Will Ferrell: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

2. Buddy - Elf (2003)

A fairly recent entry into the Christmas film canon, Elf follows the story of Buddy (Ferrell) who works in Santa's workshop alongside the 'other' elves. The only thing is, he's not an elf himself. When Buddy discovers this and finds out his true origins, he travels to New York to meet his real father Walter (James Caan), a businessman on Santa's naughty list. All Buddy knows is Christmas cheer, so naturally he doesn't even slightly fit in when he makes it to the Big Apple. To everyone who meets him, Buddy the Elf is either annoying, annoying or annoying, occasionally taking a break from being annoying to be really, really annoying. So why don't we find him annoying? It's a tough question to answer. Seeing a grown man bouncing around the place like a child, getting on everyone's nerves and ruining just about everything should really make you want to put your foot through the screen. But Buddy is a very innocent character, and to Ferrell's credit, he pulls it off. He makes Buddy not irritating but charming, filling every scene with blindly infectious joy while somehow keeping a sympathetic edge so that you root for this cheerful idiot throughout. For the miserable teenager or the middle-aged man, Ferrell made Christmas fun all over again. Played by any other actor, Buddy would either be more aggravating or less humorous, completely failing as a character in each instance. Ferrell made the role his own, he made smiling your favourite and he made you love Buddy enough so that you could never deny Elf when it's shown on TV every single Christmas.