Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas (2014 TV Special) User Reviews

one funny song in an OK Christmas special

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 16 December 2014]

Christmastown in the North Pole is a really happy place. Buddy is the happiest one of them all and really really accident prone. Santa tells him that he is actually human who stowaway in Santa's bag as an orphan baby. His father is Walter Hobbs living in NYC who's been on the naughty list for over 50 years. He travels to see his father who works at Greenway Publishing. He's thrown out of his father's office. Then he meets and falls for Jovie who's ringing the donation bell on the street.

The first song is funny. I hoped that the special would continue like that but it never gets back to that level. Jim Parsons is a great cartoon voice but completely different than Will Ferrell. He sounds a bit like Jack McBrayer. Buddy keeps the show rolling. However the other songs aren't that much fun or catchy. They sound like the usual Broadway fare. The animation looks charming. They do change a few things from the movie. I wish the changes could have made the second half better.

Seen Elf? Like it? Then you can skip this

[atlihafsteinsson · 4/10 · 16 December 2015]

I don't know why it was decided to make a short-form animated musical based on 2003's "Elf", which is a wonderful holiday movie. But whatever the case, if you've seen "Elf" and like it, there is nothing about "Buddy's Musical Christmas" that's noteworthy. The plot is basically the same, so there's no real fresh changes aside from a scene with some mall santas in a diner. Moreover, the characters aren't as charming here as their real-life actors made them. You come to appreciate how likable Will Ferrell made Buddy, 'cause here, he's annoying rather than endearing. The look style is whimsical, but it's a case of all style and no content.

You should just see "Elf" instead, and get way more for your time than this over-glorified and pointless TV special.

A lacklustre musical Christmas

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 25 December 2017]

While it is not one of my favourite films, festive or not, 'Elf' is nonetheless an entertaining and charming film and one of Will Ferrell's better films. Being someone who also loves musicals and Christmas, part of me was looking forward somewhat to 'Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas'.

My thoughts on it are that it is not quite as bad as has been made out here, but it doesn't really live up to 'Elf' and promises more than it delivers. There are far worse Christmas specials, 'Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer', 'Star Wars Holiday Special' and particularly 'The Christmas Tree' are far worse and notoriously so. There are also far better, strong examples being the best of Rankin/Bass like 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer', 'Frosty the Snowman' and 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town'.

Starting with the positives, the animation is very well done, with lots of colour and detail and also liked the attention to expressions. Also thought the voice acting was very good, Ed Asner especially is spot on as Santa.

Jim Parsons likewise is a spirited Buddy and Gilbert Gottfried has fun with his character, though he doesn't quite overcome the tendency to go overboard.

The opening song number is catchy, starting 'Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas' on a promising note, while the music score is playful enough.

However, too many things work against 'Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas'. The rest of the songs are unmemorable, a few even downright irritating and add far less than they should do, actually they could have been excised and nobody would miss a thing. While the voice acting is fine generally Mark Hamill has definitely done far better work than here.

'Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas' doesn't fare very well in the story department. It lacks the warmth and heart of 'Elf', and lacks even more in charm. It treads far too much familiar ground and further suffers from being twice as long as it should have been, seeing as the story felt very stretched and padded out by the musical numbers. This affects the momentum of the second half where it runs out of steam.

Dialogue is corny rather than witty and veers on the saccharine, while the already tired gags go beyond breaking point and the message starts contradictory (missing the point of what 'Elf' was all about) and then is lost amidst everything else.

Overall, lacklustre but not without its merits. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Ho, The horror!

[steveofthejungle · 1/10 · 16 December 2014]

Whyyyyy? Terrible Rehash of the original. They took funny gags and lines and beat them to death. Nothing at all fresh.And the songs sounded like someone beating a cat against a mailbox. So many things could have been done to make it as fun as the first. I was excited when I read Ed Asner was involved but now I am sorry he was.

How about Walter,Emily and Michael go visit Elf and Movies new baby for Christmas. Miles finch and Morris and Eugene and they see who can write a better Christmas book. Mailroom dude works in the toy factory. Anything other than this. I guarantee this will not become a classic. I'm trying to come up with any positives but it's not happening.

NOT THAT BAD- Reminded Me Of Vintage RANKIN-BASS

[drmark7 · 27 December 2014]

I watched BUDDY'S MUSICAL Christmas (2014) independent of being a fan or follower of the original movie ELF (I've seen it- but it was never a favorite.), and I thought this to be very reminiscent of the many classic Rankin-Bass specials (RUDOLPH, SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN.) And found it to be very entertaining. Jim Parsons was great. As were Ed Asner (Santa in the original ELF!) and Gilbert Gottfried. The songs weren't as bad as expected. A few were catchy. The animation was interesting (Watch the characters MOUTHS!) I can't wait to see it again next year. Recommended! Perhaps the best, new Christmas special in DECADES!!!

Great for little ones

[thecrazycatlady-47028 · 7/10 · 12 December 2020]

My 3 year watched it in one sitting

He'd never sit through the film

For kids this is great

Truly Horrible

[gahrjack · 2/10 · 16 December 2014]

I had very low expectations for this... thing. It still couldn't meet them. The first song went completely against the moral of the original Elf (2003). Santa sings about how he wishes the elves would stop singing. That's completely against the whole meaning of Elf! There truly was nothing good about this movie. The actors did okay with the bottom of the barrel writing they were given, except for Mark Hamill, who sounded like a robot, reading his lines with no life, no personality. The only reason I didn't give it a 1 is because Edward Asner actually did a very good job as Santa, who was the narrator. Once again, this good performance was ruined by awful writing. The worst part about this sorry excuse for a TV movie though, is that it ruined the story that formed a Christmas classic, Elf. The final scene might have earned itself a third star, if it weren't for Buddy being very annoying. He actually managed to be even more annoying than he had been all movie long. But to sum it all up, this thing had the cheesiest lines and songs that I've ever heard in a movie. Do yourself a favor and, if you taped it, or it's on again, don't watch this. Sit down on the couch, and watch the original Elf. That can actually be considered a movie. This remake is pure junk.

