Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and today, we continue our Christmas celebration by remaining in the North Pole as we take a look at Prep & Landing. Prep & Landing is an elite force that gets the houses ready for Santa's arrival on Christmas Eve and in this special, we follow two prep & landing elves, Wayne & Lanny. This special came about as John Lasster felt there was a lack of new Christmas specials and at the time, he was right. This was originally pitched by Chris Williams as a short film but Lasster liked the idea so much that he thought it would work better as a TV special and ABC was hoping to repeat the ratings success , they got the previous from Shrek The Halls.
And as for my thoughts on this special, it was quite good. I really enjoyed this, the first time that I saw it. And it has gone to become a special that I greatly like coming back to each Christmas.
With that out of the way, let's begin this review.
The Plot
In this special, we follow Wayne, an elf that has been working as a Prep & Landing elf for 227 years and is ready to move up and has dreams of being promoted to the head of the Naughty list but it is not to be as his partner and trainee, Peterson got the job instead and Wayne has now been assigned a new partner, Lanny. A rookie Prep & Landing elf that graduated at the top of his class. Albeit, it was a small class and as we see from Lanny, he is an over enthusiastic elf that was a big fan of Wayne and had a poster of him on his wall growing up and cannot wait to get his first mission under his belt. Lanny's enthusiasm is quite infectious.
Heading out to the mission, we are introduced to the Prep & Landing's mode of transport, Thrasher. A reindeer that is an urban myth to those outside of prep & landing and he is the second cousin. He is a tough, no-nonsense reindeer that doesn't take gruff from anyone. The idea of of a tough guy reindeer is nothing new but it was handled rather well and this special made the right decision of not focusing on him too much.
At the mission, we see Lanny get excited about his first mission while Wayne still bitter over not getting the job, decides to slack off and let Lanny do everything himself.
But they run into a problem as a creature was stirring in this and with there being a bad snowstorm, Santa does not think he can make it after a call from Magee, the head of Santa's flight program. But after figuring out, a way to reroute Santa, they use some very bright Christmas lights and make sure that the child gets his Christmas.
The mission was a success and the next morning, we see Wayne talk to Santa in fear that he was going to be fired but that was not the case as Santa offered him a promotion as head of the Nice list but he turned Santa down as he was more of a prep & landing elf.
All in all, I loved this special and think it was a fantastic new Christmas special that I enjoy coming back to each year.
Characters
Main Characters
Wayne voiced by Dave Foley
I like the character of Wayne. You felt bad for him as he didn't get something that he had wanted but through the course of the mission and through Lanny, he remembered why his job as a prep & landing elf was so important.
Lanny voiced by Derek Richardson
Lanny is easily my favorite character in the special. I just love his optimism and how enthusiastic, he is about starting his job. It's just so infectious and bubbly. You can't just help but to get caught up in his over abundance of joy.
Supporting Characters
Magee voiced by Sarah Chalke
Magee is the stressed out flight coordinator for Santa and you can just see how much the job gets to her but she always pulls through and gets the job done.
Thrasher voiced by Hayes Macarthur
Thrasher as I said is a tough no nonsense reindeer that was quite humorous. And I just loved his tough guy attitude.
Dasher & Dancer voiced by Nathan Greno & David DeLuise
I didn't mention these two in the review but they were so funny. Easily, some of the comic relief that I've seen in a special in quite a while. They played off each other so well.
Timmy voiced by Mason Vole Cotton
This kid was cute and you could just see how excited he was for Christmas and hey, his name is Tim. How bad can he be, if he has that name?
My Final Thoughts
This special is just fantastic. Easily, one of my favorite Christmas that I've seen in recent memory and one that I can't wait to go back in the following years. Join me tomorrow as we go through the portal and head to Canterlot High as we look at..
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