New Review!
This time around, I'm reviewing "Get Up and Dance", a 1997 Sesame Street video- (at least that's what it says on the box. On the video itself, it lists the copyright at 1996.) The run time is about 30 minutes.
Plot- It's Radar's (Big Bird's teddy bear) birthday! And Big Bird decides to have a dance party for him at Celina's dance studio. He invites some kids in the park to go there with him- and passes Oscar on the way, who's at a newstand. (I guess this is from the "Around the Corner" days- since they go to the dance studio which is located above Ruthie's "Finders Keepers" store. I remember seeing some of the "Around the Corner" stuff on Sesame Street- but don't remember the exact details as to why it was suddenly introduced and why it disappeared later on)
When Big Bird passes Oscar, he tells HIM to have a rotten day!
Ha ha! When Big Bird and the kids enter studio, Celina is dancing to "The Body Dance" (live action film of inner city kids with a rap beat) which is playing on her TV. Celina agrees to let them have the party there and
Radar picks the first dance.
Celina, kids and Big Bird do "A Very Simple Dance".
A very young Gabi picks the next dance.
Song- "I'm a Little Airplane" (kids start doing dance and then it cuts back and forth between live action film and kids. Film includes a quick shot of Cookie Monster in rocket from "If Moon Were Cookie" song and a shot of Super Grover flying through the air)
Celina now wants to rest for a bit- but the kids want to go on. Big Bird turns it to "The Dance Channel" on the TV- (and a logo of that in the bottom right corner reminds you of that the whole time!) where the kids watch the "Birdland Jump" song. (which includes Little Bird, Hoots, a duck and some birds from the "Follow That Bird" movie in attendance.)
(It again cuts from the kids to the video and back.)
Big Bird now tells Celina she can rest while he doles out an imaginary pizza. They finish it just as she's sat down- so of course, she has to get up and keep going. Carlo and some kids and Barkley come walking by outside and offer to do a dance for them.
They perform "Do The Dog" on the street.
Next- Celina and the kids and Big Bird decide to do the dance "Do The Jelly".
Celina then again wants to rest but Radar votes to keep going- though he does say that after 3 more dances, it'll be time for birthday cake.
Big Bird puts on "The Birthday Channel" for the next dance, and this one is called "Cat Had a Birthday". (Kingston Livingston III sings the song- along with cats Chip and Dip, cows Gladys, Cathleen and a brown cow, and ducks and a chicken) - This is again interspersed with clips of the kids.
- At the newstand, Oscar calls on the phone to tell Celina and kids to knock off the dancing and noise. They offer to do a grounch dance and Oscar concedes. They perform "Doin' The Grouch" and then get a call back from Oscar who says, "Now that was more like it."
Then it's time for the last dance- referred to by Big Bird and the kids as the "Funny Walk Dance"
This dance is probably more commonly known as "A New Way to Walk"
(In this video, we see lots of clips of the Oinker Sisters, Savion tapdancing, Benny briefly seen at The Furry Arms as a dancer goes by, Bert "doing the pigeon" from the original song, and lots of celebrities like John Goodman, a younger and slimmer Rosie O'Donnell, Maya Angelou, Cheech Marin, Marisa Tomei- and at the end- a racewalker!
)
- And then at the dance studio they have Radar's birthday cake (which is also imaginary) and Radar makes a wish for another dance party right then! By now though, Celina is fast asleep, so the kids keep on dancing anyway to a reprise of "New Way to Walk"- and then the end credits roll.
BONUS- Elmo shows you his alphabet rap and dance! (Official name is listed as "Elmo Raps Alphabet Song")
........
Concluding Thoughts- This is a fun video to get young kids up and moving and dancing along to the songs. I don't know if the Elmo bonus clip was show separately on the show or if this was made just for this video (maybe to capitalize on Elmo's then growing popularity)
I enjoyed seeing some songs I hadn't seen in a long time, but it's unfortunate that none of the older songs are shown in their entirety- as clips of the kids in the studio are interspersed in with them. But for fans of the "Around the Corner" characters- this is a pretty good video to see a lot of them!
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