Prep & Landing

Barbossa · Post by **Barbossa** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 10:25 pm

According to the ABC website, Prep and Landing is on again Dec 18 7/6c.

pap64 · Post by **pap64** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 4:24 pm

I caught the rerun last night on ABC Family and I LOVED it! It was much better than I expected. I thought that the way slavetomoonlight described it it would be filled with technology jokes and things like that. But I was actually surprised at how well the special handled the "special team" aspect. In fact, I thought this was one of the most original Christmas specials in recent years.

I really like the idea of elves helping Santa, making sure he arrives safely and the site is prepared. It gave the tired North Pole setting a fresh breath of air and I thought it added a lot of creativity to the mythology.

I loved the characters. Wayne the elf was such a great character. I thought that he would be annoying and whine about him not getting the promotion, but he was both funny and realistic. I actually did feel bad for him because he had worked hard and hadn't received any recognition. I thought he deserved it. Dave Foley did a great job voicing the character/

I LOVED Maggee (sp? correct name?). She had a lot of spunk and her voice was perfect. I liked how she maintained everything running. She also had some of the best lines (Oh frost bite!). Her assistant, Tiny, was great. I just like how in a world filled with little people there are even smaller guys working. And even if all we could see of him was a hat he was very expressive!

The new prep and landing elf was also a lovable character. His hyperactivity and naivete was never grating and you actually feel for this character when he learns that Wayne is a cynic about his job.

Speaking of which, I thought the message was a good one. Sometimes we don't realize that even the tiniest job have importance in the grand scheme of things, and when Wayne realized that his irresponsibility almost caused a bad Christmas for Timmy he appreciates why his job matters, even if he thinks it doesn't help him get a promotion. I thought that was a wonderful, and if it wasn't for the limited run time it would have been something amazing and fresh for a Christmas special.

I really liked the coal elves. They may have had limited screen time, but they caught my attention. The voices, their design and their jokes were perfect. And once more, it adds to the mythology. I mean...coal elves! Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?

The animation was fantastic and definitely feature film quality.

So overall, I thought Prep and Landing was an excellent holiday special. If this was a Disney film I am sure it would be a strong rival for Disney's own Santa Clause series. It has great humor, heart, inventive story and tons of creativity.

drnilescrane · Post by **drnilescrane** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 3:02 pm

For those of you blessed to live in the land down under, Prep and Landing will be showing on the Seven Network & 7HD at 7:30pm on Christmas Day.

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 5:20 am

I watched it last night finally! I liked it- it was cute. I was also confused, though, about Lanny & Wayne just working on one house. Maybe the elves prepare more than one house, but we just don't know based on the short. It was fun, though. And I was wondering where Rudolph is, not for the landing purposes, but just because sometimes Rudolph gets the shaft.

akhenaten · Post by **akhenaten** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 11:36 am

prep and landing is premiering on disney channel asia on the 24th. its called by its full name lanny n wayne the christmas elves in prep and landing.

i saw it online, i think its okayyyy.....i still prefer non tech gadgety north pole

pap64 · Post by **pap64** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 12:10 pm

blackcauldron85 wrote:I watched it last night finally! I liked it- it was cute. I was also confused, though, about Lanny & Wayne just working on one house. Maybe the elves prepare more than one house, but we just don't know based on the short. It was fun, though. And I was wondering where Rudolph is, not for the landing purposes, but just because sometimes Rudolph gets the shaft.

It's explained that there are several Prep and Landing teams that take care of the houses before Santa's arrival. Logic states that having so many houses to hit they NEED to have more than one team working on Christmas Eve. And right before Magee sends off Lanny and Wayne, she said that the LAST Prep and Landing ship is about to take off, and when they get on the sleigh there are other elves. So again, they have more than one Prep and Landing team.

And don't worry too much about Rudolph, though. He has the honor of having one of the most influential Holiday specials of all time, so it makes up for his absence in other TV specials

.

Finally, I simply don't understand why people are so fixated over the technology in the North Pole. Yes, its been done before, but I think Prep and Landing handled it very well, balancing magic and technology well. I really liked how all of their gadgets were designed around Holiday ornaments and integrated the mythology of Christmas into it.

Besides, its not like ALL recent Holiday specials and movies have been head over heels in love with the sci-fi elves. There are still many specials that present the North Pole as a classic, magical place, so its not like Prep and Landing will suddenly create a fad and destroy the classic visions of the Holiday.

