Review: Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas

I never quite grasped the concept as to why there was a Broadway musical adaptation of Elf. The fantastic live-action film that arguably launched Will Ferrell into super-stardom is literally on 10,000 times a day, so why the fat fuck would I spend $200 so as to head into Downtown NYC and watch a stage-adaptation? And to be quite honest, this special didn’t help.

Effectively, this is a shortened animated adaptation of the Broadway show, so I’m sure there were some liberties taken in that respect. But, the number of derivatives that were present in the original film which have since been dropped have certainly irked me to the point of no return. Some of my favorite things about the original movie like Bob Newhart doing the narration and everything Miles Finch have been replaced with Greenway turning into the Grinch and a rather depressing take on ‘Jovie’.

There is a bunch to like here however that probably makes it better than the Broadway adaptation. For starters, Screen Novelties puts together a rather fantastic-looking NYC and I loved every minute of it. From the really small cars to the vibrant buildings, you can certainly tell that a lot of tender, love, and care was put into the special. I question a few of the character designs, like why the fuck was Santa 3-inches tall?, but overall the presentation was very well-done. On the voice cast side, I couldn’t help but feel that Jim Parsons was just too over-the-top annoying. Granted, the character of Buddy the Elf reads like annoying, but Parsons was more agitating whereas Ferrell usually delivered a sweetness to his pestering. Mark Hamill continues to redefine his voice career as he voiced the role of Buddy’s dad, and notable shout outs go to Rachael MacFarlane, Gilbert Gottfried (!!!!), and the always dependable Santa Claus played by Ed Asner.

As noted, the movie fan in me really wants to hate this special, and certainly I preferred How Murray Saved Christmas by a mile. But, Screen Novelties helped to keep me interested if not to just gawk in excitement at all of the intricate background designs. We don’t get a classic, nor a decent remake of a classic, what we get is somewhere further down the trough with the leftovers.