Disenchantment in Elf (2003)

Elf and Miracle on 34th Street’s entries in this series of short Dickensian meditations are really interchangeable. Both deal with doubt, disillusionment, disenchantment, and a bunch of other words with the prefix ‘dis.’ The overall plots of both stories are the same—a mythical North Pole figure enters the “real world” of New York City and confronts the unhappy and unbelieving characters they encounter with the spirit of Christmas and belief in Santa Claus. Buddy the Elf finds his cinematic lineage in Miracle’s Kris Kringle, yes, but also in Being There’s Chauncey Gardiner and the titular Forrest Gump—characters whose simplicity and aloofness disarm and transform those around them. Buddy has a naive purity about him that humorously bumps up against the tough New York streets and corporations. 

The New York characters of Elf lack purpose and generosity; they appear to be ghosts haunting their own lives as they endure each joyless December day. Buddy’s biological father, Walter (with the perfect casting of The Godfather’s Sonny Corleone), publishes children’s books but cuts corners and does not care if children are pleased with the books or not (and we know the children love the books). Buddy functions as Walter’s Ghost of Christmas Past as he is the love child Walter didn’t know he had, bringing him sadness over his past lost love, much like Scrooge. Jovie (whose name shouts of irony) is “just trying to get through the holidays” and wants nothing to do with singing loud for all to hear. She has gifts to offer the world through song, but her own apathy prevents her from sharing them. 

The third act reveals Santa’s enchanted sleigh is powered by faith and belief itself. Buddy’s task to save Christmas is to bring back an enchantment to a modern New York whose disenchanted existence could partially be understood by the events of 9/11, which were only two years before the release of Elf and certainly linger in the unsaid subconscious of the film. A city and people stumbling through Christmas find belief and enchantment through the wholesome unassuming joy of Buddy, who is the Not-so-tiny Tim of the story.