FILM 1607: ELF
TRIVIA: Will Ferrell
caused several minor traffic accidents when walking through the Lincoln Tunnel
in his costume because people were so surprised to see him wearing an elf
outfit.
Will Ferrell turned down $29 million to be in Elf 2 in late 2013.
The cotton balls Buddy eats while in the Doctors office were actually
Cotton Candy that had not been dyed.
On the final day of shooting in New York, it was just the director, Will
Ferrell, and a camera man driving around the city looking for locations to
shoot. They would jump out and ask pedestrians if they would be willing to be
extras for some quick cash while Ferrell paraded around acting like Buddy. Much
of the montage when Buddy first arrives in New York was filmed then, such as
when he is getting his shoes shined and jumping between traffic.
The design for Santa's Workshop as well as the Elf uniforms come from the
original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
(1964) animated special. The Elf uniforms completely mirror the ones from the
TV special. Most of the animals in the North Pole are also designed to look
like the same form of stop motion animation used in Rudolph.
The scene where the fake Santa is chasing Buddy had to be done in one
take because it was too hard to rebuild everything.
Director Jon Favreau drew Buddy's crayon drawing of himself in the card
he made for his dad.
The apartment that Buddy's dad lives in is the same apartment building
(exterior shot) that Dana Barrett lived in in Ghostbusters.
Buddy's 12-second belch was supplied by voice actor Maurice LaMarche,
best-known for his cartoon character, "The Brain", from Pinky and the Brain
(1995), and who also did the operatic belching in Animaniacs (1993) as
"The Great Wakarotti". LaMarche also worked with Will Ferrell on the
animated series, The Oblongs
(2001).
When this screenplay first emerged in 1993, Jim Carrey was attached to
star in the lead.
The sound effect used by the jack-in-the-box is the same sound effect
used by the laughing hyenas at the Magic Kingdom at Disney World in Orlando,
Fl. And was also used in the 1955 Disney movie; "Lady and the Tramp"
for the laughing hyenas in the zoo, as well as for Ripper Roo in the Crash
Bandicoot video game series.
The brief TV news clip showing Buddy walking in Central Park (just before
Buddy's dad and brother find him), and the still picture of Buddy in the news
clip, closely mimic the famous 1967 film of an alleged Bigfoot
("Patty") taken by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin.
The film was turned into a Broadway Musical; it premiered November 2010
and ran through January 2011.
When she first meets Buddy, Jovie asks, "Did Crumpet put you up to
this?" Crumpet was David Sedaris'
character name when he worked as a Macy's elf, as recounted in his Christmas
story anthology "The Santaland Diaries." David Sedaris's sister, Amy Sedaris appears in the
film as James Caan's assistant,
Deb. It may also be a reference to Mount Crumpit from the Dr. Seuss Christmas
story "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."
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