Jesper Johansson is the main protagonist of Klaus. He is a lazy and spoiled (but with big heart) son of the wealthy Postmaster General. He is voiced by Jason Schwartzman.
Biography[]
Throughout Klaus[]
After 9 months of being considered the worst in the academy, who has enrolled Jesper into his postman training academy hoping that it will reform him. Jesper deliberately underperforms, forcing his father to finally send him to the distant island town of Smeerensburg with the task of posting six-thousand letters in a year. If Jesper fails, he will be cut off from the family estate. Upon arrival, it is explained to Jesper by sarcastic ferryman Mogens, and bitter teacher-turned-fishmonger Alva, that the town's perpetually warring families—the Ellingboes and the Krums—comprise nearly all of the populace and hardly exchange words, let alone letters.
Desperate for a way to post letters from the town, Jesper notices an isolated dwelling at the corner of the island map in his office. Investigating, he discovers a reclusive woodsman named Klaus with a house filled with handmade toys. Terrified by the man’s size, appearance and mannerisms, Jesper flees, inadvertently leaving behind a sad drawing he had found made by one of Smeerensburg’s children. Klaus confronts Jesper, demanding to go to the house depicted in the drawing, where Klaus forces Jesper to secretly deliver a toy to the boy inside.
Word of this event spreads to other children, who go to Jesper the next day, each believing that they will receive a toy if they send him a letter. Jesper capitalizes on the idea and goes to Klaus with the proposal of donating the toys in his house; Klaus agrees provided that they operate at night, and that Jesper continues to deliver the toys in secret. Soon, more and more children begin writing letters to Klaus. When Jesper tells them that Klaus only gives toys to good children, and always knows when any child misbehaves, the acts of kindness they subsequently perform gradually inspire the rest of the townsfolk to end their ancient dispute, and Alva reopens her school to help the children learn to read and write.
Eventually, Jesper and Klaus begin running out of toys to give to the children, and Jesper suggests they make more in time for Christmas. Klaus initially refuses, and he pushes Jesper away after a misunderstanding. The duo then reconcile by working together on a sled for a small Sámi girl named Márgu, who lives in an isolated settlement with her people. Klaus finally tells Jesper about his wife, Lydia, and explains he made the toys to give to the future children the couple hoped to have, but Lydia never became pregnant and she eventually died from illness. Klaus realizes that their work has been spreading joy to the children and agrees to the Christmas plan, with Márgu and the rest of the people from her settlement arriving to help. As the town and his relationship with Alva flourishes, Jesper finds himself wanting to stay in Smeerensburg.
Meanwhile, family elders Axel Ellingboe and Tammy Krum form a temporary truce in order to stop Jesper and Klaus so that the families can resume their traditional feud. They trick Jesper's father into believing Jesper had posted fourteen-thousand letters, and he arrives on Christmas eve to congratulate his son, inadvertently revealing to Jesper's friends the selfish reasons for his deeds. Just as they are about to leave town, Jesper's father notices his son's remorse, and after a talk he allows Jesper to stay in Smeerensburg. Seeing the elders and their gang going to Klaus' home to destroy the Christmas toys, Jesper tries to stop them and apparently fails. However, over the course of the chase that ensued, Mr. Ellingboe's daughter and Mrs. Krum's son fall in love. Alva had also been informed of the elders' plot by the town's children, and so she and Klaus had already replaced the toys with decoys.
Jesper is redeemed, and Smeerensburg becomes a happy town, with the family elders being forced to end the families' feud due to the marriage of their children. Jesper marries Alva and raises two children, and he and Klaus continue to deliver presents in Smeerensburg and beyond for eleven years. Then on the twelfth year, Klaus follows a wisp of wind up a sunny hill and disappears, seemingly to join his departed wife. Every subsequent Christmas Eve, Jesper sits beside the fireplace and waits to see Klaus as his spirit continues to deliver toys to children around the world.
Physical appearance[]
Jesper has short brownish-blond hair. In the beginning, he wears yellow and orange silk robes and brown sandals. Most of the film, he wears a Prussian blue postman uniform with a Prussian blue hat and black boots.
Gallery[]
