Elf

The deleted/alternate scenes are great. They embellish story points and really could have been in the film to make it a holiday epic. Will Ferrell playing hockey with the elves is comically violent a la Billy Madison’s dodgeball. There are plenty of slapstick pratfalls and head bumping. There’s more James Caan being a jerk. There’s more Ferrell talking to animated characters, who aren’t complete in this footage. But it’s all wonderful stuff and a joy to see. [p] Will Ferrell does his commentary pretty straight. I guess for a kids movie, you can’t expect him to be dirty. But he’s rather charming explaining special effects and story ideas to kids. It’s actually nice to hear Ferrell’s real thoughts, since whenever you see him on TV or even try to interview him, he’s in character. Jon Favreau’s commentary is dense and full of technical details, but it’s very good with details on forced perspective effects and such. Some of the comments even coordinate with Ferrell’s, like the Jack in the Box story. [p] There are some nice features on Christmas decorations, holiday traditions and kids’ views as well. The kid stuff is a little too cute and has nothing really to say except, “Look how cute kids are when they can’t talk right.” Otherwise, the features are all nice. And of course, this is an Infinifilm, so you can watch snippets of all the extras while the film is going on.