Lutins d'Élite: Opération Secret du Père Noël

As said in my review for 'Prep & Landing Stocking Stuffer: Operation: Secret Santa', the first 'Prep & Landing' was one of the revelations of my "watching as many Christmas films and shorts not yet seen before as possible" quest. Saw both follow ups as part of the quest also, and while not as good and lacking the first's magic they are both worth watching.

'Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice' is the superior one of the two. It is a little thin in story, like 'Prep & Landing Stocking Stuffer: Operation: Secret Santa' except that it has more momentum than that did, and is a little lacking in the visual imagination that the first 'Prep & Landing' had. As said though, 'Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice' is well worth watching.

Despite saying that the visual imagination isn't quite as apparent as in 'Prep & Landing', that is in no way criticising the overall animation quality which is great. It is bright and colourful, and characters don't look blocky and move smoothly while the attention to detail in the backgrounds is solid. The side of the building scene is a highlight. The music captures the nostalgia, warmth, excitement and emotion of Christmas to perfection.

The writing balances fun and poignancy very well, as well as having a lot of charm and a warm heart. There is some nice messaging that isn't preachy or too saccharine, living up to its good intentions. The story is flawed in execution but has charm and emotion at least and maintains attention enough to not want to turn it off.

The likeable characters still remain, and the brother chemistry is very heart-warming and sweet, while the voice acting is solid.

Overall, very nice. 8/10 Bethany Cox

The Coal Elf Brigade handles the naughty kids. They lose a Fruitcake Conduct Calculator to a child with the screen name "jinglesmell1337". The child is attempting to crack the password to access the naughty or nice list. It's a year later. Magee assigns Coal Elf Noel to join Lanny and Wayne's team. Noel turns out to be Wayne's little brother. Grace Goodwin captures Lanny demanding the password to the Fruitcake. Grace is able to change her status but the database is corrupted and every child is transferring to the Naughty list.

Wayne is still a petty little elf. His big outburst takes me out of the Christmas spirit. Sure he recovers but it's a bit distressing. Since they drop the Fruitcake the year before, I think it would be more compelling if they need to recover before Christmas is over. Waiting a year seems to take the tension out of it. Maybe if Wayne lose the Fruitcake and Noel comes to save the day. That would be a better story.

The characters were really likable one of the best Disney shorts from 2011 along with The Ballad Of Nessie which Nessie made a cameo along with Mickey Mouse, when someone hacks into the naughty and nice list computer Wayne and Lany must solve the problem and put everything back to normal, even the character named Noel was also nice and i also love his relationship with his brother Wayne the one who tried to get into the nice and naughty list was the girl named Grace Goodwin who was on the naughty list when in reality it was his little brother named Gabe who destroyed her toy when she got back from school and he was starting to cry when they were on Santa's lap, but everything in the end is alright.

These films are so fun and have good lessons. More please!

Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice (2011)

*** (out of 4)

Nice sequel has elf Wayne being sent on another adventure as a "naughty" child has gotten hold of a secret weapon that she can use to hack into the naughty/nice list that Santa uses. Wayne, with his brother, must go to the house and try to recover the item but soon they start to realize why the girl is acting the way she is. While this film isn't nearly as effective as the 2009 film, it at least has a few charming ideas that make it worth viewing. Once again I enjoyed the changes they made to the classic stories of Santa Claus. This time out we're introduced to the coal workers who of course go to the bad kids homes and inspect for clues that the kids were bad. Once they've determined who was bad they simply leave them coal. I thought this was a nice touch as was one sequence where the elves discover why the girl is acting up. Being a Christmas story about being good and bad, there's certainly messages to young kids on why they should be good. The animation is one again very good and especially one very colorful sequence where Wayne and his brother are going up the side of a building with some beautiful lights on it. The comedy is certainly here, although it does fall well short of the original film. Fans of that film will still want to check this sequel out.