Disturbing yet enthralling

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I was pretty disappointed and one might think one shouldn't have expected much of an obvious marketing ploy, but I did. Because I believe in Christmas and Santa and magic. I love the idea of how naming the little toy it becomes magic and can fly (or teleport). I like the way Santa was depicted. But Too much time was used in how the elf was shipped to the house compared to how much time was used to the main point of the movie. Now, I like that part of the movie, but they could have skipped the poetry part and snowball fight and hospital scene etc. etc. and used that time to actually work on how Chippey actually managed to make Taylor get the Christmas spirit back.It would have been nice if they had actually placed the elf somewhere where it wasn't so obvious the parents could have placed him. After all, he was supposed to be able to fly. It felt like "let's not make it hard on parents". So "I tried!" feels so whiny and defeatist. Tried what? He did NOTHING that couldn't be explained by parents moving a doll around. It wasn't even demanding elf-on-the-shelf-ing! I mean, sitting on a shelf/tree/mantelpiece/table - Chippey gives up too quickly and easily and gets too depressed. And then Santa tells him that he can't make anyone believe, so it was a wild goose hunt from the beginning. All this "you are so brave" and "it won't be easy" talk is really just crap. What is so brave and hard in "just being there"? *sigh* I know, I know, it's just an ad and kids love cartoons, and don't care about such little details, but - I'm not a kid. Also, the guilt tripping going on is horrible! The idea "if you touch it, it loses its magic and becomes just a plastic doll" just causes a lot of troubles. He "killed" the elf, he spoiled the Christmas, Christmas is going to be horrible and it's all his fault! Now, merry Christmas, why aren't you happy? "Mom! Dad! Taylor hit Chippey!" Siblings squealing on each other. Kids touching the elf without parents' knowing, and it continues moving around. What does that tell the kids? That it was just a piece of plastic all along. What about inventing some sort of magical ritual to re-magicize the elf again? What if they had made Taylor do this ritual? And then, like, have the elf sitting on his nightstand in the morning with a thank you letter especially written to him from Santa or something? I mean... sure, not everyone can write with swirly letters, ink on parchment, but wouldn't that be worth it? There's bound to be a school with art teacher somewhere nearby, and she/he could certainly script a letter from Santa if that's too hard for the parents. Totally achievable and would be a lot harder to explain. Then he would feel really good about himself and get back his belief in magic etc. Now it was just... *sigh* Apparently the boy believed more than Santa gave him credit for, and what does that tell about Santa? Nothing I want my kids to think. Then the song lyrics... "Christmas is a time for forgiveness That is why we all believe in Christmas" What? Christmas is not and has never been "a time for forgiveness". It's the time of joy and peace and happiness and merriment and enjoying time with your loved ones and sharing and caring and the song began all right, but then came that part of "forgiveness". What is there to forgive here? That Taylor doesn't believe and breaks the rule of no touching? Oh, swell! Let's pile guilt on the 9yo! Nothing makes better Christmas memories than guilt! "Extravaganzalorious"? *sigh* "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" went down so well, let's do it again. As if.So... brr...BTW, "Doodle is cool"? Doodle? X-D Yeah, name your elf Doodle.

Holiday season is approaching and even if it is only still early November, let's start this year's with the animated 26-minute short film "An Elf's Story: The Elf on the Shelf". Like the title and poster already tell you, this one is centered around an elf and his task in here is to restore a boy's faith in Santa Claus and Christmas again. There are no famous names in the cast here and same goes for the crew with the exception of Martin Scorsese's daughter perhaps. All in all, this was a decent short film. I don't think there were any moments of true greatness, but in terms of story, animation, heart and music, there were also no real weaknesses either in here. As a whole, it is a decent watch for the holidays, especially for very young audiences. It is a truly harmless movie and even the drama is nothing too severe. I recommend it.

Nothing special about this movie and perhaps it is a marketing gimmick, but so what? My 3 and 5 year old kids love it. They ask to see it over and over, and that's what I base my rating on. No need to over analyze this one. It's cute to see the kids wake up every morning and search for the elf. After that, they want to see this short movie. I appreciate the fact that it's a short movie for the fact that small kids generally have a short attention span. Kids shouldn't really spend too much time watching TV anyway. All in all, I think it's a cute movie perfect for young kids. Not sure why this got so many low ratings; surely the kids watching it are not the ones rating it on here. I rated it 9/10 for young audiences.

I wouldn't say this is destined to reach the holiday status of "Rudolf The Red Nosed Reindeer" or "A Charlie Brown Christmas." It's a basically child-friendly story about "scout elves" who visit a family every year as part of their Christmas celebrations. It comes across perhaps too overtly as a marketing ploy for "The Elf On The Shelf" book. We have one of those. Our daughter named our elf Louie and he appears every year around this time, taking nightly reports back to Santa on how she's doing. The elf that this show revolves around is named Chippey, and he's been sent to help a young boy named Taylor McTuttle rediscover what Christmas is all about, because he's started not to believe in Santa.Chippey doesn't really do anything except fly back and forth from the North Pole to the McTuttle's house. That's true. Taylor seems to rediscover what Christmas is about but I wasn't entirely sure why or how an elf on the shelf helped him to do that. Of course, that's all explained by Santa, who says that scout elves never make people believe because that has to come from within the person. No argument, but I saw nothing that would have made Taylor think twice. The show includes some appropriate holiday messages about not being selfish and being forgiving. One can't argue with that, of course. The animation was nothing special - somewhat similar to the type of animation found in "Rudolf." Christmas message aside, this still struck me as being too much of a marketing ploy for "The Elf On The Shelf." (3/10)