SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

TheLittleSongbird 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

meisterburger23 OK, at least they had the guy who played Santa in the Elf movie on this and it is supposed to be stop motion (Santa Claus Is Coming to Town) But this is horrible, I saw the trailer on Youtube and got curious so I went to my local Target and bought the DVDI couldn't get over the fact Jim Parson was in it (no offense to the actor) But his voice is annoying, This is worse than the Spongebob Christmas and at least that was interesting. Yes I do understand there are worst specials but this was the straw that broke the camels back. I'm sorry but the elves look freaky as hell, the person who voiced Walter Hobbs hurt me, I mean the guy gave me the heebie geebies And why do all the humans look like smurfs? I'm sorry but I do not like this specialThe plot is basically like the movie where Buddy was raised by elves and doesn't find out he is a human until he grows up and Santa tells him about his birth fatherI love Elf the 2003 live action movie and I am going to stick to that1/10

Atli Hafsteinsson I don't know why it was decided to make a short-form animated musical based on 2003's "Elf", which is a wonderful holiday movie. But whatever the case, if you've seen "Elf" and like it, there is nothing about "Buddy's Musical Christmas" that's noteworthy. The plot is basically the same, so there's no real fresh changes aside from a scene with some mall santas in a diner. Moreover, the characters aren't as charming here as their real-life actors made them. You come to appreciate how likable Will Ferrell made Buddy, 'cause here, he's annoying rather than endearing. The look style is whimsical, but it's a case of all style and no content.You should just see "Elf" instead, and get way more for your time than this over-glorified and pointless TV special.

steveofthejungle Whyyyyy? Terrible Rehash of the original. They took funny gags and lines and beat them to death. Nothing at all fresh.And the songs sounded like someone beating a cat against a mailbox. So many things could have been done to make it as fun as the first. I was excited when I read Ed Asner was involved but now I am sorry he was.How about Walter,Emily and Michael go visit Elf and Movies new baby for Christmas. Miles finch and Morris and Eugene and they see who can write a better Christmas book. Mailroom dude works in the toy factory. Anything other than this. I guarantee this will not become a classic. I'm trying to come up with any positives but it's not happening.