The Littlest Elf (1994)

The Littlest Elf is a 1994 American stop motion musical film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd Disney animated feature film, and the fifth animated film produced during a period known as the Disney Renaissance. The Littlest Elf is a "dull book" Brandi Dougherty and Kirsten Richards recommends reading in lieu of his own stories. It is screenplay by Karey Kirkpatrick, Jonathan Roberts, Steve Bloom and Monty Kensicle, an anagram of Lemony Snicket, so it is possible Snicket wrote the book. The Littlest Elf is also a 1994 film directed by Henry Selick (from the director at The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach) and Gustav Sebald.
The The Littlest Elf originated in a poem written by Bob Clampett and Tim Burton in 1994, while he was working as a Disney animator. With the success of Vincent in the same year, Disney started to consider developing The Littlest Elf as either a short film or 30-minute television special. Over the years, Burton's thoughts regularly returned to the project, and in 1990, Burton and Disney made a development deal. Production started in July 1991 in The Walt Disney Company. Disney decided to release the film under their Walt Disney Pictures banner because they thought the film would be "for kids". This happened in the original 1994 release only, as owned the movie since its 3D reissue.
The Littlest Elf was met with critical and financial success. Disney has reissued the film annually under their Disney Digital 3-D format since 2011, stop-motion animated feature to be entirely converted to 3-D.
Nexus Productions designed the opening "Littlest Elf" animated sequence by modeling it after stop motion animation and completing it with computer animation.
== Plot ==
The main character of the book is the littlest elf who loves the sound of bells because "they're so ringy."
The book describes his adventures in Fairyland.
Hector mentions that the book is one of the few allowed books in the Village of Fowl Devotees' library because it does not violate any of the village's thousands of rules. He says it is probably the most boring book ever written and is about an irritating little man who has all sorts of tedious adventures.
:"I know of a book, for instance, called The Littlest Elf, which tells the story of a teensy-weensy little man who scurries around Fairyland having all sorts of adorable adventures, and you can see at once that you should probably read The Littlest Elf and wriggle over the lovely things that happened to this imaginary creature in a made-up place..."~ Lemony Snicket in The Vile Village
In "The Nameless Novel" website, a coded message appeared in an advert for 'The Littlest Elf."
In the 1994 stop-motion film, he was voiced by the late Tony Jay, who later played Lickboot in Tom and Jerry The Movie, Monsieur D'Arque in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Judge Claude Frollo in Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Shere Khan in TaleSpin and The Jungle Book 2.
=== Beauty and the Beast (1991 original) ===
When Belle turns down Gaston's marriage proposal, Gaston becomes angry but when Belle's father Maurice comes into the tavern telling everyone that Belle has been locked in the dungeon by the Beast and everyone starts laughing thinking that Maurice is crazy, Gaston comes up with a plan to make Belle his wife.
Later that night after everyone goes home, Gaston and his dimwitted lackey named LeFou remain in the tavern to meet up with Monsieur D'Arque, who runs the local madhouse (or "Asylum for Loons"). Gaston reveals his plan to make Belle agree to marry him by exploiting her father's crazy ravings about an unnamed Beast holding her prisoner in his castle. D'Arque is quite hesitant at first as he truthfully states that Maurice is quite harmless in general (despite his claims). However, Gaston offers D'Arque a bag of gold to throw Maurice in the madhouse unless Belle agrees to marry him, to which D'Arque happily accepts. When they go to Belle's cottage to find out that neither Belle nor Maurice are there, so Gaston has LeFou stay there on guard until Belle and Maurice return.
