Fourth Day of Holiday Movies

On the fourth day of Christmas, the holiday movie recommendation I present to you…

Is… Prep & Landing (2009) which is the newest addition to my movie list.  This Disney animated TV special is destined for classic status.  This short is about Wayne, a long-service elf with the Prep & Landing department in Santa’s North Pole operations and his new rookie partner, Lanny.  The Prep & Landing crew is responsible for ensuring that children are sleeping and homes are ready for Santa’s visit.   This year’s assignment is turning out to be a serious handful but Santa is counting on these two elves to bring Christmas to this house.

Santa goes tech in this story and I love the gadgets that the elves use to perform their tasks.  Also who doesn’t love Magee as the Command Center Coordinator and her addiction to eggnog, cocoa and coffee.  If you’ve thought that this TV special is just for kids you are sorely mistaken.  As with all Disney films, there are elements that are directed right at the adults in the audience and make the viewing a treat for all ages. 

The special was so well received that Disney released sequels in 2010 and 2011.  In 2010, they released an animated short entitled Prep & Landing: Operation: Secret Santa.  In 2011, they released another full length TV special entitled Prep & Landing: Operation: Naughty vs. Nice.  I am pleased to say that the sequels are very enjoyable and can stand on their own. 

Disney released the collection of specials and shorts on DVD and Blu-ray in 2012.  As far as movie marathons go, this is probably the shortest one I will ever recommend.  I recommend watching all of the series and it’s perfect to enjoy with the young or the young-at-heart.  I recommend watching with a mug of eggnog or hot chocolate and maybe a candy cane.   If you own the DVD, you should also watch the special features since they are quite funny.

My husband and I realized after watching this that one of our advent activities should have been to come up with our own Christmas call signs.  So in celebration of this film, we are sharing the call signs that we have come up with this year – he selected his to be “Snowball” and I selected mine to be “Cinnamon Stick”.  This was a great activity to go along with the movie.