Elf (film) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Elf |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Jon Favreau |
| Produced by |
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| Written by | David Berenbaum |
| Narrated by | Bob Newhart |
| Starring | |
| Music by | John Debney |
| Cinematography | Greg Gardiner |
| Editing by | Dan Lebental |
| Studio |
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| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
| Release date(s) | November 7, 2003 |
| Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $33 million |
| Money made | $225.1 million |
Elf is a 2003 American Christmas comedy film directed by Jon Favreau and written by David Berenbaum. It stars Will Ferrell as the title character, a human raised by Santa's elves, who learns about his origins and heads to New York City to meet his biological father. James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Mary Steenburgen, Edward Asner, and Bob Newhart appear in supporting roles.
Elf was released in the United States on November 7, 2003, and became a major critical and commercial success, grossing $220 million worldwide against a $33 million budget. Ferrell's performance as Buddy the Elf was praised by critics and audiences alike, with many calling it one of his best performances. The film inspired the 2010 Broadway musical Elf: The Musical and NBC's 2014 stop motion animated television special Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas. It has been hailed by many as a modern classic, and is often listed among the greatest Christmas films of all time.
Contents
Plot
On Christmas Eve, a baby at an orphanage crawls into Santa Claus' sack and is unknowingly taken back to the North Pole. After the infant is discovered at the workshop, the elves name him Buddy after his diaper's brand label and Papa Elf adopts him. Buddy is accepted by the elf community and grows up thinking that he is an elf, but soon learns he is really a human. Papa Elf explains that Buddy was born to Walter Hobbs and Susan Wells, and that Susan put him up for adoption prior to her death. Walter now works as a children's book publisher at the Empire State Building in New York City and is unaware of Buddy's existence. Santa reveals that Walter is on the Naughty List due to his selfishness, but suggests Buddy could help redeem him with some Christmas spirit.
Buddy travels to New York and finds Walter at work, but Walter mistakes him for a Christmas-gram messenger and has him ejected. Buddy heads to a local Gimbels department store and meets Jovie, an unenthusiastic employee with whom he is instantly smitten. Hearing that Santa will be at the store the following day, Buddy redecorates the store overnight. However, upon realizing that the Gimbels Santa is not the genuine article, Buddy unmasks him and causes a brawl in the store that the manager breaks up.
Walter reluctantly bails Buddy out of the police station and takes him for a DNA test, confirming that Buddy is his biological son. Dr. Leonardo convinces Walter to take Buddy home to meet his stepmother Emily and half-brother Michael. Walter and Michael are unnerved by Buddy's strange behavior, but Emily insists that they care for him until he "recovers". Michael warms up to Buddy after they defeat a gang of bullies in a snowball fight and encourages Buddy to ask Jovie out on a date. During the date, the two fall in love.
Meanwhile, Walter's publishing company is failing after their latest book flops. Walter's boss, Fulton Greenway, expects Walter to have a new book ready by Christmas Eve. Walter and his team secure a meeting with best-selling children's author Miles Finch, but Buddy interrupts the meeting and mistakes Finch, who has dwarfism, for an elf. Buddy unintentionally insults Finch before the latter attacks him and leaves the meeting, upon which Walter loses his temper and harshly disowns Buddy. Heartbroken, Buddy writes an apology note on an Etch A Sketch and leaves Walter’s apartment.
Upon finding Finch's notebook full of ideas, Walter and his team scramble to create a book to pitch. As Walter prepares to pitch the book to Greenway, Michael arrives and informs Walter of Buddy's departure. Realizing his mistake, Walter quits his job and walks out with Michael to find Buddy. Meanwhile, Buddy sees Santa's sleigh crash in Central Park, attracting a large crowd. Santa explains that the sleigh’s engine is lost and cannot fly without it due to a shortage of Christmas spirit.
Buddy finds the engine and reunites with Walter and Michael. Walter apologizes to Buddy for how he treated him and accepts him as his son. After he takes them to meet Santa, Michael takes Santa's list and reads it in front of television news cameras gathered outside the park, proving that Santa is real. A group of Central Park Rangers, who are angry at Santa for placing them on the Naughty List, chase the sleigh as Buddy tries to reattach the engine. Jovie leads the crowd and those watching on television in singing "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", raising enough Christmas spirit to fully power the sleigh without the engine.
