Speaking
of Cartoons
Stepping
back from politics for a few seconds allow me to recommend
the seasonal movie "Klaus" which is currently
to be found on Netflix. It's a very clever re-mythologizing
of the Santa story. More on that in a minute, but first....
This 90-minute animated feature is breathtaking from
a technical standpoint. It's almost purely hand-animated,
then given a 3D appearance through the use of clever
shading filters. For me, hand-animation beats computer
animation any day. It's just more flexible and, well,
animated, than the rubber dolls being squished and
flexed in-computer these days. (See
trailer)
The writers deserve a lot of credit as the story has
a lot of dark, Charles Addams-y edges, even a few "adult" ones,
woven throughout. This movie is so good it really deserved
more than the one-week theatrical release (For Oscar
reasons) that it received. That being said, I have
two quibbles with it.
First, the protagonist (A self-centered postman) is
voiced by Jason Schartzman doing an 85% impression
of David Spade's Kuzco from "The Emperor's New
Groove" (Also a fave!). If they were going to
do David Spade they should have GOT David Spade to
voice the part as it would have kicked the whole production
up a notch.
The second thing about this Xmas movie that bothered
me is that it isn't an Xmas movie. It's a story about
Santa, and the Santa Americans know and love is more
about Coca-Cola than the birth of Jesus. I know. I
came from a family that believed in Santa, not Christ.
We celebrated "Crissmiss" not "Christ
Mass". So when, about 70 minutes into the film,
the good guys (spoiler alert) decide that Santa's (Klaus)
toys would be great to give to children on Christmas
I went "What?".
The story dwells on this intrusively Xtian aspect for
about 12-and-a-half seconds and then goes right back
to doing
its weird
thing.
I'm an old softie. I like a well-done Crissmiss story
and I like this one a lot. Please do check it out.
And, finally, much love to everyone who contributed
to this production, not the least of which is Netflix
itself without whom this movie would have never happened.
=Lefty=
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