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Daffney
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I've decided to do a thread covering this film, since well, it was another killer for theatrical muppet films in general.
Having Henson to do another Sesame Street movie was a no brainier. They still owned the SST Muppets and Sony still was having a field day with SST videos and audios. Also, Elmo was having star power. So, yeah, a motion picture opportunity was opened.
Unlike MFS, Jim Henson Pictures didn't have much pressure from Sony when making this film, excepting that it had to be ready for a autumn release in 1999. This film was cleverly shot after Season 29 of SST due to this. Also, they had Bear creator Mitchell Kriegman to write the script.
The finished film was unfortunately a mess. Unlike Follow that Bird, which was more of a family film, EIG was aimed only strictly to real little kids. That became apparent since Elmo talked at the audience for a good chunk of the film.
Maybe SST was losing ground to Blue's Clues during this time. You can tell that the film was trying to make the audience interact with the movie. But, as Roger Ebert once said, "You don't want to interact with the movie. You want the movie to interact on you."
Anyways, more flaws are clear. The story is dreadfully wacky (Elmo trying to find his blanket in a twisted world). It also got a bit stalled in the second act, so the film lost a charm that it could have.
Grouchland looked ridiculous, but they possibly wanted it to look ridiculous and succeeded all to well. I just felt there wasn't much of it. A bit of boredom struck me when Elmo was in the fields.
Heck, why Elmo had to be the one to get lost there. Shouldn't it be Oscar (since it's his place)?
Even the songs felt bland. I don't know what was the dealo with that.
There were some bright spots (Mandy Patinkin had fun with his villainous role and the Big Chicken was the highlight), but there were also horrible duds (the raspberry blowing contest and to some intent, Bug).
I'll give a good note, EIG was better than other "edutainment show" films like Barney's Great Adventure and Thomas and the Magic Railroad. But in it's own rights, the film is just flat out dull. The silly plot wasn't big enough and the targeted audience was too small to be a real family film.
EIG bombed at the box office and the ball was officially dropped. JHP had released three flops in a row. Sony now felt that Henson was unable to make profitable films. The JHP division was shaken up and was only used as a film credit.
Sony has only themselves to blame for this calamity.
Having Henson to do another Sesame Street movie was a no brainier. They still owned the SST Muppets and Sony still was having a field day with SST videos and audios. Also, Elmo was having star power. So, yeah, a motion picture opportunity was opened.
Unlike MFS, Jim Henson Pictures didn't have much pressure from Sony when making this film, excepting that it had to be ready for a autumn release in 1999. This film was cleverly shot after Season 29 of SST due to this. Also, they had Bear creator Mitchell Kriegman to write the script.
The finished film was unfortunately a mess. Unlike Follow that Bird, which was more of a family film, EIG was aimed only strictly to real little kids. That became apparent since Elmo talked at the audience for a good chunk of the film.
Maybe SST was losing ground to Blue's Clues during this time. You can tell that the film was trying to make the audience interact with the movie. But, as Roger Ebert once said, "You don't want to interact with the movie. You want the movie to interact on you."
Anyways, more flaws are clear. The story is dreadfully wacky (Elmo trying to find his blanket in a twisted world). It also got a bit stalled in the second act, so the film lost a charm that it could have.
Grouchland looked ridiculous, but they possibly wanted it to look ridiculous and succeeded all to well. I just felt there wasn't much of it. A bit of boredom struck me when Elmo was in the fields.
Heck, why Elmo had to be the one to get lost there. Shouldn't it be Oscar (since it's his place)?
Even the songs felt bland. I don't know what was the dealo with that.
There were some bright spots (Mandy Patinkin had fun with his villainous role and the Big Chicken was the highlight), but there were also horrible duds (the raspberry blowing contest and to some intent, Bug).
I'll give a good note, EIG was better than other "edutainment show" films like Barney's Great Adventure and Thomas and the Magic Railroad. But in it's own rights, the film is just flat out dull. The silly plot wasn't big enough and the targeted audience was too small to be a real family film.
EIG bombed at the box office and the ball was officially dropped. JHP had released three flops in a row. Sony now felt that Henson was unable to make profitable films. The JHP division was shaken up and was only used as a film credit.
Sony has only themselves to blame for this calamity.
Right on! And for that exact reason that you said, that it feels too much like "Elmo's World" which of course seems based on "Blue's Clues" with the whole asking for help thing. (If another show did that first, I'm not sure.)
