Channel Flippin’ – “Prep & Landing”

Image copyright Disney.

Disney’s new animated Christmas special about a super-secret team of elves is inventive and full of Christmas cheer.



By Blake



Originally posted December 23, 2009.



The idea of Prep & Landing, the newest Christmas endeavor from Walt Disney Animation Studios and its first made exclusively for ABC, is simple: before Santa Claus arrives to deliver toys at houses, a team of elves security-checks each home to make sure everything is A-OK. The special uses its boundaries and theme to concoct a whole-hearted entertaining new tradition. It’s clever at introducing audiences to a new world of characters and personalities in its timeframe without seeming rushed, though at the same time keeps a steady pace that keeps interest throughout its duration.


Prep & Landing follows a veteran elf named Wayne (voiced by Dave Foley, Flik in a bug’s life) who, after over 200 years, has become a bit tired of preparing houses for “the big guy.” As luck would have it, this year Wayne is assigned to work alongside Lanny (Derek Richardson), a newbie who has dreamed his entire life of working with the elf team. (Lanny’s enthusiastic and obsessive-fan personality reminded me of Rhino from Bolt.) All is going well in Wayne and Lanny’s preparations until Timmy, a little boy who lives in the house the elves are working at, catches the two of them.

Wayne gets caught. Uh-oh. Image copyright Disney.

Throughout the special, several supporting characters round out the cast to add a few sub-plots and several rather funny joke tidbits. These include the frantic Magee (Sarah Chalke), an elf in charge of making sure everything runs smoothly back at the North Pole; the silent Tiny, Magee’s assistant who remains off-camera except for his hat; reindeer Dasher and Dancer (Nathan Greno and David DeLuise), who comically lead Santa’s sleigh; and the mysterious mythical Thrasher (Hayes McArthur), a.k.a. the “other” reindeer. Lastly, of course, there's jolly Santa Claus (William Morgan Sheppard).

Magee is charge at the North Pole. Image copyright Disney.

A large majority of Prep and Landing’s comedy relies on taking creative spins on common Christmas phrases and carol lyrics. Some examples include the amount of people awake in a house being referred to as the number of “creatures stirring,” as well as the signal for “all clear” being “dash away all.” For the most part these expressions funny, and although after a while they get a bit droll and expected, it helps to immerse the audience in the world of the characters and make the story more believable. Other hilarity comes from the creative spy gadgets the elves use to efficiently get their jobs done.


Although overall the pace of Prep & Landing is kept at an appropriate speed, at times it overlooks a few minor plot points that cause a little confusion later on. For instance, it wasn’t clear to me at first that two elves worked at just one house the entire night – I was thinking a large group of them would move from home to home together.


For those who want to see more Prep & Landing goodies, Disney has kindly created several online bonuses. On Disney.com, guests can see a new spinoff short entitled Tiny’s Big Adventure that uses visual comedy to deliver two quite hysterical minutes of animation. Also on Disney.com are several short extras such as story-related “commercials” and an elf training video. On ABC.com, guests can watch Prep & Landing in its entirety with pop-up text commentary by Wayne, Lanny, and Thrasher, who are all in-character an highly entertaining. The bonus videos and the commentary are welcome additions that help extend the story beyond the television screen.


For a new special, Prep & Landing has already established itself quite well in popular culture. I’ve heard of adult couples watching it together, seen a teenage girl become ecstatic over finding a Wayne toy in the Disney Store, and heard children exclaim that something is “so tinsel” on a number of occasions. I can just imagine that many families have already entertained the thought that Wayne and Lanny could be creeping around their house come Christmas Eve. Additionally, the fact that the program’s premiere telecast brought in over 12 million viewers (to make it the most-watched Christmas special thus far of 2009) simply blew me away. Happily, Prep & Landing delivers a playful half-hour of family fun that I feel confident in saying will enthrall audiences for years to come.




How do I rank Prep & Landing? (Bolded is my choice.)

• Aaah!
• Blech
• Not good
• Good
• Very good
• Brilliant
  
  
  

Prep & Landing will most likely please: Preschoolers (ages 3-4) - Kids (ages 5-7) - Older Kids (ages 8-10) - Tweens (ages 11-13) - Young Adults - Adults

By Blake; posted December 23, 2009. All images copyright Disney.