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According to Joshua Tyler
| Published
Will Ferrell Elf is the highest-grossing Christmas movie of the modern era and one of the best holiday movies of all time. It’s a simple story told in such a straightforward way that Buddy the Elf’s father, Walter Hobbs, is the only character in it.
We’re told early on that Walter Hobbs (played by James Caan) is on the naughty list. When Buddy meets him, everything seems designed to confirm that he deserves to be there. Walter’s character drives the story, not Buddy’s. Buddy is the same person at the end of the movie as he was at the beginning. But Walter is said to be transitioning from a villain to a loving father who embraces the spirit of Christmas.
Except it doesn’t happen at all. Walter Hobbs was never a bad person. He shouldn’t have been on the naughty list. He is a true hero Elfand i can do it
We begin by taking each supposed example of Scrooge-like behavior one at a time.
Walter Hobbs only cares about his job
Right at the beginning, Walter Hobbs is introduced to us as a workaholic who spends all his time on his career and neglects his family. At one point, his son demotes him, accusing him of only being after the money. He is also attacked by his wife, who accuses him of neglecting his son.
But that doesn’t happen on the screen. The Walter Hobbs we see Elf he is home in time for dinner every night. Sure enough, once, after he’d had a really rough day, he wanted to go eat in his man cave. The guy was under a lot of stress. It is clear that this is not the norm, as his son reacts to his decision to eat alone as if it were news by asking if he can copy his father’s behavior.
One night eating alone doesn’t make Walter Hobbs the devil.
In fact, it’s pretty clear that Hobbs doesn’t care about his job at all. The quality of his work is absolute garbage. He was caught deliberately signing under the wrong print, a clear sign that he doesn’t care and hates working there.
Every time we see him at the table, Walter looks like he wants to die.
So why is it there? Someone has to pay the bills.
Walter Hobbs gets up every day and goes to a job he hates to support his family. He is home every night for dinner, which he seems to almost always eat at the table with his family. What a monster.
Walter Hobbs does not accept Buddy
When Buddy Elf shows up in Walter’s office, he is understandably confused. Buddy gets kicked out a few times from the shock. She has no reason to trust him. The guy is dressed as an elf and talking about Santa. It’s clear he’s some kind of mentally ill lunatic. Any reasonable person would think he might be dangerous.
To make matters worse, Buddy’s way of convincing Walter that he is his son is to send him sexy underwear. This must have made Walter wonder if Buddy’s true purpose might have a strange sexual connotation. Almost anyone else would have called the cops, but not good-hearted Walter Hobbs. Instead, he decides to give Buddy a chance.
Walter bails Buddy out of jail, takes him to the clinic and gets him tested. A reasonable thing to do when a 40-year-old man you’ve never met before shows up at your door claiming to be a close relative. The moment the test proves Buddy is his son, Walter turns around and invites this person he doesn’t even know into his home.
All of this happens while Buddy continues to engage in bizarre behavior that, if he claimed a less kind and empathetic person as his father, would likely oblige him. Not Buddy’s fault, of course. He means well, but Walter has no way of knowing.
Despite Buddy’s weirdness, Walter sees through the person he is inside and decides to trust him with his family. Walter is so forgiving that aside from joking about how Buddy likes snow, he doesn’t even flinch when Buddy starts destroying his house.
His solution to Buddy’s destruction is not to throw him away, but to figure out a way to take care of him. He asks his wife to stay home with him and supervise. When he can’t, Walter Hobbs takes his grown son to work.
Walter Sticks Buddy In The Post Office
Buddy Elf is an unemployed adult with no place to live and no prospects. He needs a job, so Walter Hobbs uses his company’s influence to get him one.
Buddy has no work history and no experience, which means he is not qualified to work anywhere other than a mailroom. Walter gets him a job there.
In a way, it’s a success. Buddy is having a great time in the mail room, making new ones friends and gets paid. However, he also embarrasses his father by getting drunk and dancing on tables.
Walter doesn’t overreact. He puts his head down and goes through life as best he can.
Walter yells at Buddy
Walter’s job is in jeopardy and he knows it. For years he’s been plodding through a thankless career in a field he’s clearly not suited for, and it’s starting to take its toll.
Walter’s employees are useless and lazy, but he has a solution. At great expense, he brings in a great writer to give them the pitch they need to write a bestseller.
Buddy, who would be busy working in the mailroom and earning his own paycheck if he hadn’t gotten drunk, barges in at the worst possible time. Then, as Walter sees it, he starts insulting Walter’s guest for no reason. It soon goes beyond yelling and becomes a full-blown physical confrontation. Walter can only stand and watch in horror.
Walter’s initial meeting is now in ruins, his son has been implicated in an ambush on company grounds and it all happened in front of his employees. Add another workplace humiliation to his reputation.
It’s only then, after days of shaming, abuse and sheer creepiness from a grown man he barely knows, that Walter Hobbs finally gets angry. He yells at Buddy to get out, and after Buddy leaves, he tries to find a way to save his reputation and career.
Walter Hobbs works on Christmas Day
Okay, but what about his lack of interest in Christmas? Things really go awry when Walter goes to work on Christmas Day.
Except Walter never wanted to be there. When his boss tells him he has to work on Christmas Day, Walter immediately protests. He tries to refuse, but his boss threatens to fire him. His choice is to go to work or roll the dice to find another job to support his child. No one wants to be out of work for Christmas, so he did his job. That’s not grumpy behavior, that’s being a responsible adult.
That’s when his youngest bursts in, yelling that Buddy Elf has escaped. Despite being embarrassed in front of his boss, Walter remains firm. He defends his son when his boss talks down to him.
Meanwhile, Buddy the Elf is a grown man. A grown man who proved he could take care of himself literally walked all the way from the North Pole to New York. He’s been wandering around New York again, the fifth or sixth time he’s done it in a movie, and there’s no reason to think he’s in danger.
The kid is overeating and Walter knows it. He also understands that his son is worried, so he tells him that he will take care of it and calmly asks him to wait outside until he can finish. His son refuses to listen to his father and starts yelling at him, adding another job humiliation to his resume.
Any other parent would kick their son out of his room and ground him for a year after that tirade, but a compassionate Walter relents. He realizes that his family doesn’t care about him or his work, and after weeks and weeks of being humiliated and humiliated by them, he gives up trying to make a living and quits.
Real elves villains
Walter Hobbs is no villain. He’s an introvert who doesn’t share his emotions, but that doesn’t make him a bad person.
Walter Hobbs is abused and humiliated, yelled at and inappropriately touched by a grown man in pantyhose who decides to inadvertently tickle him. Walter will never fall apart. They keep it together and soldier on. After weeks of abuse, he has one small outburst and immediately tries to make amends.
Elf it’s full of horrible people. Miles Finch is a delusional egomaniac. Walter’s crack writing team are lazy sycophants. His secretary is a kitten-killing psychopath. His boss is a jerk.
And then there’s Santa, who knew all along who Buddy’s father was, but let him be raised by an elf instead of telling Walter Hobbs he had a son. Santa adds Walter to the naughty list and spends several decades allowing the elves to trick Buddy into thinking he is one of them while putting lumps of coal under Walter’s tree every year.
There are bad guys Elf. Walter Hobbs is not one of them.
