Sketches and Songs on Sesame Street videos

[GonzoLeaper]

I have been thinking about listing the pro's and con's of various videos, but I'm not sure if I should list them in this thread or if I should just start another thread. Any suggestions?

To some degree, we're already doing that, but another thread wouldn't be a bad idea. Go for it.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Here's a review of "Happy Healthy Monsters", a 2005 release on VHS and DVD. This review is for the DVD release, which includes extras such as "Chef Cookie Game", "Healthy Foods Coloring Sheet" and Bonus Footage: "Kids Talk About Their Favorite Foods", "Cookie Monster's 'Food Song' and "Dancing with Elmo-Animated Music Video".

The songs included are
"Happy Healthy Monsters Theme"
"Fuzzy and Blue and Healthy, Too!"
"Jump to the Rhythm"
"Jump Human Letters at the Beach"
"Jump Up Song"
"Jump with Me"
"Healthy Foods" (a new version)
"What Do You Do with a Fruit?"
"Planets, Moon and Stars"

I will have a plot synopsis up as soon as I can clean the DVD and see if I can get it to work.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Okay, here's the rest of the scoop on the "Happy Healthy Monsters" video.

As far as bonus stuff goes, there is a short game called "Chef Cookie Game" in which Cookie's voice guides you in building an omelette. Then there's "Healthy Foods" coloring sheets available on your DVD-ROM drive. And 3 Sesame Street shorts- these clips might be newly created for this video. One has Big Bird interviewing kids on what their favorite foods are. Another one has an animated music video called "Dancing with Elmo", in which an animated dog and animated Elmo dance together. And then there's Cookie Monster's "Food Song", in which he sings about food and we never see him, but instead see kids eating foods and he does end song with cookies, so that's cool.

Running time's approximately 45 minutes, but that may be including bonus stuff.

