We have reached another Christmas Day! It’s a great time to celebrate and enjoy the moment for tomorrow we mourn the passing of the season. It’s the great come-down every year. For this holiday, I am once again returning to my list of the best of the best when it comes to Christmas specials. This entry will complete that list as I made it a personal mission to revisit the ones I felt had been short-changed by me in the past. There are still some on the initial list of 25 that I bumped off when I revisited the list a few years ago. Maybe I’ll circle back to them – I don’t know! That’s a discussion for next year. For now, lets talk Disney’s Prep & Landing.
Prep & Landing is not number one on my top 25 best of Christmas list, but it probably would be if we were only talking about specials created in the last 23 years. The only one such special I ranked ahead of it was the episode “Last Christmas!” from another Disney property, DuckTales. It was a mere two spots ahead of this one, definitely in the tenuous zone, and I have a feeling if I were to make such a list I’d be inclined to make this particular special number one over a very excellent episode of DuckTales. Why? Because this one is very much a traditional Christmas special in that it’s essentially stand-alone (sequels have followed, but they don’t enhance this one) and adds to the lore of Christmas by focusing on the elves who help get things done to make Christmas, Christmas. We’ve seen plenty of elves hard at work in the toy shop, but never have we seen them entering a home on Christmas Eve to make sure everything is in place for Santa. With his list of houses to visit as big as it is, there can be no wasted time on Christmas Eve. He needs to get in and get out and one misplaced toy or aggressive dog could blow the whole thing up. My approach each year is to save something fairly traditional for the final entry. And this year, I also decided to go in chronological order when it came to my re-rankings on the 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, and today. We started in 1977 with The Flintstones, and today we end in 2009.
Enter Wayne (Dave Foley) and the other elves of Prep & Landing. It’s their job to get in and make sure that anything that could go wrong won’t. Kids staying up trying to catch the man in action? They put them to sleep. Tree has too many low-hanging branches to fit a gift? They trim ’em. Nuts in the cookies? You’re outta here! It’s a big operation that relies on a vast network of elves and even a secret reindeer to get it done and it mostly comes from the mind of Chris Williams, Kevin Deters, and Stevie Wermers-Skelton. Williams is credited with the idea for the special which he pitched as a short. John Lasseter, then in charge of animation at Disney, decided it would work best as a TV special. Unfortunately, Williams wasn’t available to direct because he was assigned Bolt so it was handed off to Deters and Wermers-Skelton to direct. They added their own touches, and the special premiered on December 8, 2009.
When Prep & Landing first arrived on television I paid it no mind. It was 2009 so I was mostly just working and working and working and trying to save money for my own home after renting for a few years. I don’t even recall when I first watched this special, but by the time that I did the sequel was out and it formed a tidy one hour block on ABC each year. For some reason I associated it with Phineas and Ferb, a show I hear is perfectly fine, but not something I need in my life. I guess it was just the similar title that made me think that, but it was actually a recommendation from my mother to watch the two that finally got me to bite. It was love at first viewing. I love Dave Foley going back to his days on Kids in the Hall and by 2009 Disney was good enough at producing CG material that looked on par with what Pixar had been doing for even longer. And I love Christmas! By the time I watched it I think I was stockpiling Christmas specials on DVD because I can’t get enough of them at this time of year and Prep & Landing has been a worthy inclusion on my annual viewing list ever since.
Prep & Landing begins in traditional fashion. We get some lovely shots of a quiet town asleep at night. There’s snow everywhere and Christmas decorations dot the landscape. Nat King Cole’s rendition of “The Christmas Song” is the sound of the season bringing us in. It really is a picture perfect way to begin a Christmas special and a great way to put a capper on the Christmas season. If just one person decides to end their Christmas Day with this special as a result of this entry then I will consider it mission accomplished.
