Story

For many years the Elfkins have lived underground. They’re in hiding from the mean and ungrateful humans whom they used to help until the tailor’s wife told everyone about their existence. Every year at the Elf-fest, the Elfkins re-enact the story of their exile as a reminder.

Each year, the Elfkins also compete to see who has been the best craftsperson over the last year. Helvi (voice of Jelia Haese) is a high-spirited and well-meaning Elfkin but nearly always lands in trouble. When Helvi is beaten in the craft competition by Kipp (Louis Hoffman), Helvi decides to leave her underground village and go up to the exciting world of humans.

Kipp and Helvi’s friend Butz (Leon Seidel) follow Helvi to the outside. Here they navigate dangers and meet Theo (Detlef Bierstedt), a brilliant but now unemployed chef. Theo’s shop is closed because his brother, Bruno (Rolf Berg), has opened a fancy shop and taken all of Theo’s business. Theo is in debt and Bruno wants to take over his business.

It’s up to the Elfkins to put things right and remember their main purpose in life, which is to help others.

Themes

Competitiveness; characters in mild peril

Violence

The Elfkins: Baking a Difference has quite a lot of violence, most of which is comic. For example:

  • Helvi invents a helicopter-driven machine. This helicopter breaks off and flies into pillars, causing destruction and chaos. It crashes into a wall, which collapses on top of several Elfkins.
  • A dog called Charles often chases Helvi, Kipp and Butz.
  • Theo chases Charles the dog away by spraying it with water.
  • A lady hits Charles the dog with her handbag.
  • Theo dumps Helvi, Kipp and Butz into a bin.
  • Kipp falls into the mixing bowl, and the three Elfkins have a food fight.
  • Butz gets sucked up in a vacuum.

There is also some other violence. For example:

  • The yearly re-enactment of the Elfkin exile uses a marionette to represent the tailor’s wife. The Elfkins throw things and the marionette. Helvi slashes its dress off with a sword and also hits it. The marionette collapses.
  • Theo is bad tempered and miserable. He throws things in anger. He throws something at a customer.
  • Bruno and Theo fight several times, sometimes by throwing cakes at each other. Sometimes they physically fight. They also shout and argue a lot.
  • The Elfkins try to trip Bruno by rolling nuts on the floor, but Theo trips instead. He’s knocked unconscious.
  • Bruno tries to knock Theo’s shop down with a bulldozer, but the Elfkins come to the rescue. There’s a lot of fighting among Elfkins, humans and machines.

Sexual references

The Elfkins: Baking a Difference has some sexual references. For example, Theo refers to Bruno’s assistant, Harriet, as his ‘cream puff’.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

The Elfkins: Baking a Difference shows some use of substances, including the use of sedatives to put Theo to sleep.

Nudity and sexual activity

There’s no nudity and sexual activity in The Elfkins: Baking a Difference.

Product placement

There’s no product placement in The Elfkins: Baking a Difference.

Coarse language

The Elfkins: Baking a Difference has some name-calling and insults. For example, the Elfkins say the humans are ‘dastardly’, ‘sneaky’, ‘lazy’ and ‘arrogant’. Examples of other name-calling and insults include ‘ant-brain’, ‘sleazebag’, ‘numbskull’ and ‘stupid’.

Ideas to discuss with your children

The Elfkins: Baking a Difference is an animated family comedy. The background sets are quite impressive and the Elfkins are cute. The movie explores themes of individual competitiveness versus teamwork. For example, the brothers, Theo and Bruno, have become rivals but things work out well in the end.

The Elfkins: Baking a Difference is best suited to children aged over 6 years. And because there’s quite a lot of violence, we recommend parental guidance for children aged 4-6 years.

The main messages from The Elfkins: Baking a Difference are to help others and to work together, rather than against each other.

Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include positivity, determination, kindness, forgiveness and helpfulness.

The Elfkins: Baking a Difference could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life issues like the consequences of holding on to old hatreds, conflicts and fears. This doesn’t do any good and only hurts people. It’s much better to forgive and move on with life.

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Raising Children Network is supported by the Australian Government. Member organisations are the Parenting Research Centre and the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute with The Royal Children’s Hospital Centre for Community Child Health.

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