Main plot- Elmo, Zoe, and 4 kids are watching "Happy Healthy Monsters" network on TV in someone's living room. Googel, Nerf and some Monster Clubhouse monsters (minus Herry) introduce the channel. Then Grover is on hand to host "Fuzzy and Blue and Healthy Too" show with Bobby and Sissy as his fitness assistants. (A remake of the "Fuzzy and Blue" song is used as the show's theme song) (Also, Fred Willard does voice of announcer all throughout video, though he's never seen)
The show kicks off with jumping and everyone jumps. Grover makes mistakes on stuff all throughout the video and Bobby and Sissy and the kids in the living room with Elmo and Zoe have to correct him.
Insert first song- "Jump to the Rhythm" - with Grover, Bobby, Sissy and Zoe, Elmo and kids.
Grover passes out during song and tells other 2 to take over. Grover says to take 5 after the song. "TV show" goes to "commercial"-
insert 2nd. song "Jump Human letters at the Beach" - the name says it all!
Back to show- Andy Richter shows kids how to check their heartrate and pulse. Then he jumps really fast and shows how heartbeat increases and then he collapses on Bobby and Sissy.
-sponsor message from Jumping Council-insert song "Jump Up Song" (live action singers outside in city area)
Back to Grover- he shares dream of jumping over the moon ala cow in "Hey Diddle Diddle". Grover leads kids in jumping high for the moon.
Grover tries to think of a small animal that jumps and tries to jump like him before working up to cow. He thinks of a frog (though he calls it a hopalong- kids correct him) and we see animated video of frog jumping as Grover looks on. (It would have been supercool to use Kermit for this bit,- especially using his "Doo Op Hop" song, but oh well. ) Then he thinks of kangaroo (calls it a poucheroo) and we have a video of animated kangaroo jumping.
Then we have a cow video, but the animated cow doesn't jump. Then a black and white cow from nursery rhyme shows up and shows Grover how to jump over the moon. Goes through roof and Grover jumps to commercial while waiting on cow to land. Just before he gets to commercial break, cow lands on him and then we have a "commercial" with India Arie.
Insert song with her and muppet rabbit, frog (again- not Kermit!), monkey and elephant. song "Jump With Me"
Another quick clip of Monster Clubhouse monsters (still minus Herry) and we're back to Grover. He goes to Fuzzy and Blue and Healthy Too cook for a healthy snack and is surprised to see Cookie Monster has the job. Cookie says, "Why not? Me fuzzy and blue." Grover points out Cookie's less than stellar record when it comes to healthy eating and Grover briefly has a flashback scene of Cookie Monster doing his trademark cookie scarfing down, using some classic Cookie Monster clips. Cookie Monster shows Grover a song to convince him that he eats more than cookies.
Insert song- Cookie Monster with Wyclef Jean sing "Healthy Foods"- same lyrics as original, but totally different video with a rap/reggae kinda beat going on. I think I prefer the original, but this is okay.
Then, back to show with Cookie Monster showing us his healthy snack of milk, and he and Grover interview the glass of milk. (Cookie points out that milke goes well with cookies and starts drooling over milk.) He keeps going crazy while Grover talks and finally yells, "COWabunga" and goes after milk. Cow falls on Grover again. Cookie yells out "Resistance is futile" to milk as he runs by the camera chasing the milk. Kids are seen drinking milk.
Jump to quick William Wegman clip (dogs with human hands) of drinking milk. (At one point, dog bends down and you can clearly see human performer.)
Then jump back to Andy as he's drinking milk while Bobby and Sissy are naming other healthy foods and they all magically appear in Andy's hands and weigh him down. He trips on food as he drops it all.
Then back to Cookie Monster as he suggests fruit for a healthy snack. Then he does his trademark food scarfing routine with fruit, which just looks wrong somehow.
And then we come to one of my favorite parts of the video and well worth it just for this song-
insert Joe Raposo classic here- "What Do You Do With Fruit?"- (song video is shown in frame with orange (the fruit, not color) borders.)
Then Grover and Bobby and Sissy are back and Grover suggest (quite by accident) jogging in place as another exercise to do. After that, they try do swimming strokes in midair. Grover leads them in backstroke, sidestrokes and then tries a dive and falls on his head and hurts himself. Sissy suggests dancing and everyone dances. Grover gets a conga track going so that they can dance and jump at the same time. Cow comes back to join dancing and steps on Grover's foot. He grabs his foot and starts hopping on one foot and his assistants follow suit. Then he falls over and they do too.
- "commercial"- Andy and Bobby and Sissy suggest sports for exercise. Andy plays tag with them.
-Animated couch potato skit (with real animated potatoes!)
-Sporting clips are shown (including in the mix- Big Bird playing basketball in the courtyard area with Sheryl Swoopes (I think that's who it was), Tony Hawk skating and doing a transfer from one ramp to another, and the original kid in the wheelchair from the "Me and My Chair" song.)
Grover and kids then sit Indian style and be still and quiet and close eyes and imagine jumping into space.
- insert song "Planets, Moon and Stars"- sung by Grover, Elmo, Zoey and kids as they are seen floating in outer space. Grover finally jumps over moon at the end of the song.
Then Grover says he's proud of himself for finally jumping the moon and proud of all of us for finishing the video. He says he feels so refreshed he could start all over again, but the music tells him that they're out of time. Cow then lands next to him and Grover gloats, telling her she missed him. Cow explains she was giving jumping lessons and walks off as Grover ponders this, when Bobby and then Sissy both land on him. Grover weakly makes it off stage, complaining that he's not paid enough for this stuff. (cows and people falling on him, that is). "Show" ends and then Elmo leads Zoe and the kids in a charge to go outside and exercise.
Credits are shown within the same orange background logo and that's it.

