live-action film
Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ga ...
based on the 1958 book of the same name written by
Kay Thompson
Kay Thompson (born Catherine Louise Fink; November 9, 1909''"In the St. Louis Registry of Births, in the volume covering the period July 1909 – January 1910, on page 85, is the following entry: "Catherine Louise Fink, November 9, 1909."''
and illustrated by Hilary Knight. The film was released on November 22, 2003 and was produced by Handmade Films and DiNovi Pictures for
Walt Disney Television
Disney General Entertainment Content, doing business as Walt Disney Television, is an American entertainment company that oversees television content and assets owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. Forming the company's General Enter ...
with distribution handled by the
ABC Television Network
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Califor ...
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Buena ( ) is a borough in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 4,603,25 Days of Christmas programming block on
ABC Family
The American cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and six different name changes) during its h ...
, but it was not part of the block in 2010. In 2011 to 2013, it was aired on the
Hallmark Channel
The Hallmark Channel is an American television channel owned by Crown Media Holdings, Inc., which in turn is owned by Hallmark Cards, Inc. The channel's programming is primarily targeted at families, and features a mix of television movies a ...
as part of their "Countdown to Christmas". In 2016, it was aired on
Discovery Family
Discovery Family is an American cable television channel co-owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and Hasbro Entertainment.
The channel was originally launched by Discovery Communications on October 7, 1996 as Discovery Kids, a spin-off of Discov ...
Plaza Hotel
The Plaza Hotel (also known as The Plaza) is a luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the western side of Grand Army Plaza, after which it is named, just west of Fifth Avenue, ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
This story takes place immediately after the events of '' Eloise at the Plaza''; Eloise receives a package full of spy equipment from her friend Leon, the supporting character in the previous film who did spy work with Eloise.
Plot
The movie begins with a shot of the
Plaza Hotel
The Plaza Hotel (also known as The Plaza) is a luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the western side of Grand Army Plaza, after which it is named, just west of Fifth Avenue, ...
Lobby, with a large pink gift box leaning on the display table, in the middle of the room. The hotel manager, Mr. Salamone, asks one of the staff to take the box to the package room. Two of the staff take the gift box to the package room, as it is super heavy. When they leave, the box is opened and we see Eloise crawling out, a very enthusiastic six-year old girl who lives in a penthouse at the Plaza. Eloise is on a mission to find any presents in the package room from her mother, who travels all over the world and sends Eloise a
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...
gift from her travels every year. This year it’s coming from
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
.
When Eloise does not find any packages from her mother, she then leaves the room in a large mess. She skips towards the lobby, and pushes into a long line at the check-in desk and interrupts a conversation between Mr. Salamone and two patrons, wishing to upgrade their current hotel suite to a park-side view room. Eloise asks Mr. Salamone if there have been any packages from her mother in Paris, and he replies that there hasn't. He pushes her away, telling Eloise that he is currently very busy. Eloise pushes in the line again, offering Mr. Salamone some unnecessary assistance. Mr. Salamone declines, pushing Eloise away from the hectic line again.
Eloise leaves, but is instantly back in a flash, when she notices a suspicious man waiting in the queue. She thinks that this patron is a spy, but Mr. Salamone declines, and instantly changes the subject so that Eloise can leave the line. He requests Eloise to look out for the hotel's
Christmas Tree
A Christmas tree is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen conifer, such as a spruce, pine or fir, or an artificial tree of similar appearance, associated with the celebration of Christmas. The custom was further developed in early modern ...
Delivery, which is due to be at the Plaza any moment. He tells Eloise to inform him when the delivery arrives. Eloise leaves the line, and tells the "spy" that she is keeping her eye on him.
During her morning round, a round Eloise makes every morning where she says hello to everyone important in the hotel, she meets Brooks Oliver III, a very nice man who is planning a party at the Plaza. Much to the dismay of Prunella, the head of special events at the Plaza who is very uptight, she takes him away and starts to tell him about parties at the Plaza. Eloise becomes distracted by the hotel’s Christmas tree and lets Brooks go, who is taken away by Prunella. However, Eloise finds out Brooks is not as nice as he seems, as she sees him berate a hotel concierge for bumping into him in the hallway.
As she returns to her penthouse, she encounters Mrs. Thornton, a mean old lady and her dog, Mona. As Eloise’s turtle, Skipperdy, often gets into trouble with Mona and has recently snapped at her, Mrs. Thornton threatens Eloise that she will have the chef turn Skipperdy into turtle soup if he doesn’t stay away from Mona. In her penthouse, she wakes up Nanny, her very rationally-thought caretaker. She orders room service, which is brought to her by Bill, a room service waiter and her best friend, who she acts out a skit with. After the skit, he asks her if she’ll help him set up for a party later in the hotel terrace room at 4:00, which she accepts. Over breakfast, Eloise tells Nanny that the following day she would like to go Christmas shopping, as she would like to do it today, but she has to go see Mr. Peabody, the owner of the Plaza, about Mrs. Thornton’s threat. Nanny warns her not to, as he dislikes Eloise, but she goes anyway.
