- published: 28 Nov 2012
- views: 479584
Elf is a 2003 American Christmas comedy film directed by Jon Favreau, written by David Berenbaum and starring Will Ferrell, James Caan and Zooey Deschanel. It was released in the United States on November 7, 2003 and grossed over $220,400,000 worldwide. The story is about one of Santa's elves who learns of his true identity as a human and goes to New York City to meet his biological father, spreading Christmas cheer in a world of cynics as he goes.
A baby boy crawls into Santa Claus's (Ed Asner) sack of gifts while he is delivering toys to an orphanage one Christmas Eve. Santa Claus unwittingly takes the baby back to the North Pole, where Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) volunteers to raise him. The baby was christened William but through a humorous misunderstanding is renamed Buddy (Will Ferrell). He is raised unaware of his status as a human, until his enormous size and (relatively) poor toy-making abilities lead him to ultimately find out the truth. Papa Elf reveals that Buddy was born to Walter Hobbs (James Caan) and Susan Wells and given up for adoption, and that Walter never knew of his existence. He explains how Susan later died and that Walter now works at a children's book company in New York City. Buddy sets out for Manhattan to find his father.