Hi everyone, and welcome to another edition of the Nightcrawler Experience!
Here we have part one of what I intend to be a two- part Christmas edition for this blog (My faith- based look at an episode of 'Daria' I had planned will have to wait until later).
First up, for this entry, I'll be looking at a relatively new film, which just came out last year, yet is already developing quite a fanbase: The Netflix animated movie 'Klaus.'
This story primarily revolves not around Santa Claus, but rather, around Jesper Johansson (Voice of Jason Schwartzman). He’s
the son of a wealthy Postmaster General and was forced by his father to try and
follow in the family footsteps by attending postman training. He’s also a lazy,
spoiled, selfish leech who deliberately fails at his postman training to get
out of that career path and try and return to a life of cushy, indolent luxury,
but his father won’t have any of that. He arranges to have Jesper made into a
full postman, and gives him a hefty challenge: To relocate to an incredibly
isolated town called Smeerensburg, located on a distant island, and be their
official postman.
Once there, Jesper must
arrange for at least 6,000 letters to be sent there in one year, or else he’ll be cut
off and end up homeless.
Smeerensburg is a dramatic departure from the easy life he was accustomed to:
It’s cold, wet, run- down, and that’s not counting what the people there are
like. Almost everyone on this backwater island town belongs to one of two
families: The Krums, or the Ellingboes. These two families have been waging an
incredibly bloody feud with each other for centuries, with no sign of it ending anytime soon.
In a desperate attempt to
find someone he can send letters to or from, Jesper meets Klaus (Voice of J.K.
Simmons), a huge, mysterious, reclusive woodsman with a bunch of handmade toys
in his house.
Through a rather complicated turn of events, Jesper’s first meeting Klaus prompts the
latter of the two to give one of his handmade toys to a depressed little boy.
This leads to the boy’s cousins deciding that if they send letters to Klaus
asking for toys, he’ll bring them some. Jesper realizes he can use this to meet
his “6,000 letters” goal, and encourages more and more kids to send letters and Klaus to then
bring them toys (With Jesper being the one actually delivering them in secret)
to keep up this cycle. When he learns some of the kids can’t write at all, let
alone write letters, he convinces a fetching yet world- weary schoolteacher/
fishmonger named Alva (Voice of Rashida Jones) to teach them how. This, in turn, rekindles her love of
teaching and she abandons her plans to move away and fully recommits herself to
what she loves.
Learning that “Mr. Klaus”
only gives presents to good children prompts the local tykes to start behaving
themselves and doing good things around the town. As a result of that, people from the two feuding
families even start being flat- out kind and neighborly to each other!
Not everyone is fond of this turn of events, however; The cantankerous heads of
the two families cannot stand the idea of their families coexisting peacefully,
and set out to do all they can to stop Jesper and Klaus from bringing any more
toys, or any more peace and goodwill, to the people of Smeerensburg. It all leads up to secrets coming out, a REALLY intense Christmas Eve chase, and the birth of a legend.
I must say, I loved 'Klaus' from the moment I first saw it last year! I can see why it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, and why it swept the Annie Awards.
The animation is honestly gorgeous. The character designs are incredibly diverse, with some (i.e. Alva the teacher) looking quite realistic, while others (i.e. An enormous young woman known simply as "Pumpkin" who acts as kind of like the Ellingboe family's main enforcer/ muscle) look more cartoonish. Yet, they go together surprisingly well and you can picture these characters living together in the same world. The backgrounds (From Smeerensburg to the woods where Klaus lives to some of the more distant locales they visit) are beautifully detailed, as well.
Much like Rankin- Bass’s ‘Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town,’ which I looked at here a couple Christmases ago, ‘Klaus’ does a great job showing the origins of Santa’s various attributes, such as going down chimneys, giving naughty children coal, and many others. Seeing their explanation of how children first came to believe Santa rode a magic sleigh pulled by flying reindeer WILL have you burst out laughing!
Time for the character run- down. Jesper's very entertaining to watch, always funny between his snark and the various hangups and humiliations (Mostly rather well- deserved) he endures early in the film, yet he's also got some good serious moments in the last 20 minutes or so. He’ll remind you pretty heavily of Kuzco from ‘The Emperor’s New Groove,’ right down to a similar- sounding voice and a similar attitude. His change and redemption are so thorough that by the time the movie's credits roll, you'll be finding it hard to believe that the gentle, loving Jesper seen in the end of the film could ever have been the obnoxious, selfish man- child seen at the start of the film.
Klaus himself is a wonderful rendition of Santa before he became magical. He's quiet, usually very serious, a little scary at first, and of course possessing a kind, selfless heart deep down. The scene in which you learn of his tragic backstory and the reason why he had so many handmade toys in his house will have you on the brink of tears. J.K. Simmons has long proven to be a quite talented voice actor for animated projects (Examples: His work as Mayor Lionheart in 'Zootopia,' Kai in 'Kung Fu Panda 3,' and Ford on the TV show 'Gravity Falls'; I've GOT to talk a little about that show on this blog some time), and this is another brilliant performance from him in that regard.