After pulling a prank to distract Cornelia, his secretary who also dislikes Eloise, Eloise tells Mr. Peabody about Mrs. Thornton, but he dismisses her concerns, as he says he’s expecting someone any moment and she should be worried about Mrs. Thornton instead, as she won’t be with them much longer. Eloise starts to question him about it, but he declines to answer, saying he’s already said enough. Rachel Peabody than arrives, who is revealed to be his daughter. Although Mr. Peabody and Rachel are father and daughter, they act like they hardly know each other for some unknown reason. Mr. Peabody asks Rachel when he gets to meet her fiancé; Brooks than appears, revealing he is her fiancé and the party he is planning at the Plaza is his wedding, much to Eloise’s dismay. Eloise and Rachel meet, who immediately like each other, but Eloise becomes suspicious of Brooks.
That afternoon, as Eloise and Bill are setting up for a party in the terrace room, Rachel and Brooks arrive with Prunella arranging the wedding. After Bill drops a tray in shock of seeing Rachel, it is revealed that Rachel and Bill dated a long time ago. Bill meets Brooks and is seen to be sad that he is her fiancé. That night, as Eloise chats with the night-maid Lily, she learns that Rachel has been at a university in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
for the past four years, as when Mr. Peabody found out that she and Bill were romantically interested in each other, he sent her far away, hoping to break the ties with Bill as he wanted something better for her than marrying a waiter. When the two pass by Mrs. Thornton’s room without giving her any nightly services, Eloise asks why and learns that there has been a permanent stop to all services for her, and Eloise concludes that when Mr. Peabody said she wouldn’t be with them much longer, he meant she was going to die. Later that night, as Mr. Peabody and Rachel are catching up, he tells her that sending her away was the hardest thing he ever did, but it was the right thing to do. He also tells her Brooks is a good man and he’s all he ever wanted for her.
The next day, Eloise and Nanny spend the day Christmas shopping, with Eloise buying a total of 159 presents and Nanny buying none. Returning to the hotel, Eloise sees Mrs. Thornton as she is getting onto the elevator and faints. She awakens in her bedroom and informs Nanny that she saw the ghost of Mrs. Thornton, who she believes has come back to haunt her. Nanny tells her that she misunderstood the situation and that Mrs. Thornton isn’t going to die, she’s just being evicted and will be moving out the day after Christmas. Taking pity on her, Eloise goes to her room to give her fresh towels and soap, where she tells her the story of her son Edgar. Edgar moved to
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...
and married into the royal family; as he was now extremely wealthy, he paid to have her live at the Plaza. However, a year ago, a telegram came informing her that Edgar had died and there was no one left to take care of her, as the Bavarian government stole all his money.
Deciding to take matters into her own hands, Eloise plots to save Mrs. Thornton from
eviction
Eviction is the removal of a tenant from rental property by the landlord. In some jurisdictions it may also involve the removal of persons from premises that were foreclosed by a mortgagee (often, the prior owners who defaulted on a mortgag ...
. The next day, Eloise confronts Mr. Peabody with the information, but he tells her he already knows about her son and tells her what really happened to him: he squandered most of his fortune and then ran off to live in Bavaria to start a new life. To stop his mother from worrying, he wrote to her and said he had married into royalty and would always support her in high style. He sent her most of his money to cover up his lie, and when he died without a cent to his name, she made up the delusion that the government had taken claim to his fortune, leading Eloise to realize Edgar was never a prince. She then asks Mr. Peabody if he believes in true love, who responds by asking her to expand on the question. She than points at a picture of Rachel smiling very happily, and says some people think a smile like that only comes around when you’re truly in love. Mr. Peabody tells Eloise he thinks it’s a matter of opinion and Eloise agrees, but also points out that Rachel smiles differently now and asks him what he thinks, to which he says nothing.
Bill and Rachel become increasingly distant toward each other, while tensions rise between Eloise and Brooks, as she grows increasingly suspicious of Brooks. Since Bill refuses to talk about he and Rachel’s past, Eloise decides to go and find out why Brooks is seemingly so suspicious. While Brooks is in the dining hall one day at lunch, Eloise spies on him from underneath a desert tray and discovers that Brooks is a
criminal
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in C ...
, as he has borrowed money from all across the country to make it look like he has his own fortune. As he now owes tons of money he is unable to pay back, he plans to marry into a wealthy family, steal their money, and use it to pay off his debts. Eloise tries to warn Mr. Peabody, but Cornelia refuses to let her see him. Eloise also tries to get Nanny to help her, but Nanny refuses, saying that Eloise’s strong dislike of Brooks probably caused her to misunderstand the situation and makes her pink promise to not say anything to anyone about it ever again.
