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Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas

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Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas
Promotional poster
Based onElf
by David Berenbaum
Elf: The Musical
by Bob Martin
Thomas Meehan
Written byThomas Meehan
Bob Martin
Aaron Horvath
Michael Jelenic
Directed byMark Caballero
Seamus Walsh
Starring
Narrated byEd Asner
Theme music composerChristopher Guardino
Matthew Sklar
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producersSam Register
Toby Emmerich
Mark Kaufman
ProducersChris Finnegan
Aaron Horvath
Michael Jelenic
CinematographyRalph Kaechele
EditorMike Wright
Running time43 minutes
Production companiesNew Line Cinema
Warner Bros. Animation
Animation Services:
Screen Novelties
Original release
NetworkNBC
ReleaseDecember 16, 2014 (2014-12-16)

Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas is a 2014 American stop-motion animated Christmas musical television special produced by Warner Bros. Animation, directed by Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh and written by Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, Bob Martin and Thomas Meehan. It is based on the 2003 film Elf and the Broadway theatre musical Elf: The Musical. While Ed Asner reprises his role of Santa Claus from the film, the rest of the cast consists of Jim Parsons, Mark Hamill, Kate Micucci, Max Charles, and Rachael MacFarlane. The special premiered on December 16, 2014, on NBC.[1]

Plot

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Santa Claus narrates the story of Buddy: a human whose mother gave him up for adoption before she died following his birth, and who crawled into Santa's toy sack that Christmas Eve. Buddy thus wound up at the North Pole and was raised into adulthood as one of Santa's elves, unaware of his actual origins despite his obvious height difference. Overhearing the truth about his species, Buddy confronts Santa, who encourages him to travel to New York City, where his birth father, Walter Hobbs, now works as an executive for a children's book publishing firm. Buddy is also surprised to learn that Walter is on Santa's naughty list due to his lacking belief in Santa.

Buddy arrives at the publishing office in the Empire State Building and musically greets Walter, who mistakes him for a singing telegram entertainer and calls for security to escort him to the Macy's Department Store. Buddy gets a job as one of the "elves" for the North Pole Village and becomes smitten with cynical coworker Jovie, successfully inviting her on a date. The next day, he exposes a mall Santa as an impostor, leading to a scuffle that ends with the police taking him to the Hobbs family's apartment. He helps Walter's wife Emily and son Michael complete a school science project and is allowed to stay for the night.

The following morning, several DNA tests confirm that Buddy is Walter's son. Walter reluctantly takes Buddy to his office at Emily's insistence, where his supervisor, Mr. Greenway, threatens to fire him if he does not publish a successful new book by Christmas Eve. That evening, Buddy takes Jovie to a romantic dinner at Tavern on the Green and helps bring out her Christmas spirit by having her sing "A Christmas Song". Excited to share this news with Walter, Buddy makes it "snow" in the office by shredding a manuscript Walter was working on. Enraged, Walter expels Buddy from the office, effectively disowning him.

A despondent and hungry Buddy encounters some out-of-work Santa actors at a Chinese restaurant and delays in arriving for his next date with Jovie, to whom he gives a snow globe Santa gave him. She is disappointed and departs. Emily and Michael read Buddy's goodbye letter and set out to retrieve him, but not before noticing Santa's sleigh outside their window. The pair and Buddy arrive at the Empire State Building, where Walter is frantically trying to craft a pitch while talking to Mr. Greenway. Buddy suggests a story based on his adventure. Mr. Greenway thinks it should be about a horse and orders Walter to work through Christmas on the idea. However, when he rudely criticizes Walter's sons, Walter quits his job. Michael informs Buddy about Santa's sleigh, and the Hobbs family races to Central Park, as Buddy realizes the sleigh needs Christmas spirit to be able to fly again.

At Central Park, Buddy takes a microphone from a news crew covering what appears to be a UFO event and encourages everyone watching the news to spread Christmas spirit to repower Santa's sleigh. Jovie arrives and begins singing "A Christmas Song", inspiring everyone watching to sing along and thus restoring the sleigh's flight. Santa invites Buddy to come home to the North Pole, but he chooses to stay in New York, having found a new purpose in making the residents happy. Some time after Buddy and Jovie settle down and have a son, Buddy Jr., the whole Hobbs family visits Santa's North Pole residence on Christmas Day per their new annual tradition.

Cast

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Additional voices by Rachel Bloom, Larry Dorf, Rachel Ramras, and Kevin Shinick.

Reception

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The special was viewed by 4.82 million viewers.[2] Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas received positive reviews from critics. The review-aggregation website Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 74 out of 100 based on 8 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[3] Ray Rahman of Entertainment Weekly gave the special a B+, saying "Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas probably won't become a classic, but it's a fun break from the usual standards."[4] Brian Lowry of Variety gave the special a positive review, saying "Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas suits the genre well, and suggests there is an alternative to simply running the sprockets off old holiday perennials. And in albeit in a minor way, that's good reason to be happy — if not all the time, at least for an hour or so."[5] Erik Adams of The A.V. Club gave the special a B, saying "Narratively and emotionally rushed, at least Buddy's Musical Christmas smartly emphasizes its animated nature, through visual inventiveness and top-flight voice talent."[6]

Musical numbers

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All tracks are written by Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin

No.TitlePerformer(s)Length
1."Happy All the Time"Fred Armisen, Ed Asner, Rachel Bloom, Larry Dorf, Jim Parsons, Rachel Ramras and Kevin Shinick2:27
2."World's Greatest Dad"Parsons1:03
3."I'll Believe In You"Rachael MacFarlane & Max Charles2:08
4."Sparklejollytwinklejingley"MacFarlane, Charles and Parsons1:47
5."A Christmas Song"Kate Micucci and Parsons1:59
6."Nobody Cares About Santa"Shinick, MacFarlane, Kevin Michael Richardson, Jay Leno and Parsons1:48
7."There Is a Santa Claus"MacFarlane & Charles1:17
8."A Christmas Song (Reprise)"Bloom, Charles, Dorf, Mark Hamill, MacFarlane, Micucci, Ramras and Shinick3:31
9."The Story of Buddy The Elf"Cast2:32
Total length:18:32

Home media

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Warner Home Video released Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas on DVD and Blu-ray on November 3, 2015.[7]

Accolades

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The film was nominated for seven Annie Awards and won one for Character Design in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production.[8]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Co. p. 97. ISBN 9781476672939.
  2. ^ Kondolojy, Amanda (December 17, 2014). "Tuesday Final Ratings: 'NCIS' & 'The Voice' Adjusted Up, No Adjustment for 'Person of Interest' or 'MasterChef Junior'". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on December 21, 2014. Retrieved December 17, 2014.
  3. ^ "Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas". Metacritic. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  4. ^ "Tonight's Best - TV - Entertainment Weekly". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 14 October 2009. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  5. ^ "'Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas' TV Review on NBC". Variety. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  6. ^ "Review: An animated retelling of Elf justifies its existence with visual daring". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  7. ^ "Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas: Jim Parsons, Mark Hamill, Kate Micucci, Edward Asner, Mark Caballero, Seamus Walsh: Movies & TV". Amazon. Retrieved 2016-01-17.
  8. ^ "Annie Awards Nominees". Annieawards.org. Retrieved 2016-01-17.
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