Summary

• Elf was in development for 10 years before it reached the big screen, going through several rewrites and changes in studio and casting influences.
• Jim Carrey was originally considered for the role of Buddy the Elf, but Will Ferrell ultimately brought the iconic character to life.
• The original script for Elf was much darker, but director Jon Favreau rewrote it to make it more family-friendly and PG-rated.

Even the most beloved and entertaining movies can have a strange journey to the big screen and the Elf behind-the-scenes stories shed light on how the holiday favorite was made. Director Jon Favreau was making the transition from indie comedies to studio blockbusters with his own unique vision of how to bring this Christmas adventure to life. Will Ferrell was still establishing himself as a movie star while creating the iconic character of Buddy, the human who was raised by elves. These and other behind-the-scenes elements of Elf combined to create a movie fans are still laughing along with 20 years later.

Elf is a great Christmas movie that audiences rewatch each year for the holiday season. While the humor, heart, and memorable characters make it easy to revisit, learning a little more about what was behind some of the movie's most iconic moments or key aspects can enrich the experience. This ranges from the early casting choices, the unexpected directions the movie nearly took, and the on-the-fly decisions that ended up creating unforgettable moments in Elf.

The Movie Was 10 Years In The Making

Elf Was Nearly Made Before Ferrell's Career Began

It is rare for a project of any caliber to go directly from the draft script stage to being made into a motion picture. However, what may be surprising to learn is that Elf was first drafted and circulated all the way back in 1993, 10 years before the film finally made it to the big screen in 2003. The original movie was reportedly much different than the one that everyone will know and love.

Jon Favreau has discussed his rewrites for the movie at length, and studio and casting influences also decidedly changed the film from what it once could have been. Hollywood changed a lot from the early 1990s to the early 2000s, so there's no way of telling what a 1990s Elf would have looked like.

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Jim Carrey Was The Original Choice For Buddy

The 1990s Attempt To Make It Nearly Saw The Comedic Icon In The Lead Role

Buddy the Elf became a career-defining role for the already standout comedic talent Will Ferrell. After all of his years on Saturday Night Live, the movie allowed him to successfully transition to the big screen, launching a career that has spanned movies and establishing him as one of the hottest comedy stars of the 2000s.

However, back when the movie was in its earliest point of development in the 1990s, it was another popular star of the era who was originally envisioned for the part of Buddy. As hard as it may be to conceive of, Buddy the Elf was once going to be played by Ace Venture: Pet Detective himself, Jim Carrey. Of course, Carrey would go on to play the Grinch, making his own mark on the holiday movie season.

The Movie Was Nearly Much Darker

Favreau Made Changes In The Rewrite

The Elf movie that arrived in theaters has become a family-friendly favorite among fans of all ages. However, the film that made it to the big screen all those years later is reportedly a cleaner and lighter one than what was originally imagined. It may be hard to picture a darker version of Buddy the Elf, but thanks to Jon Favreau's work in the rewriting process, that's not the version audiences got. The process to get Elf made was complex as Favreau recalled in an interview with Rolling Stone,

"I took a look at the script, and I wasn't particularly interested. It was a much darker version of the film. So for a year, I rewrote the script. It turned into more of a PG movie from a PG-13. He was a darker character in the script I had read originally."

Will Ferrell Refuses To Make An Elf Sequel

Ferrell Returned To The Christmas Movie Genre With Spirited

Given the massive success and continued love for Elf, there has never been any real development of a sequel even after two decades and plenty of fan support. If leading man Will Ferrell has anything to say about it, however, that day will never come. In an interview with The Guardian, Ferrell confirmed that he had shot down the idea of a sequel even if it meant turning down a sizable payday:

"$29m does seem a lot of money for a guy to wear tights, but it's what the marketplace will bear. ... I just think it would look slightly pathetic if I tried to squeeze back in the elf tights: Buddy the middle-aged elf."

Peter Billingsley From A Christmas Story Cameos

Billingsley Plays Ming Ming The Elf

Elf is merely one of a large number of feel-good holiday movies that have become considered part of the Christmas movie classic canon. Another one of these films is the decidedly less wholesome and more sarcastic A Christmas Story, released 20 years prior to Elf in 1983. The movie followed the adventures of Ralphie in the 1940s as he tries to ensure that he will be given a BB gun for Christmas.

