Santa.

It'S me, buddy.

It's me.

Hey, buddy.

How you doing?

It's me.

Who the heck are you?

What are you talking about?

I'm Santa Claus.

No, you're not.

Oh, why, of course I am.

You're Santa.

What song did I sing for you on your birthday this year?

Happy birthday.

Of course.

So how old are you, son?

You're a big boy.

What's your name?

And what can I get you for Christmas?

Don't tell him what you want.

He's a liar.

Let the kid talk.

You disgust me.

How can you live with yourself?

Just cool it, Zippy.

You sit on a throne of lies.

Look, I'm not kidding.

You're a fake.

I'm a fake?

Yes.

How'd you like to be dead, huh?

No, he's kidding.

You stink.

I think you're going to have a good Christmas.

All right.

Smell like beef and cheese.

You don't smell like Santa, okay?

He's an apostle.

He's a fake.

He's a fake.

He's a fake.

She.

In a world overflowing with movies, we need a hero.

Someone to separate the bad from the good.

Movie.

She does prequel, sequels, remakes, and trivia.

And after movies, you know, movies, you know, interesting stories, all the categories.

Hi, everyone.

I'm Em.

Welcome to verbal diorama, episode 281, elf.

This is the podcast that's all about the history and legacy of movies you know, and movies you don't.

That definitely does not sit on a throne of lies.

As always, a huge hi and welcome to Velvet Diorama.

Whether you're a brand new listener to this podcast, whether you're coming back as a regular returning listener or an irregular returning listener, thank you for being here.

Thank you for choosing to listen to this podcast.

As always, I'm so happy to have you here just generally, but also for the history and legacy of Elf.

And to everyone who does listen to this podcast and has continued to listen to and support this podcast over the last almost six years now, it's been an incredible ride.

Just like Santa's sleigh across New York.

This podcast really relies on general spirit.

Not just Christmas spirit, but general spirit.

And it genuinely means so much to me to get that general sense of spirit from everyone who does listen to this podcast.

This is the last episode of 2024, and so, of course, I have to go out with a bang and give something to all of the listeners who are on Santa's nice list, because this is the episode that only goes out to people who are on Santa's nice list.

The last episode was on how the Grinch Stole Christmas.

And you only got that one if you're on Santa's naughty list.

Just like Walter Hobbs.

But I know the vast majority of listeners of this podcast are on his nice list.

And Elf is one of those movies that, despite coming out 21 years ago, feels fresh and it feels like an instant Christmas classic.

I know a lot of people who are big fans of this movie, and it's about time it came to verbal diorama like Buddy.

I love Christmas.

Maybe not quite as much as Buddy does.

I also love smiling.

It's my favorite.

But really, the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear and making a podcast about it.

So here's the trailer for Elf.

No human being has ever set foot in Santa's workshop.

That is, until Buddy, I hear you're going on a journey to the big city.

Can't wait to see my dad.

This might be the opportunity to find.

Out who you really are.

Bye, Buddy.

Hope you find your dad.

Thanks, Mr.

Narwhal.

Papa says New York is pretty different.

Sorry.

Looks like a Christmas tree.

Sorry I can't ride with you the rest of the way up.

Well, have a good time.

Oh, I forgot to give you a hug.

Dad.

You look like you came from the North Pole.

That's exactly where I came from.

You have another son?

You like sugar, huh?

Is there sugar in syrup?

Yes.

Then yes.

We can't leave him alone here.

He's gonna destroy the place.

Son of a nutcracker.

These guys are bad news.

Snowball.

Where did you say you were from?

Fruit Spray.

W.

Tomorrow morning, 10am Santa's coming to town.

Santa.

Oh my God.

Santa here?

I know him.

I know him.

One Christmas Eve, a long time ago, a baby crawled into Santa's bag of toys.

Raised as an elf, Buddy grows into an adult three times larger than the biggest elf and realizes that he will never truly fit in at the North Pole.

Buddy goes looking for his true place in the world in New York City.

