Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice

Airing back in 2011 yet again on ABC, this would be a sequel to one of my new favourite Christmas specials, well, Prep and Landing. Heck, I love this franchise so much that I even got up to watch this & the first one at 6 in the morning to watch this last Christmas Day on E4 cos there weren't any other showings of it in the day! So will Wayne & Lanny's antics manage to be fun a second time round, or is it as depressing as receiving a lump of coal from a Coal Elf? Let's take a look!

Story: When it comes to the plot, clearly the writers focused on one word: Bigger. Bigger conflict, bigger action, bigger sets, bigger character development. Everything to a T! The main plot involves Lanny & Wayne trying to get a fruitcake from a child who wants to hack the North Pole's database to get themselves off the Naughty List. This time round though, they have a bit more help with Wayne's younger & more popular brother Noel as he's a coal elf only for it to be revealed the hacker is a little girl. However, she ends up accidentally putting every child in the world on the Naughty List in the process which she has to help fix with Wayne, Lanny & Noel despite Wayne's jealousy of the latter. One part I like in particular is we get to see much more of the North Pole & even more types of elves (which in this case is elves who deliver coal to children) which were briefly mentioned in the last special along with how the Naughty & Nice List now works thanks to modern technology. The comedy is also greatly executed & it thankfully doesn't resort to low brow humour like other animated projects out there aimed at kids. And of course, the best part of this is the heart of the special, this time thanks to the relationship between Wayne & his brother as Wayne (along with the rather nice touch the elves write encouraging notes to help them be good instead of belittling them) The only problem I really have is the structure of it is a bit too similar to the first one, with the new character for Wayne to interact with, a kid finding out about the elves & somehow causing trouble at the North Pole which may ruin Christmas & then Wayne has to try & fix it. It's not bad at all & it's not a carbon copy of the last special, but it just doesn't really help when it's easy to predict what's going to happen! Despite that little issue, the story still reminded me why I love the Prep & Landing series thanks to the heart, comedy & expanding the concept of their world!

Animation: Considering the stakes are higher compared to the first special, this is also shown in the animation in this sequel. The characters designs are pretty much the same as they go for the caricatured looks on the elves while making the humans a bit more realistic with that Disney flair. Surprisingly, they both blend very well together & feel like they're part of the same world despite my mixed feelings on the elves' designs still being intact. The textures have also improved as there are more elements & materials touched upon like the coal, snow & especially with the use of lighting. One massive upgrade in the animation is easily the backgrounds as we get to see more areas where the characters go, especially during the mast scene given the giant scale compared to the elves. The animation is definitely an improvement over the last one both technically and in design, but it still manages to keep the same charm from the first special.

Characters: Remember when I said the characters next to the story were my favourite part of the first special? Well, this reminded me of why I love them! With Wayne (voiced again by Dave Foley) It is nice to learn more about both his past & brother as he's always been jealous of him in a Cain & Abel type of way, only for it to turn out Noel has always loved & looked up to him. He's less cynical this time round, but his straight man & snarky personality remains intact, which still make his interactions with Lanny funny. Speaking of, Lanny (sorry for my mistake the first time when I kept calling him Larry) is still the same optimistic yet kind hearted fanboy, except his role isn't as big since the focus is more of Wayne & Noel & his antics aren't as annoying. Speaking of Noel (voiced by Rob Riggle), he's the complete opposite of his older brother being more brawny & is more popular & considered more superior, but it turns out he always looked up to Wayne & it does bring out a more heartwarming side to him & he's never really seen as the bad guy despite Wayne's perspective of him. Grace Goodwin is the new kid character who replaces Timmy (who has a small cameo in this). However, unlike Timmy, I felt that she definitely has more of a personality & while her reasoning for wanting to be on the Nice List is pretty, well, immature (AKA sibling jealousy), the fact she's a kid & doesn't really know any better kinda justifies that & it does nicely parallel Wayne & Noel's one sided sibling rivalry. Magee (voiced again by Sarah Chalke) is the same driven & fiesty coordinator in the NPCECC, but she doesn't appear as much although her scenes are very enjoyable to watch. Thistleton is assists Magee during the mission, although the random romance/kiss between him & Magee confused me as it came out of pretty much nowhere. As for the other characters like Thrasher, Santa, Carol (Grace Potter) & Crumbles, they're their funny selves and were such a delight to watch during their small parts. This special reminded me why I loved these characters, and I humbly welcome the new ones to their creative universe.

Prep & Landing: Naughty vs Nice succeeds as both a sequel and its own special. With yet another heartwarming yet amusing story, improved animation, the same loveable characters along with equally as likeable new ones & a pretty sweet message. Fans of the Prep & Landing films will definitely enjoy this despite it's very similar story structure to the first one & . Do I think it's better than the first? Well... I find they're equally as good, but I personally lean towards the first one because of it's simplicity in the plot.
Story: 😊
Animation: 😊
Characters: 😁
Overall: 😊