In 2019, a little Spanish animated film directed by Disney and Illumination veteran Segio Pablos hit the streaming service Netflix and immediately set the animation community on fire. It was a story both refreshingly simplistic and modernly nuanced: a lighthearted tale about a failed postman being forced by his headmaster and father to establish a working service in a depressing cesspool of an island or risk being cut off from all luxuries forever, with a mysterious bearded woodsman and his toy collection possibly being the answer to his problems - but not without complications, particularly from a pair of local neighboring families who lived through generations purely on spite and bitterness. All in 2D animation at a time when such techniques were notoriously rare, at least on mainstream platforms. Yet this pulled it off and saw major success with just the right story and the right atmosphere to carry the experience together.
For the most part, they make this much more close to reality than other interpretations of the Santa mythos, but they don't shy away from putting lighthearted, Disney-like fantasy in other places. There's the sheer extreme nature of Smeerensburg, the feuding families seemingly dating back across all of history (you see freaking cave drawings of them fighting), and of course, the mystical wind guiding Klaus through his journey. Despite this restraint, the film still carries the vibe of being a sort of legend by feeling incredibly timeless and focusing a lot of the runtime on establishing where the standard Santa traditions got started. Some of these explanations are admittedly more comical than others, like the flying reindeer stemming from a misunderstood, high-speed chase and the concept of the nice/naughty lists from this one kid being actively rude to Jesper, but there's always this poignancy to how they're presented.
In fact, most of the humor is derived from either the dialogue or just show how messed up the people of Smeerensburg are. Not every joke hit, but they almost always served a purpose of some kind, in either developing a character or to really get the tone of a scene across. There's even a couple of reallllly dark jokes that always catch me off guard but get big laughs all the same.
Speaking of the tone, that is probably one of the aspects the film nails the most. Particularly in how naturally it warms the freaking heart. The movie is full of these feel-good montages highlighting how much the town is being transformed for the better, and the sheer contrast with the dark overtones we saw earlier, along with how downright *adorable* the children are (which we will get to later) is the kind of wholesomeness you can only dream about.
They are also very smart to make the characters' progression gradual but still kept vague enough to leave some things open to interpretation, as well as varying up the substance behind each montage. I don't even just mean what occurs onscreen, I mean like how one montage consists of children constantly talking about their good deeds in their letters, whereas another is slower in progression and is accompanied by a much more contemporary tune. Admittedly, the latter feels a little too jarring in how modern it feels compared to the rest of the film, but it's nowhere near as bad as other examples and it's a damn feel-good tune with tremendous instrumentation all the same.
Jesper is an interesting character in regards to his likability, especially early on. They very much him up to be this incredibly spoiled, lazy jerk (not unlike Emperor Kuzco), and it takes a long time for him to really show any definitively positive traits. And yet, the punishment is so drastic and the town of Smeerensburg set up as so thoroughly depressing a place, it still becomes difficult to not feel at least a little sorry for him. Obviously the point is for him to learn the values of selfless and that he can turn out to be a genuinely valuable person with the mind mindset and effort. After he actually starts to settle in Smeerensburg, his spoiled, manipulative nature interestingly shows less in his words but more his actions, as it's clear his scheme with Klaus is to gain enough letters to earn his way out. But you can tell his heart starts to show in the right place, even if a few of his ideas seem misguided. He's a very active lead, and the place he ends in feels exceptionally earned.
Klaus's character is more straightforward in some ways, but more nuanced in others. As implied before, this is a more down-to-earth interpretation of Santa, being a disgruntled, sheltered man who once made a life of making wooden toys due to his family plans going south. However, we learn much more about him when he starts delivering toys with Jesper, including why he made the toys to begin with. He starts out really quiet, only really grunting for a while, but he becomes much more talkative as his bond with Jesper develops, a unique and subtle type of symbolism you don't often see. He always has a clear desire to make kids happy deep in his head, as is made clear during the first delivery scene, but he becomes much more open and prideful about it over the course of the movie which proves beyond endearing. And the way he becomes the St. Nick we know today at the end is such an ingenious resolution I don't dare to spoil.
Alva is a character whose role in the story does become rather obvious over time, but most of her time onscreen is rather refreshingly spent on her being completely down on her luck and reluctant to give the residents the pleasure of education when given the opportunity... only for her to remember why she pursued such a profession in the first place. Aksel Ellingboe and Tammy Krum are a lot of fun as antagonists in how unbelievably determined they are to keep up the toxic tradition, to the point of joining forces *just to keep the fight going*.
The rest of the Ellingboes and Krums are mostly throwaway characters, but the way they're written, designed, and voiced still allows personality to shine through all the same, particularly the big members Olaf and Pumpkin. Like I said before, there's something genuine about the child voicing here, and how they carry a shining light of innocence even when the town is still mostly in a state of despair. But of course the main child character is the Sami girl Márgu, who - despite the language barrier - is evidently quite the curious and friendly type, and despite his initial reluctance, forms an especially close and endearing bond with Jesper. She's honestly the source of some of the biggest emotional heart-tugs of the picture.
That said, there are criticisms to be made about how the cast is used in my opinion. Norm MacDonald as this super-sarcastic, borderline sadistic ferryman is quite hilarious for the most part in how each delivery oozes the kind of attitude only Norm could bring, but his role is extremely frontloaded where he's around for a lot of the first act only to mostly disappear afterward - and he really starts to get grating during the portion where he's prominent. I also think the children could've played a more active role in the story, as they only really exist to write letters and get presents; I think showing what happens when they don't get them would've made the message stronger, but maybe the movie was loaded with enough plot points already anyway.