And he finds his workaholic father who's on Santa's naughty list.

He also finds a caring stepmother and a 10 year old brother who doesn't believe in Santa Claus or elves.

Buddy has to discover his destiny to save Christmas for New York and the entire world by spreading Christmas cheer and singing loud for all to hear.

Let's run through the cast.

We have Will Ferrell as Buddy Hobbs, James Caan as Walter Hobbs, Zooey Deschanel as Jovi, Mary Steenbergen as Emily Hobbs, Daniel Tay as Michael Hobbs, Ed Asner as Santa Claus, Bob Newhart as Papa Elle and Peter Dinklage as Miles Finch.

Elf was written by David Berenbaum and directed by Jon Favreau.

Before we learn all about the history and legacy of a modern Christmas classic, let's recite the Code of the Elves, shall we?

Number one, Treat every day like Christmas.

Number two, there's room for everyone on the nice list.

Number three, the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.

Just like the previous episode on how the Grinch Stole Christmas, the roots of Elf lie within a beloved 60s American animated classic.

And like the 1966 animated how the Grinch Stole Christmas, it still airs several times during the holiday season.

But unlike the Dr.

Seuss classic, this is less of an adaptation, more of an inspiration.

An inspiration that could have left the movie in a little bit of legal hot water, but I will come back to that.

But the story of Elf starts, as most stories do, with loss.

Writer David Berenbaum lost his father when he was young, and most of us are fortunate to not lose a parent at a young age.

But what you must go through when that does happen, it's understandable that you might grow up to write a heartwarming story about a young man's quest to find his father.

Birramban grew up watching the Rankin Bass animated entertainment holiday specials, which featured Christmas favourites like Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman.

Although Birranbaum's Elf script was clearly influenced by these films, he actually envisaged Buddy's tale to center on the reunion with his father and bonding, and a story about Buddy finding his family as well as appreciating the family he had at the North Pole.

Berenbell originally wrote his script in the mid-90s after he'd moved to Los Angeles from the east coast, with inspiration coming from the Tom Hanks movie Big as to a childlike human.

But he kept coming back to a banking Bass's Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and how funny it would be to have a human in that world.

He wrote the script on spec and sent it out for studio interest, which was when the Motion Picture Corporation of America optioned it with Chris Farley in mind to play Buddy.

Berenbaum let the option expire after not being completely happy with the direction that the Motion Picture Corporation of America wanted to take the movie in and thinking that it would be a totally different Movie After Chris Farley's death in 1997 the script landed in the lap of New Line Cinema, who were at that point predominantly known as the House that Freddie Built.

Birenbaum's manager thought Will Ferrell would be ideal for the lead role at that point, and after he committed, things started to pick up speed.

But Ferrell wasn't the big star that he is today.

He was fresh off Saturday Night Live and had only had supporting roles in movies like Austin Powers and Zoolander.

It was only after Jim Carrey, coincidentally from how the Grinch Doll Christmas, turned down the role of Buddy, and after the success of Old School, the producers felt justified in giving Ferrell the chance.

Ferrell and his writing partner Adam McKay would also undertake uncredited rewrites of the script alongside Scott Armstrong and Chris Henchy.

All in all, the script and production would take a seven year journey from the North Pole to New York and everywhere in between.

Terry Zwigoff was offered to direct the movie, but he declined in favor of Bad Santa, which was actually going to be the naughtiest episode instead of how the Grinch Stole Christmas.

But Bad Santa wasn't on streaming anymore and how the Grinch Stole Christmas was, and that is how last episode you got how the Grinch Stole Christmas.

But Jon Favreau had directed, made and written and starred in Swingers and was interested in working with Will Ferrell.

But after receiving the Elf script, wasn't too keen on it.

He was asked to take another look with an idea to rewrite and direct.

And just like Baron Baum, he had this idea of ranking Bass and making the character of Buddy even more innocent.