This video was actually a lot better than I expected, with some good humor with Grover and Cookie Monster, as well as Grover and the cow and his assistants. Cool seeing "Healthy Foods" in some form again, though I definitely prefer the original. Joe Raposo's "What Do You Do With Fruit?" song has to be the standout. Just a week or so ago, I could only remember the "But don't eat a lemon, it might make you sick" line and now I remember the whole thing, with so many memories flooding back. All in all, a pretty good video worth checking out.


(By the way, I finished watching "I'm Glad I'm Me" and "Big Bird Sings" again the other day, so I'll have those reviews coming soon.)

 

[minor muppetz]

As far as bonus stuff goes, there is a short game called "Chef Cookie Game" in which Cookie's voice guides you in building an omelette. Then there's "Healthy Foods" coloring sheets available on your DVD-ROM drive. And 3 Sesame Street shorts- these clips might be newly created for this video. One has Big Bird interviewing kids on what their favorite foods are. Another one has an animated music video called "Dancing with Elmo", in which an animated dog and animated Elmo dance together. And then there's Cookie Monster's "Food Song", in which he sings about food and we never see him, but instead see kids eating foods and he does end song with cookies, so that's cool.

I hav a feeling that the three bonus segments were not made especially for the DVD. It would be a little weird for all-new skits to be produced just as bonus segments, though I don't ever recall seeing those segments. When I first heard about the DVD having a Dancing With Elmo segment, I thought it was probably the skit shown after the credits of Get Up And Dance where Elmo dances in full-body form against a black background, but reading your review I can see that I'm wrong (I also don't really consider dancing to be healt related). I thought the packaging said it had three bonus monster segments, but one of them just has Big Bird talking to kids about healthy eating, and another one just has Cookie Monsters voice. Perhaps they should have been promoted as "three bonus healthy skits".

Here are some segments involving monsters and health that I think would have been better as bonus segments (or even in the actual video):
Sesame Street News: Cookie Monster as Little Red Riding Hood
Ernie meets Cookie Monsters cousin (it involves healthy eating)
Kermit x-rays Herry
Monsterpiece Theatre: Chariots of Fur (it involves running)
Near and Far (also involves running)
Cookie Monster tells Ernie that he's on a diet


I would also like to point out that Herry Monster is not a part of Monster Clubhouse, though he was the main character from a similar series of recurring sketches called Monsters in Day Care.

 

[minor muppetz]

Title: Get Up And dance

release year: 1996

Plot: Big Bird and the kids go to the dance studio because it's somebodys birthday, and that person wants a dance lesson. Celina asks whose birthday it is, and it's Big Birds teddy bear, radars, birthday. Celina teaches the kids some dance moves and they also watch some dancing on television. Celina keeps getting tired of teaching them to dance. Big Bird tells her that she can rest while they pretend to have cake, but since they aren't actually eating cake, she doesn't get to rest for long. Carlo and barkly teach them a dance, Do The Dog, from outisde on the street (they look out the window), and Oscar even shows a dance, Do The Grouch. Finally, Radar makes a birthday wsh, and Big Bird says radars wish is to dance again.

Segments:
I'm a Little Airplane (live action song, intercut with footage of the kids dancing)
The Birdland Jump (with Joe Williams at Birdland, edited to only include the first verse)
A New Way To Walk (with the oinker sisters and many celebrities, 1993 version)
The cat Had a Birthday (with Kingston Livingston III)
Elmo dances (seen after the ending credits, not sure if this was used on the show or made for the video)

 

[MuppetDude]

The "Elmo dance video" is "Elmo's Rap Alphabet" (also available on All-Star Alphabet).

 

[GonzoLeaper]

"Big Bird Sings" review
year- 1995
(video starts with Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie and Sesame Songs Home Video logo)
there's also a Big Bird video clip montage logo for the "Big Bird Sings!" title.

Plot- Snuffy says "hi" to playing kids as he comes to see Big Bird to check out his scrapbook at his nest. (Snuffy has a little trouble getting through the door! ) While looking through the photos, Big Bird stops on different ones and we see a video clip of his memory of that event- all of which are him singing songs, of course!

