Elf: O Natal Musical de Buddy

While it is not one of my favourite films, festive or not, 'Elf' is nonetheless an entertaining and charming film and one of Will Ferrell's better films. Being someone who also loves musicals and Christmas, part of me was looking forward somewhat to 'Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas'.

My thoughts on it are that it is not quite as bad as has been made out here, but it doesn't really live up to 'Elf' and promises more than it delivers. There are far worse Christmas specials, 'Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer', 'Star Wars Holiday Special' and particularly 'The Christmas Tree' are far worse and notoriously so. There are also far better, strong examples being the best of Rankin/Bass like 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer', 'Frosty the Snowman' and 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town'.

Starting with the positives, the animation is very well done, with lots of colour and detail and also liked the attention to expressions. Also thought the voice acting was very good, Ed Asner especially is spot on as Santa.

Jim Parsons likewise is a spirited Buddy and Gilbert Gottfried has fun with his character, though he doesn't quite overcome the tendency to go overboard.

The opening song number is catchy, starting 'Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas' on a promising note, while the music score is playful enough.

However, too many things work against 'Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas'. The rest of the songs are unmemorable, a few even downright irritating and add far less than they should do, actually they could have been excised and nobody would miss a thing. While the voice acting is fine generally Mark Hamill has definitely done far better work than here.

'Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas' doesn't fare very well in the story department. It lacks the warmth and heart of 'Elf', and lacks even more in charm. It treads far too much familiar ground and further suffers from being twice as long as it should have been, seeing as the story felt very stretched and padded out by the musical numbers. This affects the momentum of the second half where it runs out of steam.

Dialogue is corny rather than witty and veers on the saccharine, while the already tired gags go beyond breaking point and the message starts contradictory (missing the point of what 'Elf' was all about) and then is lost amidst everything else.

Overall, lacklustre but not without its merits. 4/10 Bethany Cox

This cynical cash in animation short basically retells the story of Elf, the Will Ferrell film without any of the charm and many of the cast from the original film.

Ed Asner does reprise his role to voice Santa who tells the grown up Buddy who thinks he is an Elf in the North Pole that he is actually human who stowed away in Santa's bag as a baby.

His real dad is Walter Hobbs living in New York who has been on the naughty list for years.

Buddy travels to see his father who works at a publishing company with a horrid boss. Walter is taken aback at first to see this grown up infant but Buddy's relentless cheer transforms him and when Santa comes to deliver presents the curmudgeonly Walter gets the festive fever.

Because this is labelled as a musical we have to put up with some mind numbingly dull songs. Even the animation is not much to shout home about.

It would be just be better to put the Ferrell film on.

I had very low expectations for this... thing. It still couldn't meet them. The first song went completely against the moral of the original Elf (2003). Santa sings about how he wishes the elves would stop singing. That's completely against the whole meaning of Elf! There truly was nothing good about this movie. The actors did okay with the bottom of the barrel writing they were given, except for Mark Hamill, who sounded like a robot, reading his lines with no life, no personality. The only reason I didn't give it a 1 is because Edward Asner actually did a very good job as Santa, who was the narrator. Once again, this good performance was ruined by awful writing. The worst part about this sorry excuse for a TV movie though, is that it ruined the story that formed a Christmas classic, Elf. The final scene might have earned itself a third star, if it weren't for Buddy being very annoying. He actually managed to be even more annoying than he had been all movie long. But to sum it all up, this thing had the cheesiest lines and songs that I've ever heard in a movie. Do yourself a favor and, if you taped it, or it's on again, don't watch this. Sit down on the couch, and watch the original Elf. That can actually be considered a movie. This remake is pure junk.

Christmastown in the North Pole is a really happy place. Buddy is the happiest one of them all and really really accident prone. Santa tells him that he is actually human who stowaway in Santa's bag as an orphan baby. His father is Walter Hobbs living in NYC who's been on the naughty list for over 50 years. He travels to see his father who works at Greenway Publishing. He's thrown out of his father's office. Then he meets and falls for Jovie who's ringing the donation bell on the street.

The first song is funny. I hoped that the special would continue like that but it never gets back to that level. Jim Parsons is a great cartoon voice but completely different than Will Ferrell. He sounds a bit like Jack McBrayer. Buddy keeps the show rolling. However the other songs aren't that much fun or catchy. They sound like the usual Broadway fare. The animation looks charming. They do change a few things from the movie. I wish the changes could have made the second half better.

I don't know why it was decided to make a short-form animated musical based on 2003's "Elf", which is a wonderful holiday movie. But whatever the case, if you've seen "Elf" and like it, there is nothing about "Buddy's Musical Christmas" that's noteworthy. The plot is basically the same, so there's no real fresh changes aside from a scene with some mall santas in a diner. Moreover, the characters aren't as charming here as their real-life actors made them. You come to appreciate how likable Will Ferrell made Buddy, 'cause here, he's annoying rather than endearing. The look style is whimsical, but it's a case of all style and no content.

You should just see "Elf" instead, and get way more for your time than this over-glorified and pointless TV special.