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 12:57 pm

pap64 wrote: It's explained that there are several Prep and Landing teams that take care of the houses before Santa's arrival. Logic states that having so many houses to hit they NEED to have more than one team working on Christmas Eve.

But how many houses does each team work on? We only saw Lanny & Wayne work on one house...Wayne was taking his time, so should they have done more than one house, or are there so many teams that each only needs to do one house each?

pap64 · Post by **pap64** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 1:08 pm

blackcauldron85 wrote:
pap64 wrote: It's explained that there are several Prep and Landing teams that take care of the houses before Santa's arrival. Logic states that having so many houses to hit they NEED to have more than one team working on Christmas Eve.
But how many houses does each team work on? We only saw Lanny & Wayne work on one house...Wayne was taking his time, so should they have done more than one house, or are there so many teams that each only needs to do one house each?

I think they work many houses. The way I see it, the limited running time forced the story team to write about Lanny and Wayne working on just one house. Ideally, they could have written so they hit many houses. And since they are highly trained they could hit many houses in the course of one night.

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 4:57 pm

Well, that makes more sense!

I think that it worked well as a half-hour featurette (I wonder what would've happened in the original short-form version it was supposed to be!), but obviously more time would mean more plot, so we'd understand things more.

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Thu Dec 24, 2009 6:36 am

Did you spot all of the in-jokes & Disney references in “Prep and Landing”?
http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/jim_hill/ ... nding.aspx

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Fri Jan 22, 2010 4:37 am

http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/ ... t-hat.html

Then there is the television blockbuster Prep and Landing:

Me: So what's going on with P and L, you doing a sequel?

Story Artist: Yeah. ABC had really good numbers with it, more than they projected. For sure we're doing a sequel.

Me: I think it was one of the great television specials, really funny. You should do three featurettes. Make it a feature.

Story artist: Don't think we haven't thought of that.

The_Iceflash · Post by **The_Iceflash** » Fri Jan 22, 2010 6:18 am

Question: Do we think we're going to see a home video release of this?

Sotiris · Post by **Sotiris** » Fri Jan 22, 2010 6:23 am

The_Iceflash wrote:Question: Do we think we're going to see a home video release of this?

Perhaps it will be on the Christmas Carol Blu-ray release. It makes sense but with Disney you never know.

estefan · Post by **estefan** » Fri Jan 22, 2010 9:21 am

Considering how well Prep & Landing did, I would be very surprised if they didn't release it on DVD.

I loved the short, so I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Margos · Post by **Margos** » Fri Jan 22, 2010 12:25 pm

blackcauldron85 wrote: Me: I think it was one of the great television specials, really funny. You should do three featurettes. Make it a feature.

Story artist: Don't think we haven't thought of that.

Maybe they should do that, sort of like "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh."

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Sat Jan 23, 2010 4:51 am

Maybe what they'll do is put Prep & Landing & its sequel on a DVD this Christmas season, like a couple weeks after the sequel airs? Unless the sequel isn't meant for this year...then never mind.

blackcauldron85 · Post by **blackcauldron85** » Tue Jan 26, 2010 5:45 am

Meanwhile, Up At The North Pole...
http://blueskydisney.blogspot.com/2010/ ... -pole.html

estefan · Post by **estefan** » Tue Jan 26, 2010 6:35 am

Ooh, I would love for them to pull a Winnie the Pooh and put three featurettes together and release them theatrically. And what the hey, let's make it 3-D.

estefan · Post by **estefan** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 9:31 am

Prep & Landing just got nominated for two Primetime Emmys - Outstanding Animated Program and Outstanding Voice-Over Performance (for Dave Foley).

As much as I'm a big fan of South Park (and the 200/201 episodes were fantastic), I wouldn't mind if this won. Not only because of how terrific it was, but as a nice nod to Disney's shorts programme which will give them enough incentive to give it some more deserved respect.

SWillie! · Post by **SWillie!** » Thu Jul 08, 2010 10:03 am

estefan wrote:Prep & Landing just got nominated for two Primetime Emmys - Outstanding Animated Program and Outstanding Voice-Over Performance (for Dave Foley).

As much as I'm a big fan of South Park (and the 200/201 episodes were fantastic), I wouldn't mind if this won. Not only because of how terrific it was, but as a nice nod to Disney's shorts programme which will give them enough incentive to give it some more deserved respect.

That's great!! I really hope it wins, for exactly the same reason. I wonder if we'll see this released on BD this Christmas...

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