The film is filled with biting humor and family satire. However, its connection to Elf happens so suddenly that it's likely many fans miss it. Peter Billingsley, the child star of A Christmas Story, has a brief cameo in Elf as one of the elves in Santa's workshop with whom Buddy interacts. Billingsley is a friend of Jon Favreau and appeared as a Stark Industries employee in Iron Man.

The Elf Costumes Were Designed With A Nostalgic Favorite In Mind

Favreau's Love Of Rankin/Bass Specials Influenced The Movie

So much of what makes Elf work is its reliance upon the older charms of innocent childhood favorites including Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town. Jon Favreau recalled to Rolling Stone in 2013 that the movie needed to be infused with the world of these classics in order to work:

"I remember reading it, and it clicked: if I made the world that he was from as though he grew up as an elf in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, one of those Rankin/Bass Christmas specials I grew up with, then everything fell into place tonally." With additional rewrites, "the world became more of a pastiche of the Rankin/Bass films."

As a result of this added nostalgic quality, the elves are seen wearing outfits that are inspired by the same ones Hermie and his friends wore in the Rankin/Bass special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Buddy’s Terror at the Jack-In-The-Box Was Genuine

The Menacing Toy Gave Ferrell As Real Shock

Poor Buddy often finds himself put in situations that test his elfish cheer and strength, especially when he's tasked with jobs that other elves are able to perform much more readily and with greater success. For Buddy, this includes the testing of various creepy Jack-in-the-box toys to ensure that the little chattering clowns do indeed pop up when they are supposed to do so.

Buddy's trepidation is palpable each time he turns the crank on the brightly colored boxes, but the final time, when the Jack-in-the-box is delayed in its escape from the box, his fear is entirely on display -- and for good reason, too, as this was Will Ferrell's genuine reaction to Jon Favreau remotely controlling the toy from off-screen, which is a great hidden detail that elevates the film and shows the imagination that went into the making of Elf.

Forced Perspective Was Used To Make Buddy Look Like A Giant

Clever Filmmaking Made For Great Physical Comedy Moments

Many of the jokes that take place in the North Pole scenes are purely born out of the visual absurdity of Buddy ever thinking he could be an elf. For example, Will Ferrell would normally tower over the adorable Bob Newhart to begin with, but thanks to a specific technique similar to what Lord of the Rings did, the size difference is even more exaggerated. Elf utilized the technique of forced perspective in order to create this optical illusion. As Jon Favreau explained:

"One set is raised and closer and smaller, and one is bigger and further away. And if you were to line up those two sets and measure them, you can have one person on one set appear to be much larger than a person on the other set. ... And if you look closely, you can see the two sets meet because we didn’t use CG to paint over that or blur it. I wanted it to have the same flaws that it would have had, to make the movie feel more timeless."

The Other Elves Were Originally Much Meaner

Favreau Wanted The North Pole To Be The Opposite Of New York City

The other elves in the North Pole don't exactly take to Buddy. He overhears them talking about how different he is and is clearly hurt by their perceived rejection of him. However, the elves are never outright mean to him over the course of his time in the North Pole. Yet, in the original script, things would have been very different, featuring mean elves who openly bullied the outsider Buddy and made him feel less than even more than anything else.

Jon Favreau decided to change this in his rewrites because he felt it would provide a better contrast for Buddy to come from the idyllic North Pole into the harsh reality of New York City:

"It explained why Buddy was doing all these good things in New York if he grew up in a world where everybody was so sweet even when he’s obviously screwing everything up and doesn’t fit in at all."

The Movie Didn’t Have Much Music Prior To Zooey Deschanel’s Casting

Music Becomes A Big Plot Point In The Third Act

It's amazing how just casting one character can completely change a project. In the case of Elf, the casting that most drastically changed the movie was the choice to have Zooey Deschanel fill the role of Jovie, the department store Elf who becomes Buddy's eventual love interest. It was only because of Deschanel's considerable musical talent that so much singing was added to the script.

Jovie and Buddy first meet for real when he overhears her singing "Baby It's Cold Outside" in the employee showers, and Jovie's leading a rousing round of "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" at the end of the movie provides Santa's sleigh with enough Christmas spirit to continue flying. After all, the film itself says it best: "the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear." Without the addition of Deschanel, Christmas cheer may have been nowhere to be found and the making of Elf would have been quite different.

The Snowball Fight Scene Was Primarily CGI

Buddy's Skills Were Digitally Augmented

Certain directors to this day will prefer the use of practical effects over CGI effects whenever possible. In the early 2000s, when CGI was hardly of the caliber that it is now, it made even more sense for productions to shy away from over-relying upon the method of production. While Jon Favreau emphasized the use of stop-motion in particular in the movie, there is one sequence that was all but impossible to film without some serious CGI work.