By the following Christmas, Buddy writes a book about his life, which becomes a bestseller and allows Walter to establish his own publishing company. Buddy also marries Jovie and brings their newborn daughter Susie to visit Papa Elf.
Cast
Live action
- Will Ferrell as Buddy Hobbs, aka "Buddy the Elf", an eccentric human who was raised by Santa's elves.
- James Caan as Walter Hobbs, a children's book publisher and Buddy's biological father.
- Zooey Deschanel as Jovie, an unenthusiastic worker at Gimbels and Buddy's love interest.
- Mary Steenburgen as Emily Hobbs, Walter's wife, Michael's mother and Buddy's stepmother.
- Bob Newhart as Papa Elf, Buddy's adoptive father and the narrator.
- Edward Asner as Santa Claus, a holiday figure who finds Buddy in his sack and gives him to Papa Elf to raise.
- Daniel Tay as Michael Hobbs, Walter and Emily's son and Buddy's younger half-brother.
- Faizon Love as Wanda, the manager of Gimbels and Jovie's boss.
- Peter Dinklage as Miles Finch, a best-selling children's author who attacks Buddy for (mistakenly) calling him an elf.
- Amy Sedaris as Deb, Walter Hobbs' secretary.
- Michael Lerner as Fulton Greenway, Walter Hobbs' controlling and uncaring boss and the CEO of Greenway Press.
- Andy Richter as Morris, a co-worker of Walter Hobbs.
- Kyle Gass as Eugene Dupree, a co-worker of Walter Hobbs.
- Artie Lange as the Fake Santa, a Mall Santa with whom Buddy gets into an altercation because he is not the real Santa Claus.
- Jon Favreau as Dr. Ben Leonardo, the Hobbs family's pediatrician.
- Matt Walsh as Eye Witness.
- Peter Billingsley as Ming Ming (uncredited), the head elf in Santa's workshop.
- Mark Acheson as a mailroom worker.
- David Paul Grove as Pom Pom, an elf on whom Buddy faints when he discovers he's a human.
Voice cast
- Leon Redbone as Leon the Snowman, a snowman who lives at the North Pole.
- Ray Harryhausen as Polar Bear Cub
- Jon Favreau as the Baby Walrus (uncredited), Mr. Narwhal (uncredited) and the Arctic Puffin (uncredited)
- Maurice LaMarche as Buddy's Burp (uncredited)
- Dallas McKennon as the Jack-in-the-Box (uncredited, archive audio)
Production
Development
David Berenbaum initially wrote the script in 1993, with Chris Farley and Jim Carrey being early candidates to play Buddy. Berenbaum's screenplay underwent uncredited rewrites by Scot Armstrong, Chris Henchy, and the writing team of Adam McKay and Will Ferrell. Garry Shandling was offered the role of Walter Hobbs but declined. Wanda Sykes was originally cast as the Gimbels manager Wanda but later dropped out. Terry Zwigoff was offered to direct the film, but he turned it down in favor of Bad Santa (2003). According to Favreau, the script was initially "much darker" and did not interest him, although he was interested in working with Ferrell's first post-SNL movie. Asked to rewrite it, a turning point came when he realized he could make Buddy's world an homage to the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials. This allowed him to conceive of a movie that could be PG rated as opposed to the original script, which he guessed would have been rated PG-13.
Filming
Principal photography began on December 9, 2002, and wrapped on March 7, 2003. Filming took place in New York City, as well as in Vancouver and at Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam, British Columbia.
The film makes heavy use of forced perspective to exaggerate the size of Buddy compared to all the other elves. Stop motion animation was employed for certain sequences. CGI usage was kept to a minimum due to Favreau's own preference, something that he would later note he "had to fight very hard" for.
