Behind the scenes clip shows hilarious reality of Will Ferrell’s Elf rapid snowball throwing scene

Ok, ok, it’s July. It’s the time of sunshine, BBQs, pool parties – and definitely not spreading Christmas cheer by singing loud for all to hear.

But, while we’re aware it’s really not the festive period (unless you’re celebrating Christmas in July for a bit of fun), there’s still one seasonal film we’ll happily chat about.

One film that millions of movie lovers around the world watch every year is obviously Elf. It’s one of the best – don’t try and fight us on it.

If you’ve not seen it, we’re not really sure how you’ve gone through your life without it.

And for those who have seen it, you'll certainly be familiar with the iconic snowball fight.

After Will Ferrell's character Buddy receives a pretty frosty (and not the snowman kind) reception from his father, he tries to bond with his half-brother Michael.

Once he's unintentionally embarrassed him as he walked out the school gates with his friends, Buddy follows his younger brother into New York City's Central Park - while asking a lot of questions.

But the brothers are soon confronted by a group of bullies who are launching endless snowballs at them.

With Michael understandably wanting to get away as quickly as possible, Buddy decides that they should face them.

He gathers up a staggering number of snowballs in a shockingly quick time, and the group engages in an epic snowball fight.

Warner Bros

As is the way with most blockbuster films, Elf included a behind-the-scenes feature on the film’s DVD, where they showed how Ferrell was able to throw at lighting speed because, obviously, the actor isn’t superhuman.

The move was pulled off by computer-generated imagery (CGI), with Ferrell not even needing to throw a snowball at all for some bits.

In the clip, director Jon Favreau tells Ferrell to do the actions with his body, saying they will put his arm in 'digitally', which leads to the Anchorman star doing little turns as he pushes his shoulder forward.

Ferrell is also heard joking after the scene has been filmed, with him saying that filming 'wrapped up two days ago'.

Warner Bros

While this clip provided some extra content for Elf fans to enjoy, there looks to be very little chance any more Elf content will be following it, as Ferrell sadly seems to have no intention of reprising the role.

At least we've got all this hilarious behind-the-scenes stuff anyway.

Topics: Will Ferrell, Christmas, Film and TV

Jess Battison

Jess is an Entertainment Journalist with a love of all things pop culture. Her main interests include keeping up with the Twitter girlies, waiting for a new series of The Traitors and losing her voice at a Beyoncé concert. She graduated with a first in Journalism from City, University of London in 2021 and has previously worked at MyLondon.

@jessbattison_