How many of you caught the premiere of “Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice” last night on ABC? Wasn’t that a great follow-up to Walt Disney Animation Studios‘ 2009 Emmy Award-winning holiday special?
This “Prep & Landing” sequel had a lot of fun moments (I particularly enjoyed that series of insults which Noel & Thrasher exchanged. Santa’s foremost expert on naughty kids got things started by calling the commander of the Reindeer Stealth Squadron “Bambi” and then by saying ” … I told you if I ever saw you again, I’d put your head on my wall.” And Thrasher returned Noel’s insult by calling this Coal Elf a ” … hairy tub of cookie dough”).
But for those of us who love Christmas movies and holiday specials, perhaps the greatest throwaway gag of the night came about 13 minutes into “Prep & Landing: Naughty Vs. Nice.” Which was when Grace’s brief flashback sequence began. And as this city girl describes how her visit to see a department store Santa got derailed when her baby brother Gabriel begins crying …
Well, who do we see standing there waiting to talk with Santa after Grace’s mother hurries her away?
Why, it’s the CG version of these two. Peter Billingsley from “A Christmas Story” and that weird kid with the aviator cap & goggles which Ralphie encounters when he’s standing in line at Higbee’s Department Store. Where Ralphie hopes to be able to tell Santa that he wants for Christmas. Which is (say it with me now) an official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle with a sundial and a compass in the stock.
There are all sorts of clever little touches like this folded into this new Walt Disney Animation Studios production. And if you’d like to learn more about Disney’s “Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice” … Well, I did an interview with Kevin Deters & Stevie Wermers-Skelton, the writers / directors of this new holiday special back in June. Which I just turned into a feature story for the Huffington Post that you access by clicking on this link.
Your thoughts?
