Elf

The Lord of Misrule's Christmas Guide
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Elf

Directed by Jon Favreau in 2003 and starring Will Ferrell as the eponymous hero, James Caan, Bob Newhart, Edward Asner, Mary Steenburgen and Zooey Daschanel, Elf is a festive joy for Christmas lovers of all ages.

30 years ago, a baby crawls into Santa’s sack whilst Santa is delivering gifts to an orphanage in New York on Christmas Eve. Without realising that the baby is ensconced with all the other toys, Santa travels back to his workshop in the North Pole, where all the elves are already busily making presents for the next Christmas. Out crawls the baby, and Santa, being a softie for kids, just can’t bring himself to send the baby back to the orphanage and so the baby is adopted by Papa Elf and brought up to be just like all the other elves.

Leap 30 years into the future and the adopted elf, Buddy – named after the label on his diapers - is now way taller than all the other elves and yet he hasn’t yet figured out that he is in fact a human.

There are plenty of visual gags about a relative giant fitting into an elfin home and during one of these skits Buddy overhears the awful truth: he is not a real elf.

So, Buddy learns that his real mother is dead and that his father – James Caan – lives in New York City but that he doesn’t even know that Buddy was ever born. Buddy sets off to NYC and to the Empire State Building, where his dad has an office, in the hope of being reconciled with his family. Caan is a grouch in the same vein as Scrooge: he’s a hardnosed boss, a slack husband, an absentee parent to his current family, and an all round misery who has no Christmas spirit whatsoever.

Like Crocodile Dundee coming from the Outback of Oz and being wonderfully simplistic and trusting in a big city environment, Buddy enters the Big Apple with a naivety that is childish, silly and – at moments – wonderfully funny.

Dad of course doesn’t believe that Buddy is his son until a blood test proves that he really has fathered this lunatic dressed in green. Dad’s heart melts a little and through the rest of the film we get to see Buddy trying his Dad’s patience to the point where Caan completely disowns him.

And then, on Christmas Eve, when there is nothing right with the world and Buddy is loveless, worthless and lost, who should crash out of the sky …. Santa, his sleigh no longer able to fly as there just isn’t enough Christmas spirit in the world to give it power.

Here at last is something Buddy can do: he can help to fix the sleigh using a thruster engine designed by Papa Elf to propel the sleigh in the absence of Christmas spirit. Meanwhile, Santa is being hunted down by the park rangers and a frantic scramble ensues as Buddy tries to save Santa and Christmas.

Outside the park where Santa has crashed, but held back by the police, TV crews and crowds of people have gathered to see what on earth is happing in NYC. Word goes round that Santa is in trouble and that the thing missing in the world is some good old Christmas spirit. A lonely voice starts to sing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” and the Christmas Sprit gauge on Santa’s sleigh starts to rise. The sleigh starts to move but it just can’t fly.

The park rangers are thundering like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse after Santa and everything seems doomed. At the edge of the park the crowd are singing, even people around the state have joined in as they’re glued to their TV screens. But there is one lone obstinate voice that is noticeable by its silence. Mean and moody James Caan just won’t sing.

The sleigh’s thruster engine falls off and Santa is now just metres from being in the clutches of the rangers. And then Caan breaks into tune, the Christmas Spirit gauge roars and Santa gets the power boot he needs to be able to fly. Christmas is saved!

This really is an easy to watch fun film, which has plenty of jokes to keep adults and kids happy.

It should become a seasonal classic.

To buy the film on DVD, click here.

To visit the film-site, click here.

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