Favreau, who like most of us is a huge fan of Christmas, joined as a director and worked with Berenbaum on a few rewrites, including one that added the well known Christmas cheer scene at the end.

In a 2020 interview with Rolling Stone, Favreau himself claimed that he wasn't interested initially in the script, describing it as much darker, but became interested in making it more family friendly and innocent PG instead of PG13.

Favreau knew what he wanted for the look, going back to the Ranking Bass specials and paying homage to their cartoonish look.

If Will Ferrell was going to be the star, he wanted actors who could play straight opposite him as well as keep it light hearted and more grounded than Will Ferrell's Buddy.

This was how the director chose to cast a lot of Elf's supporting characters.

He believed that having established actors like James Caan in the movie improved Ferrell's comedic and acting performances.

Caan himself wasn't originally too taken with the role of Buddy's father Walter, and wanted to play it more like comedian George Burns than his famous role of Sonny Corleone in the Godfather.

But Khan ended up relishing the role of Walter Hobbs, often cracking up on camera at Ferrell's antics.

And when he had to shout at Buddy, Favreau had to remind him that he played Sonny f ing Corleone, although he didn't say effing.

He also took inspiration from his then one year old son Max, remembering how his son would react to things to make Buddy even more childlike and innocent.

But a lot of Buddy's innocence actually came from Ferrell improvising on set.

Zooey Deschanel wasn't the first choice for Jovi at the time.

She was probably most well known for playing the older sister in Cameron Crowe semi autobiographical Almost famous in 2000.

Favreau initially wanted someone else for the role, and when they dropped out at the last minute, Favreau came back to Deschanel and they reworked the role of Jovi to be more than just your average cliched love interest and for them to understand how someone like Jovi could be attracted to someone like Buddy, despite their initial meeting being a bit weird and shall we say, a little bit of a red flag under normal circumstances.

In Barenbaum's original 1993 draft of ELF, the character of Jovi is introduced in the department store as being an out of work cabaret singer.

However, the film went through many rewrites before Favreau as well as Ferrell and Adam McKay came aboard.

Also, in that original draft, Jovi never really sings, but Favreau realised that Zooey Deschanel could hold a tune and decided to use it to the movie's advantage to make their shower scene more of a meet cute than a creep cute.

Also dropping out at the last minute was Wanda Sykes, due to play the manager of Gimbels and Faison Love also stepped in at the last minute, so last minute that the manager's name tag had already been made, and that's why the manager is named Wanda in the original draft of Elf.

The film doesn't end with the citizens of New York coming together to help Santa by singing or otherwise.

There's still an elaborate climax in Central park, although it's a little less amusing than the fictional Central park rangers chasing Santa on horseback.

Instead, that script has NYPD cruisers, complete with guns, trying to take down Santa's sleigh and its reindeer with a dozen cop cars surrounding Central Park.

The cops were supposed to be chasing Buddy down Fifth Avenue, shooting at him as he shot back at them.

Buddy also jumps off the Empire State Building and onto a helicopter.

All in all sounding a little bit more like a Die Hard sequel than the movie Elf that we know and love.

In this script, all of Buddy's new family and friends, including his father Walter, his half brother Michael and Jovi all end up on Santa's sleigh.

Obviously the movie that we get only has Buddy in Santa's sleigh and Jovi gets up in front of a crowd on Central park and starts singing Santa Claus is coming to town.

And eventually others join in.

And the power of these strangers singing gives enough Christmas spirit to make Santa's sleigh fly.

Even Walter joins in.

According to Jon Favreau, these were all the bits that he requested to be added to the script.

After Zooey Deschanel came aboard, the Central Park Rangers replaced the NYPD officers and the Simon and Garfunkel concert really was a thing.

Except it happened in 1981 and not in 1985 and the real life incident was that a man ran on stage and was escorted off stage by park security.

The park rangers did also issue multiple summonses for minor drug offenses, illegal sales of buttons and other concert memorabilia that day, and maybe that behavior then led to Santa putting them all on the naughty list because illegal sale of buttons.