First song up- "I Just Adore Four" (Big Bird singing about the number 4, with an actual 4 next to him on a box in the courtyard area, with 3 male backup singers joining him- 1 of which is a slightly remade Guy Smiley AM. Other 2 look like the singers from Kermit's "This Frog".)

Next song- "Ichi Ni Son" (this is a pretty cool addition as it's a song from the "Big Bird Goes to Japan" special- Big Bird has his nice tie on and sings with 2 Japanese girls. Ichi Ni Son means 1,2,3 in Japanese by the way.)

Next song- "What's Your Name?" (this one's sort of a sketch and a song. Big Bird feels shy visiting at a school, so he pretends a trash can is a kid and practices singing an introductory song with it. Then he tries out his song on some kids there and meets lots of them. Girl invites Big Bird to play jacks with them and he happily agrees!)

As Big Bird flips through the pages of his scrapbook, he says, "There's me in Puerto Rico. And there's me in China." (Though we don't actually see the photos and no video clips are shown, it's cool that Big Bird at least references 2 other Sesame Street specials- "Sesame Street in Puerto Rico" and "Big Bird in China".)

Then Big Bird shows a picture of him at a park and Snuffy says he'd bet his last cabbage he's not there to go on the slide. Big Bird syas he's there to sing.
Next song- "Who?" (Big Bird sings a song that is a guessing game. Zoe, Elmo and kids try to guess who the song is talking about.Big Bird sings 3 verses about himself (not letting kids guess until the end) and then kids guess that's it's Big Bird.)
Big Bird shows Snuffy a picture of him, Savion and Gina and then a picture of him and the Squirelles.
Next song- "Rhyme Out" (Big Bird with Savion and Gina playing "Rhyme Out" where they all sing and try to rhyme each other's words and if you can't come up with a rhyme, you're out!)

Next song- "Big Bird Doesn't Fly" (The Squirelles and Big Bird sing this song in a park) - (song refers to The Fix-It Shop and mentions that Big Bird loves to roller skate. At end of song, Big Bird says he hasn't learned how to fly yet. He tells the Squirelles that he's heard that some squirrels can fly and they all try, but fall down. Then Big Bird says, "Maybe it's another kind of squirrel."
Then Big Bird shows Snuffy a picture of him and the Crow (spelling?) Indians and a picture of him and a horse.

Next Song- "What a Gift" (Big and live animals and some kids in woods are shown as Big Bird sings song.- Note: On the back of the video, the song order is listed incorrectly for this song.)

Then Big Bird shows Snuffy a picture of him on roller skates and then one of him with his classic alphabet banner.

Next Song- "ABC-DEF-GHI" (just Big Bird and his banner)

Next Song- "Wheels on My Feet" (just Big Bird roller skating and singing- though Maria, Luis and Bob and maybe others are singing backup but not seen)

Then Big Bird shows Snuffy a map they once used to get to Hooper's Store.

Next Song- "Map Song" (Big Bird and Snuffy are seen walking on a giant map seeing places pop out and they see some places not normally seen on show- ex. school and bicycle shop)

They finish looking at scrapbook and naturally, decide to sing a song.

Last song- "Sing" (with onscreen lyrics. Big Bird and Snuffy sing while pictures already seen in video are scrolled through again and then back to nest.)
Video ends with Big Bird and Snuffy hugging (awww! ) and the picture freezes on it.
Credits roll with strains of "Sing" playing.

And there you have it!
All in all, a pretty good Sesame Street showcasing a lot of Big Bird's famous songs.

 

[minor muppetz]

Next song- "Ichi Ni Son" (this is a pretty cool addition as it's a song from the "Big Bird Goes to Japan" special- Big Bird has his nice tie on and sings with 2 Japanese girls. Ichi Ni Son means 1,2,3 in Japanese by the way.)

Next song- "What's Your Name?" (this one's sort of a sketch and a song. Big Bird feels shy visiting at a school, so he pretends a trash can is a kid and practices singing an introductory song with it. Then he tries out his song on some kids there and meets lots of them. Girl invites Big Bird to play jacks with them and he happily agrees!)

I didn't realize that this video incldued a clip from Big Bird In japan. Course, I haven't seen that special. Too bad I forget what happens in this clip.

I wonder if What's Your Name? was originally part of a street plot.

The song "Who?" is actually called Big Bird's Song, or at least that's what it was called on the video box. It is quite different from the song he wrote in Elmo's Song.

 

[minor muppetz]

yet another review

Title: Bedtime Stories And Songs (later retited Sleepytime Songs And Stories)

release year: 1986.

Plot: Big Bird get's ready for bed. he tries to get to bed in a variety of ways, expecting the audience to sleep the way he does, but then realizes that some of his audience members are not birds. A Honker parent (I think it's a mother, but it could be a father) comes to Big Birds nest because it's Baby Honker can't sleep. Big Bird suggests counting sheep. Big Bird falls asleep again, when Telly comes over. telly was supposed to spend the night with Big Bird, and wakes Big Bird up. He then says that he can't sleep without his favorite stuffed animal, and that stuffed animal can't sleep without a certain stuffed animal, and so on untill Telly get's to the last stuffed animal, who can't sleep wihtout Telly. Buster and Susan observe Big Bird and Telly sleeping, and Buster wonders how they can sleep laying down.

Segments:
Dance Myself To Sleep (with Ernie and Bert)
The count coutns sleep (heavily edited to remove all scenes with Ernie and Bert)
Grover get's under his blanket and pretends that he's on the moon (replaced by The Moon Shines in Sleepytime Songs And Stories)
If Moon Was Cookie (with Cookie Monster)
The Story of The King and His Problem (read by Maria and featuring the anything muppets) (replaced with How The Sun And The Moon came To Live In The Sky in Sleepytime Songs And Stories)
The Snuffle Lullaby (with Mr. Snuffleupagus and Gordon, I think this might have been part of a street plot)
Everybody Sleeps (replaced with a slightly different version in Sleepytime Songs And Stories)
Imagine That (with Ernie and Bert, original version)

Nitpicks:
*despite the title, there is really only one bedtime story in this video: The King And His Problem. There are a lot of other stories that could have been included, such as The Monsters Three Wishes and The Cursed Prince.
*There are a lot of Ernie and bert skits that takes place in their bedroom at night, so it's too bad that more weren't included. This video could have included the skit where Ernie observes a blackout, the skit where Ernie imagines loud sounds, or the skit where Ernie eats cookies in bed.

 

[minor muppetz]

I'm going to do a different kidn of review now. I am going to review Five Sesame Street Stories, which was one of two videos released by Golden Books Home Video in 1985, a year before Random House Home Video started releasing Sesame Street videos.

Now, this video doesn't include any segments from the show. It is basically an adaption of various Sesame Street books released by Golden Books, but instead of using live action, these include stills from the books, plus limited animation from various images from the books (usually, it's a character moving, but in the exact same pose). The voices are supplied by some of the performers, including caroll Spinney, Frank Oz, and Fran Brill. There are many other voices that I don't recognize. I'm not sure if they are performers that I'm not familiar with the voices of, or if they are done by Caroll Spinney (he doesn't perform many characters, so I guess he could do some voices that even the most hardcore fans wouldn't recognize), or if they are done by people not invovled with Sesame Street. Noticably absent from the voice cast are Jim Henson and Jerry Nelson, and in some cases it's obvious that they aren't performing voices. No voice actors are credited.

