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Buddy is an elf with a difference. When he was a baby, he crawled into Santa's toy sack and was taken to the North Pole by mistake. Not knowing where Buddy came from, Santa leaves the baby in the capable hands of Papa Elf.
Raised as an Elf, buddy is slow compared to real Elves and struggles with life but never gives up and has the spirit and tenacity of the Elf way.
When he's told about his past, Buddy heads to New York to find his real family... cue lots of fish out of water comedy and life lessons for everyone who comes into contact with him.
What an incredibly heart warming and funny tale. Elf delivers almost every type of humour, even crude humour in bucketloads and yet manages to stay kid friendly at the same time.
What makes the movie special is the sheer shamelessness of the writing. It's highly fantasy to start with, and then delivers some really touching, knowingly sappy and mawkish plot elements and laces the whole thing with immensly funny slapstick, one liners, fish out of water misunderstandings and some really lovely set pieces too.
The writers seemed to have captured a genuinely olde world apple pie style of mawkishness too which gives a lovely air of originality as well.
There are a couple of faults. Particularly the sappy elements of the film, which sounds like a contradiction from me but... some of the sappy plot points don't work brilliantly and feel a bit forced from time to time.
Still though, the ones that do work, work wonderfully.
The acting is fantastic.
Will Ferrell, in his best role by far outside of Ron Burgundy, is the perfect man for the job. His natural ability to play dumb yet brilliantly in his own world is a wonder to watch.
James Caan is also a perfect choice for Ferrell's real father. His stoney faced Scrooge is played off of Will fantastically.
Zooey Deschandel is also great as Ferrell's love interest. She's more of a everyman for the story but carries the humour and sappy tones really well.
Back up comes from Mary Steenburgen, Daniel Tay, Bob Newhart and... Ed Asner plays a brilliant Santa Claus.
There's also a nice hit of action and peril at the end too when Santa crashes in Central Park.
It adds a nice lift at the end and gives something more exciting for the viewer too.
Part Of Rodent's 5 Christmas Movie Marathon
Review #172 (4th Of 5): Elf
Buddy is an elf with a difference. When he was a baby, he crawled into Santa's toy sack and was taken to the North Pole by mistake. Not knowing where Buddy came from, Santa leaves the baby in the capable hands of Papa Elf.
Raised as an Elf, buddy is slow compared to real Elves and struggles with life but never gives up and has the spirit and tenacity of the Elf way.
When he's told about his past, Buddy heads to New York to find his real family... cue lots of fish out of water comedy and life lessons for everyone who comes into contact with him.
What an incredibly heart warming and funny tale. Elf delivers almost every type of humour, even crude humour in bucketloads and yet manages to stay kid friendly at the same time.
What makes the movie special is the sheer shamelessness of the writing. It's highly fantasy to start with, and then delivers some really touching, knowingly sappy and mawkish plot elements and laces the whole thing with immensly funny slapstick, one liners, fish out of water misunderstandings and some really lovely set pieces too.
The writers seemed to have captured a genuinely olde world apple pie style of mawkishness too which gives a lovely air of originality as well.
There are a couple of faults. Particularly the sappy elements of the film, which sounds like a contradiction from me but... some of the sappy plot points don't work brilliantly and feel a bit forced from time to time.
Still though, the ones that do work, work wonderfully.
The acting is fantastic.
Will Ferrell, in his best role by far outside of Ron Burgundy, is the perfect man for the job. His natural ability to play dumb yet brilliantly in his own world is a wonder to watch.
James Caan is also a perfect choice for Ferrell's real father. His stoney faced Scrooge is played off of Will fantastically.
Zooey Deschandel is also great as Ferrell's love interest. She's more of a everyman for the story but carries the humour and sappy tones really well.
Back up comes from Mary Steenburgen, Daniel Tay, Bob Newhart and... Ed Asner plays a brilliant Santa Claus.
There's also a nice hit of action and peril at the end too when Santa crashes in Central Park.
It adds a nice lift at the end and gives something more exciting for the viewer too.
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All in all, it's hard to believe it's been almost 10 years since Elf was released, but it's an absolute must see Christmas movie.
It hit that mark almost immediately too, it's that well made.
A Modern Classic.
It hit that mark almost immediately too, it's that well made.
A Modern Classic.
My rating: 91%
