Elf (2003)
Retro Review #34: The early frontrunner for best Christmas movie of the 21st century delivers non-stop laughs.
Elf (2003) — The early frontrunner for best Christmas movie of the 21st century delivers non-stop laughs.
+ Feature film, /!@ 1h 37m🎖️
A+^
Family Suitability
+ ✅2️⃣ OK for teens and adults. (Grades 7+) | PGa
Alignment with Judeo-Christian Values
+ ❎1️⃣ Fair/Slightly Favorable
+ 1️⃣/3 works in Elf multiverse ⭐
Elf (2003)
Grade: A+^ (20.0) / HOF: 90
EQ 👍A+ | 📖A+ 👥A+ 📽️A+ 🎼A
DW 😎9.9 | 🌚9 🌝13
POPCAP 💯n/a 🍿n/a 🧢n/a
L-R ☮️n/a ◀️n/a ▶️n/a 🛐n/a
Maybe you don’t care about watching the best Christmas movie ever. You just want to watch the funniest Christmas movie ever. Elf is the movie for you. In my opinion, it just barely edges out A Christmas Story for that title, even though I think A Christmas Story is the better movie overall. Both are among the pantheon of Christmas classics, with Elf being the first one of those many gems made in the 21st century.
If you haven’t seen Elf yet, don’t feel bad. I only got around to seeing it for the first time a couple years ago. You’ve probably at least heard the premise: comedian Will Ferrell plays Buddy Hobbs, a human, adopted and raised by elves at Santa’s North Pole workshop, but who then grows up and goes to New York City to find his real father.
The comedy is strong with this one. Non-stop laughs for most of the movie, despite tapering off just a bit at the end. Ferrell couldn’t be funnier, and this movie is cleaner than most of his films, acceptable for teenagers. Most of the content that is iffy for pre-teens would likely go over their heads, but there’s a tiny bit of language you might not want them repeating, so use caution.
The visuals in Elf are fantastic throughout, and, just like the comedy, they assault your senses right from the start, contributing greatly to the Whimsy. Colorful sets and costumes, added animation, and special effects all combine to make the movie look great. The stop motion animation they include in tribute to 1964’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is my favorite added special touch in the film.
The casting, directing and acting in Elf are all of top quality. Jon Favreau gets the best out of all his cast, with no poor performances to be found, even among the bit parts with just a few lines. That makes it hard to pick favorites!
I think this is Will Ferrell’s best role, showing that he’s not merely funny, but also has some acting chops given the right part and the right director.
James Caan as Buddy’s cynical biological father, Walter, and Mary Steenburgen as Walter’s well-intentioned wife Emily, both deliver characters played perfectly.
Zooey Deschanel brings just the right touch playing Jovie, an unmotivated department store worker, whose quirky charms understandably catch Buddy’s attention.
Then there are the comedy legends, Ed Asner and Bob Newhart, playing Santa Claus and our narrator, Papa Elf, respectively. Asner is more than fine in a role that doesn’t require much, whereas Newhart is hilarious in his trademarked deadpan way, calmly observing and giving succinct commentary on all the chaotic happenings.
The laughs and visual delights in Elf propel you past the premise of the story, and with the contributions from that great cast, the plot gets even better. Buddy finds a job, finds romance and finds a family. Most importantly, he finds a world that needs his Christmas spirit.
Elf is set in a similar secular world as The Santa Clause. It’s our world only Santa is real. This is Christmas without mentioning God or the birth of Jesus. It’s a romanticist worldview with a message to love everyone, because everyone is inherently good, at least if they try hard enough. But romanticism is about feelings, and refuses to call out bad behavior, because that doesn’t feel nice. Conversely, Christianity teaches we are not inherently good, and can’t stop sinning under our own power. Instead, we need to be redeemed by faith in Christ’s payment for our sin and indwelt by God’s Spirit.
