburg (which is based on a real place, by the way).  Upon protesting, he is told that he must see to at least 6,000 letters before he will be allowed to return from what is essentially a banishment.  The alternative is to be destitute, so Jesper begins the arduous trek north.  In order to get to the island, he hires a ferry operated by Mogens (voiced by Norm Macdonald), who is also knowledgeable about the area, if a bit mischievous.  The Smeerensburg that Mogens brings Jesper to is devoid of color and apparent life.  When wondering about a reception committee, Mogens tells Jesper to ring a bell in the center of town.  Upon doing so, the denizens burst from their homes intent on murder.  Jesper perceives that he is their target, but the chaos is soon revealed to be directed at one another.  Taking shelter from the carnage at the school, Jesper meets Alva (voiced by Rashida Jones).  She is supposed to be the school teacher, but with everyone, including the children, focused on violence, instead she has become the fishmonger.  Like him, she is counting down the days before she has enough money to leave for good.  Unlike her, though, he does not have a source of income.  That is because the villagers are resolute in their preference for violence rather than writing letters.  In desperation, Jesper devises a plan to visit every house to try to find some postage, but after a few weeks, he is unsuccessful.  In his exasperation, he notices that there is one residence he has not checked, and that is the one belonging to a person everyone refers to as “The Woodsman.”  Finding no one around, Jesper does the logical thing of breaking into one of the dwellings where he finds a long disused toy workshop.  It is while inside that Klaus returns.  Jesper is frightened by the larger and stronger than normal Klaus, and flees.  In the escape, Jesper misplaces a drawing he had tried to convince a little boy to mail.  Klaus finds the sketch, demands to be taken to the proper house, and has Jesper deliver a toy for the child.  The same young one makes the leap that it had been his letter that had made this happen, and soon he is telling all his peers in town, including those that come from the other side of the social divide.  Suddenly, Jesper is getting mail with kids learning that there is somebody who will bring them a gift with a few bits of scribbled words.  With the children suddenly being merrier, the adults, too, start to warm to one another.  The ones who cannot not read or write even go to school, which forces Alva to make some changes.  Klaus takes it as an opportunity to get rid of all the toys in his workshop that are going unused.  However, that supply is limited, and Jesper sees it running out before he meets his quota.  This is when he comes up with the idea of instead of going out every night as they have been doing, to wait until Christmas to fill all the orders at once.  However, this requires making new toys, something Klaus has not done since his wife had passed.  What he had on his shelves had been the result of him planning for a large family.  Jesper is apologetic for causing a painful memory to be stirred, and Klaus eventually relents.  Further, a group of nearby indigenous people come to help with the work, which I guess makes them the elves?  Yet, they are human sized?  It is a little difficult to tell who they are because they speak a different language and there are no subtitles for their speech.  Of course, the two elders committed to upholding the tradition of slaughter, Askel Ellingboe (voiced by Will Sasso) and Tammy Krum (voiced by Joan Cusack), are not going to let their grip on the town slip.  They decide Jesper is the problem and arrange for his father to come get him.  With dad showing up, Jesper is forced to admit that his efforts had been purely self-motivated.  Yet, he ends up staying behind, and redeems himself by helping Klaus deliver the presents after dealing with Askel and Tammy.  After this, Jesper narrates how Klaus disappears one day, that Jesper had married Alva, and that every Christmas he waits for his friend.

That friend that Jesper waits for is, naturally, Klaus.  Yet, it is Jesper and not the title character who is the one responsible for creating all the legends surrounding the non-existent, magical gift giver.  To that end, this Catholic can at least be satisfied that the person on which this is based appears to die in the end.  It is a minor theological point, but one that has, nonetheless, bothered me, that the supposed Santa Claus is seemingly immortal.  Our souls never die, but life on this Earth is temporary.  The time we have is a gift, which is somewhat of a justification for giving presents on Christmas, even if the movie (as per usual) has nothing to do with the birth of Christ.  However, I must confess to being moved by the act of leaving surprises for children as presented in the film.  It does touch on the darker side of it, as the gifts being essentially a bribe to get children to behave correctly.  A more Christian way of approaching life, as heard in (ironically enough) the more modern carol “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” is to “be good for goodness’ sake.”  Put differently, being good is reward enough, and does not require a toy or some other surprise at a certain time of the year.  This is what good Christianity looks like.  On the other hand, we see the beneficial effect that these fun distractions have on young and old alike.  When the kids find out that there will be something nice that will come to them for their acts of kindness, they begin doing extraordinary things.  Truancy goes down, people cross the social divide to help one another, and light returns to the town.  The dawn of the Messiah may not have much to do directly with skipping school, but Christmas did usher in peace and light.  One can rightly decry the commercialism of the holiday, but if it could lead to such harmony, then I say God bless those who give.

Ultimately, giving is about being selfless, and that is the lesson of Klaus.  Again, the main character is not the eponymous one but Jesper, and he goes from being self-absorbed to ushering in a holiday oriented towards helping others.  In this manner, I can put up with the animated nonsense and give it a full recommendation.