THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Christmas is the holiday known to bring families together and I think everyone understood just that whenever watching Elf.
PLOT
The film follows Buddy, an orphan who snuck into the present sack of Santa Claus when he was a baby. Rather than taking him back, he and the elves chose to take care of him and raise him as if he was an adult. He was personally adopted by one of the oldest of elves, Papa Elf, who always wanted to have a child for himself. He would be named Buddy due to brand on his diaper, Little Buddy Diapers. Buddy would find out the truth by the time he becomes an adult. Papa would tell him his birth father is Walter Hobbs and his mother is Susan Wells, the latter of which set him up for adoption before she passed and the former went on with his life not knowing he existed. Wanting to reunite with his bloodline, Buddy goes to New York to do just that. Before taking off, Santa warns him that Walter is on the naughty list, which only motivates him to reboot his Christmas spirit. By the time he makes it to NY on foot, he finds his father working in the Empire State Building as a publishing executive for children’s books. When he finally meets Walter, the latter mistakes him to be a Christmas gram messenger and has him booted out by security for knowing too much of his personal life. The guards would sarcastically tell him to go to Gimbels get him something special. At the said mall, he gets him a set of lingerie, believing he’ll like it. There, he gets mistaken to be an employee of one of the stores, the North Pole. There, he falls for a woman named Jovie who is far from enthusiastic like him. When the manager (presumably named Wanda based on the name tag) informs Santa will be visiting the store, Buddy goes out of his way to redecorate the store overnight. By morning, he accidentally catches Jovie in the shower due to being in awe of her singing. Shortly after this, he clarifies he isn’t a pervert and enjoyed her voice. When he finds out the Santa visiting is a fake, he gets arrested for starting a fight that the manager breaks up. He calls Walter bail him out, who only became driven to see him due to gifting him the personal picture of Susan (with the lingerie set). After a DNA test, Walter is stunned to know Buddy is biological son due to his childlike behavior. He ends up taking him home to his family, his wife Emily and younger son Michael. Since no one believes where he comes from, Emily insists on taking care of him until he comes to his senses. The next day, Buddy is able to quickly befriend Michael when defending him against bullies in a snowball fight. When they spend the rest of the day together, the younger brother would confess he doesn’t really bond with their dad because he spends time more time working, backing up why he’s on the naughty list. When he sees Jovie, he encourages Buddy to ask her out which she does. They even come home with a Christmas tree to decorate. The day after this, Walter would reluctantly bring Buddy to work with him to keep him occupied. He does so in the mailroom, but unintentionally makes the place festive after unknowingly drinking whiskey. As this happens, Walter discovers his publishing company is failing due to the previous book flopping. With his boss Fullerton Greenway demanding a new pitch by Christmas Eve, he reaches out to best selling author Miles Finch to come to NY and help out with the pitch. By night, Buddy has a successful date with Jovie, having his first kiss with her. On Christmas Eve, Finch shows up with a notebook full of ideas but his meeting with Walter gets interrupted by Buddy excited to share about his date. It quickly goes downhill when he mistakes the author to be an elf due to his dwarfism. This would lead to Finch angrily attacking him and leaving the meeting. Irritated of his son making things worse, Walter disowns him for it. Buddy would be so heartbroken of it that he chooses to leave his father’s home, leaving behind an apology note. When Michael finds out Buddy left, he warns his dad in the middle of a last minute pitch meeting. Realizing he made a mistake, he walks out and goes to find his eldest son. By night, Buddy would find Santa crashing into Central Park which attracts a large crowd. When the adopted elf reunites with Saint Nick, he discovers that the sleigh’s engine came off and it can’t fly without it due to the lack of Christmas spirit. Walter would reunite with his family eldest son, apologizing for his behavior towards him and accepts him as family. Buddy would take him and Michael to meet Mr. Kringle and explain his ordeal. Michael selflessly takes his list and show it to the public via newsfeed to boost the spirit. As this happens, Central Park rangers are tasked to attack Santa for trespassing. Jovie and Emily reach to Michael due to seeing the news. Wanting to spread the spirit, Jovie would lead everyone in NY to sing ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ to fully power the sleigh without the engine. This would pay off as Santa and Buddy would escape from the rangers but ironically, no camera captures proof of him. Some time after this, Buddy would write a book of his past adventures, a bestseller that would allow Walter to establish his own publishing company. The film would end with Buddy marrying Jovie and having a child with her.
