Of all the Christmas movies I have the most fondness for 2003’s “Elf” is the most recent. It’s weird to think the film’s already 15 years old, but it still feels fresh and modern every time I watch it!

The wacky tale of Buddy the Elf started the trend of sort of taking the piss out of beloved children’s media – like Disney’s “Enchanted” did to Cinderella four years later. Elf is almost a retelling of the Rankin Bass “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, complete with faithful interpretations of the puppets and set design for the North Pole. The film starts off basically like a live-action sequel following the story of yet another misfit, a human raised by elves. Why Santa doesn’t try to return the little tyke is beyond me, but the setup is eerily similar to another classic Rankin Bass film “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” since Chris is also raised by elves. Elf even pulls aspects of “The Santa Clause” which, to my knowledge, was one of the first modern Christmas films to address Santa’s workshop of being capable of advanced robotics and name-brand toys instead of solely wooden trains and stuff.

As such, Elf works as a great bit of satire, bringing together tons of pop culture references and building off the combined Christmas lore of many films that came before it. As such, the fantastical elements feel familiar, but with a twist. The attention to detail works wonders since Buddy is forced to grow up in a world that’s too small for him, and much like Herbie struggles to find purpose in such a rigid society built around a specific skill-set. I still don’t quite understand why Buddy seems to be so developmentally challenged, unless elves age very slowly and aren’t expected to mature until after their 30s or why the workshop doesn’t accommodate Santa who is roughly human sized as well.

Now, that’s all well and good, but the North Pole takes up only 10% of the film’s runtime. Buddy learns pretty quickly about his heritage and makes a laughably short pilgrimage to New York City without a hitch. Here the film becomes a fish-out-of-water dramedy with the tiniest pinch of romcom. The humor is always at the expense of Buddy’s biological father since Buddy has no filter or social embarrassment. This format is always a little cringey for me, but thankfully much like Kel in “Good Burger” Buddy is so lovably oblivious that 99% of the cast accepts him instantly.

I enjoy Zooey Deschanel’s performance (she’s kind of the anti-manic pixie dream girl) but the romance subplot has too little time to develop for me to buy it. Her character serves a purpose as another foil to Buddy’s starry-eyed outlook on Christmas, but she’s too nice to him and falls for his weird creepy manchildness far too quickly. And don’t get me started on her rendition of “Baby it’s Cold Outside” with Leon Redbone during the credits [watch my Christmas Songs video at Janitorjoey on Youtube]

Elf is a film that has enough going for it that I forget how kind of bland and formulaic it is. The great attention to detail and Ferrel’s likable performance make me laugh enough to give this one a yearly viewing. But the uneven pacing and borderline snoorefest of a finale give me enough reasons to skip it every other year or so.