Walter Hobbs is Buddy's father from the 2003 Christmas film Elf.
Role in the film[]
Walter is a selfish workaholic who seems to care about nothing other than making money, working as an executive at Greenway Publishing Company. He takes the books away from a nun, due to her not having money to pay for them.
Later, Walter is asked to reprint The Puppy and the Pigeon due to its two missing pages, but he refuses, citing the printing costs. He is called on the intercom from his secretary, Deb, saying that someone sent him a Christmas gram, when it's actually Buddy who had traveled day and night from the North Pole to find him. Buddy sings a little song of how he loves him, which he counts as "weird". Buddy mentions Susan Wells, prompting the incredulous Walter to ask Deb to call the security to eject him from the building. At his apartment, Walter eats his dinner alone in his room where he is considering over the loss of Susan.
Walter sees Buddy sleeping inside a display window at Gimbel's and ignores his calls to him as he walks to the Empire State Building to work. Later, he receives a nightie, a photograph with him and Susan, and a Christmas card from Buddy which were handed in by the security who threw him out again. Walter receives a call from Deb saying that the police are on the phone. He answers their call, and it turns out that Buddy called him to bail him out of prison after exposing the Gimbel's Santa. Walter reluctantly leaves work to do so, and thinks Buddy is insane before taking him to the family's pediatrician, Dr. Leonardo, who does a DNA test on both of them, which confirms that Buddy is in fact Walter's biological son. Dr. Leonardo advises Walter that Buddy was developing a childlike state and tells him to take Buddy home to meet his family.
Walter and his son, Michael, are obviously put off by Buddy's childish behavior. Walter, seeing him insane, plans to throw him out, but his wife, Emily, advises him to let him stay until he "recovers". Walter has to spend some of the night, doing all the childish things for Buddy, for example, tucking him in with his duvet. The next morning, Walter prepares to go to work, and rips down most of the decorations that get in his way in the living room. He advises Buddy to get rid of his elf costume, but he declines, prompting Walter to ask him to "lose the tights". He does so, accidentally freaking out Emily.
Walter gets a call from Buddy about a strange noise until he realizes it was the heater, Walter tells him to stop calling him. Later, his boss, Fulton Greenway, is furious over the published failure The Puppy and the Pigeon, causing the company to be in financial trouble. Fulton organizes a book pitch on Christmas Eve, and demands Walter to be there, or face dismissal, and he agrees, not wanting to lose his job.
Later, Walter is advised by Emily to take Buddy to work with him. He works in his office as Buddy reads a children's book, and after he disrupts a call, Walter persuades him to help out in the mailroom, in order to keep him out of the way. Desperate to save the company, Walter and his associates, Morris and Eugene Dupree, place a call on the speaker mode with the best-selling children's book author Miles Finch, in order to hire him. But the call is interrupted by Deb on the intercom, telling Walter that one is coming from the mailroom supervisor, due to Buddy throwing an outrageous dance party in it. Walter finally has Miles come round to his office on Christmas Eve.
Miles arrives at the conference room and starts discussing ideas with Walter about the cover of the new book until Buddy interrupts the meeting, telling Walter about his love. Buddy mistakes Miles for an elf, due to his dwarfism, causing him to attack Buddy, before storming out in fury, ignoring Walter's attempts of persuading him to stay. Now finally having enough, Walter loses his temper and harshly disowns Buddy, who leaves heartbroken as Walter is given disapproving looks from the employees, including Deb, Morris, and Eugene.
Walter calls Emily to tell her that he is working late on Christmas Eve. He now feels very remorseful for yelling at Buddy, until his thoughts of shame are interrupted by Eugene and Morris, who inform him that Miles left behind a notebook that is filled with brilliant ideas. He comes off his thoughts and excitedly tells them to get the storyboard ready for Fulton.
During a meeting with Fulton, Michael bursts in, telling Walter that Buddy ran away after reading his apology note. Michael manages to convince Walter to put his family above his job for the first time, and he tries to ask Fulton to reschedule the meeting. When he callously refuses, Walter and Michael tell him "up yours" before leaving the conference room, prompting him to fire Walter.
Walter and Michael go into Central Park and find Buddy who is looking for an engine that broke off Santa's sleigh. Walter apologies to Buddy, telling him that he has shown him the true meaning of Christmas, and truly and finally accepts him as his son. He takes them to meet Santa for the first time. They are convinced that he is real. After seeing that the Central Park rangers are on their way to get Santa, Buddy formulates a plan with Walter and Michael. Michael takes Santa's list in order to get the people to believe in him as Walter takes his coat and tries to stop the rangers, but to no avail.
As the rangers chase Santa, Jovie leads everyone in singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". Walter is mouthing the words, but Michael encourages to start singing earnestly. Walter eventually does so, finally restoring the Christmas Spirit in Santa's sleigh and allowing it to fly. Next Christmas, Walter is no longer greedy and selfish, but now has become a kinder and caring person, and starts his own independent publishing company, starting with the best-selling book titled Elf, written and illustrated by Buddy himself.