Great Character: Buddy (“Elf”)
This month’s Great Character theme: Christmas. Today: Jason Cuthbert’s guest post features Buddy from the 2003 movie [written by David Berenbaum].
Here is one way to get a Christmas family comedy green lit in Hollywood — Will Ferrell as the first human elf in Santa’s Workshop. Just the sight of the 6'3" Ferrell, playing the protagonist Buddy the Elf in yellow tights and an X-Mas green cloak and cone cap — towering over his fellow North Pole co-workers — is instant humor. Director Jon Favreau (Iron Man) and screenwriter David Berenbaum (The Spiderwick Chronicles) delivered this $220,443,451 grossing hit under New Line Cinema’s Christmas tree in 2003. Now, as far as Christmas characters go, what Rudolf is to reindeers and Frosty is to snowmen, Buddy is now to Santa’s elves — super distinctive and a holiday entertainment tradition.
Elf plot summary from IMDB:
After inadvertently wreaking havoc on the elf community due to his ungainly size, a man raised as an elf at the North Pole is sent to the U.S. in search of his true identity.
What makes Buddy, and the Christmas spirit of Elf, so special is just how completely visual they are presented. You can literally have the volume off while watching, or not even know the English language to begin with, and Buddy’s fish-out-of-water escapade will be as simple to follow and to be entertained by as a Saturday morning cartoon. Ferrell’s big, childlike gestures and physical humor are a hyper surreal performance that meshes the best elements of Jim Carey and Peter Sellers, within the juvenile boundaries of a naive, lunchbox-toting 8-year old.
Observing the world of Elf, that Buddy never quite seems to belong in, is like first watching the North Pole of the most beloved stop motion animated Christmas TV specials, and then later, the jolliest, merriest, traditionally snow-kissed New York Cities of cinematic Christmas’ like: Miracle on 34th Street, Scrooged, and Home Alone II. It really is Buddy’s behemoth-sized optimism with “no off button” attitude, clashing with his smaller-scaled or sometimes smaller-hearted surroundings that defines him. He has been so well trained in how to stay on Santa’s Nice List that anything naughty will not be tolerated — including impersonating Santa Clause.
According to Buddy, if nice guys finish last, than that apparently doesn’t apply to elves.
GIMBEL’S MANAGER: Why are you smiling like that?
BUDDY: I just like to smile, smiling’s my favorite.
GIMBEL’S MANAGER: Make work your favorite, okay? Work is your new favorite.
Buddy is no different from those cheery wide-eyed, emotionally untarnished youngsters that believe whole-heartedly in Santa. Will Ferrell totally succeeds in giving Buddy that grade school curiosity and rapid fire, matter-of-fact inquisitiveness that real children in the playground examine the world with. Unfortunately, Buddy maybe bigger than his brother Michael, but smaller in the maturity department.
BUDDY: [out of breath from chasing Michael] Wow, you’re fast. I’m glad I caught up to you. I waited five hours for you. Why is your coat so big? So, good news — I saw a dog today. Have you seen a dog? You probably have. How was school? Was it fun? Did you get a lot of homework? Huh? Do you have any friends? Do you have a best friend? Does he have a big coat, too?
MICHAEL: Go away!
Buddy has this cool quality of being really aware of the most minute details and differences in his environment, but completely oblivious to the idea that he should start adapting to them.
BUDDY: This place reminds me of Santa’s Workshop! Except it smells like mushrooms and everyone looks like they want to hurt me.
You often fear that Buddy won’t survive once the NYC worm crawls out of “The Big Apple” and swallows up his innocence. But the more Buddy sticks to his service-with-a-smile caring demeanor — the more that world begins to change around him. But being too human in an elf’s world and too elfed-up for a human’s habitat forces Buddy to change one thing — his faith in himself.
Buddy might completely suck at making toys for Santa or be way too adolescent to work at his father’s publishing company — but he naturally has enough Christmas spirit to turn Scrooges into Christmas Carolers and Grinches into Santa’s helpers. No one can take that from him — and given the opportunity to use his gift, Buddy proves that giving is indeed the new receiving. It is Buddy’s realization that he doesn’t have to belong — he just has to believe, his candy cane-coated selflessness and his all-around refusal to become a God-forsaken “cotton-headed ninny-muggins” that makes Buddy the Elf an unforgettably GREAT CHARACTER.
A classic Protagonist innocence-to-experience story and a terrific high concept.
What do you think of Buddy as a character? Elf as a movie? See you in comments to discuss.
Thanks to Jason (@A2Jason) for another excellent character analysis.
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