Prep & Landing

Directed by:	Kevin Deters Stevie Wermers-Skelton
Written by:	Chris Williams Robert L. Baird Daniel Gerson Kevin Deters Stevie Wermers-Skelton
Release date:	December 8, 2009
Running time:	22 minutes
Available on:	DVD

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 Walt Disney Animation Studios that premiered on ABC on December 8, 2009 at 8:30 PM ET/PT, while in Canada, the special debuted on CTV on December 10th. The original date was to have been December 1, however, a speech at the United States Military Academy by President of the United States Barack Obama postponed the debut for a week. The special also airs on ABC Family 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, John Lasseter (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's (Goofy's How to Hook Up Your Home Theater).

Synopsis

SPOILER: Plot details or story follow.

Cover to the storybook adaptation.

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").

"This is the most tinsel job ever."

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", canceling a visit by Santa to Timmy's house, but Wayne decides to override Magee's call to pass by and visit the house. 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.

Spoilers end here.

Hidden gags

Magee in her office (with the tree from A Charlie Brown Christmas in the background).

• In one scene, Mickey's Christmas Carol is shown on the television of Lanny and Wayne's assigned house in tribute to John Lassater'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 Orson Wells' titular character in Citizen Kane.
• The latitude and longitude of Timmy Terwelp's residence (N 34' 9' 20" / W 118' 19' 23") are in actuality that of The Walt Disney Company's world headquarters in Burbank, California, however, the map shows what is the Ohio Valley instead.
• Director Kevin Deters' hometown is Quincy, Illinois, 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 Walt Disney (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 Jingle Bells.

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 ACNielsen.

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.

Voice cast

The cast and crew of Prep & Landing (from left): Derek Richardson (Lanny), Dorothy McKim (producer), John Lassiter (executive producer), Dave Foley (Wayne) with his daughter Alaina, Stevie Werners-Skelton (writer/director/Rev-Up Elf), Sarah Chalke (Magee), Kevin Deters (writer/director/Brian) and Stephen McPearson.

Voice actor	Character
Dave Foley	Wayne
Derek Richardson	Lanny
Sarah Chalke	Magee
Mason Vale Cotton	Timmy Terwelp
Kasha Kropinski	Miss Holly
Adam Shapiro	Coal Elf #1
Peter DeLuise	Dancer
W. Morgan Sheppard	The Big Guy (Santa)
Nathan Greno	Dasher
Hayes MacArthur	Thrasher
Kevin Deters	Brian
Lino DiSalvo	Gristletoe Joe (a/k/a "Nancy")
Stevie Werners-Skelton	Rev-Up Elf
Peter Jacobson	Waterkotte

Pre-emptions

Other then the original pre-emption due to the Presidential speech, two ABC stations did not air the original premiere. WFAA 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 WKRN in Nashville opted not to air the shows but broadcast a contractually obligated weekly Tennessee Titans 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).

Merchandise

Cover to the DVD release.

A printed adaptation is available from Disney Press, and plush toys, pins and ornaments are available at Disney Stores during the Christmas season. A DVD of the special, which also included the two spin-off shorts listed below, was released on November 22, 2011. Also in 2011, Hallmark had a line of Prep and Landing related toys and ornaments.

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. Betty White joined the voice cast playing Mrs. Claus.
• In 2011, ABC debuted a sequel, Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice. In the new special, we reveal that an undercover member of the Coal Elves is Wayne's brother, Noel.
• In an 2011 intreview with Disney's insider website, Dieters and Wermers-Skeleton stated that a third special is in the works.

External links

• Official website
• Prep & Landing Wiki: Prep & Landing
• Prep & Landing at the Internet Movie DataBase