Christmas is right around the corner and what better way to celebrate than to watch some of your favorite holiday movies? My absolute favorite movie of all time is the movie Elf. But, I honestly never knew these facts about my favorite movie. I guess we learn something new every day. Enjoy!
1. Jim Carrey was initially eyed to play Buddy. When David Berenbaum’s spec script first emerged in 1993, Carrey was pre-Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. However, it took another ten years to get the project in motion, at which time Saturday Night Live star Will Ferrell was signed to star.
2. Baby Buddy was fired. Twin boys whose blonde curly hair made them great little doubles for Will Ferrell were casted. However, the production ran into a problem when the boys couldn’t perform. So they were fired.
3. The movie was mostly shot in Vancouver. However, there are many scenes that were shot in New York, which include Rockefeller Center and Central Park.
4. Some of the scenes were in a haunted location. It was an abandoned mental hospital, where the production team constructed the interior sets for Walter’s Central Park West apartment, Gimbels’ lavish toy department, and that grim prison cell.
5. Will Ferrel made James Caan not so tough. Caan knew it was crucial for Walter, Buddy’s father, to be annoyed—never amused—by Buddy. But when it came to the blood test scene where Buddy bellows when pricked by a needle, Caan cracked. If you watch the scene carefully, you will notice him turn away from the needle so he didn’t ruin the moment.
6. Will Ferrell was once a mall Santa.
7. Director Jon Favreu loved practical effects. For example, for the North Pole scenes, two sets were built—one larger scale for the actors playing elves, the other smaller to make Buddy and Santa look big
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8. Ferrell got sick playing Buddy. He states, “That was tough. I ingested a lot of sugar in this movie and I didn’t get a lot of sleep. I constantly stayed up. But anything for the movie, I’m there. If it takes eating a lot of maple syrup, then I will—if that’s what the job calls for.”
9. A Christmas Story is also in Elf. Peter Billingsley, best known as the child actor who played Ralphie in another classic holiday film, A Christmas Story, had an uncredited cameo as one of the supervising elves in Santa’s Workshop.
10. Will Ferrell turned down $29 million to do a sequel to Elf.
11. The elf costumes are exact replicas of the elf costumes from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
12. Will Ferrell’s reaction to the Jack In the Box is actually genuine.
13.Buddy’s 12-second burp is not done by Will Ferrell. It’s actually done by the same voice actor as Brain from Pinky and the Brain.
14. The jack-in-the-boxes make the same noise as the laughing hyenas at the Magic Kingdom in Disney World.
15. Those cotton balls Buddy eats in the doctor’s office? Cotton candy:
16.Gimbel’s is actually a digitally altered version of the Macy’s on 34th Street in New York.
17. People were so shocked to see Will Ferrell in costume walking around Central Park and the Lincoln Tunnel that several traffic accidents were reported.
18.The raccoon that attacks Buddy makes monkey sounds instead of whatever sound a raccoon makes.
19.There aren’t that many buttons in the Empire State Building’s elevators.
I don’t know about you, but now I want to go watch the movie Elf. These facts taught me a lot about my favorite comedy.