Sergio Pablos brings modern techniques to hand-drawn animation, with handsome results in Klaus. We enjoy his awkward approach to familiar stories, though the writing needs to give some characters more than a talent for unpleasantness.
Fi1m perspective
In Klaus (2019), a postman's generosity comes with questionable motives, while the community around him is busy feuding. Sergio Pablos finds a good comic starting point in making ordinary kindness difficult. We were amused by the postman's self-interest, because it gives a Christmas story some awkwardness before the familiar business of becoming a better person begins. The film is worth an evening for the drawings and the oddness, although the insults require patience. Pablos is less convincing when he asks unpleasantness alone to make a character interesting.
He arrived at directing after years as an animator and supervising animator, with work on The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Tarzan (1999) and Treasure Planet (2002). His emphasis on body language and non-verbal performance makes sense in that light. He also developed the original concepts for Despicable Me (2010) and Smallfoot (2018). With Klaus, his directorial debut, he brought those interests in storytelling and character animation to a film of his own.
His approach to traditional 2D animation incorporates modern lighting, texturing and selective CGI. His collaborators include The SPA Studios team and character designer Torsten Schrank. The handsome drawings in Klaus justify that technical ambition, and we would return to the film for them. A director so attentive to what characters can communicate without speaking could afford to depend less on their insults.
Writing with Jim Mahoney and Zach Lewis on Klaus, Pablos is resourceful about finding unlikely beginnings for familiar Santa customs. There is pleasure in recognising each piece as it falls into place, and the dubious motives keep the lesson about generosity from becoming too easy. The redemption story itself is predictable, however, and some supporting characters get little beyond their capacity to be unpleasant. We would like another script to give those people the same care that goes into connecting the customs. Choose Klaus when the family can tolerate a little seasonal ill temper.
Biography
Sergio Pablos is a Spanish animator, director and screenwriter. He trained at the California Institute of the Arts and began his career as an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation, contributing to films including The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Hercules (1997), Tarzan (1999) and Treasure Planet (2002).
He later founded The SPA Studios in Madrid. Pablos created the original story for Despicable Me (2010) and Smallfoot (2018). He wrote, directed and produced Klaus (2019), Netflix’s first original animated feature, in which he also voiced Pumpkin and Olaf; the film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature.
