The Art of Animation in Klaus

One year ago, Netflix launched Klaus; the best Christmas movie and one of my favorite animated productions ever. This is not only because of the fun and innovative plot, but also because of the incredible animation that it has. Besides, Klaus is an example of the return to traditional animation.
The movie is about Jasper, a lazy and arrogant guy that resembles a lot to Kuzco, from The Emperor's New Groove (which is also a hell of a movie). His father, the postmaster, sick of his attitude, sent him to an absolutely horrible town. There, lived two families that hated each other and were always fighting. When time passed, he discovered that the kids sent letters to a guy named Klaus that lived outside the city. He was a carpenter that had many toys in his house, and his way of showing love was by giving them away. Jasper goes to visit him, and then his adventure begins.
Even though this movie has two of the biggest cliches in animated movies (the discussion with a friend, and the persecution), and the third act is not as good as the first and second; it is definitely a story that’s worth watching. This is because it presents Christmas not as the holiday itself, but as the traditions and values it has. The movie takes all of the things that we relate to Christmas and presents them in the most untraditional ways you can imagine. Through the characters of the kids shown in the story, the movie portrays how judging people and hating on each other is more harmful than letting go and being united. This movie is not going to let you down, and if you are as sensitive as I am, I guarantee you will cry and laugh a lot.
Now, let's talk about the animation. Klaus was directed by Sergio Pablos; animator of other productions such as: The Hunchback, Tarzan, Treasure Planet, and Hercules. His goal for this movie was to bring back traditional animation. He wanted to make it 2D but with a mixture of 3D involved. The lighting and the texturing are awesome, and the designs of the characters are cartoony but not a lot so it’s perfect; and the framing, OMG! It’s beautiful how they reveal new scenarios so smoothly. The whole visual part of this movie was absolutely stunning, and I’m going to explain to you a little more in detail why.
The characters in this movie were not done by CGI. They were all drawn by hand, and that's why this movie is not considered 3D. The process of making Klaus took more than 2 years and over 300 people. The team first started the script by storyboarding and using temporary voices. Then they did the layout and designed the backgrounds. This had to be done at the same time they animated the characters so that the background and the characters seemed part of the same world. For the character animation, the animators did footage of themselves acting so that they could have references on how the movement worked.
As for the character design, they went through three main steps. First, they were just sketching in black and white. Then, they colored them, and finally, they added lighting, which was the big game changer. They used lighting not only to make the characters more realistic, but also as a part of the storytelling. In all non-animated movies, the lighting is crucial and it can change the movie completely. Knowing how all lighting techniques work and how to use them correctly is a talent that I deeply admire. In Klaus, there are many references to many scenes of productions like Apocalypse Now or Breaking Bad that have an impeccable use of lighting techniques.
For making the backgrounds look as real as the characters, they followed lighting patterns using color keys as guiding. They also used different techniques such as multiplanes that consist of putting layers on top of more layers. The team created a total of 3,160 scenic layouts (which is a lot).
This movie is completely awesome, and although it could be a little better, it's totally my favorite to watch on this holiday. I can be entertained a little, and at the same time learn more about animation and the beautiful art of filmmaking.