Elf (2003)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Jon Favreau

Writer (WGA):

David Berenbaum (written by)

Release Date:

7 November 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Family | Fantasy

Tagline:

This holiday, discover your inner elf.

Plot:

After inadvertently wreaking havoc on the elf community due to his ungainly size, a man raised as an elf at the North Pole is sent to the U.S. in search of his true identity.

Plot Keywords:

Elf | North Pole | Taxi | Book Publishing | Reindeer

Awards:

2 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Will Ferrell	...	Buddy
James Caan	...	Walter
Bob Newhart	...	Papa Elf
Edward Asner	...	Santa
Mary Steenburgen	...	Emily
Zooey Deschanel	...	Jovie
Daniel Tay	...	Michael
Faizon Love	...	Gimbel's Manager
Peter Dinklage	...	Miles Finch
Amy Sedaris	...	Deb
Michael Lerner	...	Fulton
Andy Richter	...	Morris
Kyle Gass	...	Eugene
Artie Lange	...	Gimbel's Santa
Leon Redbone	...	Leon the Snowman (voice)

Also Known As:

Buddy - Der Weihnachtself (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated PG for some mild rude humor and language.

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Norway:7 | Finland:K-3 | Iceland:L | Netherlands:AL (DVD rating) | South Korea:All | New Zealand:G | Portugal:M/6 | Sweden:Btl | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Brazil:Livre | Canada:G | Germany:6 | Philippines:G | Singapore:G | Spain:T | UK:PG | USA:PG (certificate #40170) | Finland:S

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

New Line Cinema

Trivia:

One of the skyscrapers built by Buddy in Gimbels is the Liberty One building in Philadelphia. In real life, Gimbels was a Philadelphia-based department store.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The trucks on the skateboard that Santa gives Michael are facing the same way. It would be impossible to turn like that; a skateboard is put together with the trucks facing opposite each other.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Papa Elf: Oh, hello. You're, uh, you're probably here about the story. Elves love to tell stories. I-I'll bet you didn't know that about elves. There's, uh, probably a lot of things you didn't know about elves. Another, another interesting, uh, elfism, uh, there are only three jobs available to an elf. The first is making shoes at night while, you know, while the old cobbler sleeps.
Disgruntled Cobbler Elf: Lazy bum! Couldn't even make a clog!
Papa Elf: You can bake cookies in a tree. As you can imagine, it's, uh, dangerous having an oven in an oak tree during the dry season. But the third job, some call it, uh, "the show" or "the big dance," it's the profession that every elf aspires to. And that is to build toys in Santa's workshop.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Iron Man (2008)

Soundtrack:

The Nutcracker Suite, Op.71a

A really nice, funny movie for Christmas despite a little bit of the inevitable smaltz

Accidentally finding his way into Santa's bad once Christmas Eve, little baby orphan Buddy ends up in the north pole, where he is raised by the elves as one of their own. As he gets ever bigger and less and less suited to the elf lifestyle he is told about his real father and decides to go to New York to find him. However Buddy's natural smile and elfish enthusiasm doesn't really fit in with New York, not to mention a father who rejects him.

When I first saw the trailer for this film I laughed slightly but I also thought that it could easily be just awful. Despite this fear I decided to go and see it on the basis of seeing Ferrell in the Reloaded MTV spoof on the DVD and being very funny. I was glad that I did as the film was refreshingly funny very enjoyable despite the weaknesses inherent in a seasonable film of this nature. The jokes are a mix of adult and children - but not separately, the humour is of a nature families can all enjoy rather than being of a `one for me and one for the kids' type.

The film does get a little sweet towards the end, but it manages to avoid this usual trap for the majority of the film and can't be expected to not be all Christmas cheer at some point! The fish out of water stuff is pretty funny and Farrell makes his character funny without being annoying to the audience (as he feared he might be from the trailer). Caan is good but has to work with the `scrooge' character of the film and thus gets fewer laughs. The support cast is good with fun turns from Newhart, Asner and Steenburger.

It does get a little sickly sweet towards the end and the fish out of water jokes do wear a little thin towards the end but mostly it is very funny and refreshingly fun to watch. The film is made better by a performance from Farrell that is perfectly pitched without being annoying and full of spark and wit.