Prep & Landing

Prep & Landing (officially known as Disney Prep & Landing; sometimes listed as Prep and Landing or Wayne and Lanny the Christmas Elves in Prep & Landing) is an Emmy Award-winning computer animated television special produced by that premiered on ABC on December 8, 2009 at 8:30 PM ET/PT, while in Canada, the special debuted on  on December 10th. The original airdate was to have been December 1; however, a speech at the by   postponed the debut for a week. The special also airs on as part of their annual 25 Days of Christmas programming block.

Background
Prep & Landing was originally pitched by director Chris Williams as a short film for the newly re-opened theatrical shorts program at WDAS. Liking the idea, (Chief Creative Officer of Disney Animation) decided that it would work best as a television special, and ABC executives, who were keen to repeat the success of the 2007 DreamWorks Animation special Shrek the Halls, approved the project.

Following Williams' directorial debut on the short film Glago's Guest, he was moved on to co-direct the feature film Bolt. The special continued production under the control of co-directors directors Kevin Deters and Stevie Wermers-Skelton (Goofy's ).

Synopsis
The setting is a high-tech command center at the North Pole, where an elf named Magee (voiced by Sarah Chalke), the North Pole Christmas Eve Command Center Coordinator (NPCECCC for short), pairs Wayne (voiced by Dave Foley), who after working tirelessly on Prep & Landing for 287 years, doesn't receive an expected promotion to be the Director of Naughty List Intelligence as his partner, Peterson, won the job. Instead, Magee partners Wayne with Lanny (Derek Richardson), an idealistic rookie who has an undying enthusiasm for Christmas, to prepare the world for the annual trip of Santa Claus (code named "the Big Guy").

However, they get more than they can bargain for when a young boy named Timmy Terwelp captures them in action, enabling Lanny to respark the spirit of Christmas in Wayne. Meanwhile, Miss Holly, Santa's assistant gives a briefing back at the North Pole on the trip, and Magee gets word of a storm over Section 7, where they are located and utters "Oh, frostbite" and calls out a code of "figgy pudding" (the equivalent of 'code red'), canceling a visit by Santa to Timmy's house, but Wayne decides to override Magee's call to pass by and visit the house anyway. However, prep is lost when their tracking and landing device is lost in said snowstorm so they improvise from a display using an inflatable Santa snow globe, and save Santa's sleigh from disaster. In the end, Santa gives Wayne a snowglobe with a miniature version of Timmy's house, and they see him enjoying Christmas... and turns down a promotion to being in charge of Nice List Intelligence.

Hidden gags

 * In one scene, Mickey's Christmas Carol is shown on the television of Lanny and Wayne's assigned house in tribute to John Lasseter's first stint at Disney, and Timmy Terwelp's name is a tribute to Tiny Tim.
 * Santa's sleigh is codenamed "Rosebud" after the sled of ' titular character in .
 * The latitude and longitude of Timmy Terwelp's residence (N 34' 9' 20" / W 118' 19' 23") are in actuality that of 's world headquarters in ; however, the map shows what is the Ohio Valley instead.
 * Director Kevin Deters' hometown is, home to Deter's Dairy. During a scene in which Wayne is "being naughty" and making himself a drink, the milk carton Wayne is using has the Deter's logo.
 * The tree from A Charlie Brown Christmas can be seen in Magee's office.
 * A station wagon with the license plate "12501 WED" is the birthdate of (December 5, 1901).
 * The German Shepard who was in the prologue getting dusted to sleep was a recolored version of the titular character of Bolt which was completing production as Prep & Landing was being made.
 * The image of Goofy used in Timmy Terwelp's bedroom came from the poster for How to Hook Up Your Home Theatre.
 * The scene of Christmas Eve prep is all shot from an elf's point of view, which is why you never see Santa's face.
 * The home of Timmy Terwelp seen in the snowglobe is actually based on co-director Kevin Deter's boyhood home, and a giraffe in Terwelp's bedroom represents a plaything that one of his children plays with.
 * As Wayne prepares to enter Santa's office, Miss Holly is typing the lyrics to.

Pre-emptions
Other then the original pre-emption due to the Presidential speech, two ABC stations did not air the original premiere. in Dallas pre-empted the show and A Charlie Brown Christmas beforehand to air a Christmas-themed prime time special of their Good Morning Texas program, while in Nashville opted not to air the shows but broadcast a contractually obligated weekly  show hosted by head coach Jeff Fisher. The shows aired both in other time slots; the most prominent being at 3:35 AM CDT in Dallas the following late Friday night/Saturday morning (December 18/19, 2009).

Reception
The premiere showing on ABC drew over 20 million viewers December 8, 2009. This ended the 35-year reign of Rankin/Bass' Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer as the number one Christmas Special according to.

Awards won
Annie Awards (2009)
 * Best Animated Television Production
 * Best Character Design in a Television Production - Bill Schwab
 * Best Production Design in a Television Production - Andy Harkness

Primetime Emmy Awards (2009)
 * Outstanding Animated Program (30 minutes or less)
 * Three other Emmys.

Spin-offs and sequels

 * A two-minute short titled Tiny's Big Adventure, which runs on the Disney.com site, finds Tiny, an aide, helping Magee out by trying to make a pot of Yuletide Joe, but winds up destroying the break room by accident.
 * A seven-minute short, Operation: Secret Santa, premiered on December 7, 2010 on ABC at 8 PM ET/PT. joined the voice cast playing Mrs. Claus.
 * In 2011, ABC debuted a sequel, Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice. In the new special, it is revealed that an undercover member of the Coal Elves is Wayne's brother, Noel.
 * In an 2011 interview with Disney's insider website, Dieters and Wermers-Skeleton stated that a third special is in the works.

Availability
A DVD of the special, which also included the two aforementioned spin-off shorts, was released on November 22, 2011. The special will also be featured alongside its sequel, Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice, on the Prep & Landing Totally Tinsel Collection DVD and Blu-ray, to be released on November 6, 2012.

Merchandise
A printed adaptation was published by Disney Press in 2009, and plush toys, pins and ornaments have been made available at Disney Stores during the Christmas season. In 2011, had a line of Prep and Landing-related toys and ornaments.