William "Buddy" Hobbs is the protagonist of the movie Elf and its animated adaptation, Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas.
He is the son of Walter Hobbs and Susan Wells as well as the adoptive son of Papa Elf, Emily's stepson and Michael's half-brother.
Role in the film[]
Buddy was born to Susan Wells and Walter Hobbs. She put him up for adoption after he was born due to an unexpected pregnancy. Walter never knew he existed, as Susan or anyone else never told him about this. Susan soon died and Buddy was in an orphanage (for a year) for a little while.
One Christmas Eve, Buddy witnesses Santa Claus coming down the chimney and eating cookies. Buddy spots a teddy bear and crawls into his sack. At the North Pole he crawls out and surprises Santa and his elves. Papa Elf takes him and raises him as his own child. He grows up an elf.
Buddy found out that he was human as an adult. He wanders all over New York City until he finds Walter, finding out that he had remarried and has a son named Michael. Buddy is happy until Walter disowns him after he accidentally ruins an important meeting at his office. He runs away and hides in Central Park. He meets Santa who is trying to fix his sleigh. Buddy fixes it and saves Christmas.
Eventually, Buddy marries his sweetheart, Jovie, and they have a daughter named Susie. They visit the North Pole often. Both Buddy and Walter wrote a book together about the former's adventures, titled Elf.
Trivia[]
- Will Ferrell, the actor who played Buddy, caused several minor traffic accidents while walking through the Lincoln Tunnel in his costume because people were so surprised to see him wearing an elf outfit.
- He suffered from headaches throughout filming, as he had to actually eat all of the sugar-packed food in the elf food pyramid on camera.
- His real first name is the same as his actor's name.