There is a LOT of compliment about the animation, so let's start with the obvious. The characters' design and movements are masterfully defined. Jesper's scrawny design allows the animators to make him full of life and expression (when he's smug, he looks incredibly full of himself; when he's nervous, he looks downright petrified), Klaus is a lot more slow but has his own level of confidence, Alva tends to be much more flowing and smooth regardless of her current mood, the heads of the feuding families are very slimy and sinister, and so on. You pretty much get to know them right when they first hit the camera, which adds so much to how much their personalities stick in your head afterwards despite them not really breaking any new ground. They are all exaggerated in just the right ways, and fully understand the benefits of everything taking place in this semi-fantastical and idealistic world.
And then you have the art direction, particularly the color choices throughout. The most obvious are the extreme blues of the Krums and the oranges of the Ellingboes all throughout the movie, best illustrated in the scene where they try to set their young ones straight. There's the extremely monotone gray Smeerensburg as it's being introduced, the sickly green schoolhouse-turned-fish shop, the dark shadowy nature of Klaus's house and workshop during its first encounter, and all the bright, vibrant lights once the town is transformed with the Christmas spirit. In general, the film has a habit of always going extremely heavy on a certain palette in a given scene, and it adds so much to the visual appeal and the intended mood of each scene. It allows the atmosphere to really speak for itself and not require everything to be spoonfed. This was meant to recapture the stylization seen in Mary Blair's work with Walt Disney in the 1940s-60s, and the influence not only shines, I think it very much exceeds it in many ways.
But it all boils down to the downright innovative means of giving the authentic hand-drawn animation a very 3D feeling. Obviously you have some CG camera work and other elements here and there, but while the film is hand-drawn, the ambition was to not *just* look nostalgic and reminiscent of the Disney Renaissance. One example of pushing the limits was the color work mentioned earlier, but a technique known as volumetric lighting causes such dynamic shadowing and environmental contrast that was simply not able to be pulled off without horribly tedious labor, and even then not quite to the degree that's seen here.
The use of the various tools in software like Toon Boom Harmony such as the use of rigs also helped heavily save on labor demands. While you do commonly see them on TV and streaming, as well as the software itself being used for digitization purposes in many late 2000s/early 2010s projects (including from Disney), rarely were the software's entire array ever used on film, and certainly never on a project this ambitious. And it really set a new standard as to how any new film with 2D animation, indie or not, will be expected to live up to.
Spoilers From This Point On
Obviously the core theme of the movie, which becomes increasingly transparent as the movie goes on, is the line "A true act of goodwill always sparks another." The examples that are spotlighted with that are when Jesper reports the decreased violence across the island about halfway through, and when the Sami tribe decides to help Klaus in his workspace as a response to them making Márgu's heart soar. But there's many other, more subtle instances all throughout the movie as well, such as Alva forking over some of her savings money to help refurbish the classroom and the Krum/Ellingboe children deciding to play with each other, sparking a slow but gradual wave of positivity between them. This definitely plays into the basic virtues of Christmas, with peace on Earth, joy to the world, and goodwill toward your fellow man - but this one statement intermixes them so cleverly. Obviously it's idealistic, but it makes one really think about the choices they make in life and what one selfless step can actually amount to in the long run, and I love that.
What's interesting is what this message implies about a few other actions that could constitute as selfish. For example, one of the biggest turning points is when Jesper almost gets under fire for a mean kid getting a lump of coal, leading to him making up the 'naughty list'. On the surface, this was to rat himself out of possible scrutiny, but the fact the children are subsequently doing all these good deeds and being friendly to each other takes on a while new meaning with the message in mind. It hints that deep down, Jesper genuinely wanted to see the families improve themselves and that there are angels within them if given the right incentive.
Or hell, even Jesper's father at the beginning, giving his son the ultimatum to get off his rear and leave some sort of impact. It was clearly thought up as a punishment, and the film portrays it as exactly that, but as he's being sent away the father goes "Who knows... someday he might even... thank me for it." Despite how we went about it, he did ultimately give Jesper a valuable foot in the door, which is what allowed Klaus to be open about his passions and for the town to start to come together. Lots of nuance there.
It seems the scene most people have problem with is the scene where the feuding families expose Jesper's real mission and make it look like he's ready to abandon Klaus and all of Schmeerensburg, and it's easy to see why. For the most part, it begins to feel disappointingly standard as far as the 'liar revealed' trope goes, and I'm not going to act like I'm fully in love with it either. It does bring a lot of the film's momentum to a screeching halt in the moment, and it makes everyone look needlessly bitter when all Jesper needed was a chance to explain himself. However, I do think it was important to throw Aksel and Tammy a bit of a bone to make them seem like more of a genuine threat in the story, and you outright needed to have that scene where Jesper willingly chooses to give up his own life for good in front of his father.
I also want to really bring up the ending. It can feel a little on the lingering side of things with all the epilogues, but they're all so really well handled that I pretty much forget about that concern. As said before, Klaus disappearing to join his wife in heaven is such a breathtaking moment in how it's staged and composed, and the silver lining that Jesper "gets to see (his) friend" once every year is such an amazing final line. Especially when you put into context that Jesper, Alvi, and the Sumis have basically become Klaus's family by then, as symbolized by the entire tribe being placed around the little family tree in the workshop. Admittedly, Jesper marrying Alva feels like a little too obvious a bookend to the dynamic they had up to that point, but seeing them start what seems to be a genuinely happy family is probably the most wholesome part of a movie full of moments like those, so again, I more than look past it.
Honestly, the high points in this movie are so incredibly strong I almost feel bad for even bringing up these critiques in the first place. And I think it's safe to say that, even if it wasn't for the 2D look giving us the best of both the old and new worlds admittedly making me biased (since that has arguably been the strongest selling point of the film), this would be a modern Christmas classic that should be treasured for years and even generations to come. And *with* the look, I think it could very well serve as the start of a whole new world of possibilities for feature animation.