10 Underhyped Movies That Blew Everyone Away

4. Klaus

Klaus Netflix
Netflix

The Non-Hype

Netflix is notoriously terrible at advertising its new releases. Unless you're Stranger Things - or a movie starring a big Hollywood actor - it's going to be very difficult to get a significant amount of attention, and overall, the company puts out so much content that a lot of great stuff simply just gets buried.

And this is precisely what happened to Klaus. It was dropped on Netflix in November 2019 with little fanfare, while also being overshadowed by big-hitters like The Irishman and The Crown Series 3. Under normal circumstances, it would've been forgotten for good (just look at all the other things Netflix released in November 2019, and see how many you've heard of), but Klaus's high quality ultimately shone through.

The Big Reaction

As Christmas drew closer and closer and more people got in the mood for a festive movie, Klaus's star began to grow. Not only was it watched by 40 million households in its first month, but this tiny animated movie that nobody had heard of eventually beat out Toy Story 4 and Frozen 2 for several end-of-year prizes, including winning Best Animated Feature at the BAFTAs and the Annie Awards.

It's difficult for a movie to swoop in at the last minute and take down Disney like that, but Klaus pulled it off: charming, deliciously Christmassy and with a touching message about the importance of being kind, it was one of the best Netflix originals of 2019, and the best animated movie of the year full-stop.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!