When Buddy engages in a snowball fight with some pesky children, he basically becomes a human canon, throwing snowballs at a rate that would be beyond impossible for any human being. CGI was heavily used in this sequence, and Favreau also chose to highlight the dramatized nature of the moment with the score, choosing something akin to an old Western standoff.

Buddy’s Journey Was Inspired By The Tom Hanks Movie Big

The Childlike Wonder Influenced Buddy

Buddy the Elf may not be a child in the traditional sense of the word, but his experience of the world of New York City is entirely reminiscent of a child let loose in a candy store. Elf may be 15 years old now, but it was hardly the first movie in the genre of "childlike hero lost in the big city." In fact, one of the clearest examples of the trope that became a touchstone for this film was Tom Hanks' 1988 fantasy romantic comedy Big. Will Ferrell confirmed that Big "absolutely was" a major inspiration during production:

"We always talked about making a movie close to or reminiscent of a movie like Big, where it’s funny and touching in a way that’s real and not too sappy. That was exactly the specific movie we’d reference."

Buddy’s Burp Was Performed By A Well-Known Voiceover Artist

Pinky And The Brain Alum Was Recruited For A Memorable Moment

Elf may be a family movie, but there's no denying that some of its jokes were really meant for kids and kids alone. The clearest example of this is when Buddy unexpectedly belches for an extremely long time while sitting at the family dinner table to the adults' disgust and his new half-brother's great amusement. Hard as it may be to believe, this noise was not digitally produced or the result of any prop work.

This was performed by the legendary voiceover artist, Maurice LaMarche, known for his work as Brain in Pinky and the Brain among many other roles. LaMarche used this odd skill during his time on Animaniacs, and, per his recollection, "somebody working on Elf saw that and said, 'Get the guy who did the burps for the Great Wakkorotti on Animaniacs.' So that was one take, one long, sustained 15-second patented Maurice LaMarche belch."

Buddy’s Sugar-Heavy Diet Made Will Ferrell Sick

Ferrell Committed To Buddy's Eating Habits

Candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup -- those are the four main elf food groups, according to Buddy the Elf, so it goes without saying that the diet that Buddy is one in the movie is certainly not a healthy one. The disgusting meal of spaghetti, candy, and maple syrup he prepares in the movie is merely an example of this disgusting behavioral pattern. Unfortunately for Will Ferrell, it turns out that a lot of Buddy's dietary restrictions involved some real method acting:

"That was tough. I ingested a lot of sugar in this movie and I didn't get a lot of sleep. I constantly stayed up. But anything for the movie, I'm there. If it takes eating a lot of maple syrup, then I will — if that's what the job calls for."

Buddy’s Singing in Santaland Was Entirely Improvised

Ferrell Embraced Buddy's Spirit

Method acting isn't always the common approach for actors these days, but apparently, Will Ferrell got entirely into embracing Buddy's point of view of the world. In one of the many bizarrely hilarious and oddly adorable moments in the movie, Buddy finds himself in Santaland in Gimbel's department store and suddenly bursts into song because that's what comes naturally to his joyful mind. As it turns out much like the other standout moments in the making of Elf, this moment was entirely adlibbed by Will Ferrell:

"Singing in the Santaland, where I'm demonstrating how easy it is to sing...the lyrics were improvised, definitely. I just threw Buddy's mind of what a song would be like, stream of consciousness singing."

Buddy’s Montage Of New York Adventures Was A Last-Minute Idea

Favreau Took A Small Crew To Complete The Memorable Moments

One of the most endearing sequences in the entire movie can be found as soon as Buddy arrives in the big city. Left to his own devices, he begins to wander around town, getting caught up in a revolving door, eating subway gum, and celebrating a local coffee shop's proclamation that they were home to the World's Best Cup of Coffee. However, these short moments may not have happened at all were it not for a last-minute idea from director Jon Favreau: He recalled:

"The last day of shooting in New York, we just took cameras. We didn't even have the director of photography. We just took a camera man and a film loader and some PAs and went around the city in a van, jumped out and threw people some money and got to use all different locations... with all real people around him [Will Ferrell]. I put him in those situations and he had to improvise and stay in character while dealing with people who, for the most part, didn't even know they were in a movie."

