Holiday Classic Overview: Elf

This past Christmas, I had the pleasure of watching a certified Holiday classic with my family. Its a movie that has given me many great memories over the years and I got to see my little cousin Zoe watch it for the first time. That movie is of course Elf.

If you follow this blog, you may notice that I typically do like movies/shows/stories with darker tones and themes to it. However, with Elf, this was a movie that brought a lot of positivity into my life. For those who are not familiar with the movie….the story follows a human, Buddy, (played by the legend Will Ferrell) who was raised in the North Pole by elves. As he grew up, he learned to work in Santa’s workshop. However, he was eventually told the truth of his real heritage and that his biological family resided in New York. The movie follows Buddy as he journeys to New York to discover his heritage while spreading joy and Christmas spirit along the way.

What always stood out to me about the movie was Buddy as a character and how happy he carries himself everyday in life. His insistence on seeing the best in everyone even when it is so difficult to do so was always admirable. We can see the first instance of this when Buddy attempts to hug a raccoon. As with any wild animal, the mischievous mammal was resistant to Buddy’s attempt to greet the creature and snarled in response. Rather than give up, he attempted to hug the creature as he felt it was needed to brighten their day. Unfortunately, that did not go well.

The most important instance of this and where the lesson shines the most is Buddy’s interactions with his father, Walter. From the get-go, we know Walter is on the naughty list. Further more, it doesn’t even seem like he returns his own son’s love for him. At the beginning of the film, Buddy is promptly rejected by Walter who doesn’t even believe that he has another son. Yet despite all this, Buddy insists on continually visiting his dad and delivering presents even if the security roughly throws him out and mocks him. When he finally lives with Walter, its clear the father-son relationship is still one-sided, yet Buddy enjoys every single moment he spends with his father. I used to be annoyed at how naïve Buddy could be, but as I grow older, I begin to think perhaps it would be nice to be able to let go and just see the good in others more often.

As a self-proclaimed pessimist, another major aspect was how positive and happy the movie was presented as. I mean, Buddy being an absolute nucleus of happiness is one thing, but the other characters do well to bring their own source of positivity. Zooey Deschanel’s character is introduced in the movie as a love interest for our joyful elf. It feels really easy to be weirded out by Buddy’s overly optimistic attitude, but she accepts him for all that he brings. I have to give a shout-out to another character, Walter’s wife and Buddy’s step-mom, Emily. In most dramas I’ve seen, the step-mother is usually portrayed as a jealous woman who wants nothing to do with children that aren’t even hers. Yet, Emily is overjoyed to hear Walter has another son and wastes no time in welcoming Buddy. And although some characters such as Walter and Michael, Buddy’s half-brother, start out with a negative attitude, it really doesn’t take long for them to warm up.

The last major takeaway I had as a kid from this film was to just let all the joy of Christmas overtake me as I forget all of my stresses in life. Elf showed me that Christmas should be a time of joy, a time of giving, and a time spent with family. I particularly admired how the movie reminded how the small actions matter. Throughout his everyday walk in life, Buddy was said the small things or did the minor tasks which lead a persons entire day being brightened.

I’ll always fondly remember Elf every Christmas and the lessons it taught me as a kid and now as an adult. I’m glad that I was able to share this experience with family over the years and hope to continue to learn the important lessons on keeping a positive attitude in life.