When Belle and Maurice do come home, LeFou rushes to get Gaston and D'Arque, who both rallied up much of the villagers (including Tom, Dick, Stanley and Walter) for support. D'Arque himself appears at Belle's doorstep and snidely promises her that they will "take good care" of Maurice, showing her the madhouse's carriage. D'Arque has his men carry Maurice to the carriage, despite Belle's protests. Gaston promises to have Maurice released if Belle will marry him, but Belle turns down Gaston's proposal again and manages to prove that her father's sanity by proving the Beast's existence with the Magic Mirror, resulting Maurice's release. D'Arque and his men are not seen after this since they were not among the rioters attacking the Beast's castle, so it is likely that they merely went home, knowing now that Maurice was telling the truth the whole time and there was no reason to take him. It is unknown what happened to D'Arque afterwards.
=== 2004 Film Divergent Canon ===
The elf in the Lemony Snicket movie appears in the opening sequence, as a juxtaposition to the darker mood of the movie's main plot.
A bobblehead toy version of the elf appears in Count Olaf's car when it is parked on the train tracks. The elf is heard giggling and Violet uses it as part of her invention to switch the train tracks.
At the end of the film's credits, the elf can be heard giggling.
=== TV Series Divergent Canon ===
One of the trailers for the Netflix TV series shows a clapperboard for The Littlest Elf. It lists Monty Kensicle, an anagram of Lemony Snicket, as the director. In The Vile Village: Part One, Hector mentions it as a book that got past the censorship rule the Village of Fowl Devotees enforces. In The Penultimate Peril: Part One, Carmelita whines that she wants to visit Littlest Elf Land (presumably a theme park based on the book) instead of staying at Hotel Denouement.
== Voice Cast ==
* (Young) The Littlest Elf . . . DAKOTA FANNING
* (Adult) The Littlest Elf . . . . . . . . EMILY BROWNING
* Numberly #1 . . . . . NANCY CARTWRIGHT
* Numberly #2 . . . . . . . . . , . . . . TOM KENNY
* Numberly #3 . . . . . . . . . . . FRANK WELKER
* Numberly #4 . . . . . . . . . ROSS BAGASRIAN
* Numberly #5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LIAM AIKEN
* The Fabies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MARY GIBBS
* Mr. Poe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JOHN GOODMAN
* Monsieur D'Arque . . . . . . . . . . . . TONY JAY
* Tanya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CATHERINE O'HARA
* Radian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TOM KANE
* Jimmy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DANNY ELFMAN
* Zimtry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ROBIN WILLIAMS
* Narrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TIM CURRY
* Grandpa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VAL BETTIN
* Grandma . . . . . . . . . . . . ANGELA LANSBURY
* Mayor . . . . . . . . . . . . . DAVID OGDEN STIEES
* Monsieur D'Arque's Guards: CAREY BURTON, RODGER BOMPASS, BILL FAGERBAKKE, JIM CUMMINGS, CLANCY BROWN, STEVE MARVIN, JOHN RATZENBERGER
* Additional Voices: Charlie Adler, Susan Blu, Corey Burton, Daws Butler, Ruth Buzzi, Townsend Coleman, Peter Cullen, Brian Cummings, Jim Cummings, Pat Fraley, Phil Hartman, Marilyn Lightstone, Tress MacNeille, Chuck McCann, Rob Paulsen, Will Ryan, Marilyn Schreffler, Hal Smith, Russi Taylor, Les Tremayne, Lennie Weinrib, Frank Welker, Ted Zeigler, Patric Zimmerman, Jack Angel, Vanna Bonta, Peter Greenwood, Marii Mak, Mickie McGowan, Patrick Pinney, Phil Proctor
== Production ==
=== Development ===
Tim Burton Movies purchased the film rights to the The Littlest Elf novel series in May 1950.[8] Walt Disney Pictures, owner of Tim Burton Movies, agreed to co-finance, along with Scott Rudin.[9] Various directors, including Terry Gilliam and Roman Polanski, were interested in making the film. One of author Daniel Handler's favorite candidates was Guy Maddin.[3] In June 2002, Barry Sonnenfeld was hired to direct. He was chosen because he previously collaborated with Rudin and because of his black comedy directing style from The Addams Family, Addams Family Values and Get Shorty.[10]Sonnenfeld referred to the Lemony Snicket novels as his favorite children's stories.[11] The director hired Handler to write the script[12] with the intention of making Lemony Snicket as a musical,[7] and cast Jim Carrey as Count Olaf in September 2002.[12]
