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Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas

Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas (2014)

December. 16,2014
|
5.4
| Fantasy Animation Family TV Movie

Santa narrates the story of Buddy's travels to New York City to meet the father he never knew he had. Along the way his unrelenting cheer transforms the lives of everyone he meets and opens his father's eyes to the magic of Christmas.

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Reviews

Neive Bellamy
2014/12/16

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

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Aneesa Wardle
2014/12/17

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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Rosie Searle
2014/12/18

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

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Justina
2014/12/19

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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TheLittleSongbird
2014/12/20

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

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SarahRobinson888
2014/12/21

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!

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drmark7
2014/12/22

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!!!

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gahrjack
2014/12/23

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.

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