An interior shot of a Christmas tree pans to a lit fireplace. As Cole starts to tell us about folks dressed up like slurs, the music is cut out in favor of an aerosol can sound, a clever way to avoid a potentially offensive word while also crafting an effective scene transition. Someone has put out the fire from above and two little heads with pointed hats come into view. They’re hanging upside down and sporting what looks like night vision goggles since they’re illuminated green. They scan the room and we’re briefly shown a view from their perspective of an inverted Christmas tree. The music has switched to an electronic spy theme, but with a touch of Christmas chimes added to it. The score was composed by Michael Giacchino and it is fantastic throughout, in case I forget to highlight it later (I often do).
The elves emerge from the fireplace and stealthily move about the house. The skinnier of the two, Peterson, creeps upstairs to a bedroom where a little girl is asleep. He scans her with a handheld device that’s shaped like a gingerbread man, but functions like an iPhone. It relays to him that there are 0 creatures stirring. They move to the tree where the same device is used to project a laser image of a Christmas present that is 18″ high. They don’t quite have enough space under the tree for a box of that size, so the other elf, Wayne (Foley), descends from a grappling hook and shaves some of the branches back and silently directs Peterson to vacuum up the debris. Foley’s voice, as Wayne, then comes on to narrate the rest of the scene first starting with a question for the audience asking if it has ever wondered how the whole operation gets done? This is our introduction to the operation that is Prep & Landing. As he explains, we see some of the duties carried out including prepping the stockings by blowing air into them to widen them for efficient stuffing, the temperature of the milk is tested, and the cookies confirmed to be nut-free (I bet you didn’t know the big guy had a nut allergy). A dog threatens to mess the whole thing up (his model is the same as Bolt, but re-colored), but Wayne gets a bomb shaped like a Christmas ornament to Peterson which explodes in the dog’s face and puts the canine to sleep. They leave a candy-cane striped dog bone behind as a “Sorry I had to bomb you,” offering.
The operation moves to the roof where the elves lay down a landing strip of sorts. They direct the sleigh which deploys a hook that grabs the landing strip to pull it to a complete stop, just like how a jet lands on an aircraft carrier. With the job done, Wayne enjoys a snack on the edge of the roof. If they go onto other homes it’s not addressed or implied which means this is a huge operation. Also, not a bad gig to have to prep one house once a year. The voice over tells us that Wayne has been doing this a long time, and it’s illustrated by a sequence of shots of Wayne getting buried in snow each time the sleigh lands on the roof. The last one has the snow resembling hair and a beard as a brief fake-out that he’s looking much older as well, but he just brushes it off. Wayne is clearly ready for a change, and that’s what this special is all about.
It’s Christmas Eve at the North Pole and a very fancy snow mobile has just pulled into a reserved parking spot. It’s a spot intended for the Director of the Naughty List and the attendant elf is not happy with whoever just pulled in. It’s Wayne, sporting a dress shirt and Christmas tree shaped tie and sunglasses, who is apparently not the appointed director. The attendant, Waterkotte (Peter Jacobson), is insistant that Wayne move because he wasn’t informed of his new position, but Wayne assures him that he’s heading inside to speak with a Magee to make it official. Waterkotte tells him to make sure he gets a sticker on his vehicle pronto, and as he does he taps it with his pencil. Wayne spins on his heels to tell him to be mindful not to scratch his car or he’ll have to put Waterkotte on the Naughty List. He lets out a phony sounding laugh and adds a “Just kidding,” but then follows it up with, “but I could,” to reestablish that there is a real threat at play.
Wayne heads into the factory with some pep in his step. He’s singing to himself his own version of “Jingle Bells” that’s basically a celebration of his promotion. He grabs the hands of a blonde elf and does a little twirl with the words of his song a reminder to her not to forget their date under the mistletoe. He grabs onto a golf cart to hitch a ride as it whisks him off to Magee’s office like he’s the star in his own musical. Voices call out to him that they’re going to miss him and when he does come to a stop he’s greeted by a pair of Coal Elves. As Director of the Naughty List, Wayne is apparently their boss now. The two elves are dressed line miners and covered in soot. It doesn’t require explanation and it’s actually rather nice that the special lets us fill in the information that these guys are dispatched to the homes of naughty kids where coal is left behind. One of the elves, Gristletoe Joe (Lino DiSalvo), better known as Nancy, has a gift for his new boss – a sooty, brick of fruit cake made by his wife. Wayne accepts it with his thanks and promises good things are coming with him in charge. It would seem Wayne has ether told everyone about this promotion leading up to it, or everyone just expects him to finally get it.