Nevertheless, this feelings-focused viewpoint about Christmas is a common viewpoint found in American culture these days. Fortunately American culture and romanticism still embrace some of the feel-good Christian values, like love, kindness and family.
For that reason, I don’t object strongly to movies that come from a non-Christian romanticist viewpoint. Especially if their purpose, like Elf, is primarily to entertain and make us laugh. I do have issues with movies that gently push that viewpoint. The Santa Clause arguably does, but I gave it the benefit of a close call and said its alignment with Judeo-Christian values is tolerable. On reflection, perhaps I should have graded that alignment as slightly unfavorable. Maybe I will revisit it one day.
I have even bigger issues with adaptations that overwrite a Christian viewpoint with this romanticist viewpoint. Scrooged does that to Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
The romanticist message at the end of Elf just seems to be included as the obligatory Christmas happy wrap-up, rather than pushed at the audience with a heavy hand. So my bigger problem with Elf is that the last portion of the movie, also including some not-that-entertaining action sequences, isn’t as funny as the bulk of the film.
Don’t get me wrong, the ending isn’t weak, the romanticist message is weak and the sight gags and jokes trail off a bit. Overriding all of that, though, are the heroic growth examples of several characters, giving the movie a subtle but powerful punch at its climax. And ultimately redemption is a very Christian value.
Messages and values aside, if you just want to unwrap some laughter and Christmas cheer, then, compared to other holiday flicks, there will be more presents under your tree with Elf.
Onwards!
+ last viewed (3) 2025-12-24, HDX7, 1.85v, 5M
+ first viewed 2023-12, HDX7, 1.85v, 5M
+ 👨👩👧👦🎈⛄🎄🎅🗄️🦄🧙🛡️🥰😍🥸📚
Family Suitability Detail
+ ✅2️⃣ OK for teens and adults. (Grades 7+) | PGa
+ 😡+3 😵💫+2 🤬+2 🫢+2 🫣+1^
Judeo-Christian Values Detail
+ ❎1️⃣ Fair/Slightly Favorable
+ ✝️ +2 ➕(✝️)😇❤️(💒)🩸🩸💜🩷 ➖😍😍(💧🍺)
+ ✡️ +0 ➕🌗🌗🤍🤍 ➖😍😍🤬(🌓)
+ 🗽 -0 ➕🗽🇺🇸(⬜🤱) ➖😍😍💻☠️
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Originally posted to text group 2024-12-23
Re-reviewed and updated 2025-12-24
Note from Rick Retro: This review was originally posted December 23, 2024 to a select group of friends and family via a text group. We have roughly five times as many subscribers in our community now, so I am working on formatting and uploading all those old reviews to Substack for all of you and future subscribers as well.
At that time, I had not completely developed my full review format, so I am also re-reviewing most of these works to match the format of my newer reviews. Since these posts were almost entirely holiday themed from a 2024 Christmas Tour, I am now uploading these reviews as part of a 2025 Christmas Tour, all intended to get my archives completed while giving new subscribers a chance to experience older reviews on a measured basis.
But if you’d rather just start from the original beginning, visit this post and follow the “Next (all sections) ➡️” links at the end of each post, until you arrive at this one, where that link will be dead, until I upload the next post from our text group archives 😉. When the next post is not yet available, there will be a link to the post that is “Next Available, skipping over text group posts not yet uploaded ➡️”
The first post to Substack after the current “Text Group Gaps” of posts I have not yet uploaded can be found here. From this post, following the “Next (all sections) ➡️” links will bring you all the way to the most current post.
This note will disappear when the next text group post is added, and this review takes its rightful spot in our archives. For now, I hope you enjoy this look into Christmas past!
Text Group Comment:
W: LOVE that one, and our local theater troupe put on a great stage version for Christmas two years running.
I haven't watched the movie this year, but I accidentally got maple syrup out of the fridge when I was going for the pasta sauce yesterday, so I thought of it!!!
Reactions:
😂 from J
🩷 from T