Zooey Deschanel singing was not in the original script, and Favreau added it when he learned she was a singer. When Buddy starts singing in the middle of Santaland at Gimbels, the lyrics were not scripted and Will Ferrell improvised the song on the spot.
Post-production
Apart from snow, most of the computer generated imagery (CGI) in the film was created by Rhythm & Hues Studios. Buddy's belch after drinking a two-liter bottle of Coca-Cola was dubbed by voice actor Maurice LaMarche.
Music
The soundtrack was released on New Line Records in November 2003 in the United States and in October 2005 in the United Kingdom, including its signature song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" by Deschanel and Leon Redbone, releasing it as a single. It was certified Gold by the RIAA in April 2011. Having sold 695,000 copies in the United States, it is the second-highest selling soundtrack album for a Christmas-themed film since Nielsen SoundScan started tracking music sales in 1991, behind only The Polar Express.
- "Pennies from Heaven" – Louis Prima
- "Sleigh Ride" – Ella Fitzgerald and the Frank De Vol Orchestra
- "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" – Lena Horne
- "Sleigh Ride/Santa Claus' Party" – Ferrante and Teicher/Les Baxter
- "Baby, It's Cold Outside" – Leon Redbone and Zooey Deschanel
- "Jingle Bells" – Jim Reeves
- "The Nutcracker Suite" – Brian Setzer
- "Christmas Island" – Leon Redbone
- "Santa Baby" – Eartha Kitt and the Henri René Orchestra
- "Winter Wonderland" – Ray Charles
- "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" – Eddy Arnold
- "Nothing from Nothing" – Billy Preston
The score to the film, composed and conducted by John Debney and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony, was released by Varèse Sarabande.
Release
Home media
The film was released on DVD and VHS on November 16, 2004, and on Blu-ray on October 28, 2008. The film was subsequently released on 4K Blu-ray on November 1, 2022. It is also available for the PlayStation Portable with Universal Media Disc. This is one of the only two DVDs to be PG rated under the Infinifilm label.
Other media
Musical
A Broadway musical based upon the film ran on Broadway during the 2010 Christmas season. It was directed by Casey Nicholaw, with music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin, and a book by Bob Martin and Thomas Meehan.
The musical officially opened at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on November 10, 2010, after previews from November 2, 2010. The cast included Sebastian Arcelus as Buddy, Amy Spanger as Jovie, Beth Leavel as Emily, Mark Jacoby as Walter, Matthew Gumley as Michael, Valerie Wright as Deb, Michael McCormick as Mr. Greenway, Michael Mandell as Store Manager, and George Wendt as Santa. It ran through to January 2, 2011.
Animated special
Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas is an hour-long stop-motion animated musical television special based on the film and the musical of the same name. While Edward Asner was the only cast member from the film to reprise his role, the rest of the cast included Jim Parsons as Buddy, Mark Hamill as Walter Hobbs, Kate Micucci as Jovie, Rachael MacFarlane as Emily Hobbs, Max Charles as Michael Hobbs, and Gilbert Gottfried as Mr. Greenway. It was produced by Warner Bros. Animation and first aired on NBC on December 16, 2014. It features songs from the musical.
Video game
A video game based on the film was released on November 4, 2004 for the Game Boy Advance, developed by Human Soft and published by Crave Entertainment. The game follows the same plot as the movie; within the game, the player has to collect candies throughout each level while avoiding various objects and polar bears. The game received negative reviews by critics.
Cancelled sequel
On September 18, 2013, Mental Floss reported that Favreau was interested in making a sequel to the film, titled Elf 2: Buddy Saves Christmas. Later in December 2013, Ferrell stated that he did not want to make a sequel.
In January 2016, Favreau stated that a sequel could still happen. The next month, Ferrell reiterated that a sequel was unlikely and stated that he was generally reluctant to do sequels unless there was a story that justifies it.
On September 18, 2020, Caan reaffirmed that a sequel was unlikely stating that Ferrell and Favreau did not get along, and both his death on July 6, 2022 and Asner's on August 29, 2021 made the possibility even less likely.
See also
In Spanish: Elf (película) para niños
- List of Christmas films
- Santa Claus in film
