The iconic Christmas classic, Elf, had Will Ferrell running all over New York City, but some of it was actually filmed in Vancouver.
In an episode of Netflix's The Holiday Movies That Made Us, the filmmakers revealed that the iconic North Pole scenes were actually filmed in the Canadian city, at a unique location.
Filming began in New York in 2002, and although the filmmakers wanted the holiday movie to be entirely shot in The Big Apple, they didn't have enough funds to make it happen.
According to the filmmakers, shooting in Canada was much cheaper, so the crew made their way over to the Hollywood of the North!
Even though Vancouver was a popular filming location, the stages in the city weren't going to cut it. The filmmakers said they were too small and the North Pole had to be big, so, they took over an entire hockey arena at the PNE to make it happen.
The Holiday Movies That Made Us
The Pacific Coliseum at the Pacific National Exhibition was used as a stadium for one of the Western Hockey League teams, the Vancouver Giants.
Pacific Coliseum.The Holiday Movies That Made Us
"It had enough depth that we could sculpt the environment and put a background that we could light," said the filmmaker.
"All of the sets were white and it allowed for the characters to pop out," he added.
The area was completely decked out in a North Pole fashion and if you re-watch the movie today, you will now know that this iconic Elf school scene, was actually shot in a Canadian city!
Elf.