Elf (film)

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Elf
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJon Favreau
Written byDavid Berenbaum
Produced byJon Berg
Todd Komarnicki
Shauna Robertson
StarringWill Ferrell
Bob Newhart
Ed Asner
James Caan
Zooey Deschanel
Mary Steenburgen
CinematographyGreg Gardiner
Edited byDan Lebental
Music byJohn Debney
Production
companies
Mosaic Media Group
Guy Walks Into a Bar Productions
Distributed byNew Line Cinema (US)
Warner Bros. (Germany)
Release date
  • November 7, 2003 (2003-11-07)
Running time
97 minutes
CountriesUnited States
Germany
LanguageEnglish
Budget$33 million
Box office$220,443,451

Elf is a 2003 comedy film directed by Jon Favreau, written by David Berenbaum and starring Will Ferrell, James Caan, and Zooey Deschanel. It was released in the United States on November 7, 2003 and grossed over $220,400,000 worldwide.

Plot

A baby crawls into Santa Claus' (Ed Asner) sack while he is delivering toys to an orphanage one Christmas Eve. Santa unwittingly takes the baby back to the North Pole, where Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) volunteers to raise him. The baby, named Buddy (Will Ferrell), is raised unaware that he is actually a human, until his enormous size and poor toy-making abilities force Papa Elf to tell him the truth. The old elf reveals that Buddy was born to Walter Hobbs (James Caan) and Susan Wells and given up for adoption, and that Walter never knew that Buddy was born. He explains how Susan later died, and that Walter now works at a children's book company in New York City. Santa tells Buddy that Walter is on "the naughty list"; nevertheless, Buddy sets out for New York to find his father.

Upon arriving in New York, Buddy displays his ignorance in several ways, as he crosses the street at the wrong time, chews discarded gum on the stair rails to a subway, and takes a coffee shop's claim to have the "world's best cup of coffee" literally. Buddy eventually finds his father in the Empire State Building, but an incredulous Walter Hobbs has him thrown out. Buddy takes a security guard's sarcastic suggestion to "get back to Gimbel's", where he is mistaken for an employee and meets the lovely but unenthusiastic Jovie (Zooey Deschanel). The next morning, Buddy is shocked to discover that Gimbel's Santa is not the genuine article, and a fight ensues between them. Buddy is arrested and Walter reluctantly bails him out and takes him to a pediatrician for a DNA test. Once it is proven that Buddy is in fact Walter's son, he takes Buddy home to meet his stepmother, Emily (Mary Steenburgen) and half-brother, Michael (Daniel Tay). Walter is clearly put off by Buddy's immature, innocent behaviour (such as slathering his spaghetti with maple syrup and not seeming to understand that Walter isn't interested in playing with him), but Emily insists that they take care of Buddy until he "recovers".

Buddy befriends Michael after the former defeats a gang of bullies single-handedly in a snowball fight, and Michael encourages Buddy to ask Jovie out. The next day, Walter reluctantly takes Buddy to work with him, and uses Buddy's naïveté to send him down to the mail room. Buddy gets drunk on a co-worker's whiskey, thinking it's syrup, and ends up throwing a party in the mailroom. That night, Buddy has a date with Jovie. Walter, meanwhile, has been trying to save his floundering business by hiring the temperamental best-selling writer Miles Finch. When the vertically-challenged Finch arrives, Buddy mistakes him for an elf. The offended Finch attacks Buddy and storms out of the conference room without signing a deal with Walter's company. Walter is so upset over this setback that he yells at Buddy to "get the hell out of my life." A deeply hurt Buddy roams New York that night (Christmas Eve), until he looks up and sees Santa's sleigh crash in Central Park. He finds Santa, who explains that he lost the sleigh's engine and that the last bit of Christmas spirit (which had powered the sleigh previously) had gone. Santa convinces Buddy to help him fix the sleigh.