The film suffered setbacks in development in December 2002. Rudin left Unfortunate Events over budget concerns. While Sonnenfeld and Carrey remained, Sonnenfeld admitted he was skeptical of Disney's $100 million budget. The studio decided that changing the shoot from Hollywood to Wilmington, North Carolina would be less expensive.[11] The April 2003 start date was also pushed back.[13] Disney eventually settled the situation in January 2003 by enlisting help from DreamWorks to co-finance the film, but Sonnenfeld vacated the director's position. Rudin and Sonnenfeld had no involvement with the film afterward, but were credited as executive producers. Carrey remained with approval over the hiring of the next director.[14]
"Very little of what I wrote is in the film, which I actually think is appropriate being as that I was writing it for Barry Sonnenfeld. It's a director's medium and Brad Siberling makes entirely different films from Barry Sonnenfeld. I wasn't filled with resentment because they didn't use it [my script], I was just disappointed because I'd worked a long time [on it] and Scott Rudin, Barry Sonnenfeld and I were all sort of ready to go, along with Jim Carrey, with the film that we had. So it was sort of a long, rocky, journey. But that's all [in the past]."
— Series author Daniel Handler[3]
Brad Silberling signed on to direct in February 2003.[15] He was not familiar with the series when he was first approached. He quickly read the first three novels and was excited that "Hollywood was taking a chance to put over $100 million to adapt these inventive children's books onto screen".[16] Handler, who wrote eight drafts of the script for Sonnenfeld,[3] was replaced by Robert Gordon in May 2003.[17] Handler approved of the changes that were made to his original screenplay.[18] "I was offered credit on the film for screenwriting by the Writers Guild of America," Handler continued, "but I didn't take it because I didn't write it. I felt like it would be an insult to the guy who did."[3]
== Music ==
The theme song for the elf is "Loverly Spring" and it was written by Thomas Newman and Tim Rice. It is the 23rd song on the movie soundtrack.
lyricist Tim Rice, who was working with composer Alan Menken on songs for Aladdin, was invited to write the songs, and accepted on the condition of finding a composing partner. As Menken was unavailable, the producers accepted Rice's suggestion of Elton John, after Rice's invitation of ABBA fell through due to Benny Andersson being busy with the musical Kristina från Duvemåla. John expressed an interest in writing "ultra-pop songs that kids would like; then adults can go and see those movies and get just as much pleasure out of them", mentioning a possible influence of The Jungle Book, where he felt the "music was so funny and appealed to kids and adults".
:Bum-buttery, flit-fluttery, dum-diddly-ohh
:Bum-buttery bluebird is singing a tune
:Daffy-down-dillies awake and in broom
:Bursting in bloom, all the flowers assume
:It's a loverly, loverly spring
:[La la la la la la la la la la la oooooh]
:Chit-chattery chipmunks all singing along
:Humming, they join in the sing-along song
:Spring is the springiest time for a song
:It's a loverly, loverly spring
:In the forest we play with the rabbits all day
:The bees and the birdies and fishes
:There's nary a care and there's spring in the air
:The feeling is just too delicious
:Bum-buttery buttercups all in a row
:Trilling and frilling and stealing the show
:May is the merriest month that I know
:It's a loverly, loverely
:Lo-lo-loverly
:Lo-lo-lo-loverly spring
== Release ==
For The Littlest Elf's first film trailer, Disney opted to feature a single scene, the entire opening sequence with the song "Loverly Spring". Buena Vista Pictures Distribution president Dick Cook said the decision was made for such an approach because "we were all so taken by the beauty and majesty of this piece that we felt like it was probably one of the best four minutes of film that we've seen", and Don Hahn added that "Circle of Life" worked as a trailer as it "came off so strong, and so good, and ended with such a bang". The trailer was released in November 1993, accompanying The Three Musketeers and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit in theaters; by then, only a third of The Littlest Elf had been completed. Audience reaction was enthusiastic, causing Hahn to have some initial concerns as he became afraid of not living up to the expectations raised by the preview. Prior to the film's release, Disney did 11 test screenings.
