Take A Look at Disney

12/17/14

Christmas: Prep & Landing




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..



No comments:

Post a Comment