The 2003 film Elf starring Will Ferrell quickly became a holiday classic, and now an animated spinoff is set to air on NBC in December with Jim Parsons voicing Buddy.
News came down Friday afternoon via a press release which says the special is based on Ferrell’s Elf as well as the musical adaptation.
Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas is “a retelling of Buddy’s delightfully absurd yet heartwarming story and blends the look and feel of the stop-motion animated Christmas specials of the past with the sharp sensibility of the modern-day classic holiday film.
“Santa narrates the story of Buddy’s travels to New York City to meet the father he never knew he had. Along the way his unrelenting cheer transforms the lives of everyone he meets and opens his father’s eyes to the magic of Christmas,” according to the press release.
The animated special will include several holiday songs including “Happy All the Time,” and two songs from the Elf musical, “A Christmas Song” and “Nobody Cares About Santa Claus.”
Additional voice actors include Mark Hamill, Ed Asner, Fred Armisen, Jay Leno, Matt Lauer, Gilbert Gottfried, Kate Micucci, Rachael MacFarlane, Max Charles and Steve Higgins (several of these people are good friends of NBC).
The Elf animated special airs Tuesday, December 16 at 8 p.m. eastern/pacific on NBC. We loved Elf and are so glad to hear that Buddy’s Musical Christmas will use stop motion like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Hopefully this becomes another Christmas classic!
Parsons is best known for his role as Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory (bazinga!).
In addition to this musical event, NBC will be broadcasting a live performance of Peter Pan on Thursday, December 4 starring Allison Williams (Pan), Christopher Walken (Hook) and Christian Borle (Mr. Smee).
In related news: There’s only 61 days until Christmas.