Of course, that means he’s not. Wayne arrives at Magee’s office and drops the fruit cake on her desk indicating he probably has no intention of actually eating the thing. Magee (Sarah Chalke) is like the CEO of this whole operation (her official title is North Pole Christmas Eve Command Center Coordinator). She’s in the middle of two phone conversations, one via handheld device and the other headset, when Wayne walks in as a small attendant (Tiny) holds a clipboard up to her to get her approval on something. We only ever see the tip of Tiny’s hat because he’s, well, tiny. Magee first asks Wayne if he lost a bet in response to the tie he’s wearing, but Wayne isn’t phased and explains it’s his celebration tie. This is followed with the bad news. Not only is Wayne not getting the promotion, his partner Peterson is. Wayne can’t believe it since he’s been on the job longer and is the one who trained his understudy only for him to get promoted out from under him. This information is all shared by Wayne in a sarcastic manner, but the sarcasm is lost on Magee who just hears the part about being happy for Peterson. She takes a sip of whatever Tiny brought her (I think it’s eggnog) and it’s apparently bad as she dumps it into the pot of her little Charlie Brown tree behind her which causes the needles to fall off of it. It’s Christmas Eve though and there’s no time to be sad as Wayne has a new partner to train – Lanny (Derek Richardson).
Lanny introduces himself by first struggling with the door to Magee’s office. Seems he thinks it’s a “Pull” door and not a push one and basically opens it by accident. He salutes Wayne and introduces himself, his call sign is Tree Skirt (Wayne’s is Little Drummer Boy), and Wayne seems unimpressed. Lanny doesn’t pick up on the tension at all as he shakes Wayne’s hand with tremendous enthusiasm telling him he had a poster of him on his wall as a kid. He gives him a hug too, and while I do enjoy the performance of Derek Richardson as Lanny, his high voice does make me wish they could have hired fellow Kids in the Hall alum Kevin McDonald for the gig as he would have been perfect.
Magee tells them they need to get a move-on as Thrasher is the last transport waiting. This excites Lanny even more as they head for two big, steel, doors that soon open into a hangar. Thrasher (Hayes MacArthur) is a massive reindeer with gray fur and dark sunglasses. He’s got attitude to spare. Lanny approaches him from the front and remarks that he thought Thrasher was just a myth. He’s then told by the reindeer that he is a myth and that if he tells anyone about him then Lanny will be the one that doesn’t exist. He emphasizes this by turning the candy cane he was sucking on vertical in between his teeth and crushes it.
With that point across, Lanny heads around back to the pod that Thrasher will be pulling. Wayne is already inside looking thoroughly miserable along with some other elves, but Lanny is oblivious as he ponders what Thrasher’s stop speed is and remarks, “This is so tinsel!” Wayne, who looks barely put together with his coat open and gut hanging out, asks Lanny a rhetorical question in response (“Does the phrase silent night mean anything to you?”) and then smiles at the blonde seated next to him. I’m not sure if this is the same blonde elf from earlier or not, but she is all business now as she turns on her goggles and turns away from Wayne.
Thrasher takes the elves to the drop zone, 18,000 feet over Sector 7. Lanny and Wayne hop out of the pod and deploy parachutes from the tips of their pointy hats. They descend to the roof of their assigned home as skis deploy from their shoes. Lanny remarks that the neighbor’s house looks like a winter wonderland because of all of the decorations on their lawn. It seems an innocuous comment at the time, but it’s going to play a role later. We cut to the fireplace where the glowing logs indicate that the fire has been out for some time, but are still hot. That doesn’t stop Lanny from spraying them repeatedly as he’s clearly getting no feedback from his partner. He soon emerges from the fireplace and quickly takes cover behind a potted plant of poinsettia. Wayne descends with far less enthusiasm, feet first, just dangling from his candy cane grappling hook.
