Christmas is upon us once again, and so are the holiday films that bring joy and valuable moral lessons to all ages. This year, it’s Netflix’s turn to get the holiday season started with Sergio Pablos’s animated Klaus.

Wise-cracking Jesper (voiced by Jason Schwartzman) is a slacker who is anything but serious about becoming an accomplished postal worker. His father is the director of the postal academy Jesper’s attending, where he’s been named the institution’s worst student; Jesper figures he can spend his life living comfortably off his father. The wise parent decides to teach his son a lesson and sends Jesper off to Smeerensburg, a frozen island above the Arctic Circle, with a challenge: within one year, he must establish a successful post office in that location, or else he will get expelled from the school and removed from all perks.

Jesper is introduced to the new land by a cynical boat captain (famously dry comedian Norm Macdonald in a brilliant casting choice) and learns, much to his dismay, that the feuding locals hardly exchange words let alone letters. After discovering Klaus (J.K. Simmons), a mysterious carpenter who lives alone in a cabin full of handmade toys (Sound familiar?), Jesper tries to fuel a mail culture between the disillusioned folk, among them Alva (Rashida Jones), a frustrated teacher who’s tired of motivating pupils to come to class.

Like a Christmas cup of hot chocolate with more foam than milk, Klaus fails as an origin story. We still don’t know what noble message the script is trying to convey, and it ends up insulting the viewer’s intelligence with a never-ending array of slapstick incidents on Jesper’s part. The audience understands he deserves a comeuppance, but Jesper shouldn’t have to be humiliated multiple times, as if this were the only way to entertain the audience. The story also bears too many similarities with Billy Madison (1995). Could Norm Macdonald being in both movies signify a coincidence or act as an in-the-know reference?

It seems nowadays filmmakers are too concerned being the first to unleash a never before seen innovation. Spanish writer and director Sergio Pablos, best known for writing the story for Despicable Me, went back to basics with a hand-painted look while adding some 21st-century techniques; he wanted Klaus to feel as if the industry had not switched to mostly producing computer animated films. Apparently, Pablos focused too much on assembling his craft and paid little attention to the script. It’s predictable from the get-go, certain emotional scenes come in too early, the characters’ relationships are hardly believable, and the film occurs in a hyperactive bizarre environment where the elements don’t add up to the heartwarming tale it is trying to tell.

 Children deserve a better Santa Claus legend.