The author of that Insider hit piece intentionally misconstrues Buddy’s circumstantial naivety in an attempt to discredit a harmless comedy. Of course Buddy believes in Santa; in the fictional world of Elf, Santa is as real a character as Buddy or Walter or Jovie. Buddy isn’t disabled, he grew up in an entirely different culture from NYC. His taste for sugar hardly indicative of a disability, either—he was raised with Elfin foodways where sugar was a diet mainstay. In NYC Buddy is a simply fish out of water, which is one of the oldest tropes in comedy. He gets hit by taxis because he’s never been shown how to safely cross the street. Your point about his toy making shortcomings stemming from being a human (rather than an elf) is spot on.

Thank you for calling out that ridiculous concern trolling article.