Wayne then gets the idea to set Lanny free. He proposes he go solo, which Lanny doesn’t think he’s ready for, but Wayne remarks that he’s highly trained and ready for the challenge so Lanny accepts promising to check-in at regular intervals. He heads upstairs to check for stirring creatures while Wayne puts himself on cookie duty. This just means he’s picked up a frosted, Santa-shaped, cookie for himself and set his sights on the kitchen. Lanny confirms the lone child, Timmy, is asleep then gets to prepping the stockings. Wayne, on the other hand, is raiding the fridge. He’s made himself a cup of hot chocolate and is using his tools to grind up more chocolate for it. As he does so, he speaks to the Santa cookie in a taunting fashion pointing out his naughty behavior and encourages the cookie to tell Peterson to put him on his list.
Lanny, left to himself, has to lean his gingerbread gadget against a toy train to measure the space needed for Timmy’s gift under the tree. It’s a big one, a bicycle, so some trimming is needed. Wayne has settled into a recliner with his coco, cookie, and can of whipped cream which he blasts into his mouth. He uses his grappling device to recline the chair and demonstrates that the gingerbread thing is also a universal remote. He turns the TV on and we’re immediately blasted with Clarence Nash belting out “Merry Christmas!” as Donald Duck. It’s Mickey’s Christmas Carol, 2021’s final entrant in The Christmas Spot, and Wayne asks the Santa cookie if it wants to watch a Christmas Special? Apparently it does, because Wayne just says “Too bad!” and changes the channel. It sounds like a non-copywrite infringing A Charlie Brown Christmas (Hey, Futurama just did something similar a few days ago) and he keeps changing the channel until he gets to something that sounds less seasonal. As for Lanny, unfortunately for him he’s used a side table as a boost to get high enough to make his tree cuts, but when he jumped the gingerbread device tilted causing him to cut off way more tree than is necessary. He starts nervously vacuuming up the excess as he tries to get Wayne on the radio for some help and advice.
Wayne just tells Lanny to go with his gut as he unfastens his own belt and lets himself go. Lanny does basically the only thing he can do and spins the tree around so the front at least looks good. Wayne then decides it’s time to eat the cookie. He holds it up before him and says “Merry Christmas!” before biting into it. Since it’s one of those heavily frosted cookies, it’s hard as a rock. Seriously, those cookies are the worst. Wayne struggles to bite through it, but eventually manages to snap off the pom pom at least. Unfortunately, the cookie had all of his attention and he didn’t notice that his belt device detected a creature stirring. Little Timmy (Mason Cotton) then appears over the back of the chair, much to Wayne’s surprise. He’s also armed with a camera and has Wayne dead to rights.
At the command center in the North Pole, Magee is getting ready to launch the sleigh. The music is very dramatic and would feel right at home in a Marvel film. The sleigh is summoned and Magee gives the order to rev up the engine. A lone elf descends from the ceiling and psyches the lead reindeer up which is a pretty good bit. Magee then calls for the partridge to enter. That’s apparently Santa’s (William Morgan Sheppard) call sign as the big guy emerges to take his position in the sleigh. Magee then signals to each unit in the command center and they all return with “Dash away,” to indicate their unit is ready for launch. Magee gives the final command, “Dash away all,” and pushes the button to open the hangar. The reindeer start running in place as a countdown appears and they float above the track with sparkles about their feet. When the countdown reaches zero, it’s Santa’s turn to give a “Ho, ho, go!” and pushes the button to launch and Christmas is on! After we see Santa circle the tower to much celebration (no moon shot, sadly) Magee informs the crew that this is what all the planning was leading to. She takes a sip of the nog then assumes a sort of meditative posture as she assures herself nothing will go wrong. She’s quickly informed of a major storm over Sector 7 and she can only utter an “Oh, frostbite,” in response.
