Elf was released in the United States on November 7, 2003 by New Line Cinema. It became a major critical and commercial success, grossing $220 million worldwide against a $33 million budget. Ferrell's performance as Buddy, in particular, was praised by critics. 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 as one of the best Christmas films of all time.[3][4][5]
Plot
On Christmas Eve 1973, an orphaned baby crawls into Santa Claus' sack at the sight of a teddy bear, and is unknowingly taken back to the North Pole from an orphanage. After the infant is discovered at the workshop, the elves name him Buddy after his diaper's brand label: Little Buddy Diapers, and Papa Elf adopts him. Buddy is accepted by the elf community, and he grows up thinking he is an elf. As an adult, Buddy overhears he is a human. Papa Elf explains to Buddy that he was born to Walter Hobbs and Susan Wells. Susan put him up for adoption before 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 is heartbroken, but brightens up as he wanders into a local Gimbels department store, where he meets Jovie, an unenthusiastic employee in the toy department, whom he is instantly smitten with. Hearing that Santa will be at the store the following day, Buddy redecorates the store overnight. However, upon realizing that the Gimbels Santa is just an employee in a costume, 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 they take care of 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 Finch attacks him and angrily 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 much to Greenway's anger. 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 his harsh words and finally 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 sent to investigate (whom Santa recognizes from 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 and Walter establish their own publishing company, with their first bestseller being a children's book based on Buddy's exploits. Buddy also marries Jovie and brings their newborn daughter Susie to visit Papa Elf.
Artie Lange plays the department store Santa with whom Buddy gets into a fight. Claire Lautier plays NY1 reporter Charlotte Denon and Matt Walsh appears alongside her as himself. Will Ferrell's brother Patrick appears with Patrick McCartney as a pair of Empire State Building security guards, and Mark Acheson portrays the mailroom worker who shares his liquor with Buddy. Favreau makes a cameo appearance as Walter's family doctor.
David Berenbaum initially wrote the script in 1993, with Chris Farley and Jim Carrey being early candidates to play Buddy.[8][9][10][11] Berenbaum's screenplay underwent uncredited rewrites by Scot Armstrong,[12][13]Chris Henchy,[14] and the writing team of Adam McKay and Will Ferrell.[15][16][17]Garry Shandling was offered the role of Walter Hobbs but declined.[8]Wanda Sykes was originally cast as the Gimbels manager Wanda but later dropped out.[18]Terry Zwigoff was offered to direct the film, but he turned it down in favor of Bad Santa (2003).[19][20] According to Jon 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.[21] 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.[21]
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.[21]CGI usage was kept to a minimum due to Favreau's own preference, something that he later noted he "had to fight very hard" for.[21]
Will Ferrell said in interviews that he suffered ill effects after eating too much sugar for the film.[24]
Zooey Deschanel singing was not in the original script, and Favreau added it when he learned she was a singer.[21] 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.[25]
The scene in which Buddy screams out "Santa!" when Wanda says he is coming was completely improvised by Ferrell.[26]
Post-production
Apart from snow, most of the computer-generated imagery (CGI) in the film was created by Rhythm & Hues Studios.[27] Buddy's belch after drinking a two-liter bottle of Coca-Cola was dubbed by voice actor Maurice LaMarche.[7]
Music
The soundtrack was released on New Line Records in November 2003 in the United States[28] and in October 2005 in the United Kingdom, including its signature song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" by Deschanel and Leon Redbone, which was released as a single.[29] It was certified Gold by the RIAA in April 2011.[30] 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.[31]
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.[33] It is also available for the PlayStation Portable with Universal Media Disc. This is one of the only few DVDs to be PG-rated under the Infinifilm label.
Reception
Box office
Elf grossed $178 million in the United States and Canada, and $50.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $228.9 million, against a production budget of $33 million.[1]
The film opened at number two at the box office in the United States with $31.1 million, finishing behind The Matrix Revolutions, also in its first week.[34] It topped the box office on its second week of release, beating out Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and earning $26.3 million.[35][36] Additionally, Elf went on to compete against another family-oriented film, Brother Bear.[37] In the United Kingdom, it opened in second behind Love Actually.[38] The 2018, 2019, and 2020 reissues earned $442,000, $786,000, and $2 million respectively.[1]
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, Elf holds an approval rating of 86% based on 202 reviews, and an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "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."[39] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[40] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[41]
Roger Ebert gave it three out of four stars, calling it "one of those rare Christmas comedies that has a heart, a brain, and a wicked sense of humor, and it charms the socks right off the mantelpiece."[42] Writing for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers gave the film two out of four stars, saying: "Ferrell makes the damn thing work. Even though he can't get naked or use naughty words, there's a devil of comedy in Ferrell, and he lets it out to play. Director Jon Favreau has the good sense to just stand out of his way."[43]The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, saying: "While the words "instant holiday classic" might be pushing it, Elf is at the very least a breezily entertaining, perfectly cast family treat."[44] A. O. Scott of The New York Times also gave the film a positive review, saying: "Elf is a charming, silly family Christmas movie more likely to spread real joy than migraine, indigestion and sugar shock. The movie succeeds because it at once restrains its sticky, gooey good cheer and wildly overdoes it."[45] Anna Smith of Empire magazine gave the film a three out of five stars and said: "Ferrell's man-child invites sympathy and sniggers, making this amusing despite some flimsy plotting. Sight gags and a Santa-centered story should keep the kids happy too."[46]Plugged In (publication) gave the film a positive review, writing: "The elf-reared Buddy has a heart as big as the arctic north. Does his movie match it?"[47]
Accolades
The film was nominated for nine awards and won two.[48]
Won
2004 ASCAP award – Top Box Office Films (John Debney)
2004 Golden Trailer – Best Comedy
Nominated
2004 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice 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
Elf is often ranked among the greatest Christmas films,[49][50][51][52] and airs annually on television during the holiday season. In 2017, Fandango users rated Elf the best Christmas film of the 21st century.[53]
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.[68][69] The game follows the same plot as the movie. In the majority of the levels, the player has to collect candies throughout each level while avoiding various objects and polar bears, whilst several levels consist of minigames, such as flying Santa's sleigh or engaging in a snowball fight.[citation needed] The game received generally negative reviews.[68]
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.[70] Later in December, Ferrell stated that he did not want to make a sequel.[71] In January 2016, Favreau stated that a sequel could still happen.[72] 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.[73] On September 18, 2020, Caan reaffirmed that the possibility of a sequel was unlikely stating that Ferrell and Favreau did not get along.[74]
