That was an excellent one.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

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

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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.

After recording this on DVR last year, I finally got to watch Prep & Landing today this Christmas Day. After a little more than 200 years of helping Santa make smooth landings on houses' roofs, one of the elves gets a little sour, attitude-wise, when he doesn't get a promotion and almost alienates his new partner. Then, a creature gets discovered stirring and there's a blizzard and...oh, just watch the animated special if you want to know what happens and just enjoy the hip holiday references that get sprinkled throughout that help make "Prep & Landing" such an enjoyable treat to watch thanks to all responsible for this Disney production.

I love watching Christmas cartoons, but no one has given us anything new in years. This is a gem. It is brilliant, charming, comedic, and heartwarming. Not to mention a terrific cast for the voices. For those who complain about the military aspect, you are reading too much into this, the cartoon is simply showing that it takes a lot to put the Christmas experience together, it's a big operation which needs some kind of structure to pull this miracle off all in one night. I truly loved every little bit of this story, the comedy was smart and works for adults as well as children. Best part I have to say is the very end with Lanny and his fruit cake, his reaction(expression) - PRICELESS!!! This should become the new standard of classics. Hope we'll see this one every year and more of these characters in the future.

I went into this thinking I would end up watching another boring animated Christmas special but I was surprised. I actually enjoyed it and while I can see why one reviewer thought it was militarized, it's still better than a lot of the animated specials I've seen in the past few years. Yes, we should leave the military out of it and stop prepping the kids for war! There were no angry wolves trying to eat the characters and the humour was not aimed at the adults as is so often the case in animated features these days. I guess having John Lasseter as executive producer helps. I grew up on Frosty, Rudolph, The Grinch and now that I think of it, they also had some darker elements to them but they are and continue to be classics. I don't know if this one will be a classic but the animation is top notch and kids are not fooled by cheap imitations these days.