By Joshua Tyler
| Revealed
Will Ferrell’s Elf is the most-watched Christmas film of the trendy period and among the finest vacation films of all time. It’s a easy story instructed in such a simple trend that Buddy Elf’s father, Walter Hobbs, is the one determine with a personality arc in it.
We’re instructed on the outset that Walter Hobbs (performed by James Caan) is on the naughty record. When Buddy meets him, every thing appears designed to verify that he deserves to be there. It’s Walter’s character arc that drives the story, not Buddy’s. Buddy is identical particular person on the finish of the film as he was in the beginning. However Walter supposedly makes the transition from being a villain to a loving father who accepts the spirit of Christmas.
Besides that’s not what occurs in any respect. Walter Hobbs was by no means a nasty man. He shouldn’t have been on the naughty record. He’s the actual hero of Elf, and I’m going to show it.
We’ll begin by taking every supposed instance of Scrooge-like conduct one by one.
Walter Hobbs Solely Cares About His Job
Early on, we’re launched to Walter Hobbs as a workaholic who spends all his time on a profession and neglects his household. At one level, his son degrades him, accusing him of solely caring about cash. His spouse additionally assaults him, accusing him of neglecting his son.
That’s not what occurs on display, although. The Walter Hobbs we see in Elf is house on meal time each night time. Positive, one time, after he’d had a extremely tough day, he wished to go eat in his man cave. The man was underneath loads of stress. Clearly, that’s not the norm since his son reacts to his eating-alone choice as if it’s a novelty by asking if he can duplicate his father’s conduct.
One night time consuming alone doesn’t make Walter Hobbs a satan.
In actual fact, it’s fairly clear Hobbs doesn’t care about his job in any respect. The standard of his work is absolute rubbish. He’s caught deliberately signing off on unhealthy printing, a transparent signal that he doesn’t care and hates working there.
Each time we see him at his desk, Walter seems to be like he’s wishing for loss of life.
So why is he there? Somebody has to pay the payments.
Walter Hobbs will get up day-after-day and goes to a job he hates in an effort to assist his household. He’s house each night time for dinner, which, apparently, he virtually at all times eats on the desk together with his household. What a monster.
Walter Hobbs Doesn’t Settle for Buddy
When Buddy Elf reveals up at Walter’s workplace, he’s understandably confused. He throws Buddy out a couple of occasions from the shock of all of it. He has no cause to consider him. The man is dressed like an Elf and speaking about Santa. Clearly, he’s some type of mentally in poor health crackpot. Any cheap particular person would have thought he may be harmful.
To make issues worse, Buddy’s method of convincing Walter he’s his son is by sending him attractive lingerie. This will need to have had Walter questioning if Buddy’s true function may need a bizarre sexual connotation. Nearly anybody else would have referred to as the cops, however not kind-hearted Walter Hobbs. As an alternative, he decides to provide Buddy an opportunity.
Walter pays to bail Buddy out of jail, takes him to a clinic, and will get him examined. A smart factor to do when a 40-year-old man you’ve by no means seen earlier than reveals up in your doorstep, claiming to be a detailed relative. The second the take a look at proves Buddy is his son, Walter does an about-face and invitations this particular person, who he doesn’t know in any respect, into his house.
That is all taking place whereas Buddy continues to have interaction in weird conduct that, if he’d claimed a much less type and empathetic particular person as his father, would most likely have gotten him dedicated. It’s not Buddy’s fault, in fact. He means nicely, however Walter has no strategy to know that.
Regardless of Buddy’s weirdness, Walter sees by it to the particular person he’s inside and decides to belief him round his household. Walter is so forgiving that, apart from a joke about how a lot Buddy likes the snow, he doesn’t even flinch when Buddy begins destroying his home.
His resolution to Buddy’s destruction isn’t to throw him out, it’s to determine a strategy to maintain him. He asks his spouse to remain house with him and supervise. When she will be able to’t, Walter Hobbs takes his grownup son to work.
Walter Sticks Buddy In The Mail Room
Buddy Elf is an unemployed grownup with no place to reside and no prospects. He wants a job, so Walter Hobbs makes use of his firm affect to get him one.