The teacher Alva is pulled off incredibly well. In a lesser film, she would have been little more than a love interest for Jesper. Instead, the filmmakers clearly put her character development first, helping us see that she starts out cynical and world- weary, yet her work teaching the kids of Smeerensburg to write so they can write letters to Klaus helps her regain her love for teaching and become a whole new person. She ends up eager to teach the kids not just how to write, but a number of other subjects as well. While she and Jesper DO end up falling for each other, it's downplayed a lot, with us seeing just enough of it to know it's happening, which was a brilliant way to handle it.
A couple other supporting characters who stand out well are Mogens (Voice of Norm MacDonald), a crusty ferryboat captain always ready with a sarcastic comment that'll keep you laughing throughout the movie, and an adorable little girl named Margu whose Sami tribe ends up helping the heroes a lot as time goes on.
The heads of the two feuding families make for pretty effective villains, especially the Krum family's vicious matriarch (Wonderfully voiced by Joan Cusack). Just the fact that they would seek to strip their families of all their newfound happiness and contentment purely for the sake of keeping such an ugly feud alive makes them easy to hate. My only regret as far as they're concerned is we don't get to see the looks on their faces on Christmas morning when they realize they've been outsmarted and outdone by the heroes.
All in all, 'Klaus' is a wonderful film in every way, one that I truly believe will one day join the ranks of the classic Christmas movies. I VERY strongly advise you to watch it for yourselves (Though you might need some tissues handy for certain scenes).
Now, for the Scriptural meat of the matter, and in this case, there's plenty of it:
I'd say the most important theological lesson to take from 'Klaus' is on the importance of not just being kind and charitable to others, but encouraging them to then pay it forward and demonstrate similar fruits in their own lives. Upon learning of the change beginning to happen in Smeerensburg, Klaus says, “A
true act of goodwill always sparks another.” Jesper learns this lesson fully
enough that he repeats it in the climax when standing up to the family heads.
In fact, through the assorted heroes' actions, they help bring about all four of the Godly principles associated with the four Sundays of Advent: Hope (Klaus, Jesper and Alva all go from being bitter and pessimistic to gaining newfound hope for themselves and the town), Peace (The heroes' actions eventually bring an end to the Krum/ Ellingboe feud), Joy (The joy and happiness brought to Smeerensburg's children through the toys and eventually brought to the adults as well), and Love (The townspeople learn to "Love thy neighbor," Klaus in a manner of speaking gains the loving family he had always wanted, and Jesper and Alva ultimately find love with each other). It’s a perfect example of what we as Christians are called to do in the world around us. This all brings to mind 1 Timothy 6:18- 19, in which Paul advises Timothy to "Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life." We should live out our faith in how we treat others, but then also, rather than just leaving it at that, we should encourage them to do the same to others, and so on. That is how real change happens, it's how the church grew in its early days in spite of how heavily it was persecuted, and it's how we can have it continue to grow today even with our current age's worldliness and apathy trying to stop it. We should ensure, as Klaus pointed out and as Jesper learned, that our acts of goodwill always spark others to happen.
A second theological message, similar to the first, involves how much a seemingly hopeless place and its people can all be marvelously transformed. At a Christmas outreach event at a kind of teen homeless shelter I was at yesterday, a worship service was held at one point, and one of the Scripture verses used was Isaiah 9:2, which says "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; On those living in a land of deep darkness a light has dawned." It was used in its greater context to prophesy about the coming Messiah, Jesus. However, I'd say it can apply to the situation in the movie, as well. Smeerensburg was shown to be indeed a land of deep darkness before Jesper came, filled with people walking in the darkness of their hate, ignorance and hopelessness, but the kindness and goodwill they came to discover through Jesper and Klaus's actions very gradually helped them truly see the light and banish that darkness from their town forever. It went from a lawless, violent backwater to a lovely, homey place to live. It truly is similar to the effect that a real revival through Jesus can have on a group of people. People in the darkness of their own sin, even those who you might think are irredeemable, can find the light of Christ and be truly saved.
So, there we have 'Klaus,' a lovely film in every way that teaches equally lovely Biblical lessons on revival and encouragement to others. To close this out, here's a wonderful video I found of the movie's beautiful main song, Zara Larsson's "Invisible."
(Credit for this video goes to the Youtuber "Multi-Fangirl," as well as obviously to those who own the rights to the movie and the song)
That's it for this edition of the Nightcrawler Experience. I'll hopefully have one more Christmas- related entry up soon, so stay tuned. Until then, take care, stay safe and healthy, and may God bless you all!
No comments:
Post a Comment