Macy's Rejected The Fake Store Santa

Artie Lange Played The Counterfeit Santa Who Fights Buddy

One of the most iconic moments in the entire movie comes when Buddy is confronted with the fraudulent Gimbel's store Santa and reveals him to be a fake, which includes the iconic line, "You sit on a throne of lies!" It's one of the best moments in a film filled to the brim with laughs, but if the production had originally gone as planned, it wouldn't have happened at all. Jon Favreau recalled (via Rolling Stone):

"Macy’s was willing to let us shoot there, use their Santaland, even incorporate us into the parade. That was a big deal for a tiny movie that didn’t have any expectations. However, one of the stipulations was, we would have had to remove the Artie Lange scene, where Santa is revealed to be a fake, because their Santa has to be real. We had to think long and hard about it."

Ultimately, the importance of the scene won out, and Gimbel's was used instead.

The Stop-Motion Critters Were Voiced By Familiar Faces

Favreau Got Permission To Include Rankin/Bass Characters

Jon Favreau is a self-proclaimed big fan of stop motion, especially in the vein of the old Rankin/Bass Christmas specials that have become such iconic parts of popular culture. The influence of stop motion icons, however, wasn't limited to the Rankin/Bass references -- although the iconic pair's reach extends further into the movie than even the most eagle-eyed fans may realize.

According to IGN's exclusive coverage of the film, Favreau was able to get permission from Rankin/Bass to use some of the characters from their animated specials. This includes a new version of Burl Ives' Sam the Snowman who is renamed Leon the Snowman. Leon is voiced by Leon Redbone who performs the duet of 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' with Zooey Deschanel on Elf's soundtrack. Also, the polar bear cub character is voiced by stop-motion master Ray Harryhausen, another nod to Favreau's love of the animation style.

Jon Favreau And Will Ferrell Worked Hard To Get James Caan To Embrace The Comedy

Caan's Filmography Is Filled With Tough-Guy Roles

Best known for his dramatic work in the likes of movies such as The Godfather and Brian's Song, James Caan might seem like a strange addition to the Elf cast which is filled with well-known comedic actors. Of course, Caan's role is arguably the least comical of all, as he's the workaholic father who has forgotten the true meaning of Christmas, so it's fitting that a dramatic actor was tasked with this role.

According to Jon Favreau, he and Ferrell worked hard to get Caan to loosen up and embrace the absurd comedy of the movie:

"The thing with Caan is, he’s got a great sense of humor. So if you could make him laugh, all the tension disappears. We kept him laughing, and he kept us laughing. It took him a while to get with the programming."

Will Ferrell Insisted That Buddy's Childlike Ways

Buddy Was Originally Less Innocent

There is a childlike wonder to Buddy that makes him so endearing but also gets him into some trouble when he arrives in New York City. However, as hard as it may be to imagine, if it weren't for the insistence of star Will Ferrell, Buddy likely would have been nowhere near as hopeful and whimsical as the elf we all know and love is. In a 2003 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ferrell revealed that ensuring Buddy's worldview be lighter and brighter than most was a necessity before he agreed to the role:

"I knew it would be a family movie, but I wanted to make sure it didn’t take itself too seriously. We tried to focus on the way this guy would view New York City, because he has no preconceived notions. He’s like a kid, how they say things like: [in obnoxious voice] 'Why is that man so fat?' They just spit it out. He has those instincts, so we tried to come up with things like, if Buddy sees a sign that says 'World’s best cup of coffee,' he takes it literally."

Ferrell's instinct of the character is correct as Buddy's earnestness and innocent view of the world is one of the best aspects of the movie and part of the reason Elf remains such a beloved and charming Christmas classic.

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  Elf

  Summary:

  Will Ferrell stars as Buddy the Elf in Elf, a 2003 Christmas comedy film directed by Jon Favreau. When Buddy, a not-so-short elf, learns that he isn't an elf but a human raised at the North Pole, he learns from Santa that his biological father is on the naughty list. However, with a little help from Buddy, he could change that. Buddy decides to journey to New York City in search of his father to change his fortune and bring Christmas cheer to the various unhappy citizens of New York City.

  Release Date:

  2003-11-07

  Budget:

  $33 million

  Cast:

  Will Ferrell, Zooey Deschanel, James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Edward Asner, Bob Newhart, Daniel Tay

  Director:

  Jon Favreau

  Genres:

  Family, Comedy, Fantasy

  Rating:

  PG

  Runtime:

  97 minutes

  Writers:

  David Berenbaum

  Studio(s):

  New Line Cinema

  Distributor(s):

  New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures