Prep and Landing: Naughty vs. Nice [Blu-ray + DVD]

Changes in the television and animation industries have all but eliminated the half-hour special, once a holiday staple. When Disney's CG "Prep & Landing" debuted in 2009, it scored an immediate hit and won four Emmy Awards. The program turned Santa Claus's annual trip into a combination of a NASA launch and a Mission: Impossible assignment. Fitted out with high tech gear that includes gingerbread-man scanners and candy-cane grappling hooks, teams of elves make sure not a creature is stirring when Santa arrives. With more than 200 years of experience, Wayne has grown jaded and a little cynical: he's been bucking for a promotion to supervisor of the Naughty and Nice List. Instead, he's saddled with a novice partner: Lanny is eager, but he's clearly not the brightest ornament on the tree. When Wayne gets careless and a little boy spots him, the entire elf bureaucracy panics. Of course, Wayne and Lanny save the day, ensuring everyone has a joyous Christmas. Disney brought the "Prep & Landing" characters back two years later in "Naughty vs. Nice." A child on the Naughty List has gotten ahold of an elf's fruitcake transmitter and is attempting to hack into Santa's database. Wayne and Lanny accept the mission to recapture the transmitter, joined by Wayne's roisterous younger brother Noel. Both Wayne and the would-be hacker must resolve aching sibling rivalries before Christmas can be merry. The two specials have a more lavish look than most television animation, with richly detailed settings. The filmmakers clearly have fun giving new meanings to such holiday references as "It's jingle time!" and "The Partridge is in the Pear Tree." The Totally Tinsel Collection comes loaded with extras, the most entertaining of which is the "Stocking Stuffer" mini-adventure "Secret Santa." Wayne and Lanny have joined Rudolph, Charlie Brown, and the Grinch as holiday standard-bearers. (Rated G: cartoon violence) --Charles Solomon