 Prof.Linus Van Pelt | Sure, I can tell you all about Buddy the Elf
Lights, please: Elf (stylized as elf) is a 2003 American Christmas 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. The story is about one of Santa's elves who learns of his true identity of being a human and goes to New York City to meet his father, spreading christmas cheer in a world of cynics.
A baby boy crawls into Santa Claus's (Ed Asner) sack of gifts while he is delivering toys to an orphanage one Christmas Eve. Santa Claus unwittingly takes the baby back to the North Pole, where Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) volunteers to raise him. The baby is named William, but they rename him Buddy (Will Ferrell). He is raised unaware that he is actually a human, until his enormous size and poor toy-making abilities lead him to ultimately find out the truth. Papa 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 he was born. He explains how Susan later died, and Walter now works at a children's book company in New York City. Buddy sets out for New York to find his father.
Upon arriving in New York City, Buddy displays his ignorance in several comical ways. He eventually finds his father in the Empire State Building, but an incredulous Walter Hobbs calls security on him. Their sarcastic advice was to "get back to Gimbel's", where he is mistaken for an employee and meets the lovely Jovie (Zooey Deschanel). Later, when the toy store Santa comes, Buddy is shocked to discover that Gimbel's Santa is not the genuine article, and a fight ensues between them. He is arrested and sentenced 24 hours in jail. Walter reluctantly bails him out and takes him to a pediatrician for a DNA test. Once it is proven that he is in fact Walter's son, he takes him home to meet his stepmother, Emily (Mary Steenburgen) and half-brother, Michael (Daniel Tay).
Buddy befriends Michael after the former defeats bullies single-handedly in a snowball fight, and goes on a date with Jovie. Walter, meanwhile, has been trying to save his floundering business by hiring the temperamental bestselling writer Miles Finch. When the vertically-challenged Finch arrives, Buddy innocently thinks he is an elf. After being called "elf" many times, Miles attacks Buddy and storms out without signing a deal with Walter's company. Walter is so angry over this setback that he yells at Buddy to get out of his life. Hurt and afraid, Buddy writes a message to his father and runs away.
Michael sees Buddy's written message, and bursts in on Walter's board meeting to tell him frantically that Buddy is gone. He manages to convince Walter to put his family above his job for the first time. Buddy 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 on the Clausometer (which had powered the sleigh) had gone. Walter and Michael find Buddy in Central Park. He takes them to meet Santa, who reveals to Michael that believing in him can make his sleigh fly. Michael reads Santa's list in front of TV cameras gathered outside the park, so that people all across New York City believe in him. The Central Park Rangers begin to chase his sleigh while Buddy is still trying to reattach the engine.
Jovie 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 joining in. Later, he starts his own publishing company with the first book released being titled Elf, an account of Buddy's adventures. Buddy and Jovie marry and have a daughter, and are shown to visit Papa Elf and the North Pole periodically. |
Topic: LOC 55: The Top 51 Winter Holiday Characters (Read 36523 times)
