“Despicable Me” creator Sergio Pablos struggled to make a 2D Santa origin story, “Klaus,” for nearly a decade at his animation studio in Madrid.
And the animation community has cheered him on (including influential Academy members) for trying to reinvigorate the hand-drawn technique with a modern, digital veneer.
But, after being turned down by Hollywood studios, Netflix came to the rescue to produce Pablos’ pet project, which opens theatrically this weekend for Oscar qualification before streaming November 15.“The sticking point, to my surprise, wasn’t 2D but Christmas,” Pablos said.
“The studios kept saying, ‘We’re going to be up against whatever Disney has.’” Not to mention the Christmas movie curse associated with such flops as Aardman/Sony’s “Arthur Christmas” and DreamWorks’ “Rise of the Guardians” (featuring Alec Baldwin’s Santa).
But Pablos persevered, honing his bittersweet Santa saga as an anti-hate story, and taking hand-drawn animation into
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