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When word first came out that Will Ferrell would play a human raised by North Pole elves who travels to New York to find his biological father, it was fair to assume the worst — another talented Saturday Night Live alum stuffed into an assembly-line product. But Christmas has come early this year (forgive me, I am a human who was raised by Jeffrey Lyons), as Elf treats its young audience members with respect and makes its older ones feel like children.

Ferrell’s character, Buddy, arrived in the North Pole as a baby after he crawled one Christmas Eve into Santa’s bag at the orphanage his mother sent him to before she died. Buddy is raised by Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) in Santa’s syrupy-sweet workshop; since he doesn’t have the elfin magic to cut it as a toy maker, however, he decides, at age 30, to head to New York to find his dad (James Caan). But, as director John Favreau’s Swingers character would say, here’s the rub: Buddy is, like Ferrell’s best characters, an innocent overgrown child, whereas, his dad, a Scrooge-ish children’s-book exec, is on the Naughty List! Like all great holiday movies, Elf is a blend of humor and sweetness: when Buddy takes love interest Jovie (Zooey Deschanel) on a date to a crummy diner because he believes the place’s "world’s best coffee" sign, you laugh and — don’t try to deny it — get the warm-and-fuzzies.