‘Elf’ Movie Gets an Honest Trailer

The holiday season is upon us and the folks over at Screen Junkies are passing out their presents early by giving the Elf its very own Honest Trailer.

Released in 2003, Elf starred Will Ferrell as Buddy, a human boy raised by elves at the North Pole in Santa’s Workshop who leaves in search of his father. As you can guess — both from the premise and the fact that it’s a Will Ferrell movie — shenanigans ensue, but those shenanigans are so much fun the firmly cemented Elf as a modern Christmas classic and elevated the film to a must-watch holiday tradition.

It’s that position as a beloved holiday classic that leads Screen Junkies to cut Elf quite a bit of slack in its Honest Trailer. A hallmark of the franchise, Honest Trailers usually humorously pick apart the films they cover but in the case of Elf, the guys at Screen Junkies are pretty up front about the movie being “delightful” and therefore, not something they will rip apart.

That said, the Honest Trailer does make a few good points, including how bonkers the plot is — they note it would be pretty easy to turn it into a Joker movie — that no one seems to notice that Santa is real, Buddy’s eating habits are horrifyingly unhealthy, and perhaps the most troubling that Zoey Deschanel’s character Jovie marries someone who pretty much has the mind of a child.

We’re going to try not to think too much about that.

The Honest Trailer does make some positive observations as well, specifically about the actors involved with the film and where their careers have gone. Elf didn’t just star Ferrell who went on to portray the iconic and hilarious Ron Burgundy just one year later, but the film also had quite a few other future heavy hitters involved. Director Jon Favreau went on to kick off the wildly popular Marvel Cinematic Universe just three years after Elf with Iron Man, and Peter Dinklage went on to Game of Thrones in 2011.

It’s pretty impressive to think about, but it also means that it’s not likely that there will ever be an Elf 2. While fans did get to see further Buddy adventures thanks to a stop-motion animation Christmas special in 2014, Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas wasn’t exactly well received, due in part to the lack of original actors lending their talents to the film.

What did you think of the Honest Trailer for Elf? Let us know in the comments below.