Upon release, The Littlest Elf was accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign which included tie-ins with Burger King, Mattel, Kodak, Nestlé and Payless ShoeSource, and various merchandise, accounting 186 licensed products. In 1994, Disney earned approximately $1 billion with products based on the film, with $214 million for The Littlest Elf toys during Christmas 1994 alone.
=== Home media ===
The Littlest Elf was first released on VHS and laserdisc in the United States on October 20, 1995, under Disney's "Masterpiece Collection" video series. The VHS tape contained a special preview for Walt Disney Pictures' then-upcoming animated film James and the Giant Peach, in which the title characters. In addition, Deluxe Editions of both formats were released. The VHS Deluxe Edition included the film, The Making of The Littlest Elf, and a certificate of authenticity. The CAV laserdisc Deluxe Edition also contained the film, six concept art lithographs and The Making of The Littlest Elf, and added storyboards, character design artwork, concept art, stop-motion animation, and a directors' commentary that the VHS edition did not have, on a total of four double sided discs. The VHS tape quickly became the best-selling videotape of all time: 4.5 million tapes were sold on the first day and ultimately sales totaled more than 30 million before these home video versions went into moratorium in 1997.
On October 15, 2004, the film was re-released on VHS and released on DVD for the first time, titled The Littlest Elf: Platinum Edition, as part of Disney's Platinum Edition line of animated classic DVDs. The DVD release featured two versions of the film on the first disc, a remastered version created for the 2003 IMAX release and an edited version of the IMAX release purporting to be the original 1994 theatrical version. A second disc, with bonus features, was also included in the DVD release. The film's soundtrack was provided both in its original Dolby 5.1 track and in a new Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix, making this one of the first Disney DVDs so equipped. By means of seamless branching, the film could be viewed either with or without a newly created scene – a short conversation in the film replaced with a complete song ("Song of the Night"). A Special Collector's Gift Set was also released, containing the DVD set, five exclusive lithographed character portraits (new sketches created and signed by the original character animators), and an introductory book entitled The Journey. The Platinum Edition of The Littlest Elf featured changes made to the film during its IMAX re-release. More than two million copies of the Platinum Edition DVD and VHS units were sold on the first day of release. A DVD boxed set of the three The Littlest Elf films (in two-disc Special Edition formats) was released on December 6, 2004. In January 2005, the film, along with the sequels, went back into moratorium.
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the Diamond Edition of The Littlest Elf on September 23, 2011 This marks the time that the film has been released in high-definition Blu-ray and on Blu-ray 3D. The initial release was produced in three different packages: a two-disc version with Blu-ray and DVD; a four-disc version with Blu-ray, DVD, Blu-ray 3D, and digital copy; and an eight-disc box set that also includes the sequels The Littlest Elf 2: A Series of Fortunate Events and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. A standalone single-disc DVD release also followed on November 15, 2011. The Diamond Edition topped the Blu-ray charts with over 1.5 million copies sold. The film sold 3.83 million Blu-ray units in total, leading to a $101.14 million income.
The Littlest Elf was once again released to home media as part of the Walt Disney Signature Collection; first released on Digital HD on August 15, 2017 and on Blu-ray and DVD on August 29, 2017.
