Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas

Poster
Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas
Directed by	Mark Caballero Seamus Walsh
Produced by	Chris Finnegan Aaron Horvath Michael Jelenic
Screenplay by	Aaron Horvath Michael Jelenic Bob Martin Thomas Meehan
Based on	Elf by David Berenbaum Elf: The Musical by Bob Martin and Thomas Meehan
Starring	Jim Parsons Mark Hamill Kate Micucci Edward Asner Max Charles Rachael MacFarlane
Music by	Christopher Guardino Matthew Sklar
Cinematography	Ralph Kaechele
Editing by	Mike Wright
Production company(s)	New Line Television Warner Bros. Animation
Distributor	Warner Bros. Television
Release date(s)	December 16, 2014
Original network	NBC
Running time	43 minutes
Language	English

Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas is a 2014 American stop-motion animated Christmas musical television special directed by Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh and written by Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, Bob Martin and Thomas Meehan. It is based on the 2003 film Elf and the Broadway theatre musical Elf: The Musical. While Edward Asner reprises his role of Santa Claus from the film, the rest of the cast consists of Jim Parsons, Mark Hamill, Kate Micucci, Max Charles, and Rachael MacFarlane. The special premiered on December 16, 2014, on NBC.

Plot

Santa narrates the story of Buddy's travels to New York City to meet his father. Along the way, his unrelenting cheer transforms the lives of everyone he meets and opens his father's eyes to the magic of the holiday.

Cast

• Jim Parsons as William "Buddy" Hobbs
• Mark Hamill as Walter Hobbs
• Kate Micucci as Jovie
• Edward Asner as Santa Claus
• Max Charles as Michael Hobbs
• Rachael MacFarlane as Emily Hobbs, Fake Santa #3
• Fred Armisen as Matthews
• Kevin Michael Richardson as Fake Santa #2, Jerry Hobbs
• Gilbert Gottfried as Mr. Greenway
• Jay Leno as Fake Santa #1
• Steve Higgins as Chadwick
• Matt Lauer as Mr. Sea Serpent
• Kevin Shinick as Fake Santa #4

Reception

The special was viewed by 4.82 million viewers. Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas received positive reviews from critics. The review-aggregation website Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 74 out of 100 based on 8 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Ray Rahman of Entertainment Weekly gave the special a B+, saying "Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas probably won't become a classic, but it's a fun break from the usual standards." Brian Lowry of Variety gave the special a positive review, saying "Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas suits the genre well, and suggests there is an alternative to simply running the sprockets off old holiday perennials. And in albeit in a minor way, that’s good reason to be happy — if not all the time, at least for an hour or so." Erik Adams of The A.V. Club gave the special a B, saying "Narratively and emotionally rushed, at least Buddy’s Musical Christmas smartly emphasizes its animated nature, through visual inventiveness and top-flight voice talent."

Home media

Warner Home Video released Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas on DVD and Blu-ray on November 3, 2015.

Accolades

Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas was nominated for seven Annie Awards and won one for Character Design in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production

Gallery

Trivia

• The Wilhelm Scream is heard when Buddy accidentally kicks an elf out of the window.

Differences from the film

• Papa Elf is completely absent in the special where Santa Claus takes the role of Buddy's adoptive father and the narrator.
• There is a subplot where it involves Michael's disbelief of Santa Claus.
• Emily has a much bigger role in the special than in the original film.
• During the scene where Buddy is mistaken for a Christmas gram, Walter calls security to kick him out right after Buddy sings him a song, instead of hearing Buddy mentioning Susan Wells where this will be moved to a later scene where Buddy encounters Walter in the park.
• Jovie works in a diner instead of Gimbel's. In that scene, the fight between Buddy and the fake Santa happens there and Buddy doesn't get arrested, instead, Jovie rescues Buddy and escorts out of the diner.
• Miles Finch is completely absent, instead, Walter's boss, Mr. Greenway takes the role of Finch's dwarfism stature.
  • Also, in the original film, Greenway lays down a hard deadline on Christmas Eve for an idea of a new book after their recent book bombs in sales, due to two missing pages. In the special, Greenway lays down the deadline on Christmas Eve as a result of being humiliated by Buddy when he mistook him for an elf.
• Emily comes with Michael to Greenway Publishing to inform Walter that Buddy ran away. Also, Walter tells his boss that he quits his job in the special instead of letting Greenway firing him as he is walking out with Michael.
  • Though in the original film, Greenway's fate is unknown after Walter walks out on him, but in the special, Greenway shows up with the naughty kids to attack Santa and Buddy and is later shown to be redeemed.
• In the special, Walter gets a skateboard when he visits Santa's sleigh instead of Michael getting the skateboard in the original film.
• The Central Park Rangers are absent in the special where the naughty kids take the role to attack Buddy and Santa.
• At the end of the special, Buddy and Jovie's baby's gender and name is different than the original film. In the original film, it was a baby daughter called Susie, whilst in the special, it was a baby boy called Buddy Junior.

External links

• Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas at the Internet Movie Database

• Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas at Rotten Tomatoes
• Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas at Metacritic
• Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas at TV.com

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Media Elf | Video | Soundtrack | Buddy's Musical Christmas Characters Buddy Hobbs | Walter Hobbs | Jovie | Emily Hobbs | Michael Hobbs | Santa Claus | Papa Elf | Santa's Elves | Mailroom Employee | Deb | Leon the Snowman | Ming Ming | North Pole Creatures | Central Park Rangers | Fulton Greenway | Miles Finch | The Naughty Children | Gimbel's Santa | Susan Wells | Eugene and Morris Locations North Pole | New York City | Empire State Building | Greenway Publishing | Gimbel's | New York Police Department | Walter's Apartment | Central Park Objects Transports Songs See also

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