Eloise decides to meddle in Brooks and Rachel’s relationship by breaking them up and getting Rachel back with Bill. She sends Rachel red roses with a card that says “from your secret admirer,” and then convinces her later at her wedding dress fitting that it was Bill who sent them. She learns from Rachel that she and Bill used to put on little shows at the Plaza before she moved to Europe. Learning that Rachel and Brooks have a meeting with Prunella at 4:00 in the Terrace Room, Eloise tricks Brooks into thinking the meeting has been cancelled and tricks Prunella into thinking the meeting is at 5:00 by covertly switching her planner. She then gets Bill to be in the Terrace Room at 3:45 so he can teach her a new song on the piano and lets Rachel arrive at the meeting at 4:00 as scheduled. When Rachel arrives, Eloise says she has to run and get something and that she should stay and sing with Bill like they used to. Rachel and Bill sing “Wherever we Go, Whatever we Do,” and excitedly dance to it as well. Prunella arrives and stops the two, and says to Bill he should remember his place as a waiter at the Plaza. Rachel defends him on account of how Prunella missed their whole meeting and chastises her for it, as Eloise watches in pleasure.
During her morning round the next morning, Eloise notices Rachel, Brooks, and her father having breakfast in the dining hall and spies on them from behind a newspaper. While Eloise is pretending to read the newspaper, she sees an article that says there is a performance of “Gypsy the Musical” tonight, and gets tickets for Rachel and Bill to go, telling Bill they’re a Christmas gift from her to him. She also follows Brooks to the Barber shop, and tricks him into thinking there’s a
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
alumni party, which is his supposed former business school. Brooks abruptly ends his shave early, saying he has to go to a business meeting and won’t be back until late tonight and leaves. Eloise unfortunately gets a call from her mother, who was supposed to return on Christmas Eve, who tells her that because of the snowstorm going on in New York, they’re not letting any planes take off to New York. However, Nanny tells her they will celebrate Christmas all over again if she doesn’t return in time. Rachel returns to the hotel happy that night, and later Brooks returns and learns from Mr. Salamone that Eloise was lying about the Harvard alumni party.
As the next day is Christmas Eve, Rachel and Brooks wedding day has arrived. After Eloise delivers her Christmas presents to everyone (including Cornelia), she goes to talk to an angry Prunella to take false pity on her, but inadvertently causes Prunella to figure out her plan. Eloise runs to Bill, as she plans to convince him to admit his love for Rachel and have her call off the wedding. Unfortunately, he has already left on vacation to Vermont. Eloise than runs to Rachel’s room, hoping to convince her to stop the wedding as her last hope. While banging on the door for Rachel to open up, Eloise yells that Rachel can’t marry Brooks because there are things about him that she doesn’t know. But it is Brooks who answers the door, much to Eloise’s horror. He then asks her what sort of things and says they should “take a little walk” together.
Brooks kidnaps Eloise and locks her in the Plaza’s basement closet to stop her from interfering with the wedding, but he will let her out once they’re legally married and she can do nothing to prevent the wedding. Rachel begins to get cold feet about the wedding, but stays silent about it. Using spy kit equipment from a Christmas present she secretly opened early, Eloise uses the
walkie-talkie
A walkie-talkie, more formally known as a handheld transceiver (HT), is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald Hings, radio engineer Alfred J. Gross, ...
to reach Nanny. Nanny frees Eloise and they both run to try to stop the wedding. They are unable to make it to the wedding in time, and are forced to climb through the ceiling and watch through a peak hole. Just as it is about to become official, Rachel finally reveals she can’t marry Brooks and stops the wedding. Brooks asks why, and suddenly Bill runs in the door, saddened by the fact that Rachel and Brooks have seemingly already been married. However, Rachel reveals that she is in love with Bill and runs to him. The two kiss, causing Nanny and Eloise to happily giggle, but they are forced to retreat after they are seen by Prunella.
That night, Eloise and Nanny celebrate Christmas Eve with a
feast
A banquet (; ) is a formal large meal where a number of people consume food together. Banquets are traditionally held to enhance the prestige of a host, or reinforce social bonds among joint contributors. Modern examples of these purposes i ...
and lots of holiday fudge. Mr. Peabody calls Eloise and tells her he has something to discuss with her. In the lobby, he confronts Eloise about the events of the wedding, having been tipped off by Prunella, to which Eloise admits she is responsible. Mrs. Thornton is offered a permanent stay at the Plaza Hotel after getting enough money from an anonymous source to take care of her for the rest of her life. Mr. Peabody thanks Eloise, which causes Prunella to scold Mr. Peabody for letting a “demonic child” determine who’s fit to marry Rachel. As she scolds Mr. Peabody for not sticking to Brooks, Brooks appears in handcuffs and is being carried away by an FBI agent. Brooks Oliver III was a pseudonym he used to evade the law; his real name is Jimmy Stutts and he’s wanted in three states for
forgery
Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forb ...
, fraud, and
extortion
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...
. The whole lobby sings “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and to top it off, Eloise’s mother returns home and the two rejoice.
Cast
See also
*
List of Christmas films
Many Christmas stories have been adapted to feature films and TV specials, and have been broadcast and repeated many times on television; since the popularization of home video in the 1980s, their many editions are sold and re-sold every year d ...