From issue #004 | December 2019 | This article is offered by The Animation Workshop

A Jolly Beginning
Slaven Reese
– talking about the production of "Klaus"

The Netflix original Klaus is delighting audiences around the world with its warmth, whimsy and visual inventiveness. Slaven Reese, one of the film’s lead animators, talks us through the making of a future holiday classic.

It’s that time of year. Red-and-gold lights lining the streets, supermarkets selling plasticky stocking-fillers, cinemas screening schmaltzy Christmas comedies, hoping to line their pockets with holiday cheer.

​But Klaus isn’t your average seasonal cash grab.
The gorgeous and heart-warming Santa Claus origin story is the first feature-length animation from Netflix, and has been met with consistent acclaim since its November premiere on the platform.

The film is the directorial debut of writer and animator Sergio Pablos. It follows the postman Jesper, spoiled heir of a family in the postal service, as he is assigned to a remote whaling outpost to prove himself. Initially deterred by the feuding inhabitants, Jesper finds purpose by delivering presents from a reclusive toymaker to the village’s attention-starved children.

He receives guidance and a helping hand from Margú, a joyous Sámi girl whose bright outlook helps Jesper find his own. “She’s this positive spirit who is guiding the mailman,” says Slaven Reese, lead animator for the character. “She’s kind of like the Jiminy Cricket of the movie. With her spiritual way of being, she’s guiding him on the right path.”
 

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​From Viborg to the top
Like so many people who made animation their career, the Bosnian-born Slaven Reese grew up watching and re-watching cartoons, and followed this interest to the Animation Workshop in Viborg. After graduating in 2008, he took a chance with an internship at the Scottish animation studio Django Films.

“That was a great start,” says the animator, with just a hint of a Scottish accent still in his voice. While there, he worked on Sylvain Chomet’s lauded film The Illusionist. “It was the first job I took outside of Denmark, and it got me to where I am today. I got to know so many people, and thanks to them, I was hired for many other projects.”

In fact, Slaven Reese’s IMDb page reads like a best-of list of European animation of the last few years, with titles such as The Prophet, Long Way North, Ethel & Ernest, The Breadwinner, and Song of the Sea.
     Slaven Reese credits the latter film with landing him his Klaus gig. Working for the Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon, he was responsible for animating the little girl at the centre of Tomm Moore’s Oscar-nominated fairy tale – and when he started working on Klaus, he was quickly assigned to Margú.


​What all the fuss is about
The little girl from the indigenous Scandinavian Sámi people was a welcome challenge for Slaven Reese, who animated nearly all shots of her in the finished movie. Her bubbly enthusiasm and indomitable spirit help Jesper mature over the course of the movie.

“I thought of Margú as a happy little puppy. Before production, I did a little test of her dancing this little Sámi dance I found on YouTube. When I showed it to Sergio, he said: ‘That’s it! That’s what I’m looking for!’  
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​Having sent his showreel to Sergio Pablos’ Madrid-based SPA Studios years before, Slaven Reese jumped at the chance to work with the director. “Sergio has such a vision of his movie that he could see it all playing out from the beginning,” he explains excitedly.

​​“We artists work on the film bit by bit, so it’s hard to visualise the whole. But he knew exactly what he wanted in every scene. We’d have almost daily animation reviews, and it was incredible how quickly he could give a note on something,” says Slaven Reese. “And when the whole thing comes together, it’s just beautiful.“

Part of that is down to the film’s unique animation style. A former Disney animator himself, Sergio Pablos wanted for his debut feature to pick up where the animated films of the ‘90s left off. That meant retaining the timelessness of 2D while using lighting and rendering techniques developed for use in CGI animation.

For Slaven Reese, the reaction to this approach has been overwhelming: “Everybody is saying they have to see what all this fuss is about. Even the non-artists and non-animators. They say the animation here is better than in the Disney films from the ‘90s. Which I would completely agree with.”​


A chance to push yourself
As someone who grew up watching Disney cartoons himself, Slaven Reese is well aware that conditions are markedly different for animation today. “Everything is more rushed. There’s not much time, and budgets are small.”

“I wasn’t there in the ‘90s, but I have friends who worked on those films. We compare. And today, we don’t have four years. For The Lion King or Pocahontas, it was maybe three or four years just for the animation,” says the animator wistfully. “Klaus did take a long time, but I came in at the beginning of animation, and after a year and a half, we were done.”
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Fact box: Slaven Reese
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​Born 1984 in Bosnia, Sarajevo, but moved to Denmark as a child.
Painted china for Royal Copenhagen before studying at the Viborg Animation Workshop.
Has worked for studios such as Disney, Paramount, Cartoon Saloon, Double Negative. Currently works for Moving Picture Company in London.
Lives in Denmark.

​“Today, everything is more rushed.”
Slaven Reese, lead animator, "Klaus"

In Europe, even the broad appeal of family animation isn’t always enough for a film to recoup its budget, leading to falling budgets and mounting pressure for the people who make them. “It’s a shame, because it falls on the artists to be quicker, to be economical and sometimes to execute so fast we don’t really enjoy it anymore.”

Slaven Reese falls silent for a moment before continuing. “Klaus was finally a movie where we could really push ourselves. Sergio Pablos fought for that. Because he would give you a note, and even though we couldn’t stretch the deadline any longer, he’d calm us down and say: ‘Let’s push it a little bit longer and make the best of it.’”
 
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Europe has more variety
To Slaven Reese, making the best of it is the real difference between the American and European animation industries today.

European animators have found ways to flourish creatively even under budgetary constraints, while their colleagues across the pond have more money, but less freedom. “I always felt that in the US, there’s the Disney style, and then there’s the television style. I don’t see them making the braver choices to push their look further. I love their work – but every 3D-animated movie these days looks pretty much alike.”

“In Europe, I feel we are more experimental when it comes to artistic choices, because we have more variety. In France, they do it one way, in Ireland, Cartoon Saloon have their own very interesting style. And now, Sergio Pablos is pushing animation in a different direction. So let’s see where that will go!”
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Written by Niels Jakob Kyhl Jørgensen
​Images and artwork courtesy of SPA Studios. ©2019, all rights reserved.

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