There’s only 37 days until Christmas! Isn’t that crazy?! Netflix is shaking up what you think you know about Christmas traditions. Deco took a sleigh ride to L.A., to chat with Jason Schwartzman about all things “Klaus.”
Jason Schwartzman (as Jesper, voice of): “Mr. Klaus, you have a gift. You were meant for making toys.”
Mr. Klaus is coming to town, and he’s got a new special helper.
Ellingboe Girl: “He only comes when we’re sleeping. No one has ever seen him. It’s like he’s invisible or something.”
“Klaus” is a different kind of Christmas origin story. It’s about a postal worker delivering gifts with Klaus, the man who would become Santa Claus.
Teddy Blum (as Small Ellingboe Boy, voice of): “Mr. Klaus is the coolest.”
Jason Schwartzman (as Jesper, voice of): “Klaus? What about me?”
This movie uses old-school, hand-drawn animation. Jason Schwartzman voices Jesper, and he tells Deco that’s one of the reasons he took the role.
Jason Schwartzman: “I thought, in the back of my head, bonus would be that the director, Sergio [Pablos], would give me like a drawing lesson. And he did, but I’m not good at it. I cannot draw to save my life, and he gave up on me.”
“Klaus” also puts new spins on how things like Santa coming down the chimney and leaving out cookies started.
Jason didn’t have specific holiday traditions growing up, but there’s something he always looked forward to.
Jason Schwartzman: “To me, it was always about family. That’s the tradition. Some of my best memories as a little kid are from those once-a-year experiences, when it was exciting to see that cousin that you hadn’t seen in a long time.”
There’s lots of important lessons in this film, but one really stands out.
Jason Schwartzman: “You have no idea how much kindness and hard work and random acts of love go into making even just a stranger’s life nice.”
Jesper kind of sucks at his job when the movie starts, but Jason is good at a lot of things, like acting, writing, music — you name it.
So we wanted to know if there was anything this guy couldn’t do.
Jason Schwartzman: “Magic. I would like to learn how to do magic, and I’ve tried a little bit to learn and stuff. It’s a real bummer to me, because I would love to be able to just do magic for people ”
“Klaus” is now streaming on Netflix.
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