12 Reviews of Christmas - Elf (2003)

          Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, this is one that I've been holding off on reviewing for a bit. But today, for 12 Reviews of Christmas, I'm finally reviewing Elf starring Will Ferrell and directed by Jon Favreau. 

         The movie focuses on Buddy, who snuck into Santa's gift bag as a baby and ended up raised by the elves at the North Pole. Years go by, and Buddy discovers that he's a human, and that his real father is a New York City book publisher named Walter Cobb. Buddy then decides to travel from the North Pole to New York to meet his father. 

        In New York, Buddy meets Walter and Walter's family: wife Emily and son Michael. Buddy also meets and hooks up with Jovie, who works at Gimbel's department store. Buddy also ends up at Gimbel's, where he calls out a department store Santa for being a fake, and gets into a fight with the fake Santa. Unfortunately, things go south when Buddy inadvertently starts a fight with Miles Finch, an author with dwarfism, by calling him an elf. After Walter yells at Buddy over the situation, Buddy leaves and plans to go somewhere else. On Christmas Eve night, however, Buddy spots the real Santa in Central Park, and has to work quickly to get Santa's sleigh back in the air. 

         Michael, whose learned of Buddy's running away, goes to Walter for help in finding him, and Walter pretty much gives up his job to help find his eldest son. Walter and Michael arrive in Central Park and find Buddy and Santa, and they help get the sleigh back in the air, with Michael going to where a news reporter is set up, and reading off of Santa's list. Jovie and Emily soon arrive to find out what's happening, and the two lead the crowd outside of the park in singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town.' with everyone watching on the news across the city joining in. The citywide singing builds up enough Christmas spirit to get the sleigh to fly. 

         In the aftermath, Buddy reunites with Walter, Emily, and Michael. Walter starts a new publishing company, which publishes a children's holiday book inspired by Buddy's story. Buddy and Jovie get married and have a baby girl, Susie, whom they bring to the North Pole to visit Papa Elf, who was the elf that raised Buddy. 

          Elf is a movie that is as interesting as it is safe. While the humor is definitely strong, and believe me this is a really funny movie, it's also safe humor that is rather common in family films, specifically Christmas films. However, what really elevates this into a holiday classic is lead actor Will Ferrell. This was one of his first films after his tenure on Saturday Night Live, and his exuberant amount of energy is absolutely fantastic in this movie. 

         The rest of the cast, like Zooey Deschanel as Jovie, James Cann as Walter, Bob Newhart as Papa Elf, Mary Steenburgen as Emily, and the late Ed Asner as Santa were all terrific as well. Heck, this is probably my favorite performance from James Caan since his role as Sonny Corleone in The Godfather. Other minor stars like Peter Dinklage, Andy Richter, Faizon Love, Artie Lang, Kyle Gass, and Amy Sedaris are all really good as well. 

           I also really like how the North Pole is equal parts live-action and stop-motion animation. And the stop-motion style feels very reminiscent of the style of Rankin/Bass' Christmas specials. Overall, Jon Favreau made a really fun and really funny Christmas movie that I still happily watch every year. I give Elf a 4.5/5. 

        This is Chuck signing off, and I'll be back tomorrow with my review of The Santa Clause 2 as we roll into the final days of 12 Reviews of Christmas. 


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