I'm in a store and I'm singing!
>> Hey! There's no singing in the North Pole.
>> Yes there is.
>> No there's not.
>> It's the 15th anniversary of Elf, and
we're looking back at the modern Christmas classic.
So grab a cup of the world's best coffee and huddle around.
Here are seven things you didn't know about Elf.
Probably.
>> i'm a cotton headed ninny muggins.
(Music)
>> Buddy's life in North Pole looks like it could've been a classic Christmas
cartoon on it's own.
So it's no surprise that growing up,
director Jon Favreau loved the classic Rankin Bass Christmas specials,
such as Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and Jack Frost.
What you may not know is Favreau also voiced most of the creatures except for
two, the polar bear cub,
voiced by legendary stop motion animator Ray Harryhausen.
>> Bye-bye.
>> And Leon the Snowman voiced by famed jazz musician Leon Redbone.
>> You're 6'3" and had a beard since you were 15.
>> Leon also recorded a duet of Baby, It's Cold Outside with Zooey Deschanel for
the soundtrack which is boom, a bonus redbone thing.
(Sound) Although the North Pole scene seemed to
come straight out of a classic Christmas cartoon,
many of the real world settings came out of a horror movie.
And no, not the one called Real Life, the one called Freddy Versus Jason.
Several interior locations such as Santaland,
the doctor's office, the mailroom, and even the Hobbes's apartment
were built in vacant buildings of the Riverview Hospital Complex in Vancouver.
According to Favreau, filming took place right after the hospital played host to
the two horror movie icons, both of whom we all know are for
sure on the naughty list.
(Music)
Sure this holiday comedy is filled with famous faces, such as Ed Asner,
Bob Newhart, and James Kahn.
But probably the best get of the film is Peter Billingsley,
AKA Ralphie from A Christmas Story.
Billingsley is a producing partner of Fab Bros, and makes his return to Christmas
movies as the head elf that reassigns Buddy to the quality assurance department.
Bonus fact, the last Jack In the Box in this scene was controlled by a remote, so
Will Ferrell's reaction was 100% real and terrified every single time.
(Noise) If Will Ferrell seemed at
home in the tights and Christmas spirit,
it's because he's had experience as an actual mall Santa.
When he was part of the Groundlings in Los Angeles,
Ferrell played Santa at an outdoor mall in Pasadena for a few weeks.
Fellow Groundling and
future SNL costar Chris Kattan was one of Will's elves as well.
Which seems more of a wholesome pairing than the Butabi Brothers.
After a long day of convincing children that Santa is real,
it is nice that they could always go out for a night at the Roxbury.
(Music)
Although a diet of candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup is ideal for
elves, it probably isn't the healthiest thing for a human adult.
Will Ferrell got so sick consuming all the sugar in some of his scenes,
that he couldn't sleep and developed headaches.
He had to shoot the candy breakfast scene at least four or five times,
each time consuming enough sugar to put down a room full of toddlers for a nap.
Even the cotton balls in the doctor's examination room are made out of
cotton candy.
But hey, where else are you going to get the energy to decorate a whole store for
Santa's big arrival?
>> Santa's coming to town.
>> Santa!
(Sound) >> In addition to the candy spaghetti and
cotton candy cotton balls, Buddy also drinks and entire liter of Coca Cola.
Which is pretty impressive and disgusting.
Thankfully, with a little bit of movie magic,
Will Ferrell didn't actually have to do that.
Practical effects helped out by connecting a tube to the bottle to drain it quickly.
But the cool thing here is that the unbelievable burp that Buddy
belches is real.
(Sound) Did you hear that?
>> The man behind the burp is Maurice Lamarsh, the voice of Brain in Pinky and
the Brain.
And countless other cartoon characters you probably love.
Lamarsh's IMDB page even lists stunt burper as one of trademarks,
which is a boom, Bonus Bodily Function Thing.
(Noise) All the exterior shots of New York when
Buddy first arrives were filmed guerrilla style, with Favreau and
Farrell figuring out things Buddy could do or see.
All the extras in the scenes were regular people that were just passing by that they
asked to film.
The scene where he eats gum off the subway entrance also elicited some groans from
people passing by, but worry not.
That gum was all pre-chewed by Ferrell and
placed on a thin sheet of plastic to keep it from being truly gross.
Also, according to Ferrell, they even convinced the New York Fire Department to
let him ride on the back of a fire engine.
But it was cut for time.
Man, man, am I sorry that didn't make it into the film.
(Music)
That's all we have for this episode of Things You Didn't Know, but
tell us your favorite way to spread Christmas cheer and subscribe to Cinefix,
for more true-ish things about movies and sometimes stunt burping,
right here on Things You Didn't Know.