Postmedia’s Melissa Hank uncovers quirky facts about 2003’s Elf — surely one of your favourite holiday movies.
1Jim dandy role?
Jim Carrey was attached to Elf when the initial script made the rounds in 1993. But 10 years of delays — and a little movie called Ace Ventura: Pet Detective — kept the rubber-faced actor from donning Buddy’s bright yellow tights. Will Ferrell signed on instead, fresh off his run on Saturday Night Live.
2Claus and effect
Before SNL, Ferrell spread holiday cheer by suiting up as the big guy himself — with fellow SNL cast member Chris Kattan as his elf. “It was hilarious because little kids (couldn’t) care less about the elf. They just come right to Santa Claus,” Ferrell told Spliced Wire. “So by the second weekend, Kattan had dropped the whole affectation he was doing and was like, ‘Santa’s over there, kid.’”
3Jonny on the spot Director Jon Favreau made a couple cameos. Most people recognize Favreau as the doctor who gives Buddy his DNA test, but he also provided the voice for the narwhal that surfaces from the water when Buddy’s leaving the North Pole: “Bye, Buddy,” he says. “Hope you find your dad.” Producer Peter Billingsley, who played Ralphie in A Christmas Story, also made a cameo as an elf in Santa’s workshop.
4Scary stuff
Some store scenes were filmed in an insane asylum. The department store Buddy decorated is known as bright and shiny Gimbels onscreen, but the filming location in Vancouver had a very different history. “They gutted an old insane asylum and made it a sound studio,” Artie Lange, who played the surly department store Santa in Elf, told ABC News. The asylum also held sets for Walter’s apartment and the film’s prison cell, and previously hosted sets from The XFiles.
5Belly laughs
Ferrell’s jack-in-the-box reactions were real. As an unhappy toy tester in the North Pole, Buddy anxiously startled each time a jack-in-the-box popped open. Favreau used a remote control to vary the timing, reports Mental Floss, making sure that Ferrell’s reactions were authentic.