Based on Harry Connick Jr.’s song of the same name – a cut from his encore Christmas album, entitled “Harry for the Holidays” – The Happy Elf is a short-film that aspires to be the next animated holiday classic. Although, Harry Connick Jr. himself has said that the film was built “off of the skeleton lyric that [he] had.” Connick’s use of the word “skeleton” should be proof enough that stretching a film out of a song is a bad idea. While novels and short-stories have been adapted into decent full-length films, adapting a song into a movie is just about as logical as turning a SNL skit into one.
While The Happy Elf may seem to be a good excuse to gather the family around the hearth, it merely serves as a 45-minute diversion for only the youngest of viewers. Its dialogue is weak; its character development is near nonexistent; its CG-animation is run-of-the-mill; and its storyline is basic and unmoving.
Eubie the Elf (Rob Paulsen) is one of Santa’s helpers. He is overzealous to the point of annoying, and no supervisor wants to manage him. However, when the “Naughty-and-Nice” department becomes backed up with checking Santa’s list a second time, Eubie gets assigned to the task. In checking to see which kids were naughty and which were nice, Eubie discovers that an entire town, called Bluesville, made the naughty list. With a last minute effort, Eubie attempts to restore the Christmas spirit in the dreariest of townspeople.
Rob Paulsen does an adequate job as the energetic, motor-mouthed, bucked-toothed Eubie. With the same frenzied voice he used to play Yakko on WB’s “Animaniacs,” Paulsen easily emits a character that appears to have taken a high dosage of Prozac. Also, with her same whispery, New York-accented voice that she applied as the Ghost of Christmas Present in Scrooged and as Valerie in The Princess Bride, Carol Kane creates Gilda—Eubie’s love interest and the one character who possesses awkward and over-exaggerated lip movements. In addition, Lewis Black as Eubie’s boss, Mickey Rooney as Santa Claus, and Harry Connick Jr. as Lil Farley (the narrator) perform equally well.
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