Prep & Landing (2009)

What a waste of my time!!!

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Prep & Landing is an elite group of elves that prepare the house for Santa's arrival. Wayne (Dave Foley) is an arrogant member of the group who expects a new promotion. However his partner Peterson is the one who gets the promotion. He gets a new clueless talkative rookie partner Lanny. He's lost the Christmas spirit and lets Lanny go solo. It doesn't go well when little Timmy wakes up to find the elves. Hyper Magee at operations decides to skip Timmy. Wayne rallies to get Santa to Timmy's house.It's always nice to have new blood rather than the same old same old. It takes the familiar regimented elves and given them a fast talking edge. It's fun. Wayne is a bit of a downer for most of the show but he ends in a happy place. That's what a Christmas special needs. It needs to bring the holiday joy and this does that with a good message.

My family and I found this short film in error whilst trying to find a Christmas film to watch and what a find. This is now a family Christmas tradition, we now have to watch this to get into the Christmas spirit. The storyline is original and fun with content for kids and adults alike. The animation is brilliantly done as you would expect from a Disney Production and as it is only on for about 20 minutes, you can always squeeze it in. This is the story of one of Santa's helpers that thinks he has been passed by for promotion and ends up with a new partner he isn't happy with and as it is a Christmas film, of cause, it all goes well in the end. There are loads of Christmas references squeezed in which always raises a smile from my wife and I. A must see.

When Pixar and Disney unite in order to shoot a half-hour special for the Christmas holidays starring a bunch of elves, you'd expect nothing but greatness looking at how both have delivered in the animation sector for decades. Unfortunately, despite its success with the Emmys, I thought the final result came rather short. Wayne, the lead character is played by prolific voice actor Dave Foley. Also on board are Sarah Chalke (Roseanne), starring in one of the later Scrubs seasons at that point, Peter Jacobsen (House M.D.) and Derek Richardson, who's currently playing alongside Charlie Sheen in Anger Management.Veteran elf Wayne's partner gets promoted, so he has to deal with a new guy on his side. Lanny faces quite the task as Wayne's perception of Christmas a heartfelt event has considerably decreased over the years and at that point, it's really nothing but business anymore for him. Can Lanny's approach rekindle the Christmas spirit in Wayne? I think it's a decent short film that can be watched all year, not just during Christmas, primarily by younger audiences though. For grown-ups, it just falls a bit flat. The reckoning of the Christmas spirit part could have been all kinds of great, but unfortunately it's not emotionally investing as I had hoped for. The fact that the main character just pretty much performs a 180°-turn about the subject within seconds makes it look quite rushed. Also I didn't really like the way Foley voiced the main character and that has a huge impact on the perception of the whole film of course. Here and there, it gets funny, like the part where he tells Magee to put him through or he'll tell everybody about her involvement with ... The whole thing is an okay effort, but really could have been so much more.

Prep & Landing (2009) **** (out of 4) I hate using the word "classic" on recent films as I believe they need time to grow into that but there's no question that this here is one of the best animated shorts I've seen in a very long time. An elf named Wayne (voice of Dave Foley) is expecting a promotion from Santa but when he's passed over he decides to take his job less seriously the next year, which ends up possibly causing a young boy his Christmas presents. The entire set-up of this short film is without question one of the most imaginative and entertaining that I've seen. The "prep and landing" refers to the elves job as they have to prep the house to make sure everyone is asleep and make sure that Santa's landing will allow him to get into the house without being noticed. This was such a nice and catchy way to tell the Santa legend that I can't help but think people will get a big kick out of it. Of course, it doesn't hurt that this Disney short features some terrific animation and most importantly it has some very memorable characters. Foley really does a fine job bringing Wayne to life and I thought he was terrific in the voice role and really adds a lot to the film. At just over twenty-minutes there's not a slow second to be found here and instead there are just good laughs and a terrific time.