A Preview of Prep & Landing

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A three-minute preview of Prep & Landing was released online today. It’s a TV special from Disney Feature Animation directed by Kevin Deters and Stevie Wermers-Skelton. It premieres on ABC next month.

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  • Twitch Jenkins

    Uh oh… first signs of Lasseter losing it…
    Still, can’t help but be curious.

  • ask

    They say how there “hasn’t been a new Christmas special in a while”,….. but the themes of Christmas make any kind of new animated project very limited- elf underdogs and stealth forces have been done already on the three Santa Clause movies, and who knows where else. It also seems very un-Lasseter. But it looks wonderful!

  • http://www.animationfestival.ca J. Zaroski

    Whoa. Since when has YouTube started flagging content as restricted based on country?

  • http://thedreamerskingdom.org TK

    Canadians shunned again! Don’t they know we also have ABC up here?

  • Pedro Nakama

    Disney management looks like they’re taking a cue from DreamWorks by making a Christmas special.

  • Scott

    Disney’s made many Christmas specials before. DW is a few decades behind.

    And this is an ORIGINAL project. Have no idea if it’s good or not, but couldn’t be worse than the mva “special.”

  • shlocko

    Well, is just business, they have to cram crap on the air, that’s their
    job.

    No spiritual, knowledge, moral growth, just is the x-mas seasons, time
    to just go and spend,and spend,and spend,and spend,and spend,and spend,and spend,and spend,and spend,and spend,and spend,and spend,and spend,but…NO!!! don’t dare anything else , read, research new ideas, challenge the pipe, but…is.what it is…

    Later…

  • Thomas

    This looks pleasant and inoffensive, I’ll give it that.

  • Mike Johnson

    Bottom line: looks like fun!

    Will it be another Rudolph or Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol? Probably not, but hey…this IS Pixar we’re talking about, and with their flawless track record, who knows? No matte what, it should be quite a few notches better than what usually passes for a Christmas special these days.

  • Erin Siegel

    Hey, they messed up the dentition on those caribou!

    Might be cute, something to look forward to besides the old Rankin-Bass shows

  • ZigZag

    Twitch said: “Uh oh… first signs of Lasseter losing it…”

    On one hand, I have to say that he’s the head of the animation studio, and more or less the de facto face of Disney now, so he’s got a lot of selling to do to the general public.

    That being said, to see him schill for the Tinkerbell movie among other things is unfortunate. But hey, he’s a good company man, so I can’t blame him.

    However, to answer Twitch’s comment: After “Cars,” “Ratatouille” and “Wall•e,” all of which I felt were unsuccessful (didn’t see “Up” yet), I for one am of the opinion that Lasseter’s either spread too thin to have a solid impact on everything, or he’s been losing it for a while now.

    My greatest fear is that they lost something not just great when they Joe Ranft – but something irreplaceable.

    Here’s hopin’ for success, regardless.

  • Blasko

    Why is the North Pole becoming increasingly mechanized and militarized in these new shows? Sheesh, isn’t the legend of St. Nick supposed to evoke a “handmade” vibe? Bah humbug — I must be getting old.

  • Jonah Sidhom

    Looks great to me! I have high hopes for this one.

  • Dave

    Great Character Riggs, but the story doesn’t even seem like they tried, if Disney made a Christmas special they would not have made it simply for the sake of making a Christmas special to compete with Dreamworks Monsters vs Aliens Halloween Special.. they would have really gone all out , remember Buzz Light Year Star Co,mand Christmas Special? Now that was a bad ass special done by Pixar.

    Why do I feel Pixar is just trying to keep Disney down by making them stay all child like. What happened to the danger and mystery of Disney films, where u were interested slightly scared but thought it was cool.

  • optimist

    This is honestly charming and beautifully produced. Look out for it.

  • http://tresswygert.blogspot.com Tres Swygert

    Looks really good right now, and an interesting idea too. Hopefully it’ll be a good production to watch. I just wonder why ZigZag thought Ratatouille was unsuccessful (Wall-E had mixed reviews so I can understand – though I thought it was successful as well).

  • http://www.ambienceofmedia.com/ Dan Winclechter

    It’s weird how Lasseter is front and center on this and cited by the actors when it’s based on an idea by Chris Williams and ended up being directed by Deters and Wermer-Skelton.

    Tres Swygert – I don’t know how you can say the WALL-E reviews were mixed. They were damned near unanimously positive. Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic compiled scores of 96% and 93, respectively. It was the best reviewed wide release of ’08 if you give RT’s scores any value.

    But yeah, I feel sad for anyone not swept away by WALL-E and Ratatouille.

