Movie Type: Family-Oriented Comedy, Fantasy Comedy
Themes: Saintly Fools, Fish Out of Water, Discovering One's Heritage
Main Cast: Will Ferrell, Ed Asner, James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Bob Newhart
Release Year: 2003
Country: US
Run Time: 97 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
For his sophomore stab at directing, actor/writer/director Jon Favreau (Swingers, Made), took on this holiday comedy starring Saturday Night Live-alum Will Ferrell. Ferrell stars as Buddy, a regular-sized man who was raised as an elf by Santa Claus (Edward Asner). When the news is finally broken to Buddy that he's not a real elf, he decides to head back to his place of birth, New York City, in search of his biological family. Elf also stars James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Zooey Deschanel, and Bob Newhart. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
Kelvin Humenny - Art Director, Susie Farris - Casting, David B. Householter - Co-producer, Laura Jean Shannon - Costume Designer, Jim Brebner - First Assistant Director, Jon Favreau - Director, Dan Lebental - Editor, Toby Emmerich - Executive Producer, Jimmy Miller - Executive Producer, Cale Boyter - Executive Producer, Kent Alterman - Executive Producer, Julie Wixson-Darmody - Executive Producer, John Debney - Composer (Music Score), Rusty Smith - Production Designer, Greg Gardiner - Cinematographer, Jon Berg - Producer, Shauna Robertson - Producer, Shauna Weinberg - Producer, Todd Komarnicki - Producer, Johanne Hubert - Set Designer, David Husby - Sound/Sound Designer, Jon Favreau - Screenwriter, David Berenbaum - Screenwriter, Joe Bauer - Visual Effects Supervisor, J.J. George - Music Editor, Johanne Hubert - Set Decorator
The film begins with Buddy as a baby being placed in the crib by a nun. As Santa Claus comes down to the room, Buddy discovers that there is a teddy bear in the sack and crawls in just until he's brought to the North Pole where the elves continue to make toys. He manages to stand up and grows up in a sequence into a big guy. He seems to be too big unlike the elves. In the toy testing room, he demonstrates the jack-in-the-boxes to pop open and he gets a little frustrated.
Box office
The film made over $220 million at the box office worldwide. [1]