Just let the button sales commence.

It is Christmas.

Who cares about illegal sales at Buttons Park Rangers?

Let's be honest, and the Central Park Rangers looking like the ring wraiths from Lord of the Rings was totally intentional.

Jon Favreau has admitted as much in the commentary on the dvd.

The costumes were designed to reference Lord of the Rings and the rangers were always shot in silhouette to hide their real appearance.

And the Rankin Bass association would lead to Elf becoming something wholly different to other 2000s Christmas films.

Whereas many other big budget festive movies of the 2000s embraced the then cutting edge computer generated effect, Elf relied heavily on stop motion created by the Toyota brothers to make the movie look as timeless today as it did in 2003.

The production design of the North Pole by Rusty Smith was heavily influenced by the look of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, as was the costuming by Lara Jean Shannon and the collar panets as well.

So much so that Elf very almost ran into legal trouble due to the similarities with New Line Cinema's legal team visiting the set to check for infringements.

And because everyone knew the inspiration was clearly Rankin Bass, no one denied it and it was left to the legal department to see what they could do about it, even leading to potentially making Buddy's suit blue instead of green.

Unfortunately, they'd already shot the movie at this point, so if they had had to make the suit blue, they would have had to do it in post production.

But luckily that didn't have to happen and the production was cleared of any sort of legal infringement.

Making the 6 foot 3 buddy appear noticeably bigger than the elves in Santa's workshop was another visual effects challenge.

Because in order to make actors like Bob Newhart and the other actors playing the elves appear Elf like without the use of cgi, director Jon Favreau insisted on producing an optical illusion by using forced perspective, giving the impression that Ferrell was much taller than the other people in the room and that everyone else was much smaller.

To create the illusion that his character was half as large as Buddy's, Bob Newhart had to film every scene while standing a few feet behind Will Ferrell.

For Buddy to sit on Papa Elf's legs.

He was actually sitting on the legs of a small child, which was supported so that he wasn't squishing a small child's legs.

With Bob Newhart actually sitting far, far behind.

The tree on Fire in the early moments of the movie is also done with forced perspective.

The top half of the tree is a miniature in the foreground.

The bottom half is roughly 40ft away from the camera.

The edges were then blended to make it appear as if it's all one tree.

Jon Favreau felt it important to use the old techniques rather than cgi because he felt that these techniques gave the film a feeling of nostalgia, like the old Christmas TV specials, like the ranking bath specials that he grew up on.

One of the films he compares the technique to is, unsurprisingly, the Lord of the Rings, which, just like Elf, are new line cinema films.

The Lord of the Rings also used force perspective to make Gandalf appear really tall and to make the hobbits appear really small.

Many of the sets at Elf were built twice.

Once much larger for the actors playing the elves and again slightly smaller for the actors playing normal sized actors.

In the scene where Ed Asner as Santa addresses his elves, he's standing on a platform.

On a smaller version of the set, the elves were standing on another platform far behind him and lighting is used to blend the two images together.

The stop motion characters were done using two frame stop motion.

Every time the puppet would be moved, the character would be shot twice to give it a choppy movement and the feeling of how they looked in the Ranking Mass specials.

All of the stop motion was done by the Chiodo brothers, three brothers who still do stop motion animation.

And all of those characters would probably have been done with CGI if this movie was made today.

The Chiodo brothers, Charles, Stephen and Edward Chiodo, have spent over 30 years working with live action puppetry, including four killer clowns from Outer Space and Team America World police.

That's episode 158, this podcast.

Jon Favreau selected them because they were the last effects house in LA who still specialized in two frame stop motion animation.

For the Chiodos, the challenge of working on Elf was emulating the classic kitschy animation styles of the old Ranking Bass productions of the 60s and 70s, all the while being careful to create new images but also pay homage without compromising the memories of the source material.

The Chiodos were originally just contracted to do Leon the Snowman and the Arctic Animals portion in the North Pole sequence, which was meant to be a 10 to 12 week process.

