Elf Bowling the Movie: The Great North Pole Elf Strike (often referred to as just Elf Bowling: The Movie) is a 2007 Direct to Video All-CGI Cartoon film that is loosely based on the series of Elf Bowling freeware games.
Long ago, Santa Claus (Joe Alaskey) was a pirate captain who took toys from the rich and secretly gave them to orphanages around the world. After a fight with his half-brother Dingle Kringle (Tom Kenny) left the both of them frozen in the ice, elves from the North Pole find their bodies. A worker elf named Lex mistakes Santa for someone meant to fulfill an elf prophecy to lead their kind and, after Santa accidentally creates the sport of Elf Bowling, the elves gladly accept him as their leader.
Centuries pass and Santa has become the Christmas figure he is known for today. When he forces his upper hand and makes his brother move out, Dingle hatches a plan to take Santa's title, kidnap the elves and move them to Fiji for his own nefarious purposes. Now Santa must find his brother and rescue his elves before Christmas is doomed.
A sequel to be titled Elf Bowling 2: The Great Halloween Pumpkin Heist was advertised at the movie's end, but was never made.
Elf Bowling the Movie: The Great North Pole Elf Strike contains examples of:
- Adaptational Backstory Change: According to this movie, Elf Bowling started when Santa accidentally knocked some elves down with a bowling ball, and they liked it for some reason. In the original game, Santa's bowling over the elves as revenge for them going on strike.
- Adaptational Heroism: Santa is much more heroic in the film than the games.
- Adaptational Villainy: Dingle is much more evil here.
- Artistic License – Geography: There are moai statues in Fiji. Moai are from Rapa Nui, not Fiji.
- Artistic License – History: There's a Time-Passes Montage claiming that Santa and Dingle came to the North Pole in the 600s. However, the era seems far more similar to The Golden Age of Piracy.
- Bowdlerise: "Slavery Makes the World Go Round" was cut from re-releases due to being too offensive.
- Big Bad: Dingle, Santa's evil brother who wants to overthrow him.
- Cain and Abel: Santa is the good brother, Dingle is the evil, backstabbing one.
- Dastardly Whiplash: Dingle is a lanky man with a long, black mustache and a sinister cackle who is very open about being evil. Taken to the extreme in his song "I Love a Mutiny," which is in the style of a vaudeville show, and has Dingle wear a fitting outfit, complete with black top hat.
- Dressed to Plunder: The pirate crew Santa runs in the opening scene has everyone wear stock pirate outfits to make it clear to the audience that, yes, these are pirates.
- Fat and Skinny: Santa is fat, and Dingle is skinny. Initially, they're not that much different in physique, but Santa puts on a few pounds at the North Pole.
- Harmless Freezing: Santa and Dingle get frozen in blocks of ice after falling off their ship. After Lex melts the ice, they continue their fight like nothing happened.
- Mass Hypnosis: After relocating to Fiji, Dingle brainwashes all the elves aside from Lex into making toys in a sweatshop.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Dingle gets two penguins to serve as his bumbling henchmen. There is no explanation for why they're at the North Pole in the first place.
- Mooks: The penguins called the Imbeciles serves this function under the leadership of Dingle.
- Plot Hole: At one point, Santa narrates, even though the film starts with narration from a completely different voice.
- Rump Roast: Near the beginning, Lex sets the seat of Santa's pants on fire to stop the fight between him and Dingle.Santa: FIRE ON THE POOP DECK!
- Stop Faux-tion: The characters have the physical appearance of painted wood or clay figures despite being animated in motion captured CGI.
- Surfer Dude: The sunglasses-and-board-shorts wearing Moai talk like surfers.
- Take That!: While on their plane ride to Fiji, the elves boo when they hear one of the in-flight movies is going to be Grizzly Adams.
- Talk Like a Pirate: Santa, even after he gives up piracy.
- Toilet Humour: Santa asks his pirate crew who pooped in the peanut barrel.Santa: I have a teensy question for yers... WHO POOPED IN THE PEANUT BARREL?!
- Unusual Euphemism: When Santa meets Griselda, Dingle gives us this line:"Brother, you keep your hot strudel in your pants!"
- Villain Song: Dingle gets two, "I Love a Mutiny" and "Slavery Makes the World Go Round".
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Santa's crew disappears entirely from the story after they make him and Dingle Walk the Plank. Initially Santa and Dingle try to get the elves to make them a ship to go after the mutineers, but Santa eventually abandons that plan, and the mutineers are never heard from again.
- You Don't Look Like You: Dingle looks nothing like his in-game counterpart, which was just a recolored Santa, with no beard. Here, he looks much more like Waluigi.