Very sweet

[SarahRobinson888 · 7/10 · 8 March 2016]

I thought this adaption/ follow up of the hit movie 'Elf' was very, very sweet. It isn't very similar to 'Elf' but how could it be? It's an animation about a different story. The special effects and animation were beautiful and clever, I love little 3D people and all that sort of thing. I thought it was really sweet and my mother and I (both adults) happily sat and watched it the whole way through! No children in sight! Hats off to the people who made this movie. Utterly glorious. And very, very festive. I would definitely recommend this movie and I hope to see it on my TV screen once again this Christmas. I might even force my niece to watch it!

Elf hazard

[Prismark10 · 2/10 · 25 December 2015]

This cynical cash in animation short basically retells the story of Elf, the Will Ferrell film without any of the charm and many of the cast from the original film.

Ed Asner does reprise his role to voice Santa who tells the grown up Buddy who thinks he is an Elf in the North Pole that he is actually human who stowed away in Santa's bag as a baby.

His real dad is Walter Hobbs living in New York who has been on the naughty list for years.

Buddy travels to see his father who works at a publishing company with a horrid boss. Walter is taken aback at first to see this grown up infant but Buddy's relentless cheer transforms him and when Santa comes to deliver presents the curmudgeonly Walter gets the festive fever.

Because this is labelled as a musical we have to put up with some mind numbingly dull songs. Even the animation is not much to shout home about.

It would be just be better to put the Ferrell film on.

Awful

[DarrenJCampbellUK · 2/10 · 26 December 2015]

Cynical garbage, completely lacking in Christmas spirit. This is an affront to Jon Favreau's wonderful film. I'm ashamed to be sitting here watching it with my daughter, but now I've started, I don't want to draw any more attention to it by turning it off and causing a scene. The two stars I have given it are for the animation and the actors, who can't be held responsible for the tone of the film. Being a short animation, it should be even more suitable for small children than the film, but with its emphasis on fake Santas and not believing, it should carry a warning that it's not suitable for small children. I can only hope I remember not to make the mistake of watching this a second time.

I like this special. It's actually pretty entertaining.

[DannyD1997 · 8/10 · 2 December 2015]

Calm down, people. It's okay if you don't like this special. Don't worry, you have every right not to like this, you just gotta believe that there are a lot of Christmas specials out there that are WAY worse than this. I mean, sure; It's not the best Christmas special of all time, and it's not nearly as good as the 2003 film with Will Ferrell, but that doesn't REALLY mean it's the world's worst Christmas special. The reason why it's practically like this is that, in case you didn't know, Elf (2003) had a Broadway musical back in 2010. It was called "Elf: The Musical". I have not seen that musical, but it's actually good. I like this special, because it had great songs, nice animation, hilarious voice acting, an interesting story, and likable characters. Though, I'll admit, the scene where one elf was all like "ALL THE TAHHME!!!!!" is kind of creepy, but this special as a whole is not the Christmas special from hell. Wanna know what's the REAL worst Christmas special of all time? Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer is worse than this, Eight Crazy Nights is worse than this, The Christmas Tree (1991) is not only worse than Buddy's Musical Christmas, but THAT special is the second worst Christmas special of all time, where as Rapsitti Street Kids: Believe in Santa is the world's worst Christmas special of all time. Personally, I'd prefer to stick to this special than Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. If you don't like this, that's okay, just believe that there are a lot worse Christmas specials out there than this.

I wish this was better

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 4 June 2015]

Let me start this review by saying that i am not familiar with the Will Ferrell movie, so I cannot say which is better and which is worse. However, I did not really like this 45 minute special from last Christmas. The voice cast has some pretty big names, including multiple Emmy Award winner Jim Parsons as the lead character. He unites with his former "Big Bang Theory" co star Kate Micucci. The whole premise is about an elf getting his dad off the naughty list. As you probably already guessed from the title, there are quite a few musical numbers in here, but none of these really wowed me. The last one sung by the female main character was solid, the rest fairly forgettable.

All in all, this movie had no less than a total of 6 pretty experienced writers and directors and taking this into account it is a fairly disappointing result. The animation isn't great either. There are parts of it which are downright bad, like the mouth of the villain. The topics such as the elf falling in love or relationship with his dad offered room for nice emotion, but it fell short in this area too. And the ending with all the people from the naughty list suddenly showing up was strange too. Fairly forgettable Christmas special here, really only for small children.

WORST Christmas SPECIAL EVER

[meisterburger23 · 1/10 · 16 December 2015]

OK, at least they had the guy who played Santa in the Elf movie on this and it is supposed to be stop motion (Santa Claus Is Coming to Town) But this is horrible, I saw the trailer on Youtube and got curious so I went to my local Target and bought the DVD

I couldn't get over the fact Jim Parson was in it (no offense to the actor) But his voice is annoying, This is worse than the Spongebob Christmas and at least that was interesting. Yes I do understand there are worst specials but this was the straw that broke the camels back. I'm sorry but the elves look freaky as hell, the person who voiced Walter Hobbs hurt me, I mean the guy gave me the heebie geebies And why do all the humans look like smurfs? I'm sorry but I do not like this special

The plot is basically like the movie where Buddy was raised by elves and doesn't find out he is a human until he grows up and Santa tells him about his birth father

I love Elf the 2003 live action movie and I am going to stick to that

1/10