Scandinavia, 19th century. Jesper is a spoiled lad who deliberately flunks every training in order to never work for a living, so his rich father sends him to the remote island of Smeerensburg and gives him the task to work as a postman and to mail 6,000 letters or lose his inheritance. Jesper finds out the place is caught up in a long feud between the Ellingboe and Krum families. When he meets a strong old man, Klaus, who gives a present to a kid, Jesper has the idea of blackmailing kids into writing letters to Klaus to give them presents in order to meet his quota. But the kids must first learn how to spell, and thus the fishmonger Alva finally gets the chance to be a teacher in school. Little by little, this changes the place, reunites the two feuding families and starts a tradition on Christmas.
One of the better Christmas movies, "Klaus" works because it feigns to be a story of something completely else during its first three quarters of the storyline, one of those stories about a stranger arriving to a town just to change it, only to slowly reveal that it is actually an ironic “origin story” about Santa Claus. Besides a refreshing and nostalgic return to classically drawn animation (an art form almost extinct due to CGI animated films), this film is also captivating due to its amusing jokes, warm characters and an interesting message that, once started, the positive influences of education, enlightenment and philanthropy can transform a backward society from the bottom up, as a set of dominoes—as well that it does not matter if someone does a good deed due to selfish resasons, since the result is ultimately a good deed. Some jokes are corny (Klaus is so big that Jesper is barely able to share a seat with him in the carriage; Jesper is catapulted through a chimney to himself deliver presents) and the character of school teacher Alva could have been better developed, yet the final act is surprisingly emotional and touching—and what is best about it, it is done just right, measured, without ever turning too syrupy or melodramatic. The final scene neatly encapsulates how someone's good deed is able to capture the entire identity of the said person, and thus this blend of pathos and comedy works remarkably smoothly.
Grade:++
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