By Joshua Tyler
| Published
Will Ferrell’s Elf is the most-watched 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 fashion that Buddy Elf’s father, Walter Hobbs, is the only figure with a character arc in it.
We’re told at the outset 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. It’s Walter’s character arc that 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 supposedly makes the transition from being a villain to a loving father who accepts the spirit of Christmas.
Except that’s not what happens at all. Walter Hobbs was never a bad guy. He shouldn’t have been on the naughty list. He’s the real hero of Elf, and I’m going to prove it.
We’ll start by taking each supposed example of Scrooge-like behavior one at a time.
Walter Hobbs Only Cares About His Job
Early on, we’re introduced to Walter Hobbs as a workaholic who spends all his time on a career and neglects his family. At one point, his son degrades him, accusing him of only caring about money. His wife also attacks him, accusing him of neglecting his son.
That’s not what happens on screen, though. The Walter Hobbs we see in Elf is home on time for dinner every night. Sure, one time, after he’d had a really difficult day, he wanted to go eat in his man cave. The guy was under a lot of stress. Clearly, that’s not the norm since his son reacts to his eating-alone decision as if it’s a novelty by asking if he can duplicate his father’s behavior.
One night eating alone does not make Walter Hobbs a devil.
In fact, it’s pretty clear Hobbs doesn’t care about his job at all. The quality of his work is absolute garbage. He’s caught intentionally signing off on bad printing, a clear sign that he doesn’t care and hates working there.
Every time we see him at his desk, Walter looks like he’s wishing for death.
So why is he there? Someone has to pay the bills.
Walter Hobbs gets up every day and goes to a job he hates in order to support his family. He’s home every night for dinner, which, apparently, he almost always eats at the table with his family. What a monster.
Walter Hobbs Doesn’t Accept Buddy
When Buddy Elf shows up at Walter’s office, he’s understandably confused. He throws Buddy out a few times from the shock of it all. He has no reason to believe him. The guy is dressed like an Elf and talking about Santa. Clearly, he’s some kind of mentally ill crackpot. Any reasonable person would have thought he might be dangerous.
To make matters worse, Buddy’s way of convincing Walter he’s his son is by sending him sexy lingerie. This must have had Walter wondering if Buddy’s true purpose might have a weird sexual connotation. Almost anyone else would have called the cops, but not kind-hearted Walter Hobbs. Instead, he decides to give Buddy a chance.
Walter pays to bail Buddy out of jail, takes him to a clinic, and gets him tested. A sensible thing to do when a 40-year-old man you’ve never seen before shows up on your doorstep, claiming to be a close relative. The moment the test proves Buddy is his son, Walter does an about-face and invites this person, who he doesn’t know at all, into his home.
This is all happening while Buddy continues to engage in bizarre behavior that, if he’d claimed a less kind and empathetic person as his father, would probably have gotten him committed. It’s not Buddy’s fault, of course. He means well, but Walter has no way to know that.
Despite Buddy’s weirdness, Walter sees through it to the person he is inside and decides to trust him around his family. Walter is so forgiving that, other than a joke about how much Buddy likes the snow, he doesn’t even flinch when Buddy starts destroying his house.
His solution to Buddy’s destruction isn’t to throw him out, it’s to figure out a way to take care of him. He asks his wife to stay home with him and supervise. When she can’t, Walter Hobbs takes his adult son to work.
Walter Sticks Buddy In The Mail Room
Buddy Elf is an unemployed adult with no place to live and no prospects. He needs a job, so Walter Hobbs uses his company influence to get him one.
Buddy has no job history and no experience, which means he’s not qualified to work anywhere other than in the mail room. Walter gets him a job there.
In a way, it’s a success. Buddy has a great time in the mail room, he makes new friends and gets a paycheck. However, he also embarrasses his father by getting drunk and dancing on tables.
Walter doesn’t overreact. He puts down his head and keeps going through life the best he can.
Walter Yells At Buddy
Walter’s job is on the line, and he knows it. He’s been slogging his way through a thankless career for years in an industry he’s obviously not suited for, and it’s begun taking a toll.
Walter’s employees are useless and lazy, but he has a solution. At great expense, he brings in a crack writer to give them the pitch they need to write a best-selling book.
Buddy, who would have been busy at work in the mailroom earning a paycheck of his own if he hadn’t gotten drunk, bursts in at the worst moment. Then, for no reason, Walter can see, he starts insulting Walter’s guest. It soon goes past yelling and becomes a full-blown physical confrontation. All Walter can do is stand and watch in horror.
Walter’s pitch meeting is now ruined, his son was involved in an assault on company grounds, and it all happened in front of his employees. Add yet another workplace humiliation to his reputation.
It’s only in that moment, after days of disgrace, abuse, and flat-out creepiness from an adult man he barely knows, that Walter Hobbs finally gets mad. He yells at Buddy to get out, and then after Buddy leaves, tries to find some way to salvage his reputation and his career.
Walter Hobbs Works On Christmas Eve
Ok, but what about his disinterest in Christmas? Things really fall apart when Walter goes to work on Christmas Eve.
Except, Walter never wanted to be there at all. When his boss tells him he has to work Christmas Eve, Walter immediately objects. He tries to refuse, but his boss threatens to fire him. His choice is to go in to work or roll the dice on being able to find another job to feed his kid. Nobody wants to be out of work on Christmas, so he did his job. That’s not grinchy behavior, that’s being a responsible adult.
It’s then that his youngest bursts in, ranting about Buddy Elf running off. Despite being shamed in front of his boss, Walter stays steady. He defends his son when his boss talks rudely to him.
Meanwhile, Buddy Elf is a grown man. A grown man who has proven he can take care of himself by literally walking all the way from the North Pole to New York. He’s out wandering around New York again, the fifth or sixth time he’s done it in the movie, and there’s no reason to think he’s in danger.
The kid’s overeating, and Walter knows it. He also understands his son is worried, so he tells him he’ll take care of it and calmly asks him to wait outside until he can finish. His son refuses to obey his father and starts yelling at him, adding yet another work humiliation to his resume.
Any other parent would have kicked their son out of the room and grounded him for a year after that tirade, but compassionate Walter gives in. He realizes his family doesn’t seem to care about him or his job, and after weeks and weeks of being humiliated and degraded by them, he gives up on trying to earn a living and quits.
The Real Villains Of Elf
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 touched inappropriately by a grown man in tights who decides to give him an unwanted tickle. Walter never falls apart. He keeps it together and soldiers on. He has one small outburst after weeks of abuse and immediately tries to make amends.
Elf is full of terrible 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 who Buddy’s father was all along but dropped him off to be raised by an Elf instead of telling Walter Hobbs he had a son. Adding insult to injury, Santa puts Walter on the naughty list and spends a few decades allowing the Elves to delude Buddy into thinking he’s one of them while putting lumps of coal under Walter’s tree every year.
There are villains in Elf. Walter Hobbs isn’t one of them.
