Elf (film)

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For other uses, see Elf (disambiguation).
Elf
Elf theatrical release poster
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJon Favreau
Written byDavid Berenbaum
Produced byJon Berg
Todd Komarnicki
Shauna Robertson
Starring
CinematographyGreg Gardiner
Edited byDan Lebental
Music byJohn Debney
Production
company
Guy Walks Into a Bar Productions
Distributed byNew Line Cinema1
Release date
  • November 7, 2003 (2003-11-07)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$33 million
Box office$220.4 million

Elf is a 2003 American Christmas comedy film directed by Jon Favreau and written by David Berenbaum. It stars Will Ferrell, James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Mary Steenburgen, Daniel Tay, Ed Asner, and Bob Newhart. It was released in the United States on November 7, 2003 by New Line Cinema. The story is about one of Santa's elves (Ferrell) who learns of his true identity as a human and goes to New York City to meet his biological father (Caan), spreading Christmas cheer in a world of cynics as he goes.

The film received positive reviews from critics and earned $220.4 million worldwide on a $33 million budget. The movie inspired the 2010 broadway musical Elf: The Musical and NBC's 2014 stop-motion animated television special Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas.

Plot

One Christmas Eve, an orphaned baby boy stows away on Santa Claus's (Ed Asner) sleigh. When discovered back at the North Pole, the baby is named "Buddy" and is adopted by Papa Elf (Bob Newhart).

Buddy (Will Ferrell) grows up at the North Pole believing he is an elf, but due to his human size is unable to successfully perform elf tasks such as toy making. When Buddy accidentally learns that he is human, Papa Elf explains that Buddy was born to Walter Hobbs (James Caan) and Susan Wells, and was given up for adoption without Walter knowing of his existence. Susan later died, and Walter now works at a children's book company in New York City. Buddy decides to travel to New York to find his father, whom Santa indicates is on the naughty list due to his greed and selfishness.

Buddy arrives in New York City and has trouble acclimating to the customs of the humans world. Buddy eventually finds his father's office, but when Buddy tells him about Susan Wells, Walter has him ejected. After following a security guard's sarcastic suggestion to go "back to Gimbels" due to his elf outfit, the store's manager (Faizon Love) mistakes him for an employee at the Santa Land area. Whilst there, he meets Jovie (Zooey Deschanel), an unenthusiastic Gimbels employee to whom he is instantly attracted. Upon learning that Santa will be arriving the next day, Buddy stays behind after hours and spends the night decorating Santa Land.

The next day at Gimbels, Buddy is appalled that the department store's Santa (Artie Lange) is not real. He rips off the man's fake beard, causing the two to get into a fight. Buddy is arrested, and Walter reluctantly bails him out of jail. Walter takes him to a pediatrician (Jon Favreau) for a DNA test, which confirms that Buddy is in fact Walter's biological son. The doctor convinces him to take Buddy home to meet his stepmother, Emily (Mary Steenburgen), and 12-year-old half-brother, Michael (Daniel Tay). Walter and Michael are put off by Buddy's childlike behaviour, but Emily insists that they take care of him until he "recovers".

Buddy helps Michael defeat a gang of bullies in a snowball fight, and Michael encourages Buddy to ask Jovie out. Meanwhile, Walter learns from his boss Fulton Greenway (Michael Lerner) that his company is in financial trouble. Greenway organizes a book pitch for Christmas Eve, and Walter and his associates, Eugene and Morris (Kyle Gass and Andy Richter), arrange a meeting with best-selling children's author Miles Finch (Peter Dinklage) to try to hire him.

On Christmas Eve, Buddy goes on a date with Jovie and manages to win her over. Buddy bursts into the Walter's office to tell him about his newfound love, interrupting a meeting with Finch. Buddy accidentally offends Finch, who has dwarfism, by mistaking him for an elf. Finch loses his temper and attacks Buddy before storming out of the conference room. Furious that his chance to save the company has been ruined, Walter yells at Buddy to get out of his life.

Walter begins to feel remorseful and has given up hope, until Eugene and Morris reveal they found a notebook Finch left behind that is filled with ideas for children's books. Walter pitches ideas from the notebook to Greenway, but Michael bursts into the office and interrupts the meeting to tell Walter that Buddy has run away. Greenway refuses to reschedule the remainder of the meeting, so Walter lets Greenway fire him and storms off.

