Prep & Landing (2009)

Memorable, crazy movie

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

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.

My family and I found this short film in error whilst trying to find a Christmas film to watch and what a find. This is now a family Christmas tradition, we now have to watch this to get into the Christmas spirit. The storyline is original and fun with content for kids and adults alike. The animation is brilliantly done as you would expect from a Disney Production and as it is only on for about 20 minutes, you can always squeeze it in. This is the story of one of Santa's helpers that thinks he has been passed by for promotion and ends up with a new partner he isn't happy with and as it is a Christmas film, of cause, it all goes well in the end. There are loads of Christmas references squeezed in which always raises a smile from my wife and I. A must see.

When Pixar and Disney unite in order to shoot a half-hour special for the Christmas holidays starring a bunch of elves, you'd expect nothing but greatness looking at how both have delivered in the animation sector for decades. Unfortunately, despite its success with the Emmys, I thought the final result came rather short. Wayne, the lead character is played by prolific voice actor Dave Foley. Also on board are Sarah Chalke (Roseanne), starring in one of the later Scrubs seasons at that point, Peter Jacobsen (House M.D.) and Derek Richardson, who's currently playing alongside Charlie Sheen in Anger Management.Veteran elf Wayne's partner gets promoted, so he has to deal with a new guy on his side. Lanny faces quite the task as Wayne's perception of Christmas a heartfelt event has considerably decreased over the years and at that point, it's really nothing but business anymore for him. Can Lanny's approach rekindle the Christmas spirit in Wayne? I think it's a decent short film that can be watched all year, not just during Christmas, primarily by younger audiences though. For grown-ups, it just falls a bit flat. The reckoning of the Christmas spirit part could have been all kinds of great, but unfortunately it's not emotionally investing as I had hoped for. The fact that the main character just pretty much performs a 180°-turn about the subject within seconds makes it look quite rushed. Also I didn't really like the way Foley voiced the main character and that has a huge impact on the perception of the whole film of course. Here and there, it gets funny, like the part where he tells Magee to put him through or he'll tell everybody about her involvement with ... The whole thing is an okay effort, but really could have been so much more.

And happen to catch this one? It ain't that bad. Amusing to an extent.The revelation that elves have to prep houses to receive Santa Claus was amusing, the idea of an elf being cynical was a little off-base (there really wasn't a lot of clarity as to what the elves were doing or why. goldbricking seemed rather redundant) I actually enjoyed the gung ho reindeer a bit more. Watch a sampling handful of Christmas programs, past, present and future (reminds me, I haven't watched any version of Christmas Carol yet this year) and this won't be in the bottom of your list of bad programs.Hey, its only shown at one time of the year anyway.