Klaus: The Art of the Movie

by Ramin Zahed

Alternate cover ISBN 978-1789093124

A stunning book exploring the art of Sergio Pablos' animated Christmas original, Klaus.

When Jesper (Jason Schwartzman) distinguishes himself as the postal academy's worst student, he is stationed on a frozen island above the Arctic Circle, where the feuding locals hardly exchange words let alone letters. Jesper is about to give up when he finds an ally in local teacher Alva (Rashida Jones), and discovers Klaus (Oscar(R) winner J.K. Simmons), a mysterious carpenter who lives alone in a cabin full of handmade toys. These unlikely friendships return laughter to Smeerensburg, forging a new legacy of generous neighbors, magical lore and stockings hung by the chimney with care. An animated holiday comedy directed by Despicable Me co-creator Sergio Pablos, KLAUS co-stars Joan Cusack, Will Sasso and Norm Macdonald.

Klaus: The Art of the Movie is a stunning coffee table hardback exploring the art of Sergio Pablos' hand-drawn animated original Christmas film. Showcasing the full animation process, including an innovative new lighting and shadowing technique, this book features concept art, pitch documents, character turnarounds, key art, final artwork, exclusive sketches, and interviews with the team behind this heartwarming film.

Genres: Art, Film, Nonfiction

192 pages, Hardcover

Published November 19, 2019

About the author

Ramin Zahed is the Editor-in-Chief of the Los Angeles-based monthly publication, Animation magazine. He has been covering the animation and visual effects world for over 15 years. Before joining Animag, he was a senior editor at Daily variety. His articles have also appeared in Variety, Hollywood reporter, The Los Angeles times and The Christian science monitor.

Reviews

[Rachael Kosinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I watched the movie on Netflix a few weeks ago and was startled by the varying style portrayed in the film; the differently drawn characters, and the visible texture in the lighting and shading. I had to know more! This art book wasn't cheap (no art books are haha), but it's incredibly gorgeous and really goes into how they were able to do such fun detailed things with 2D animation and make it look like they used 3D modeling. It's really a wonderful book and I loved seeing how different the concept art was from what they settled on. Looking forward to hopefully seeing more from this studio and these animators because it was incredibly refreshing to see something that wasn't streamlined Disney (even though some of the heads of the movie worked on some Disney classics and you could tell, esp. with some styles straight out of Hunchback from Notre Dame and Jesper definitely had a very Emperor Kuzco vibe, and I mean this all in a very good way). Very much recommend!

[Olga_evstifeeva · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first time I actually READ an art book, not just looked through pictures. Why have I never done that? It’s full of valuable info! Silly me, amazing book.

[Nicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even just the page with art of Margu on her sleigh made me tear up. This book is beautiful and I loved reading about how they created the beautiful art of this movie.

[C.J. Bunce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published November 2, 2019, at BORG.com.

Klaus: The Art of the Movie digs into concept art and innovations in hand-drawn animation

Review by C.J. Bunce

The next level of books on film animation is here. But Klaus: The Art of the Movie, a behind the scenes look at the new Christmas movie from Netflix, doesn’t dig into the next advances of CG-animation. Instead you’ll find a story about a group of creators wanting to advance the style of animation before the advent of CGI. And that’s what they did, finding new ways to take hand-drawn animation forward in a way that will appear just as exciting and new to movie audiences.

Written by Ramin Zahed, Klaus: The Art of the Movie is a peek inside the mind of long-time animator Sergio Pablos, who has worked on his share of popular animated movies that have taken a more typical approach to the modern animated movie, as co-creator of Despicable Me, in addition to serving as animator on Disney movies like The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Tarzan, and Treasure Planet, plus more modern films like Rio and Smallfoot.

Read the rest of the review here at BORG.

[Thia Reads A Lot · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely book about the making of a lovely movie, I'm really glad to own this marvelous artbook

- As someone who has read many artbooks like this one, I'm noticing that this one has many double-page illustrations and no color script, so it feels a bit lighter in content. What is there is excellent, but I could have taken another hundred pages

- The technology for the lighting is explained very shortly, I wish there was more about that

Some quotes:
"As we like to [say], we're not bringing 2D back, we're bringing it forward!" - Sergio Pablos
"We went for the magic formula, which is 'make them laugh about thirty times and make them cry twice: first out of sorrow, and then out of joy." - Sergio Pablos

[Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the movie Klaus, but reading this book unfortunately didn't add to my enjoyment of it. The writing felt hastily thrown together and basic, I was surprised by how much of the art didn't seem to be print quality, and the font choice and color were difficult to read. A few pages of my book were also improperly cut.

[LivThebooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite animated movies is Klaus so it's fun to see it's development and all the concept art in this book. I would have liked even MORE insight especially in the lighting process and animation. But overall it's a very solid artbook for artist, animators and fans of the movie.

[Jose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un artbook que hace justicia a la maravilla de película que es Klaus.
Incompresible que no ganara el Oscar, no solo por lo bello de la historia, sino por reinventar la animación 2D de una forma tan única y especial.

[Jeni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most artwork books the actual text is fine, explains a bit about the process of making Klaus, but doesn't go into depth on much of anything. But you buy a book like this for the artwork and it doesn't disappoint. Gorgeous, just like the actual movie.

[JoeK · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. My only complaint was the proliferation of "tiny" drawings. There was a single page with ALL the characters that appear in the movie, but they were so small as to be indistinguishable. It should have been a three page fold-out.

[Lovisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

First time I ever wanted to read something like this- But the art of the movie is beautiful and the story behind it all is just as lovely.

[will tooher · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoughtful and informative look into a film with unique ideas and a drive to revive and push forward 2D animation. You'll appreciate the movie even more after reading it.

[Michelle | Magic&Books ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning book about my all time favourite movie ❤️

[Courtney K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sooooo cool

[Eaeia · Rating 5 out of 5]

❤️❤️❤️