"Klaus," "Noelle," and the Streaming Wars

Something's been bothering me about Disney+, and it took two Christmas movies for me to figure it out. Now, keep in mind that Disney+ is just getting started, and much of its content is still being rolled out. I've already heard some grumbles about content that's being advertised as available, but currently not actually available on the service due to legal or technical issues. They deserve some patience to get the kinks worked out. Personally, I'm already pretty happy with Disney+. Despite all the technical bugs, their existing library of content is vast and wonderfully nostalgic - as a Disney Afternoon kid, I'm in heaven - but it feels like there's something that's missing.

I watched one of the Disney+ exclusives over the weekend, a Christmas movie titled "Noelle," starring Anna Kendrick as Santa Claus's daughter. It was originally supposed to be a theatrical release, but last year was rejiggered to be one of the first wave of Disney+ releases, along with the live action "Lady and the Tramp." Frankly, it's not great, bordering on TV movie quality, but it's a pleasant enough watch for family Christmas viewing. Netflix's 2019 holiday offerings include no less than five cuddly, Christmas-themed romantic comedies in the same vein as the popular Hallmark Channel Christmas movies, so clearly there's an audience for this type of content.

But then, there is also "Klaus," Netflix's first foray into animation production. It's a Santa Claus origin story, featuring an unscrupulous young mailman who gets the whole tradition of letters to Santa started. Written and directed by Sergio Pablos, a former Disney animator who went on to create the "Despicable Me" franchise, "Klaus" is unusual for a couple of reasons. The main one is that it utilizes an eye-catching animation style that combines 2D drawings with certain digital enhancements, similar to the short "Paperman." Second, it's unusually dark and cynical for a Christmas movie, with a selfish mailman protagonist, Jesper, voiced by Jason Schwartzman, and a lonely Santa Claus with a bleak past, voiced by J.K. Simmons. Everything turns out well and the ending is a heartwarming one, but the one descriptor that kept coming up in my head was "risky." Everything about "Klaus" feels like a risk.

And that's the difference. I don't want to say that "Klaus" is a movie that Disney should have made, but it's definitely not the kind of content that I can expect to be appearing on Disney+ any time soon. Nearly everything on Disney+, including their highly touted original shows like "The Mandalorian" and all the announced Marvel series, are derivative spinoffs of existing franchises. The few pieces of content that are completely original, like "Noelle," and the upcoming "Togo" and "Magic Camp," are projects that were developed to be theatrical releases, but were found lacking for one reason or another, and are essentially being dumped on the service. The list of upcoming films in development for Disney+ is almost entirely reboots and sequels.

So, Disney+ is more or less a nostalgia-centric platform, full of all the old Disney stuff that I'm glad to see out of the vault at last, and a handful of new content that is keen on profiting directly off of viewers' affection for the classics. And sure, they'll get plenty of subscribers based on that, but there are going to be limits. I don't see Disney+ ever having a real, game-changing hit on its hands on the level of a "Stranger Things" or a "Game of Thrones," or even a "Handmaid's Tale." It's never going to surprise us or give up something really novel, at least not while it still has this mindset of its streaming content being second stringers to its theatrical and television content.

Netflix, for all its problems, is committed to putting the streaming experience first, even though it's ticked off pretty much every theatrical exhibitor in the process. Many of its crazy risks haven't paid off, but others have. As a result, I can't go two weeks without something popping up on Netflix that I want to watch. Sure, there's plenty of dreck, but the romantic comedy revolution has been propelled by its efforts. And they gave Eddie Murphy his big comeback. And the latest season of "The Crown" is as good as ever.

Again, I caution that this is early days for Disney+. However, I think it's saying something that I'd happily trade every Disney+ original for "Klaus," which was a total delight and really felt like it came out of nowhere. I was only after I did some digging that I realized that I had seen Sergio Pablos's original teaser for "Klaus" way back in 2015. At the time I thought it would never actually be made, as so many other promising teasers of its kind never went anywhere. And I'm grateful to Netflix for making the movie happen.

Nostalgia's all well and good, but never count out innovation or the power of a good surprise.

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