  • Cyber Fox

    To be fair, Lasseter wanted to do a christmas special before during his days at Pixar with the Tin Toy character after success of the short

    From the Behind the Scenes trailer for this special, I think this will the best christmas special yet. Last year, Cuppa Coffee’s “A Miser Bros. Christmas” (for the misers at ABC Family [i.e. they did a P.C. job on "Twas a Night Before Christmas in terms of editing, editing out the "Give Your Heart A Try" sequence due to the word 'gay']) which is basically a lovely piece of christmas fluff, i don’t mind seeing it again but then again, this is a special for ABC Family i’m talkin about

    O.K. going out of that little ramble (whether it is or isn’t relevant to the special in question in this article), I am looking forward to this but i suggest all should do the same but y’all should skip on Cookie Jar’s “Gotta Catch Santa Claus” when it airs on ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas as it’s your typical formulaic plot for a christmas special and the frosting on the cake in terms of bad for it is William Shatner (yes, Captain Kirk himself) as the voice of Santa Claus

  • http://none Zack Mays

    Looks good

  • http://www.base14.com Tyler

    Hi-tech elves? Didn’t “The Santa Clause” already do that?

  • http://www.frankpanucci.com FP

    Re:
    [i]–No spiritual, knowledge, moral growth–[/i]

    Thank goodness. That’s no fun.
    —————————-

    The special looks great – big budget, beautifully animated, and over and done in 22 minutes.

  • http://www.fooksie.com Fooksie

    This looks cute, and I’m sure that I will be watching it with my kids.
    That Halloween special with the Aliens vs. Monsters characters was a big yawn-fest.
    The more of these I see, the more I am in awe of the original Rankin-Bass shorts, and the Grinch.
    I would also have to add ” Olive, the Other Reindeer” as a pleasant departure from the traditional stories.

  • ask

    I;d like to point out (second post here) that it is NOT produced by Pixar… at least from what I gathered. It’s by Disney animation studio. You can see traces of the ‘Robinsons’ characters in the models, and I think it was also featured on their official website.

  • Matthew

    “Nobody has done a Christmas special in a long long time” says the director.
    Really??!?
    She has such a self important view of her product that she isn’t aware of the countless animated Christmas specials made in the past “long long time” amount of years?? Wow. There are other countries in the world that celebrate the Christmas holiday, none of their creative types have made specials? Heck, Dreamworks even has “Shrek the Halls” and their new “Merry Madagascar” coming out later in November I think.
    Talk about narrow minded.

  • Chris Sobieniak

    > Canadians shunned again! Don’t they know we also have ABC up here?

    You’d think they know. :-)

    > Blasko says:
    > Why is the North Pole becoming increasingly mechanized and militarized in these new shows? Sheesh, isn’t the legend of St. Nick supposed to evoke a “handmade” vibe? Bah humbug — I must be getting old.

    You and me both!

    > (for the misers at ABC Family [i.e. they did a P.C. job on "Twas a Night Before Christmas in terms of editing, editing out the "Give Your Heart A Try" sequence due to the word 'gay'])

    Shame. Of course it’s been a tad too long since I last heard someone use that word without really meaning THAT in the first place.

  • http://www.cyruscords.com Cyrus Cords

    I don’t know I think it is great and it gives me that “kid at christmas” feeling. It is fun projects like this that made me want to be an animator in the first place.

  • CartoonCrazy

    Eh, I can’t judge right now. I’ll wait ’till it comes on television.

    Anyways, is anyone else feeling that these designs are influenced by “Bolt”, especially that dog at 56 seconds?

  • Nancy

    This is coming from the same directors of the latest Goofy Short “How To Hook Up Your Home Theater” which was an absolute delight. I can’t wait to see this show!

  • david

    hawaiian shirt? check
    annoying bland repetitive character designs? check
    conservative family-man adult humor (“no, i have pension!”)? check

    THIS IS HIT MATERIAL!

  • http://www.tombarrettanimation.com Tom Barrett

    Anyone remember DNA’s Christmas special
    (pre-Jimmy Neutron) called “Santa vs The Snowman”?
    High tech Elves, 3d…very similar…..and done, like, a decade ago!

  • http://www.pauloralvarado.com P Alvarado

    It might be something we have seen before when it comes to the idea but its pleasing to see something well animated thats going to be on television.

  • Mesterius

    Man… had this only been hand drawn…

  • http://tonystoons.blogspot.com Tony Claar

    Astonishing to see the numerous strong opinions from people who have not seen the show yet. What’s the rush to judgement all about here, kids? Sit down, exhale, kick off your shoes, watch “Dr. Strangelove”, “Pinocchio”, “Lady and the Tramp”, “A Clockwork Orange, “Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday”, “The Seven Year Itch”, “Jules and Jim” in that order, have a German or Dutch beer or two or seven with fresh guacomole, kiss somebody for 3 hours and take a NAP!! Get a real life, little ones!

  • http://turleysketch.blogspot.com Jeffrey Turley

    I’m glad people find it important enough to comment about the show. I was a designer on the show and personally know how hard everybody in story worked on this film. It was not just a christmas special…It was a story that we all had great fun working on. I remember working long hours just so every design could live up to this fun story. Although some of you feel Disney is just trying to milk the market, the artists on the film worked with passion and tried to make it as fun as possible. I’m proud to say that this is my first show!

    Don’t be to negative about Prep and Landing, after all, it’s just a cartoon.

    Jeff

  • Cold Canuck

    “My greatest fear is that they lost something not just great when they Joe Ranft – but something irreplaceable.”

    bingo!! he really was the glue that held story together…..