Review of Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas (2014) by Michael M — 13 Dec 2016

This is essentially an abridged version of the movie Elf done in the Rankin-Bass style of Christmas movies. I never liked the Rankin-Bass stuff, but I do like Elf, and the animation here is for the most part rather delightful. There's a few odd touches that kind of bugged me (Buddy's giraffe neck, the weird way background characters are all blue), but for the most part it works. The story is basically the same, just shorter, cutting out a lot of the subplots and rapidly speeding up certain character development moments. Some of the changes, like the final villains being the Naughty List-ers rather than those weirdass horseman of the apocalypse from the movie, I liked; others, like dramatically dumbing down Buddy's intelligence, I didn't. Buddy in the original movie was extremely naïve, but he wasn't stupid. In this version, he's a bit too dumb. Doesn't kill it, but definitely knocks it down a few pegs.

In the end, this short special is charming. It's not great, not that funny, and not at all necessary, but it's cute and likable and I'm glad I saw it.