Back at the Terwelp residence, Timmy has decided to try and converse with his discovery. He’s moved onto the armrest of the chair and Wayne is basically in shock. Timmy remarks he’s surprised at how small Wayne is and guesses that he must be a baby elf, which insults the veteran. As Timmy picks up Wayne to examine him, Lanny comes in to inform his partner there’s a creature stirring, which Wayne is very much aware of at this point. Lanny screams when he sees Timmy and quickly fumbles with a sparkle bomb before tossing it in the kid’s face. He falls to the ground asleep and Lanny picks up the camera to delete the pictures, but before doing so sees a pic of Wayne and one of the Big Guy’s cookies. Wayne is ready to bail, but Lanny reminds him of Section Code 808 which dictates all children will be snug in their beds and Wayne lets out a groan.
We cut to the pair hauling Timmy up the stairs to his room with Lanny in front and Wayne picking up the rear. It’s now that Lanny decides to confront Wayne on his behavior and we find out that Wayne has been at this gig for 227 years. He’s tired of it, but Lanny, being a fresh-faced rookie, gestures to Timmy as the reason for what they do. He views this gig as the best in the world and can’t imagine letting a kid like that down. Timmy does his part by looking cute sucking his thumb in his sleep, but Wayne just tells Lanny he’ll lose his enthusiasm too some day. Lanny tells Wayne he thought he was the Prep & Landing guy, but now he’s sad to find out that he’s really just a lump of coal. Never meet your heroes, ladies and gentlemen. This seems to hurt Wayne, but he shakes it off and tells Lanny that “sometimes we don’t get what we want.”
As they put Timmy in his bed, Wayne gets a call from Magee. She mentions how Wayne must have noticed how bad the storm is outside to which he responds with “Well, I am now.” She explodes on him as Wayne’s admission of not being aware of the weather means he’s not on the roof which means the house isn’t prepped. He tells her they had a coal in the stocking, but assures her everything is fine because they’re putting him to bed. Everything is not fine as Magee radios to Eight Maids a-Milking which is the call sign for the reindeer. Dasher (Nathan Greno), acknowledges that he hates that call sign before taking Magee’s call. He and Dancer (David DeLuise), who is basically freaking out, report back that they have no visibility and things look bad. Magee has no choice but to radio the Big Guy and inform him the house isn’t prepped and suggest they do the unthinkable – Figgy Pudding. Santa indicates it’s never come to this before, but Magee reminds him it’s one house, one kid, and he’s needed at many more. He reluctantly agrees and the command is given to skip Timmy’s house.
The commands comes over Wayne and Lanny’s handheld device. Suddenly, Wayne feels horrible. And to make him feel worse, the comatose Timmy reaches out and mistakes him for a stuffed animal. Or not, as he calls him by name and remarks that this will be the best Christmas ever. Aren’t they all? Wayne finds his resolve and extricates himself from Timmy’s grasp and puts his hat back on. He races out of the room and jumps on the banister as he demands Magee patch him through to the Big Guy (they actually never call Santa by name). Magee at first refuses, but then Wayne threatens to tell everyone about her and Tiny. At the suggestion, Tiny’s hat shoots up straight and Magee smiles nervously and responds, “Patching you through.” It would seem an inappropriate work relationship exists between Magee and her subordinate.
Magee comes through and Santa picks up on the other end. Wayne introduces himself as if Santa wouldn’t know who he is, but Santa informs the elf that Magee has already rerouted him. Wayne insists that he has a plan to land him safely and that there is time. He implores with the big man to let him do his job because he can’t let Timmy down. Santa responds, “I was hoping you would say that. Let’s give it a shot, my boy!” He directs the reindeer back to the house as Wayne and Lanny make for the roof, but not before Wayne remarks to his understudy that this is the most tinsel job around. They hit the roof and throw down the landing strips, but the wind is blowing much too hard and before it can be secured the landing strip is blown away. Lanny remarks that you can’t see anything in this storm, but Wayne points out one thing that’s still visible: Lanny’s winter wonderland.
