An Elf's Story: The Elf on the Shelf (TV 2011)

Director:

Chad Eikhoff

Writers:

Carol Aebersold (story), Carol Aebersold,

Stars:

Leslie Bellair, Brendan Dooling, Evie Eikhoff

Cast

Credited cast:
Leslie Bellair	...	Snowflake (voice)
Brendan Dooling	...	Chippy (voice)
Evie Eikhoff	...	Kendyl (voice)
Emma Greene	...	Various Elf in Northpole & ER (voice)
Tatiana Guy	...	Mom (voice)
Chadwick Halbritter	...	Logistics Elf (voice)
Matt Henson	...	Dad (voice)
Michael May	...	Taylor McTuttle
Michael May	...	Taylor (voice)
Shameik Moore	...	Zart (voice)
Cory Rouse	...	Wordsworth (voice)
Todd Sayre	...	Various Elf in Northpole & ER (voice)
Julia Walters	...	Caroline (voice)
Doug Williams	...	Santa Claus (voice)

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

christmas

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Genres:

Family

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 November 2011 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Prana Animation Studios, Trick 3D

Technical Specs

Runtime:

23 min 23 min

Color:

Color

User Reviews

It Strikes Me As Mostly A Marketing Ploy

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 play 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)