Then after the movie had a test screening, it tested so well, they decided to do an animated opening, which was an accelerated schedule that they did in about eight weeks.

Instead of making the stop motion look pristine, they emulated Rankin Bass right down to the fabrication points, using traditional techniques and embellishing it with new techniques.

The narwhal coming up out of the water was done with salt on glass, cellophane ripples and real water.

And of course, Mr.

Narwhal was voiced by Jon Favreau, as was Baby Walrus and the Arctic Puffin.

The polar bear cub was voiced by the legendary Ray Harryhausen, obviously a legend in stop motion.

So it's wonderful that he got a little moment in there.

And Leon the Snowman was musician Leon Redbone.

Favreau had to fight the studio to use stop motion because, as I've mentioned in recent episodes, Jon Favreau prefers practical effects.

He did Annoying man too.

Maybe not so much in his recent career, but absolutely in the 2000s, he was a huge advocate for practical effects work.

Elf does use cgi, and when it does, it was down to rhythm and hues.

They made Santa's sleigh a reindeer for when it's flying through the sky.

They even made the snowballs for the Central park snowball fight, which is still really impressive because they genuinely do look like real snowballs.

Now it's common knowledge that elves stick to the four main food groups, candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup.

And that meant Will Ferrell chowing down on sugar coated pasta and lots of it.

So much so that Ferrell vomited the first time he ate it.

Principal photography began on 9 December 2002 and wrapped on 7 March 2003.

Favreau included a lot of New York based locations in the script like the Empire State Building, but he wasn't sure he'd be able to film the New York based locations at the time.

However, his location manager was able to secure all of the New York locations he wanted.

All of the exteriors were shot in New York City, which was something that Jon Favreau took great pride in.

It is actually forbidden for pedestrians to walk through the Lincoln Tunnel, so when Will Ferrell actually did it, it caused minor traffic disruption because his appearance as a grown man as an elf distracted drivers enough to cause a few accidents.

The vast majority of filming in New York was alongside everyday people, including the man with the beard in a red tracksuit who looks suspiciously like Santa Claus.

That is not an actor, that is a genuine human New York resident slash citizen slash tourist who happened to be there on that day to shoot the Christmas Tree in the Rockefeller Center.

Production had to wait until after midnight and only then got four hours to get the scene because a professional skater was performing the next day.

And setting the department store with gimbals wasn't as many suggest because Macy's wouldn't allow it.

It was actually the opposite.

Macy's were more than happy to let the production shoot in their store as well as their Santaland and incorporate the story into the famous Macy's Christmas Parade.

However, Macy's objected to their store Santa being revealed to be fake because they didn't want anyone believing their Santa isn't the genuine article.

This stipulation led to the movie filming in a mental hospital in Vancouver as well as making the department store Gimbals, which was owned by a third party who were willing to license it out and for the production to create their own version of Gimbals, which led to more creative freedom as well as a tie in to the classic Miracle on 34th Street.

Gimbel's, the actual original department store was originally located on Herald Square that closed in 1986.

The exterior of Gimbels in the movie was the textile building on fifth Avenue in New York which was decorated with CGI as well as Gimbels.

Walter's apartment, the book publishers, the mail room and the jail cell were all built within the same abandoned mental hospital in Vancouver, which is also the same hospital where New Line shot Freddy versus Jason because We have to have some sort of Freddy Krueger link because New Line, the House that Freddie Built and the late great James Caan really did enjoy his time on this movie.

He actually did play the piano in the film's final moments.

He was messing around on the piano between shots and Jon Favreau decided to film it and also decided to keep it as part of the final scenes.

And luckily, Auld Lang Syne is a song in the public domain, so for once on this movie, the New Line Legal team could rest easy.

And speaking of resting easy segue into the obligatory Keanu reference for this episode.

Now this is a part of the podcast where I trining the movie that I'm featuring with Keanu Reeves.

And you'd be surprised how difficult it is to link every single movie that I feature on this podcast pretty much to Keanu Reeves.