Michael, meanwhile, bursts in on Walter's board meeting to tell him frantically that Buddy has gone. He manages to convince Walter to put his family above his job for the first time, and the two find Buddy in Central Park as he locates the sleigh's engine. Buddy takes them to meet Santa, who reveals to Michael that belief in Santa (manifested in knowing that Santa is bringing people what they want for Christmas) can make his sleigh fly. Michael therefore steals Santa's list and reads it in front of the TV cameras now gathered outside the park, so that people all across New York believe conclusively in Santa. The Central Park Rangers begin to chase Santa's sleigh while Buddy is still trying to reattach the engine, and eventually the engine is lost. However, Jovie, remembering what Buddy had told her about how singing is the best way to spread the joy of Christmas, manages to overcome her shyness and get the sleigh in the air by the power of Christmas spirit when she leads the crowd in singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," with even Walter eventually joining in. Later, Walter starts his own publishing company with the first book released titled Elf, an account of Buddy's adventures. Buddy and Jovie also marry and have a daughter named Susie and are shown to visit Papa Elf and the North Pole periodically.

Cast

Production

The film makes heavy use of forced perspective (rather than CGI) to make Buddy the Elf appear much larger than all the other elves. Zooey Deschanel sings in the movie. Buddy belches for twelve seconds, after drinking a 2 litre bottle of Coca-Cola. The belch was real, dubbed by voice actor Maurice LaMarche.[citation needed] A line of jack-in-the-box toys are heard emitting a "hyena laugh" sound effect that first appeared in Lady And The Tramp.[1]

Reception

The film was well-received by critics. It currently holds an 84% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus that "Ferrell's funny and charming performance makes Elf a delightful Christmas comedy."[2]

The film made over $220 million at the box office worldwide,[3] greatly exceeding its production budget of $33 million.

Grosses
  • Domestic: $173,398,518
  • Foreign: $47,044,933
  • Total: $220,443,451

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released in November 2003 in the USA[4] and in October 2005 in the UK.[5]

  1. "Pennies from Heaven" - Louis Prima
  2. "Sleigh Ride" - Ella Fitzgerald and the Frank De Vol Orchestra
  3. "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" - Lena Horne
  4. "Sleigh Ride/Santa Claus Party" - Ferrante and Teicher/Les Baxter
  5. "Baby, It's Cold Outside" - Leon Redbone/Zooey Deschanel
  6. "Jingle Bells" - Jim Reeves
  7. "The Nutcracker Suite" - Brian Setzer
  8. "Christmas Island" - Leon Redbone
  9. "Santa Baby" - Eartha Kitt/Henri René and His Orchestra
  10. "Winter Wonderland" - Leon Redbone
  11. "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" - Eddy Arnold
  12. "Nothing from Nothing" - Billy Preston

The score to the film, composed by John Debney and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony, was also released.[6]

Awards

The film was nominated for 9 awards and won 2.[7]

Won
  • 2004 ASCAP award - Top Box Office Films (John Debney)
  • 2004 Golden Trailer - Best Comedy
Nominated
  • 2004 Blimp Award - Favorite Movie
  • 2004 MTV Movie Award - Best Comedic Performance (Will Ferrell)
  • 2004 PFCS Award - Best Live Action Family Film and Best Use of Previously Published or Recorded Music
  • 2004 Teen Choice Award - Choice Movie Actor (Will Ferrell) and Choice Movie - Comedy
  • 2005 Golden Satellite Award - Best Youth DVD

Home media

Elf is available on DVD, VHS, and Blu-ray Disc, the latter of which was released on October 28, 2008. It is also available for the PlayStation Portable with Universal Media Disc.

Stage musical

Main article: Elf the Musical

A Broadway musical based upon the film is running on Broadway during the 2010 Christmas season. It is directed by Casey Nicholaw, with music by Chad Beguelin, lyrics by Matthew Sklar, 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 has been announced that the musical will run through to January 2, 2011.[8]

References

  1. ^ Explanation of the sound effect
  2. ^ "Elf at Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 29 January 2010.
  3. ^ "Elf (2003)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
  4. ^ "Elf Soundtrack". Amazon.com. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
  5. ^ "Elf Original Soundtrack". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
  6. ^ "Hollywood Studio Symphony". Retrieved 1 January 2010.
  7. ^ "Elf Awards". IMDB. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
  8. ^ Hetrick, Adam."Beth Leavel, Mark Jacoby and George Wendt to Star in Elf – The Musical on Broadway" playbill.com, August 11, 2010

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Elf.
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