For those who celebrate it, Christmas is finally over. The wrapping paper is shredded, the turkey has been sliced up for leftovers, you’ve debated the quality of the Doctor Who Christmas episode, and the communal fruitcake can be put away in someone’s basement until it’s time to pass it around next year. Even with all that finished, there’s still enough of a residual post-Christmas buzz that we still have room for some doggy cuteness, right?
Right. To celebrate the day-after-Christmas spirit, we present the below video, courtesy of our friends at The Pet Collective. It’s a revised version of Will Ferrell’s 2003 comedy Elf, with Ferrell and his fellow cast members replaced by Pugs.
As a non-Ferrell fan, this sparks an idea in my head: should this be a trend? Would it be better to just take the entire Ferrell back catalog and remake the movies with dogs? They would certainly be cuter than the originals, although that’s not a slam against Ferrell specifically: there’s a reason that some actors have a rule against performing with children or animals.
The idea of doing a version of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy with German Shepherds or Pit Bulls really does have a certain appeal to me, but I wonder what kind of breed would be best to redo Stranger Than Fiction, which is much more existential than most dogs I know. It seems much more a cat kind of movie, to be honest.
Sniping at the Will Ferrell oeuvre aside, what’s really endearing about the Pet Collective version of Elf is that it’s much truer to my memories of Christmas than anything that Hollywood has ever come up with. I particularly love the scene where the dog/Elf knocks over the hand-drawn prop representing the Big Publishing Building.
When I was a kid, bewildered animals wandering through the carnage of wrapping paper, cookie crumbs, and pine needles was part of the holiday scene. Our dogs were constantly knocking things over or making a play for vulnerable-looking goodies on Christmas morning. In fact, I think that might have been more of a part of Christmas than Santa ever was. After all, I never once managed to catch Santa in the act, no matter how many cookies I put out. The animals were always there. And they never welched on the whole pony thing, either. Check out the Pet Collective’s version, and enjoy some post-Christmas cheer.