Meanwhile, Santa's sleigh crashes in Central Park, which attracts a large crowd. Buddy finds Santa and discovers that the sleigh's engine had broken off, meaning that the sleigh cannot fly without Christmas spirit. Walter and Michael find Buddy and apologize, and Buddy then takes them to meet Santa, who reveals that believing in him can make his sleigh fly. Michael steals Santa's list and reads it in front of the gathered TV news cameras, while the Central Park Rangers, who never forgave Santa for putting them on the naughty list, chase his sleigh as Buddy tries to reattach the engine.

Jovie, who is the crowd after seeing the events on TV, leads the gathered people in singing "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", helping raise enough Christmas spirit to partially power the sleigh. Walter is convinced by Michael to start singing earnestly, which finally restores enough Christmas Spirit to allow the sleigh to fly.

By next Christmas, Walter has started his own publishing company with the first best-selling book released titled Elf, an account of Buddy's adventures written and illustrated by Buddy himself. Sometime later, Buddy and Jovie have a daughter named Susie, named after Buddy's biological mother. During the film's closure, the family visits Papa Elf at the North Pole.

Cast

Jim Carrey was originally attached to portray Buddy.[2]

Production

Apart from snow, most of the computer generated imagery (CGI) in the film was created by Rhythm & Hues Studios.[3] The movie makes heavy use of forced perspective to exaggerate the size of Buddy the Elf compared to all the other elves. Stop motion animation was also used.[4] Zooey Deschanel singing was not in the original script and Favreau added it when he learned she was a singer.[4] Buddy belches for twelve seconds, after drinking a 2-liter bottle of Coca-Cola. The belch was real, as dubbed by voice actor Maurice LaMarche.[5] Elf was not entirely shot in New York City; there are several scenes shot in Vancouver, at Coquitlam, British Columbia, at Riverview Hospital.[4][6]

Development

Jon Favreau is the film's director.

On June 9, 2003, it was announced that Jon Favreau would direct a 2003 American Christmas comedy film about one of Santa's elves who learns of his true identity as a human and goes to New York City to meet his biological father, spreading Christmas cheer in a world of cynics as he goes titled Elf which would be released in cinemas on November 7, 2003 in the United States. Jon Berg, Todd Komarnicki and Shauna Robertson produced the film with the budget of $33 million and David Berenbaum wrote the film. It was announced that Will Ferrell, James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Mary Steenburgen, Daniel Tay, Ed Asner, Bob Newhart, Faizon Love, Peter Dinklage, Amy Sedaris, Michael Lerner, Andy Richter, Kyle Gass, Artie Lange, Peter Billingsley, Leon Redbone, Ray Harryhausen, Jon Favreau and Mark Acheson would star in the movie. New Line Cinema acquired distribution rights to the film. John Debney would compose the music for the movie. Guy Walks Into a Bar Productions co-produced the film.

Reception

Box office

Elf opened at number 2 at the US box office with $31.1 million, finishing behind The Matrix Revolutions, also in its first week.[7] The film would go on to earn a total gross amount of $220,443,451 at the box office worldwide,[8] greatly exceeding its production budget of $33 million. In the US it topped the box office on its second week of release, beating out Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. In the UK it ranked #2 behind Love Actually.[9]

Grosses

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

Critical response

The film received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 84%, based on 185 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The site's consensus reading, "A movie full of Yuletide cheer, Elf is a spirited, good-natured family comedy, and it benefits greatly from Will Ferrell's funny and charming performance as one of Santa's biggest helpers."[10] On Metacritic the film has a score of 64 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[11] Roger Ebert gave the film 3/4 stars.[12]

Accolades

The film was nominated for nine awards and won two.[13]

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 - Comedy (Will Ferrell) and Choice Movie - Comedy
  • 2005 Golden Satellite Award - Best Youth DVD

Critics' rankings

Since its release, the film has joined the many holiday-themed films which air annually on television during the Christmas season.

Home media

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

Musical

Main article: Elf: The 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. The musical ran through to January 2, 2011.[26]

Music

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on New Line Records in November 2003 in the USA[27] and in October 2005 in the UK.[28] The soundtrack was certified Gold by the RIAA in April 2011.[29] Having sold 695,000 copies in the United States, it is the second best-selling film soundtrack/holiday album hybrid since Nielsen SoundScan started tracking music sales in 1991, behind only The Polar Express.[30]

  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

Score

The score to the film, composed and conducted by John Debney and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony, was released by Varese Sarabande.[31]