Buddy has no job historical past and no expertise, which implies he’s not certified to work wherever apart from within the mail room. Walter will get him a job there.
In a method, it’s a hit. Buddy has a good time within the mail room, he makes new friends and will get a paycheck. Nonetheless, he additionally embarrasses his father by getting drunk and dancing on tables.
Walter doesn’t overreact. He places down his head and retains going by life the perfect he can.
Walter Yells At Buddy
Walter’s job is on the road, and he is aware of it. He’s been slogging his method by a thankless profession for years in an business he’s clearly not suited to, and it’s begun taking a toll.
Walter’s staff are ineffective and lazy, however he has an answer. At nice expense, he brings in a crack author to provide them the pitch they should write a best-selling e book.
Buddy, who would have been busy at work within the mailroom incomes a paycheck of his personal if he hadn’t gotten drunk, bursts in on the worst second. Then, for no cause, Walter can see, he begins insulting Walter’s visitor. It quickly goes previous yelling and turns into a full-blown bodily confrontation. All Walter can do is stand and watch in horror.
Walter’s pitch assembly is now ruined, his son was concerned in an assault on firm grounds, and all of it occurred in entrance of his staff. Add one more office humiliation to his fame.
It’s solely in that second, after days of shame, abuse, and flat-out creepiness from an grownup man he barely is aware of, that Walter Hobbs lastly will get mad. He yells at Buddy to get out, after which after Buddy leaves, tries to seek out some strategy to salvage his fame and his profession.
Walter Hobbs Works On Christmas Eve
Okay, however what about his disinterest in Christmas? Issues actually disintegrate when Walter goes to work on Christmas Eve.
Besides, Walter by no means wished to be there in any respect. When his boss tells him he has to work Christmas Eve, Walter instantly objects. He tries to refuse, however his boss threatens to fireplace him. His alternative is to go in to work or roll the cube on with the ability to discover one other job to feed his child. No one desires to be out of labor on Christmas, so he did his job. That’s not grinchy conduct, that’s being a accountable grownup.
It’s then that his youngest bursts in, ranting about Buddy Elf operating off. Regardless of being shamed in entrance of his boss, Walter stays regular. He defends his son when his boss talks rudely to him.
In the meantime, Buddy Elf is a grown man. A grown man who has confirmed he can maintain himself by actually strolling all the best way from the North Pole to New York. He’s out wandering round New York once more, the fifth or sixth time he’s finished it within the film, and there’s no cause to assume he’s in peril.
The child’s overeating, and Walter is aware of it. He additionally understands his son is apprehensive, so he tells him he’ll maintain it and calmly asks him to attend outdoors till he can end. His son refuses to obey his father and begins yelling at him, including one more work humiliation to his resume.
Every other dad or mum would have kicked their son out of the room and grounded him for a 12 months after that tirade, however compassionate Walter provides in. He realizes his household doesn’t appear to care about him or his job, and after weeks and weeks of being humiliated and degraded by them, he provides up on making an attempt to earn a dwelling and quits.
The Actual Villains Of Elf
Walter Hobbs isn’t any villain. He’s an introvert who doesn’t share his feelings, however that doesn’t make him a nasty particular person.
Walter Hobbs is abused and humiliated, yelled at, and touched inappropriately by a grown man in tights who decides to provide him an undesirable tickle. Walter by no means falls aside. He retains it collectively and troopers on. He has one small outburst after weeks of abuse and instantly tries to make amends.
Elf is stuffed with horrible individuals. Miles Finch is a delusional egomaniac. Walter’s crack writing crew are lazy sycophants. His secretary is a kitten-killing psychopath. His boss is a jerk.
After which there’s Santa, who knew who Buddy’s father was all alongside however dropped him off to be raised by an Elf as a substitute of telling Walter Hobbs he had a son. Including insult to damage, Santa places Walter on the naughty record and spends a couple of many years permitting the Elves to delude Buddy into pondering he’s certainly one of them whereas placing lumps of coal underneath Walter’s tree yearly.
There are villains in Elf. Walter Hobbs isn’t certainly one of them.
