20 Best Netflix Original Movies Of 2019 - Ranked

3. Klaus

Klaus netflix
Netflix

It remains to be seen if Klaus will stand the test of time (or if it only seems special right now because it's Christmas and we're all in a good mood), but this is an utterly spellbinding, gorgeous movie that's easily one of the best festive flicks we've had in years, and it's also one of the best animated films of the year - Netflix or otherwise.

It's basically Santa Claus: Origins, with J.K. Simmons as the jolly red giant and Jason Schwartzman as the troubled young man who helps Klaus bring a helping of Christmas spirit to the miserable town of Smeerensburg. Predictable? Sure. But immensely feelgood, funny, and touching? Absolutely.

The way the townsfolk come together to inspire each other will awaken that happy spot inside you that you might have lost after a hard and stressful working week, and the ways that Santa's various gimmicks - the chimney, the cookies, the flying reindeer - are explained are so clever that you can't help but admire the creativity of the script and the skill of the animators.

If you're somehow not feeling the festivities quite yet, Klaus is just the ticket you need.

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!