  1. Papa Elf (1:35)
  2. Main Title (1:59)
  3. Buddy's Journey (2:38)
  4. A Stroll With Buddy (1:32)
  5. Christmas Medley (2:23)
  6. Weird Wonderland (1:34)
  7. The Frozen Battlefield (1:29)
  8. Buddy's Theme (:58)
  9. Santa's In Trouble (2:06)
  10. A Walk In The Park (1:01)
  11. Attack Of The Little People (1:15)
  12. Central Park Rangers (2:54)
  13. Working With Dad (:36)
  14. A Snowman's Advice (1:47)
  15. Showdown In The Park (3:31)
  16. Buddy And Santa Take Flight (1:15)
  17. Spaghetti And Syrup (1:36)

Animated special

Main article: Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas

Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas is an hour-long stop-motion animated musical television special based on the 2003 film Elf and the Broadway musical of the same name. It stars Jim Parsons as Buddy, along with Mark Hamill as Walter, Kate Micucci as Jovie, Rachael MacFarlane as Emily, and Gilbert Gottfried as Mr. Greenway. Asner also reprises his role as Santa. The special was produced by Warner Bros. Animation and first aired on NBC on December 16, 2014. The special uses songs from the Broadway musical.

Footnotes

  1. ^ The film's distribution rights were transferred to Warner Bros. in 2008.

References

  1. ^ "Elf Movie - Bob Newhart Interview". Movies.about.com. 2013-12-19. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
  2. ^ Mullins, Jenna (18 December 2014). "NEWS/ 56 Facts You May Not Know About Your Favorite Holiday Films". E! News. Retrieved 17 June 2015. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ Snipes, Stephanie (November 7, 2003). "How to create an 'Elf'". CNN.com. CNN. Retrieved December 25, 2015.
  4. ^ a b c Gary Susman (2013-12-24). "'Elf' at 10: Jon Favreau Reflects on Buddy's Magical Legacy | Movies News". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
  5. ^ "Maurice LaMarche interview on Talk Radio Meltdown - Explanation of Buddy the Elf's belch at 21:52". Talk Radio Meltdown. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
  6. ^ "Explanation of the sound effect". Retrieved 9 October 2014.
  7. ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for November 7-9, 2003". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
  8. ^ "Elf (2003)". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
  9. ^ "Elf beats Crowe at US box office". bbc.co.uk. BBC News. 16 November 2003. Retrieved 2011-12-24.
  10. ^ "Elf at Rotten Tomatoes". Flixster Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
  11. ^ "Elf". Metacritic.
  12. ^ Emerson, Jim (2003-11-07). "Elf Movie Review & Film Summary (2003)". Roger Ebert. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
  13. ^ "Elf Awards". IMDb. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
  14. ^ "The 30 Best Christmas Movies Ever". empireonline.com. Bauer Consumer Media. December 2010. Retrieved 2011-12-24.
  15. ^ "Merry Christmas! The best Christmas movies ever". Daily News New York. 21 December 2011. Retrieved 2011-12-24.
  16. ^ "Top 10 Christmas Movies". About.com. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2011-12-24.
  17. ^ Reynolds, Simon (December 19, 2011). "Muppet Christmas Carol tops Digital Spy favourite Christmas film poll". Digital Spy. Hearst Magazines UK. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
  18. ^ Hughes, Mark. "Elf #7 Forbes best christmas movies of all time".
  19. ^ "Newsday Elf 7th best christmas film".
  20. ^ "Guardian Greatest christmas movies Elf #4". HanMan.
  21. ^ "Chicago tribune #17 elf greatest christmas film of all time". HanMan.
  22. ^ "SFC Elf #4 Greatest christmas movie of all time". The San Francisco Chronicle.
  23. ^ Nashawaty, Chris (2011-12-26). "Entertainment Weekly Greatest xmas movies of all time Elf #4".
  24. ^ "Elf #3 total film greatest xmas film of all time".
  25. ^ Couch, Aaron. "Elf #6 Greatest xmas film of all time". The Hollywood Reporter.
  26. ^ Hetrick, Adam."Beth Leavel, Mark Jacoby and George Wendt to Star in Elf – The Musical on Broadway" playbill.com, August 11, 2010
  27. ^ "Elf Soundtrack". Amazon.com. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
  28. ^ "Elf Original Soundtrack". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
  29. ^ "American certifications – Elf: Music from the Major Motion Picture". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved December 7, 2014.
  30. ^ Caulfield, Keith (December 6, 2014). "Billboard 200 Chart Moves: 'Guardians' on Cassette Cashes In". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved December 7, 2014.
  31. ^ "Hollywood Studio Symphony". Retrieved 1 January 2010.

External links

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