Warner Home Video now distributing Sesame Workshop DVDs

[minor muppetz]

It's been announced that in August there'll be a DVD called Elmo's Alphabet Challenge. And it'll have original footage. I can't tell by the description whether it'll have any existing segments or episodes or if it'll all be new footage. I normally prefer Sesame Street video releases that contain existing segments, but after reading this description, it sounds like it'll be a great release regardless.

Judging by the description, it looks like it'll contain parodies of Pac-Man, Angry Birds, Dance Dance Revolution, and Guitar Hero. I hope they can work in parodies of Pong, any Mario game, and any Sonic game.

 

[minor muppetz]

This year has been an interesting year for Sesame Street DVDs so far. These past two years there was pretty much one new DVD a month, though the last few months of those years were without new releases. And this year it seems it was one new release every other month, though there have been a number of rereleases (mainly a store-wide release of Singing with the Stars, a three-pack or two, and an apparent rerelease of Iron Monster though I think the packaging is the only difference), but then there have been (or will be) a few releases that have a bit more than other releases these previous years. There was an Elmo's World DVD with 8 segments instead of 3, though most of them had been released on DVD (and we're left with only one unreleased Elmo's World segment), while there will be a DVD with two full episodes (not street stories packaged together, but the entire episodes, plus a bonus Elmo's World). I assume that release will be one-disc, but you never know.

This gets me hoping that the upcoming Best of Sesame Friends will be two discs lastign two hours each. Probably not, but I actually wouldn't be surprised.

 

[minor muppetz]

In October there's going to be a new "Preschool is Cool" DVD, "Making Friends". I wonder if this is the same as "The Best of Sesame Friends" DVD that was announced. No contents have been announced, but considering the title and description, hardly any of the nominated clips have anything to do with making friends (the only nominated clips that would qualify would be "Because We're Friends" and maybe "No Matter What" and "Tu Me Gustas").

Unless the nominated clips with the highest amount of votes will be included as a bonus feature, but there's currently no known mention of bonus features (though the last two Preschool is Cool videos had bonus clips, one of which wasn't announced on the packaging).

Hopefully "Best of Sesame Friends" will be a seperate release and still be release. Considering that the previous Preschool is Cool releases had two street scenes, I'd say that Abby's debut episode would be an appropriate choice.

 

[Oscarfan]

The new DVD isn't the Best of Sesame Friends thing at all. And I found some poser photos for the DVD and two inserts that'll be on there based on the posers will be "Because We're Friends" and "What is Friend" with Lulu.

 

[minor muppetz]

Where did you fidn the poser photos? I've done a number of google searches for this and haven't found anything on this release (the Muppet Wiki page doesn't even show up on the first search page)? I've typed in "sesame street making friends", "sesame street preschool is cool making friends dvd" and "sesame street making friends dvd".

Incidently, "Because We're Friends" was one of the clips nominated for the "Best of Sesame Friends" DVD. It was said to come out "fall 2012", and we've still heard no progress on it (no release dates, no cover art). I don't doubt it'll come out, but I hope the release hasn't been pushed back.

I wonder if this will have "Stick Out Your Hand and Say Hello" with Rick Moranis. "D-U-C-K-I-E" would be another good choice, as would the sketch where Kermit gets Cookie Monster and Herry to share a bicycle (and the DVD description on Muppet Wiki mentions it'll have segments on sharing). Then again, I feel most of the contents of the previous Preschool is Cool DVDs are disapointing (even the bonus classic clips, since both are on the 40th anniversary set). The recent "Share it Maybe" viral video would make a good bonus feature for this.

 

[minor muppetz]

I bought the "Elmo's Alphabet Challenge" DVD today. Watching it right now, and it's great so far. Elmo, Abby, and Telly kinda look like well-made toys in their computer animated form (maybe not Palisades-quality, but close). As far as I can tell, this release doesn't have any clips from the show. I was hoping it'd at least have some classic alphabet segments as a bonus feature, but alas, it doesn't (actually, with the video game theme, it would have been appropriate to include some bonus Mathman segments from Square One TV, if only it was number-themed).

Interestingly, the packaging refers to this as a movie, though there's no rating (do today's direct-to-video movies have ratings?).

Appropriately, I'm watching this on my PS2.

