Klaus

"There hasn’t been a great, original Christmas family film in quite some time. Arthur Christmas brought a fun sci-fi twist to the occasion and Rise of the Guardians delivered a Russian Santa-bro with ‘naughty’ and ‘nice’ tattooed on his forearms, but those films leaned more on their gimmicks than an earnest belief in good tidings. Can such a film even exist anymore in this cynical world without being horrendously cheesy? Yes, it can. That film is Klaus. And it’s the Christmas film of the decade."

"It's busy material, but boldly ambitious and gloriously free from Christmas clichés."

"[A] serviceably sprightly mix of attitude and altruism that purports to explain how children every Christmas came to eagerly await the wrapped bounty from a kind, portly figure in a red suit."

"Clichés inhibit "Klaus" from achieving instant-classic status, but the film is winning enough that it's worth a place in a family Christmas-movie library."

"An old-school, PG-rated animation, encompassing some digital wizardry, but generally clinging to a nostalgic, hand-drawn look, with a late-blooming Christmas theme."

"Frankly, it all seems much too complicated for what it is. And instead of making audiences love Christmas more, it raises the rather unfortunate question of why we believed it in the first place."

"You see where this is going, but Pablos and company relish the journey - and, without pandering, they move just deliberately enough to let viewers delight in seeing how the pieces will fit together."