The pair make for the neighbor’s house as fast as they can go skiing across the rooftops. Wayne zeroes in on a giant, inflatable, Santa Claus in a snow globe while instructing Lanny to gather some rope. Wayne fastens his gingerbread man to the globe and tapes his hat over it. When he turns around, Lanny is there with basically every Christmas light from the house and asks “Is this enough rope?” Wayne is both surprised and impressed and the two head back to Timmy’s house with their Santa globe and “rope.” Lanny is able to plug the lights in by the mailbox while Wayne inflates the Santa with his stocking stuffer gun. He deploys the parachute on his hat and the wind pulls the inflatable high into the sky with the lights trailing behind it.
Wayne offers some praise to the young Lanny and the two make for the roof. Wayne gets up no problem via his grappling device, but Lanny hooks an ice damn which gives way causing him to fall. As he drops he cries out that he’s going to die and is pleasantly surprised when he does not. His grappling hook finds his head though and knocks him for a loop as some icicles threaten to do even greater arm. Wayne spies them and swings down like Spider-Man to snatch his apprentice and take him to the roof. He props Lanny by the chimney as Santa radios in about not having a visual on the landing strip. Wayne assures him it’s coming and uses Lanny’s gingerbread device to activate the lights on the floating Santa globe. The reindeer confirm visual, and Dasher gives the command to “cut the engine.” This just means the reindeer stop “running” and tuck their legs, a great visual gag. These two, Dasher and Dancer, are low key the MVPs of this special.
With Santa rapidly approaching, it’s up to Wayne to make the landing a safe one. As he prepares to guide the sleigh in he remembers the tail hook. He dives out of the way firing his grapple gun at the chimney, but it clangs off. All hope seems lost, but don’t forget about Lanny! Lanny awakens from his stupor to grab the other end of the rope! Except, how are two elves going to stop Santa’s sleigh? They can’t, not on their own, but some quick thinking from Wayne as the sleigh pulls the pair like water skiers gets him to deploy Lanny’s hat-parachute to stop the sleigh. Timmy’s house has become impossibly long by this point, but it all adds to the suspense of the moment which is increased with quick cuts to the command center as they watch this somewhat reckless descent. Once the sleigh comes to halt with Dasher and Dancer staring over the edge of the roof, Dancer acts like he’s going to be sick, but keeps it together while the command center rejoices and the two Prep & Landing elves drop from the sky with a thud.
It’s now 9 AM Christmas morning and the whole North Pole is celebrating another holiday completed. It’s just one big party, but one elf has some making up to do. Wayne nervously approaches Santa’s secretary, Miss Holly (Kasha Kropinski) who is typing away at something (apparently the lyrics to “Jingle Bells”). Wayne says he doesn’t have an appointment, but before he can finish Miss Holly instructs him to head inside and that the Big Guy has been expecting him. Wayne is surprised to hear this apparently forgetting that Santa is basically all-knowing and all-seeing. Before he can head in though he’s interrupted by Lanny who wants Wayne to come join the party. He’s wearing a blue sweater with a stocking on it and a Christmas tree hat that looks like a glass-blown decoration. It also has a mistletoe dangling from it and Lanny is covered in lipstick marks. I thought he was cute, but now he seems like a creep. Then again, what do I know of elf culture? Maybe this party isn’t what I imagine?
Wayne assures his partner that he’ll catch up later then nervously enters. He coughs to get Santa’s attention who then beckons him to come in. Wayne goes right into full apology mode for what happened and indicates he understands if Santa wants to fire him, but he implores his boss to make sure Lanny is taken care of as he’s a good elf and not responsible for what happened. Santa seems surprised, and I suppose now is as good a time as any to point out that we never see his face. I guess it adds to the mystique. He tells Wayne not to worry, he’s not going to bite his head off (Wayne winces at this since this is essentially confirmation that Santa knows everything that went down in that house), but acknowledges that every once in a while everyone slips onto the Naughty List. He then gives Wayne a gift – a snow globe. Inside it is a house, and I don’t know if it’s intentional, but damn does it look like Kevin’s house form Home Alone. It’s not actually his house, of course, but Timmy’s and when Wayne looks into it he sees a happy kid on Christmas with his new bike.