However, I have a genius way to link Keanu Reeves to the movie Elf because you've heard of Elf on a Shelf, right?

But have you heard of Keanu Reeves On Some Leaves?

There we go.

I'm gonna leave that one with you.

So the score was composed by John Debney and the soundtrack includes Christmas classics like Sleigh Ride by Ella Fitzgerald, Santa Baby by Eartha Kitty, Winter Wonderland by Ray Charles, and Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow by Lena Horne.

The song Baby, It's Cold Outside by Zooey Deschanel and Leon Redbone was also released as a single.

But maybe don't listen too much to the lyrics of Baby It's Cold Outside because again, it's a bit of a creepy song.

It's not really one of my Christmas favorites, shall we say.

So Elf was released on 7 November 2003, the same week as Love, actually, in the US and a week after the Matrix Revolutions.

Now, unsurprisingly, the Matrix Revolutions was number one.

That would have been the better obligatory Keanu reference, would it not?

It's literally just popped into my head.

I should have used that, but I didn't.

I went full Keanu Reeves on some leads.

That's the joy of the obligature Keanu reference, by the way.

Anyway, Elf had to settle for number two at the box office, but it continued to do well and it stayed in the top 10 for eight weeks.

And the week of Christmas, Elf jumped up 42% week on week.

On its third week of release, the Cat in the Hat, the Dr.

Seuss sibling to the last episode's how the Grinch Stole Christmas, came out and beat Elf to number one that week.

Also out that third week was Bad Santa, the episode the how the Grinch Doll Christmas was going to be.

Honestly, everything is linked to everything else in Hollywood.

I guarantee there is always a link to something else.

But Bad Santa actually only made it to number 10 that week.

Basically what I'm saying is how the Grinch Doll Christmas was a better choice than Bad Santa was.

Maybe I'll do Bad Santa at some point, but just on a bina over here in the UK, the movie Elf was completely trounced by Love.

Actually.

Love actually was a huge hit here in the UK in 2003.

Love actually is a movie that I really do not like.

I think I'd mentioned this before.

I think I mentioned it on the episode that I did on the holiday because I love the holiday.

I think the holiday is the perfect Christmas rom com.

I adore it.

I really do not like Love actually.

I realize as a British person you're supposed to like Love actually, but I really don't.

I really genuinely don't like it.

But back to Elf because on its $33 million budget, Elf not only made that back in its first week with a little bit more, it also ended up grossing $173.4 million domestically in the US and $47 million internationally, for a total worldwide gross of $220.4 million.

And the movie has been re released several times as well in 2018-2019-2020-2021 and 2023.

It was also on at my local cinema very recently as well.

Elf has become the perennial modern classic Christmas movie on Rotten Tomatoes.

It has an 86% rating with the consensus reading A movie full of yuletide cheer, Elf is a spirited, good natured family comedy and it benefits greatly from Will Ferrell's funny and charming performance as one of Santa's biggest helpers.

The studio, of course, wanted to make a sequel, and Will Ferrell was offered $29 million to become Buddy again.

This was in 2014 that Ferrell turned it down and he claimed that declining the offer wasn't difficult because all he needed to do was think about the negative reviews the film would receive.

Jon Favreau has always shown interest in making a sequel, but the chances of making that sequel without Will Ferrell are pretty slim.

What we have had Instead we had Elf the Musical, which debuted on Broadway in November 2010.

Directed by Casey Nicolaw, with music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Bugulin, and a book by Bob Martin and Thomas Meehan, it ran until 2 January 2011 We've also had Elf Buddy's musical Christmas, which is an hour long stop motion animated musical television special based on the film and the musical of the same name, which first aired on 16 December 2014.

Ed Asner was the only cast member from the film to reprise his role, and the rest of the cast included Jim Parsons as Buddy, Mark Hamill as Walter Hobbs, Kate Micucci as Jovi, Rachel McFarlane as Emily Hobbs, Max Charles as Michael Hobbs, and Gilbert Gottfried as Mr.