THOUGHTS
I was 5 years old when this film came to theaters and I was grateful to not only go out but also every bit of it before my countless rewatches since. The whole time I was either laughing or smiling because that is how fun it is to get through. In his directorial debut (long before consistent financial hits for Walt Disney licensed content), Jon Favreau in making a comedy meant for everyone. There's not much to say for the production design done for the fictional North Pole or the Gimbels version, but the creativity done to both sides is impressive which much be applauded. The biggest strength of this film however is always going to be the top tier comedic performance of Will Ferrell as Buddy. The whole time, we are laughing our asses off to his nonstop innocence of the new world he walks into. Whether he is mistaking a dwarf to be another elf, being scared of a jack in the box, screaming in anticipation for Santa's arrival, lunging onto a giant tree to set up decorations, having a sugar rush, or apologizing to a taxi that hit him, you adore him the whole time for always being himself. That is where we also look up to the character as a whole because every time something didn't go his way, he was still proud of how he identified himself. He would live life to the fullest by doing new things and taking risks by speaking freely & not giving up. Seeing him do that without feeling nervousness is something to applaud. All of these actions he takes tells a high theme to never forget the things that make you happy. In this case, it is family because that is all Buddy wanted. Once he accepted the truth of where he came from, he felt out of place and wanted to be where he was sure to belong. It took a while for his biological dad to accept him since it ain't easy to believe he was raised in the North Pole, but the fact he still did proves it is never too late to be part of a family. Ferrell may be the star of the film, but there were other characters that enhanced the plot in a significant way for the better, characters that Buddy impacted for better or worse. It's definitely quick to dislike Walter since his workaholic mode makes him socially distant. But that is whole point of the character. James Caan shows him to be one who got distracted in what he does, he forgot who he was doing it for. I'm sure he had happiness when starting a family with Emily and raising Michael, but it drifted apart the more he got caught up with work. And with an uptight boss like Mr. Fulton, well played by Michael Lurner, you can't blame him for working the way he did up until meeting Buddy. He was so hesitant in making him a part of his life, since he spent so long not knowing about him until now, because he was afraid of changing things up. The longer Buddy stook around to brighten things up, he accepted change is good. Even though he ended up accepting his first born as family, I don't takeaway Papa Elf looking after Buddy until it was time for him to go. Bob Newhart brought so much heart in his given time onscreen, being the most honest and wise of characters. All he ever did was let Buddy make his own path in life while briefly showing how complicated life can be for others and Buddy's was indeed the most. Going back to the Hobbs family, you can't deny Mary Steenburgen gave her own set of warmth as Emily. Rather than being mad Walter had another kid he didn't know about, she accepts Buddy instantly because it was past anyone's control at this point. She had the Christmas spirit while giving proper management towards her responsibilities. She is the only one to encourage Walter to keep Buddy around which comes to show how big her heart is. At first, Michael would come off as a mini Walter for not being interested in Buddy at first. That changes when Daniel Tay points out he's a shy kid who knows how boring it is to have workaholic parents. Thankfully, meeting his half-brother revamped the joy that almost went missing. Without him, he would've not been able to save Santa and spread the cheer. Another person you got to credit to for the latter is Jovie. Zooey Deschanel shows her to be Buddy's exact opposite who has zero enthusiasm because she's got her own set of shyness. In one case, she'd be right ignoring Buddy for the remainder of the movie for the shower incident, but she ends up looking past that misunderstanding because he encourages her to embrace her talent of singing. She ends up doing that at the best time possible on Christmas Eve. Seeing her have the rally and get everyone in NY to sing with her comes to show one person's actions can lead to something special. And that is what can make Christmas special for everyone. I also got to give a shoutout to Faizon Love for nailing it on making Wanda another ideal uptight manager to put up with in the particular season. The impatience he had with Buddy sends me long before he ends up replacing the department store Santa. Good thing his spirit gets revamped as well. You know your Christmas film is going to be memorable when Mr. Kringle pops up, so I felt such warmth seeing Ed Asner nail the part in making Santa a guy who is losing his mojo due to the disappointment of the holiday spirit being lacked. Buddy changed his life as well by reminding him not to give up, hence always identifying him as one of his elves. Last but not least, I will never stop appreciating Peter Dinklage for his contribution as Miles Finch. He comes off as a no-nonsense hard-working individual who won't tolerate being disrespected. Of course, we, like Walter, know Buddy's poor choice of words is an accident, but that won't be good enough an excuse for him. So when he charges towards him from the opposite end of the table to dropkick him is without a doubt the funniest part of the movie for me. You know it's coming and it's still funny because the whole delivery of the scene is perfect. With my Christmas spirit remaining strong whenever the holiday season comes around, my love for this movie ain't ever gonna fade away. But due to watching it so many times since first released, even I can admit some things didn't make sense storywise. Going from the top, why would the elves assume Buddy was the baby's name off of the diaper brand? That's literally the same mistake from Back to the Future. Papa Elf is right to admit there were drawbacks in adopting Buddy, but was this ever a problem when the elves met Santa? I gotta point this out because Buddy can't be the first human to encounter before or after the origin of Christmas emerged. And why the hell does it take so long for Buddy to overhear the truth? This is important to point out because even if he's not a nosy guy, it's not like no one ever talked about him until now and because of his height, he should've found out way before he turned 30. Also, isn't a little crazy Buddy has no scars from being attacked by the raccoon? I know it's hilarious when it happens because he doesn't understand wild animals attack outside the North Pole, but there's not even a scratch on his outfit which is weird. Moving on, why exactly was Buddy scared of an escalator if he wasn't scared of the elevator? They're both electronic forms of transportation to get from one floor to another, so he should've seen a similarity before stretching himself out on the way up. I'm then wondering how come Buddy didn't know about department store Santas? It's funny for us to see him go through the revelation, but the real Santa should've told him this before he left. The same has to be said about dwarfism, no matter how hilarious to see Finch kick his ass. And how does he enjoy digesting cotton balls? Those things are dry as hell and should've stopped himself after the first gulp because that alone would be enough for him to accept that ain't freaking candy. I even gotta ask how the hell did he find out which school Michael went to? If he asked Emily, it would not hurt getting that clarification. I didn't mind Walter getting Buddy some work clothes, but when did he have time to do that before actually going to work? I mean it's kinda crazy to get his size overnight when he had no idea he existed in advance. I definitely get a laugh when Buddy answers Walter's phone without permission, but that should've not happened since the receptionist is supposed to get it first. Emily's a good mom when instantly going to look for Michael after seeing him on the news, but did she ever see Buddy's goodbye note? If she's so caring as she proved throughout, it's kinda weird she didn't wonder where he was beforehand. Ignore this, then you'll still have as much as I have annually. In short, Elf is a holiday classic like previous films of its kind for finding your funny bone and heart simultaneously. If you love Christmas and seek a big laugh during the infamous season, this is the two for one combo you've been waiting for.
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