Buddy’s inability to tell a lie drives them to examine the truth in their own lives. "Suddenly it’s not okay anymore that Walter doesn’t spend time with Emily and their son," Steenburgen adds. "It’s not okay to have relationships that are drifting. You have to pull in the people that matter to you."
And what better place for Buddy to teach such a lesson than in the fast-paced, melting pot metropolis of New York? "If Buddy can instill a Christmas spirit in New York City, he can do it anywhere," points out producer Jon Berg. "New York is in many ways a touchstone, a microcosm for the rest of the world."
Despite its Rockefeller Center tree and Macy’s holiday-themed windows, the Christmas Buddy encounters in New York is all smoke and mirrors. Nowhere is this more apparent than among the fake elves and Santa Claus working at Gimbels, a mid-city department store. There, Buddy, mistaken for seasonal help, is ordered by the store manager (Faizon Love) to take his enthusiasm for the holidays "down a notch" and warned not to touch the store displays.
Buddy finds one glimmer of hope at Gimbels -- Jovie (Zooey Deschanel), a beautiful Christmas "elf" with an angelic face and voice to match. Beneath the happy exterior is a "jaded New Yorker who has to work at this humiliating elf job over the holidays to make some money, to make ends meet," says Deschanel. "Then she meets this person who is totally enthusiastic about being an elf, even to the point of getting a real fur collar and cuff."
Jovie finds Buddy at first weird, then amusing. "She thinks he’s just messing with people," says Deschanel. But Buddy is immediately smitten, and slowly, Jovie comes to trust the disarmingly innocent elf. "I think the attraction to Buddy is that he’s both different and actually completely pure," she says.
Buddy goes about winning over the hearts of both Jovie and the Hobbs family, but in a city of cynics that’s not enough Christmas spirit to power Santa’s sleigh through New York’s smoggy skies. Forging beyond the stereotype of the preternaturally good-natured senior citizen in a red suit, Edward Asner’s Santa is "a man who can be short tempered, who can be impatient," says the actor. "Who has normal, frail, human qualities along with innate goodness. And he’s funny. I love that he has those rounded qualities."
It’s going to take more than Buddy and Santa to get the sleigh moving on its great Christmas Eve journey. What is needed is true belief in Christmas.
"I think it’s important for us, in this day and age, to believe in something good and pure," comments Asner. "It’s nice to have something that gives us hope, that gives us simplicity. I think Elf will be a wonderful contribution to the belief in simplicity and goodness. It will be lovely for kids to watch, both humorous and encouraging. And in these dark days of the world, a sweet, gentle message about giving and love is something we need desperately."
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