Lovely Christmas Film

Rating: 8/10 (1 February 2014)

Elf review
Elf is an American Christmas comedy film, written by David Berenbaum and directed by actor Jon, the film was released in 2003. The cast is mainly made up of Will Ferrell, James Caan, Bob Newhart, Ed Asnar and Zooey Deschanel; it was released in America on November 7th and it grossed over$220,400,000 worldwide. The plot is: one Christmas Eve a baby boy crawls into Santa's present sack while he's delivering gifts to children in an orphanage, Santa doesn't know that he has took the baby back to the North Pole, where Papa Elf volunteers to raise him. Through a misunderstanding the boy is renamed Buddy. He is raised unaware that he really is a human, not an elf- until his size and average toy making leads him to the truth. Papa Elf reveals to Buddy that his father is called Walter Hobbs, his mother was ('was' as she is dead) called Susan Wells and he was given up for adoption, his Dad still doesn't know that he exists. Walter now works at a children's book company in New York, Buddy then sets out to Manhattan to find his father. When he arrives in the 'Big Apple' Buddy tracks down his Dad in the Empire State Building, Buddy goes and sings to Walter in his elf suit just to be escorted out by security. The security tells Buddy (sarcastically) "get back to Gimbels" he takes that literally, he goes to the shop and is mistaken for a worker, there he meets Jovi a fellow worker.That night, the human-elf hides in the store for hours and decorates it from head to toe like the North Pole; it is soon revealed that Santa is arriving at Gimbels that day to meet children, Buddy then gets a shock when he realises he is not the genuine Santa that he knows. Then a fight breaks out between Buddy and the imposter, he is sentenced to 24 hours in jail. Eventually, Walter bails him out and takes him for a DNA test, the test reveals Buddy is actually Walter's son, he then takes Buddy home to meet his step-mother (Emily) and step-brother (Michael). The human-elf shocks the family with his weird diet, his childlike personality and the insistence that he actually walked from the North Pole to New York. Buddy becomes friends with Michael after a snowball fight in Central Park, Mike persuades his brother to ask out Jovi, his crush. I don't want to ruin the end in case you watch the film so I'll leave it there. Like I said in my previous review, I love Christmas films but I have high standards. Elf certainly meets those standards, it is humorous for both child and teen (I can't say adult, I'm not an adult). It keeps Christmas spirit and is cute, the perfect film to put your tree up while watching it, or eat mince pies while watching it, practically you can do any traditional Christmas thing you want while watching it. All the cast do well but mostly Will Ferrell plays a great part, it's like he was made to play Buddy, he has all the characteristics: humour, silliness, etc. So it's well done to Jon Favreau you made one of the best Christmas films I've seen! RATING: 8.0/10
Best parts: Arriving in New York Decorating Gimbels Snowball fight in Central Park