Elfen helfen - Bahn frei für Santa Claus

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.

I generally loathe Christmas movies (Its A Wonderful Life is an exception) and Christmas cartoons are usually worse. This is a little masterpiece - helmed by John Lasseter, how could it go wrong? There is a perfect marriage of material that children and adults can enjoy, much the same as most of the Pixar projects. The voice overs are excellent and the whole thing manages to sidestep the mawkish and still remains magical. The animation is of the usual high quality and the writing is terrific. it bears rewatching and is sure to be part of a regular Christmas TV schedule. Why cannot others manage to do this? Surely Pixar are not the only production company with good writers, animators and directors. The problem is,I guess, that Lasseter has set the bar so high it is almost impossible to compete with such a fantastic talent.

I am 60+ and my husband and I watch it every year and just smile. So cute and funny, just a fun watch.

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.

After recording this on DVR last year, I finally got to watch Prep & Landing today this Christmas Day. After a little more than 200 years of helping Santa make smooth landings on houses' roofs, one of the elves gets a little sour, attitude-wise, when he doesn't get a promotion and almost alienates his new partner. Then, a creature gets discovered stirring and there's a blizzard and...oh, just watch the animated special if you want to know what happens and just enjoy the hip holiday references that get sprinkled throughout that help make "Prep & Landing" such an enjoyable treat to watch thanks to all responsible for this Disney production.