This one has five stories. The first four have to do with Super Grover. In fact, the internet movie database has this listed as The Adventures of Super Grover (including all four stories) and mistakenly lists this as a television special, even though it was made for video (I don't think this is the kind of production that would be produced for television, and it's hardly something that would be worth watching on TV). The last story is Big Bird Brings Spring To Sesame Street. Oddly enough, this story is also listed in The Internet Movie Database as a TV special. Although the cover has Super grover on it, and Super grover dominates most of the video, the ending credits are all stills from Big Bird Brings Spring To Sesame Street, and a new song about spring is played during the credits.

Here are the stories:

The Origins of Super Grover: an anything muppetfather who looks like fat blue but talks with a somewhat dopey voice reads the story of Super Grovers origins to his kids. It is revealed that for halloween one year, Grovers mom made him a super hero outfit for halloween, but the costume gave him super powers, such as x-ray vision (which causes him to accidently see bert getting out of the shower), super breath (which he uses to blow up many balloons, filling up an entire room), super hearing, and super smell. What's interesting about this story is that Mr. Hooper and Rosevelt Franklin both appear in this story.

Super Grover and The Speeding Sled: A little girl goes sledding down a very steep hill one day, and Super Grover sees her sledding, and he sees that there are a lot of trees at the bottom of the hill, which she could run into and get hurt, so Grover tries various plans to stop her from sledding into the trees, but each plan backfires. Eventually, the girl sees the trees and decides to stop on her own.

Super Grover and The Three Bears: Grover goes to see the school play, Goldilocks And The Three Bears, starring Prarie Dawn as Goldilocks, and Ernie, Bert, and Herry as the three bears (I can tell that Bert is supposed to be the father, but which one is supposed to be the mother?). There are two things that Grover doesn't realize about plays: that they are just pretend, and that audience members are supposed to be quiet during the performance. When grover sees the ebars, he thinks they are real bears, changes into his super grover costume, and sends the bears to the zoo. In this story it is a little obvious that Jim Henson and Jerry nelson aren't providing voices because Ernie and Herry don't talk, but it's not too obvious.

Super Grover and The Hole Story or Gone Fishing: Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, Betty Lou, Herry Monster, Cookie Monster, and Grover go fishing on a boat. Eventually, Grover notices that there is a hole in the boat, which only he notices (everybody else is too busy fishing to be paying attention to Grover warnign them abotu the hole, and they are also too busy to see the leak). grover brought his Super hero outfit, but there isn't a telephone booth for him to change in, so he puts one of his toes in the hole, stopping the leak. But then there is another hole, which Grover covers with his other foot, and then one more hole, which Grover puts his finger in. With only one free hand to fish with, Grover catches a fish, which pulls Grover into the water, where he finds a telephone booth in the water and changes into super grover, saving the day.

After this, and also after the first story, Grover gives a special message: "Remember this, kids. Do not try any of my dnafgerous stunts at home, especially flying. You can not do it. because There is only one Super grover. And that is me".

Big Bird Brings Spring To Sesame Street: Big Bird is tired of the winter, and wants it to be spring soon. He decides to buy some flowers from Mr. Macintosh to help remind him of spring. When he visits The Count, the count coutns the pettles (actually, the bats count fr him), and Big Bird gives The Count a flower. Grover is sad because he can't ride his bicycle, so Big Bird cheers him up by giving him a flower. Some woman who looks like Maria but with a different name (I forget her name) misses the tiget lillies so Big Bird gives her a tiger lilly. Big Bird approaches Ernie, who is going to visit Betty Lou, who is sick, so Big Bird gives him a flower to give her. At Hooper's Store, Bert is sad because he lost his favorite paper clip in the snow, and Big Bird gives him a flower to cheer him up. This leaves Big Bird with one flower left, which is dying, so he gives it to oscar. Big Bird thinks that he has nothing to remind him of spring, untill he sees everyone in the neighborhood with a flower. This story makes it the most obvious that Henson and Nelson aren't there. Besides having the bats count for The Count, the narrarator tells the audience what Ernie says.

I'll review the other video, Three Sesame Street Stories, soon.