Positive and Negative: Elmo In Grouchland

[Censored]

Elmo in Grouchland:

PROS: - It was great to see the muppets and cast in another adventure.
-Seeing inside Oscar's can was interesting.
-Big Bird's feet sticking out of the garbage can was funny.
-It honors human cast members who are now being disrespected.
-It may be the last time a Sesame Street movie can be made that
has at least some feel of the classic show.

CONS:
-Elmo is the main character instead of Big Bird.
-Does not have the charm, timing, or style of Follow That Bird.
-Ernie and Bert are just masters of ceremony, not actually part of the plot.
-Luis' part is too small.
-Even though it was interesting to see inside Oscar's trash can, it kind of ruined the mystery of it.
-The plot dragged in parts.
-The raspberry gags were kind of crude.

 

[Drtooth]

...so a movie about Elmo's awful because it's about Elmo?

sounds legit.

 

[Censored]

...so a movie about Elmo's awful because it's about Elmo?

sounds legit.

Always.

 

[Drtooth]

You...you realize the movie is essentially a toy commercial, right? Elmo's success sold the idea of a movie, not the other way around. I highly doubt a movie all about Big Bird would have come hot of the heels of the Tickle me Elmo craze. I highly doubt there would have even been a second Sesame Street movie if not for Elmo. Not saying it's a great film, nor am I saying it was successful (preschool movies never were and never are). Just saying it was marketing, and probably part of the Sony/Henson deal that also produced Muppets from Space.


That said, Follow that Bird has the tone of a kid's movie, while Elmo in Grouchland has the tone of a little kid's movie. EIG just plays to a younger crowd, one that should wait until home video anyway.

 

[Censored]

An ok movie, but it could have been so much better.

 

[Drtooth]

I get the feeling it could have been better had it not been rushed into production. I get the feeling that once the Tickle me Elmo craze set in and Elmo's World started appearing on the show, Sony and Sesame Workshop said "let's make a movie toy commercial," and rushed one out as soon as they could. That's why the movie feels like it either does too much in some spots, and not enough in others. Like if they gave it a year more of breathing room, we could have had something well paced and well balanced. Between that and the behind the scenes foul ups of MFS, Sony and Henson had a strange relationship that lead 2 two flop movies that could have been better. MFS, unless you don't already know, was victim of a bad director making everything bland, who wasn't even a Muppet fan to begin with, and used it as a springboard for a career of making mediocre kid's films. Such hits include the second Garfield movie, that stupid thing about the Easter Bunny, and his Magnum Opus, The first Chipmunks film.

That said, i doubt we would have even gotten a second Sesame Street movie had it not been for making it an Elmo toy commercial. FTB is an all time classic, but it wasn't successful until it hit home video.

 

[D'Snowth]

Oddly enough, just a year later, we did get another Elmo movie, albeit a DTV one: CinderElmo.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Oddly enough, just a year later, we did get another Elmo movie, albeit a DTV one: CinderElmo.

Not even a year later, it was just two months later! Not only that but, we also got Elmopalooza the year before. So in other words, this would've been a very odd transition time for Big Bird fans.

 

[Drtooth]

Oddly enough, just a year later, we did get another Elmo movie, albeit a DTV one: CinderElmo.

And CinderElmo was a much better project anyway. Elmopalooza was more about it being their anniversary project (remember when they had those?) and focused more on "look how many celebrities we can shove in," which I'd say should have been a sign of things to come in retrospect. But there's one undeniable fact why Elmo in Grouchland didn't work.

And this isn't because "waaa! My Childhood!" or "I hate Elmo and we should have had a Grover movie" or anything like that. The biggest sin of this movie is that it it shouldn't have released theatrically, since it's not of theatrical quality. If this wasn't done on a low as heck budget, I'd be shocked. Just the overall look was only slightly an upgrade from a TV studio set. I watched it on DVD, never bothered to see it in theaters, and I can't really say that it plays better on a smaller screen than a bigger one on that account. However, I'd just take that assumption that it does. Minus the pan and scan being of Ghostbusters Elevator Scene quality. That should have been framed better. Had EIG been just a slightly larger than normal budget DTV, it would have had a nice look to it. But everything looks so artificial and cheap that it doesn't look like a movie at all.

I mean, FTB wasn't exactly Indiana Jones, but the film all over wasn't just Sesame Street on the big screen. They took advantage of low cost movie production, sure, but made the whole thing look and feel like a proper movie. It was framed as one, it was shot as one, it certainly was written as one. EIG is just putting a DTV quality film on the big screen and releasing it theatrically. It was clearly rushed out to cash in off of Elmo's rising stardom, and had it had some more money and time and effort all around the production, it would have been a better feeling film.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

I wonder how Joey Mazzarino feels having been a writer on both of the 1999 Muppet movie flops

And this isn't because "waaa! My Childhood!" or "I hate Elmo and we should have had a Grover movie" or anything like that.

BTW they should do that next, either a Grover or Cookie Monster movie.