Greenaway.

And it also features songs from the musical when you think of classic Christmas family movies, there are a handful of regulars.

Oh, or at least for me anyway, the Muppet Christmas Carol, Home Alone, It's a Wonderful Life, Die Hard.

They all tend to be at the top of most people's Christmas movie watching list, and none of them came out after the year 2000.

It's generally harder for modern movies to become classics, to replace the classics that hold that esteemed place of Christmas Day watching or Christmas Eve watching.

Although I argue that Klaus is getting there, for me, that movie is a delight.

It is so special.

Please watch it.

It's on Netflix.

It's genuinely I feel like Klaus is getting there to becoming one of those Christmas classics, or at least in my mind, because I think it's wonderful.

But the fact that Elle, which is a zany comedy on a sugar high, has become this modern Christmas classic that rivals Home Alone is remarkable enough.

Elf achieves this feat of being genuinely heartwarming and also hilarious.

And the fact it appeals to audiences of all ages.

You can watch it with anyone.

Its heart is definitely in the right place and it delivers the right message.

That post 9 11America needed a message of togetherness and family that all Christmas movies ultimately come down to, but also promoting kindness, valuing others, and that it's never too late to come off the naughty list to change your ideals and be a better person.

And honestly, I think today there are many people in this world who could benefit with that message.

There are a lot of people in this world that need to come off the naughty list.

What I love about this movie more than anything I think, is sometimes people just don't fit in.

Sometimes they don't adhere to societal norms.

Sometimes doing something differently is okay.

Buddy may make mistakes, but they're coming from an honest, genuine place.

No, it's not okay to call a little person an elf, and no, it's not okay to continue to repeat that.

But there's a huge difference between intentionally causing offence and what Buddy does to Buddy.

Every small person is an elf because that's what he grew up with.

To him, calling an elf an elf is normal, and Buddy's naturally optimistic and sunny behaviour is not the norm.

But that doesn't mean we should go out of our way to stifle that positivity.

Smiling is his favourite.

He does things he loves to do.

He compliments everyone freely and genuinely.

And most importantly, he believes he believes in Santa.

Why wouldn't he?

He knows him.

He believes in finding his family so much he leaves the North Pole for the first time ever.

He believes in Jovi's singing and encourages her to sing in front of others, even though his method of finding out her singing is a little weird and creepy.

But again, not creepy to Buddy.

He also believes in the goodness of his absent father, so much so that when his dad shouts and belittles him, Buddy still ultimately believes Buddy is who we should all strive to be.

And that's why this movie endures, because we see so much goodness and kindness in Buddy and Will Ferrell's totally heartfelt and genuine performance.

Sometimes it's really easy to be an adult in the sense that it's easy to be pessimistic and it's easy to not believe in the goodness and kindness of others.

But if we look at it from the perspective of how a child might view the world, a child views the world like Buddy views the world.

A child views the world with joy and love and belief and happiness.

And really at Christmas time, that is how we should all view the world.

Through the eyes of a child, through the eyes of Buddy the Elf.

That's certainly how I like to view the world at Christmas.

I don't want to view the world like Walter Hobbs views the world.

Elf came out of nowhere to earn a place among the Christmas movie greats, but it also highlights just how difficult any attempt to repeat the success of Elf would be.

Christmas sequels never tend to emulate the original equality, and for that reason alone, I am so glad that Will Ferrell has never wanted to do a sequel, because I don't think a sequel to Elf would ever work.

So don't be a cotton headed mini muggings.

Be more like Buddy.

Find joy in everything.

Not just at Christmas, but every day.

Sing loud for all to hear and ultimately just believe.

Thank you for listening.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on Elf.

Thank you for your continued support of this podcast.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you all.

If you've enjoyed this podcast, you want to help it grow, you can.

You can get Involved, you could leave a rating or review.

Wherever you found this podcast, you can find me on social media, I am @VerbalDiorama on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, threads, Blue sky and Letterboxd.