Wayne thanks Santa for the gift (and by name, at that, marking the first time an elf addressed him as Santa in this special) and the reminder that comes with it about their job. Santa then adds, “One more thing.” We don’t hear what that is as we cut to the exterior of the office and Wayne coming out. Lanny has been waiting for him and he’s a bit alarmed since Wayne has a shocked look on his face. When he asks him what’s wrong, Wayne explains that Santa just offered him a promotion: Director of the Nice List. Lanny looks disappointed, but still congratulates his former mentor. Wayne then adds he turned him down, “I’m more of a Prep & Landing guy.” He shakes the snow globe as the camera zooms in on the swirling contents and we see Timmy hugging his mom as he has the best Christmas ever. Just before the credits, we also get to see Lanny open his gift. It’s the fruit cake from the Coal Elf, but Lanny is excited to get it and he declares that this is the best Christmas ever!
And it is a great Christmas and damn fine Christmas special! Prep & Landing has just the right amount of heart and Christmas wholesomeness. It’s mixed with a tale of self-destruction on the part of Wayne’s, but it does a solid job of providing some motivation for Wayne’s actions. It might be hard for kids to empathize, but for an adult it’s pretty easy. And it’s that sentiment that keeps Wayne from becoming unlikable, something the sequel struggles with. At least for Wayne, he has the sort of job that is designed to make kids happy and that’s something that’s easy to play up for an audience. And it’s pretty easy to get Wayne to come around as well. I suppose a very cynical person might not be moved by Timmy potentially missing out on a bike, but that sort of person probably isn’t watching many Christmas specials to begin with. I suppose another negative read would be that this is corporate America telling folks to know their role and be happy in their place, but I’m going to cut it some slack and and assume that isn’t the message here.
The story is dressed-up by the lore. I like seeing this side of the holiday, even if it makes no attempt to explain how it could be plausible. Santa needs help to make these deliveries, but if each team only preps one house them he needs billions of elves, which means billions of Thrasher types to make this a go. And there’s no attempt at explaining how he can still move fast enough, but that’s not unique to Prep & Landing. Most ignore that stuff because it is impossible, so I suppose it’s something the audience shouldn’t be too concerned with. Magee is a great character though, this tightly wound director type just trying to keep a huge operation running smooth. And Dasher and Dancer are terrific as a pair. I want to see more from them. They get some of the best lines in this one and I particularly like when Dancer asks how they’re going to pull this landing off and his response is “Laughing all the way.”
This is a special with lots of references in it as well. The most blatant being the Charlie Brown tree in Magee’s office and the shot of Mickey’s Christmas Carol on television. The latitude and longitude of Timmy’s house, and he himself seems like a reference to Tiny Tim, correspond with the same for The Walt Disney Company’s headquarters in Burbank (which has quite possibly never seen snow like that of Timmy’s house). Timmy’s nightlight is Goofy from the short How to Hook Up Your Home Theater which is the short the directors of this special worked on previously. There are other references and easter eggs in here that I won’t spoil, but this is one that’s fun to pause repeatedly during a viewing to try to get them all.
Most importantly, this special just sticks the landing and I find myself rooting for Wayne and Lanny. And I also want more, which is great because there is more out there. And if you want to spend Christmas with the appointed Christmas Elves, the easiest way is via Disney+ which has this and more from the pair. There have been rumors that more was coming from this franchise, but those rumors are from 2011 so it seems like that’s unlikely. And that’s okay, since this special is more than enough as it is. It’s a great addition to the massive stockpile of Christmas specials out there and deserves to be counted among the greats.
If you have been reading all month long, then I thank you for doing so. And if this is the only entry of mine you’ll ever read – thanks! I do this for me as it’s a way to really make sure I enjoy the Christmas season, because you never know how many you’ll get to experience. Thanks again, and more importantly, merry Christmas!
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