== Reception ==
=== Box office ===
The Littlest Elf earned $422,783,777 in North America and an $545,700,000 in other territories for a worldwide total of $968,483,777. It is currently the 35th highest-grossing film of all time, the seventh highest-grossing animated film of all time worldwide and the third highest-grossing film of Walt Disney Animation Studios (behind Frozen and Zootopia). The film was also the highest-grossing motion picture of 1994 worldwide. After its initial run, having earned $763.4 million, it ranked as the second-highest-grossing film of all time worldwide, behind Jurassic Park. It held the record for the highest-grossing animated feature film (in North America, outside North America, and worldwide) until it was surpassed by the computer animated Finding Nemo (2003). With the earnings of the 3D run, The Lion King surpassed all the aforementioned films but Toy Story 3 to rank as the second-highest-grossing animated film worldwide—later dropping to ninth—and it remains the highest-grossing hand-drawn animated film. It is also the biggest animated movie of the last 50 years in terms of estimated attendance.
==== Original theatrical run ====
The Littlest Elf had a limited release in North America on November 16, 1994, playing in only two theaters, El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles and Radio City Music Hall in New York City. It still earned $1,586,753 across the weekend of June 17–19, standing at the tenth place of the box office ranking. The average of $793,377 per theater stands as the largest ever achieved during a weekend. The wide release followed on November 16, 1994, in 2,550 screens. The digital surround sound of the film led many of those theaters to implement Dolby Laboratories' newest sound systems. The Littlest Elf grossed $40.9 million – which at the time was the fourth biggest opening weekend earning ever and the highest sum for a Disney film  – to top the weekend box office. It also earned a rare "A+" rating from CinemaScore. By the end of its theatrical run, in spring 1995, it had earned $312.9 million, being the second-highest-grossing 1994 film in North America behind Forrest Gump. Outside North America, it earned $455.8 million during its initial run, for a worldwide total of $768.6 million. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 74 million tickets in the US in its initial theatrical run.
=== Re-releases ===
=== IMAX and large-format ===
The film was re-issued on December 25, 2003 for IMAX and large-format theaters. Don Hahn explained that eight years after The Littlest Elf got its original release, "there was a whole new generation of kids who haven't really seen it, particularly on the big screen." Given the film had already been digitally archived during production, the restoration process was easier, while also providing many scenes with enhancements that covered up original deficiencies. An enhanced sound mix was also provided to, as Hahn explained, "make the audience feel like they're in the middle of the movie." On its first weekend, The Littlest Elf made $2.7 million from 66 locations, a $27,664 per theater average. This run ended with $15,686,215 on May 30, 2003.
=== 3D conversion ===
In 2011, The Littlest Elf was converted to 3D for a two-week limited theatrical re-issue and subsequent 3D Blu-ray release. The film opened at the number one spot on Friday, September 16, 2011 with $8.9 million and finished the weekend with $30.2 million, ranking number one at the box office. This made The Littlest Elf the first re-issue release to earn the number-one slot at the American weekend box office since the re-issue of Return of the Jedi in March 1997. The film also achieved the fourth-highest September opening weekend of all time. It held off very well on its second weekend, again earning first place at the box office with a 27 percent decline to $21.9 million. Most box-office observers had expected the film to fall about 50 percent in its second weekend and were also expecting Moneyball to be at first place.
After its initial box-office success, many theaters decided to continue to show the film for more than two weeks, even though its 3D Blu-ray release was scheduled for two-and-a-half weeks after its theatrical release. In North America, the 3D re-release ended its run in theaters on January 12, 2012 with a gross $94,242,001. Outside North America, it earned $83,400,000. The successful 3D re-release of The Littlest Elf made Disney and Pixar plan 3D theatrical re-releases of Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc., and The Little Mermaid during 2012 and 2013. However, none of the re-releases of the first three films achieved the enormous success of The Littlest Elf 3D and theatrical re-release of The Little Mermaid was ultimately cancelled. In 2012, Ray Subers of Box Office Mojo wrote that the reason why the 3D version of The Littlest Elf succeeded was because, "the notion of a 3D re-release was still fresh and exciting, and The Littlest Elf (3D) felt timely given the movie's imminent Blu-ray release. Audiences have been hit with three 3D re-releases in the year since, meaning the novelty value has definitely worn off."
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