 

[minor muppetz]

Well, the whole thing is great, even with a limited cast and no inserts from the show.

The video includes parodies of Super Mario Bros., Angry Birds, Dance Dance Revolution, Rock Band, Pac-Man, and World of Warcraft. It also includes a racing game sequence, which I'm not sure if it's based on any speciffic go-kart games (I want to say it's based on the Mario Kart games, and yet I'm not entirely sure).

I wish it could have referenced a few more classic games, or even had some gaming sequence in the classic 8-bit (or lower) style. The Super Mario Bros. parody sequence resembles The New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and to me the Pac-Man parody kinda looks more like the recent Pac-Man Championship Edition than the original or Mrs. Pac-Man, at least by the structure of the maze (actually, now that I think about it, I think the Atari 2600 release of the game had the maze look like that, though it's definatley not an Atari style). Sure, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Pac-Man Championship Edition are among the best games in their respective franchises, and certainly the best of the more recent games in those franchises. It's a shame they didn't work in parodies of Sonic the Hedgehog or Pokemon.

The new character ABC-more is a funny character, though he is a bit awkward. He keeps saying that he's the "greatest alphabet expert in the world", but keeps getting things wrong. In fact I'd say he gives Grover (and even Mr. Noodle) a run for his money when it comes to getting things wrong. There are times when he gets items that don't start with their respective letters, as if he's desperately trying to get everything so he'll surely win... But then he also keeps stubbornly avoiding words that DO begin with those, sometimes getting the items mixed up with other words (like thinking a muffin is a cupcake), and sometimes thinks the other characters are trying to trick him when it comes to certain words (whether the words do or don't begin with the respective letters). He's still a funny character, but for an "alphabet expert", I really can't believe how wrong he is.

Among the bonus features is an "Alphabet Storybook" which lasts 47 minutes (according to the packaging... The packaging actually says how long one of it's bonus features lasts). I've only looked at a little of it, but according to Muppet Wiki it's an animated adaptation of a series of Sesame Street letter books. I wonder if that was previously released on an exclusive DVD at Toys-R-Us, like the other animated storybooks included as bonus features on recent DVDs.

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

I have some great news about the Best of Sesame Street Friends DVD that we've all been wanting to know about for quite a while. Earlier today, I was at Target, and in the kids' movie section there was of course information about upcoming DVDs. Among them was the Best of Sesame Street Friends. So, as it turns out, it will be coming on September 4th (aka, THIS upcoming Tuesday!!!!). There was even a photo of the cover. (If I had my camera with me, I definitely would have taken a picture of it, and shared with you all). Basically, it was a group shot of Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, Cookie Monster, Grover, Elmo, and Abby in front of the 123 Sesame Street area.

All we need now, is a listing of footage that will be on the DVD. But at least we know that it's coming in a few days!! Exciting, isn't it????

 

[Oscarfan]

I have some great news about the Best of Sesame Street Friends DVD that we've all been wanting to know about for quite a while. Earlier today, I was at Target, and in the kids' movie section there was of course information about upcoming DVDs. Among them was the Best of Sesame Street Friends. So, as it turns out, it will be coming on September 4th (aka, THIS upcoming Tuesday!!!!). There was even a photo of the cover. (If I had my camera with me, I definitely would have taken a picture of it, and shared with you all). Basically, it was a group shot of Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, Cookie Monster, Grover, Elmo, and Abby in front of the 123 Sesame Street area.

All we need now, is a listing of footage that will be on the DVD. But at least we know that it's coming in a few days!! Exciting, isn't it????

Funny. There was no announcement; no pre-order on Amazon, nothin'. It must be a Target exclusive that we'll probably see sometime next year in a wider market.

 

[minor muppetz]

I went to Target just to see the cover for "Best of Sesame Friends". I thought about taking a picture of the cover, but I didn't want to risk getting kicked out (not sure whether Target allows phot-taking or not). I did take some notes based on the cover: It's actually titled "Best of Friends", it'll be two hours long (just like a number of previous Sesame Street releases from this year), and listed learning topics (the cover really needed to list them?) include "shapes, counting, alphabet".

I stayed around the DVD section to see if maybe a promo would play on the TVs, but I didn't catch any. And looking at the advertisement, I didn't see any note of it being a "Target exclusive".