You can share posts, you can like posts, you can follow me.

It all helps to try and improve the scope of this podcast.

You can also tell your friends and family who love the movie Elf to listen to this podcast episode too.

So as I mentioned, this is the last episode of 2024.

It's been an incredible year for this podcast.

I can tell you.

2025 is going to be even bigger for Verbal Diorama.

I will announce why and how in due course.

But let me tell you, I have some big plans for this podcast in 2025.

Shoot for the stars and like Buddha the Elf, believe.

Believe in the magic, believe in your own abilities, I guess.

And 2025 is hopefully going to be the year that Thermal Diorama, maybe it becomes a little bit bigger.

Fingers crossed, I hope.

I've got a lot of big plans for the podcast.

A lot of other people have also got big plans for the podcast as well and hopefully I can reveal all very soon.

But I am going to reveal that the first episode of 2025 and also the first episode of Animation season, which is returning for its fifth year.

Now the first episode will be Turning Red.

And it wasn't a particularly difficult choice for me to choose Turning red for the first episode of the podcast because it speaks to 13 year old me.

I was a very, very awkward teenage girl.

I was very nerdy, very into boy bands and very, very much like Meilin Lee, except, well for the huge red panda that she turns into.

But it is a movie that I completely adore.

I fell in love with it the first time I saw it.

So I am going to start 2025 by going into the history and legacy of Turning Red.

Please join me for that.

I look forward to what 2025 is going to bring and I look forward to having you on the journey too.

Now this podcast is free.

It always has been free.

It always will be free.

However, it is not free to make a podcast.

I am incredibly fortunate that I have some wonderful people who support this podcast financially and you are under an obligation to do the same.

But if you enjoy this podcast, if you get value out of this podcast, and if you do want this podcast to continue to be the podcast that it is and continue to thrive, and if you have the means to do so, you can choose to support this podcast financially in one of two ways.

You could go to verbal diorama.com tips and give a one off tip.

Or you can go to verbaldiorama.com patreon and you can become an ongoing patron subscriber.

And as always, thank you to the amazing patrons of Verbal Diorama.

To Sade, Claudia, Simon, Laurel, Derek, Kat, Andy, Mike, Luke, Michael, Scott, Brendan, Lisa, Sam, Jack, Dave, Stewart, Nicholas so, Kev, Pete, Heather, Danny, Ali, Stu, Brett, Philip M.

Michelle, Zenos, Sean, Rhino, Philip K, Adam, Elaine, and Kyle.

Thank you hugely to all of those incredible people for their support over the last few years.

Honestly, it is indescribable sometimes how incredible it is that people not only listen to what I do, but also want to support what I do.

Huge thanks to them.

They help keep this podcast running, they help pay for subscriptions and equipment and bills, and you name it, they help pay for it.

So I am beyond grateful to them for their support.

If you just want to get in touch with me and say hi or give me some feedback, you can email me verbal diorama@gmail.com.

or you could go to verbaldiorama.com and fill out the little contact form.

You can also find bits that I do@filmstories.co.uk and finally.

Wow.

What's this?

This is the North Pole.

No, it's not.

Yes, it is.

No, it's not.

Yes, it is.

No, it isn't.

Yes, it is.

No, it isn't.

Yes, it is.

No, it's not.

Where's the snow?

Why are you smiling like that?

I just like to smile.

Smiling's my favorite.

Make work your favorite.

That's your favorite.

Okay.

Okay.

Work is your new favorite.

Fine.

It's time for the announcement.

Okay.

Okay, people, tomorrow morning, 10:00am Santa's coming to town.

Santa.

Oh, my God.

Santa here.

I know him.

I know him.

He'll be here to take pictures with all the children.

Just keep your receipts.

10:00am tomorrow.

10:00Am tomorrow.

Santa's coming to town.

Yes.

Sign this morning.

Oh, hi.

Santa's coming.

Bye.

Merry Christmas.

Happy holidays.

See you all in 2025.