The anime Klaus: The Secret of Christmas is a film released in 2019, although it is the debut of director Sergio Pablos, it was well received after its broadcast, and it was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Film in 2020.
What fascinates me most at first glance about the video is its 2D style. I remember that the cartoons I watched when I was a child were all made in 2D, and I can see such a style in 3D animation today, which is really intimate.
The framework of the story is actually very simple, telling the process of the appearance of Santa Claus in a small town, but surprisingly, the plot arranges a lot of clever ideas to overturn the established impression of the general public on traditional Christmas and reinterpret the entire Christmas legend.
The movie is interesting not to start directly from Santa Claus, but to promote the plot with the postman Johansson delivering a letter.
At the beginning of the story, the protagonist Johansson is a clumsy boy who does not learn any skills, and during the training of the postman, he is very idle, and he only wants to quit school quickly and go home and continue to live the rotten life of the rich second generation. Helpless against him, his father decided to send Johansson to the remote town of Smyrensburg to take up a position, and threatened him to send six thousand letters a year, otherwise he would be deprived of his inheritance, and Johansson, who had no choice but to be tempered.
However, the setting of this town is unique, the town is an island of its own, and it cannot be reached without a boat. When the protagonist first steps into the island, there is a dark and eerie atmosphere on the island, as if conspiracies and crimes are happening everywhere.
It was discovered that the culprits of this atmosphere came from the two forces of the town, the Elimbo and Krum families.
They have been inseparable for generations, open and secret fights are the daily routine of local residents, it is too late for the neighbors to hate each other, where there is time to take care of the quality of life, the town facilities are in chaos, and there are ends and pieces of fighting everywhere, let alone writing letters. Such a dilemma put Johansen, who wanted to leave, into a difficult situation.
It wasn't until Johansson met Klaus, an isolated old carpenter, that everything took a turn for the better, a missing postman and a carpenter with too many toys, a wonderful combination that made Johansson come up with the idea of giving gifts to attract children to join the ranks of writing letters.
But because of the long-term struggle, every household has set traps to protect themselves. The protagonist must sneak up on the wall and chimney in the dead of night to deliver the gift safely, and it is not easy to laugh when you see it, because this act is not just in line with the image of Santa Claus.
I have to say that there are many such cute designs in the play, such as the flying reindeer, the bad boy list, the Red Christmas, etc., those protagonists are actually not beautiful at all, and even can be said to be a mess, all under the various circumstances and self-defeating, it has become a great legend passed down by children, and it is fun.
One of my favorite passages in the play is the "revolution" inspired by children when they learn that they must qualify as 'good boys' to receive gifts.
For example, a child used to spoil the plum fruit of the neighbor's house as a play, to today take the initiative to help her pick it up and pick it full, feel strange neighbors do not want to owe affection, and send the berry-making jam to the past; and the child's mother does not want to have anything to do with it, but instead pays tribute to the pie baked with jam, who can think of this back-and-forth connection, causing a series of chain effects, driving the development and demand of music, education and markets in the town, people gradually get rid of estrangement and conservative concepts, and inject new impetus into the uneven town.
"A true selfless act always sparks another. It's a recurring line in the film, and the film presents this sentence with a very subtle humanity.
At first, the protagonist is trying to use gifts to achieve the goal of six thousand letters for his own personal gain. And the children start doing good things for the sake of new toys. These Christmas origins are not dreamy at all, but unexpectedly fit the truth of life, to achieve true selflessness may not be as easy as imagined, even if it is a good deed with a small purpose, how can not bring warmth and beauty to people, which is also worth believing and doing everyone.
For the sake of dramatic effects, although the film is a bit of an exaggerated twist, I love the innocent smiles of the children in the video, and the sincere friendship between the Sami girls, Johansson and Klaus, which are touching, and even after watching the movie, they still echo in the heart.
A self-defeating Christmas story, due to the chain reaction of gift-giving, reshapes the atmosphere of the town.
I've never seen 3D as an evolution of 2D, I see it as a branch, like there's a new way of animating now. —Director Sergio Pablos
Unlike the 3D animation that is popular in Disney today, the movie Klaus: The Secret of Christmas was almost 2D. The director thought that the Christmas story was a nostalgic theme and should retain the texture of 2D, so The SPA Studios spent more than 2 years and used about 300 people to complete the animated film.
It also cooperated with the French Angoulëme Goldfish Film Company to develop a technology called "KLaS (short for Klaus Light and shadow, which also echoes the title)", which realizes the light and shadow technology and texture details in 3D on the 2D picture, so that the film not only retains the traditional hand-painted surface of 2D, but also reflects the vivid visual effects.