Lutins d'élite: Opération Secret du Père Noël

Absolutely loved 'Prep & Landing', one of the revelations of my "watching as many Christmas films and shorts not yet seen before as possible" quest. So, also part of my quest, part of me was expecting a fair bit.

Viewing 'Prep & Landing Stocking Stuffer: Operation: Secret Santa', it is a let down after 'Prep & Landing' and doesn't quite have its magic. Having said that, 'Prep & Landing Stocking Stuffer: Operation: Secret Santa' is still very much worthwhile and won't convert you to a Scrooge or anything like that after watching. It's solid and does its job very well, without being truly special.

'Prep & Landing Stocking Stuffer: Operation: Secret Santa's' weakest asset is the story, it's somewhat flimsy for the length and sometimes the momentum suffers and lags a little.

It doesn't quite have 'Prep & Landing's' visual imagination and some may be disappointed in that it is fairly light in the humour department, what there is raises some amused smiles but there's not much hilarious here.

That is not to say however that the animation isn't great. It is. It is bright and colourful, and characters don't look blocky and move smoothly while the attention to detail in the backgrounds is solid. The music captures the nostalgia, warmth, excitement and emotion of Christmas to perfection.

Writing is not exceptional, but warms the heart, charms the ears and touches the soul while not being cheesy, preachy or over-sentimental. The story is flawed in execution but has charm and emotion at least and maintains attention enough to not want to turn it off.

The likeable characters still remains while the voice acting is solid.

Overall, worthwhile if not completely magical. 7/10 Bethany Cox