Imagine yourself walking through the downtown streets of Chicago or New York City at Christmas time and you see a 6-foot-three man dressed in an elf costume. Now if it were a much smaller elf your natural instinct would be that he is an assistant to a store front Santa at Macy's. But seeing an elf as tall as a tree walking the streets your instinct would probably be it's a crazy man wandering around. But if you've seen the film Elf and you still believe in Santa, then you would think otherwise.
In this Christmas film which is becoming another cult classic, Will Ferrell plays Buddy the Elf who is in search of who he really is and searching for his real father played by James Caan. Buddy also learns his father is on Santa's naughty list.
As an infant and being raised in an orphanage, Buddy crawls into Santa's bag on Christmas Eve night, and therefore ends up living at the North Pole. As he grows older and learns he is not like all of the other elves, he decides to go search for who he is. Buddy the Elf takes a journey to the magical land of New York City where he encounters a whole new world:
1. Buddy comes face to face with a snarling raccoon in the park and tries to
give it a hug. Big mistake.
"The little furry animals in New York are not as cute and cuddly as the ones
back home."
2. While passing through the streets of downtown Buddy sees a sign that reads:
Worlds Best Cup of Coffee.
He enters the establishment excitedly declaring,
"You did it! Congratulations! Worlds best cup of coffee! Great job everyone! It's great to be here."
3. I love it when Buddy takes a ride through a revolving door, spinning around profusely until he pukes.
Buddy finds the workplace of his father Walter Hobbs and upon entering the large office building he obviously gets quite the stare for wearing an elf costume. When he reaches his father's office, the receptionist thinks Buddy is there to give Walter a singing telegram. Walter Hobbs consciously asks Buddy to go ahead and sing.
(on a side note here, Buddy loves to sing)
Buddy creates a song to sing and stutters through it,
"I'm herre, with my daaad, and we never meeet, and he wants me to siiing him a sooong (ummm...)I was adopted, but you didn't knooow i was booorn. So I am here noow,
I found you daaady! And guess what,I looove you, I looove you!"
Walter doesn't believe that Buddy is his son and has security kick him out. Walter also has the notion that Buddy is just some nut walking around town in an elf costume.
Throughout this film you witness the crazy antics of Buddy and his acting like a little kid in a big person's body. I love his fixation on all foods containing sugar, especially his adding maple syrup to everything from spaghetti to coffee.
When Buddy discovers Gimbles Department Store and finds his way to the toy section and Santa's big chair, he gets mistaken for being an employee,as all of the workers in the toy department are dressed as elves. Buddy is dazzled by the beauty of an elf employee named Jove,to whom he will eventually build a relationship with as well.
The next day when Santa officially makes his grand entrance for the holiday season at Gimbles, Buddy goes banana's with jubilee along with all of the little kids. And then it happens.Buddy sees that Santa doesn't recognize him as one of his actual elves so Buddy reveals to everyone in the store that this Santa is an imposter,
"You smell like beef and cheese, you don't smell like Santa!"
All of the ruckus that Buddy creates lands him in jail, and his one phone call to bail him out is to Walter Hobbs. Walter bails Buddy out and then takes him to a physician to get a DNA test to determine if Buddy is who he says he is, his son.
The test is positive and thus a relationship begins between Buddy and his father, but not without conflict. Buddy's aspirations for adventure with his dad are,
"Today, my dad and I are going to make ginger bread houses, and eat cookie dough, and go ice skating, and maybe even hold hands!"
But Walter is too busy. In fact, the reason why Walter Hobbs is on Santa's naughty list is because he puts his work before his family. So naturally Buddy begins to bond with his neglected new step-son Michael.
Buddy rescues Michael from an ambush of snowballs as he puts together about 50 snowballs in about five seconds. Buddy has a rocket for an arm, and not figuratively speaking I might add, as he retaliates by firing snowballs 50 mph at the other kids. And so the relationship between Michael and his new brother takes a turn for the better,for in the beginning Michael felt the same way as his father did,that Buddy was crazy. Which may have had something to do with Buddy's insisting on being an elf wouldn't you think?
Along with repairing a family torn apart, Buddy also fixes what was missing in New York City: Christmas Spirit.
Walter Hobbs works for a publishing company of children books and faces a deadline of Christmas Eve in coming up with a new idea for a book that will get the company out of the red. When Buddy and Walter have an argument stemming from Buddy going toe to toe with a prospective author named Miles Finch, who happens to be a little person(a very funny scene in the film) Buddy runs away on Christmas Eve.
When given the demand to stay at work to finish the project or lose his job, Walter chooses the latter and goes with his son Michael to search for Buddy.
Throughout this film we witness the joy of Christmas through Buddy and the joy he brought to others. Buddy's whole philosophy was,
"The best way to spread Christmas cheer is by singing aloud for all to hear!"
In the Hobbs' search for Buddy and Buddy's adventure of running away,they all find each other and in the process run into Santa himself,whose sleigh has crashed into Central Park. The claus-o-meter on the sleigh is broken and the only fuel the sleigh can run on is that of Christmas Spirit, which is lacking in New York City.
And so Michael and his dad gather near a television news reporter, who is reporting on the scene with a large crowd of onlookers, and begin to sing Christmas Carols. Santa's sleigh now has enough Christmas Spirit to fuel the sleigh and he can finish his job of delivering presents.
The message this film delivers is simple:
"Christmas Spirit is about believing not seeing."
So what can we take out of this story in a positive spiritual manner? I believe we need to remember who it is we are celebrating at Christmas:the birth of Jesus. And those of us who are believers in Christ should spread that joy of His birth and everything that God has to offer to those who are lost or hurting.
May we all find that Christmas Spirit and spread it throughout the world 365 days a year.
Have a Merry Christmas!!
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