Your Thoughts: Elmo’s Christmas Countdown

[mbmfrog]

It I could explain this special in one word, then that word would be...Funny.

It almost contained the classic Sesame Street humor that was made for the modern times.

I must admit it was pretty bold and kind of funny for Sesame Street to be pulling a Sorprano ending when they were doing that & skit.

It was kind of cute seeing Big Bird singing with Anne Hathaway, even I didn't know that she could sing that well.

Anyhow it was great to see just acting like his usual self and it was a nice touch to include his "I Hate Christmas" song.

Super Grover was fun to see to and it was cool for him to give Stiller the Elf a break.

And Stiller the Elf was just fun to watch.

Although I was displeased with the lack of Telly & Zoe showing up but saying very little, and Abby playing a supporting role, but I let Abby pass because she is still new to me.

All together it was a great show and it was nice to watch for an hour.

 

[The Count]

Boy, this thread has certainly gotten active. Best parts for me were some of the lines, mostly Oscar's and Stiller's.
Good points for me include the following:
New version of "I Hate Christmas".
"Carol of the Bells".
Super Grover with Box #8, good lines there too.
"AllI want Is A Snuffleupagus For Christmas", nice jab at a previous Elmo song.
Noticed Matt Vogel voiced Big Bird during the song and then Caroll Spinney afterwards handing Box #7.
The Ernie and Bert Christmas Special, points again for bringing back a classic Sesame sketch with the gingerbread man in Ernie's ear. But Prairie demoted from director to on-set assistant? And I still think Caroway Street from Square One Television was a better Bert and Ernie parody.
"I Saw Three Ships", love whenever my namesake's involved.
"Jingle Bells" with Grover and the penguins.
And of course, the Christmas cookie and the voracious blue monster who ate the counter-downer.

Negative points:
Disliked the Nutcracker Suite number.
Also, I would've maybe used Pinball Count animation/voiceover for the CGI opening of each box.
Will probably start another thread asking about the characters.
All in all, twas enjoyable and I hope Sesame gets Season 39 started on time.

 

[D'Snowth]

I wasn't too fond of the Nutcracker bit either, Count. Alicia Keys does have some nice legs, though.

I noticed, though, it seemed like Big Bird's kept switching between Caroll's and Matt's during the actual song... or at least, that's what it sounded like to me.

That, and it still seems like, to me, Eric's Grover is starting to sound quite different that what he's been doing these past few years.

 

[SSLFan]

I noticed, though, it seemed like Big Bird's kept switching between Caroll's and Matt's during the actual song... or at least, that's what it sounded like to me.

.

Matt did the talking, Caroll did the singing( I think he dubbed in the bird's lines though.).

 

[beaker]

Um, was there ANY reason for using a horribly cheap made cardboard set?

Why couldn't this have at least taken place in, say a airport terminal or a snowed in mall or something more creative? This was absolutely ghastly to watch, as much as I love seeing the Muppets on new tv endeavors...I couldn't stand to watch 5 minutes of this.
Absolutely insulting to even a 5 year old's intelligence...

I don't think there's ever been a Muppet or Sesame Street Christmas special as cheaply made as this. While nothing could compare to Muppet Family Christmas,
even the mid 1990's Sesame holiday specials were light years above this.

Anyone remember how creative the 80's Sesame specials were? Don't Eat the Pictures? Big Bird In China/Japan. What happened?

Also, did someone say there was no Zoe or Telly? Geez Louise.

 

[beaker]

Did anyone catch the last credit in the ending credits

Muppets is a trademark of Muppets Holding Company LLC

All rights reserved


I was just asking myself since they still call them Muppets, are they still aloud to do that even though Disney owns the name.

And is Genius Productions the same people who made Between the Lions? They helped out with it too.

Well Fraggle Rock, Sesame Street, Bear in the Big Blue House, the Muppet Show and even I would say Jim Henson Alternative brand is all "Muppets"..
I think in a legal way tho Fraggle Rock cant call themselves Muppets anymore, Bear and Muppet brand are "officially labelled Muppets", and
Sesame Street has an arrangement to where they can be called "Muppets".

In my view, anything Jim Henson Company has ever been involved with that is non fantasy puppet related(excluding Wubbulous World) I would call part of Muppet canon. From Sam and Friends to Tinseltown.

 

[muppetwriter]

I really loved watching this special. Ben Stiller is the best as Stiller Elf (or was it "Stiller the Elf", I can't remember which one it was). And all of the celebrity appearances were fun to watch, too. Didn't get the chance to watch Jamie Foxx's, because I was called in for supper, but from what I saw of the first couple of minutes, it looked really interesting to watch.

It's amazing how popular Elmo is getting today, having two Christmas specials with his name in the title. I know Kevin Clash is just eating up all this attention his character's been getting.

And I know I'm one of the few who was hoping to see Kermit in the special, seeing as how it was aired on a Disney-owned network, but I was also hoping to see Bob, Gordon, Maria, and some of the human residents make an appearance, too. Wonder how come they weren't involved.

Still, this was really awesome. I hope they have more specials like this every Christmastime.

 

[D'Snowth]

It's amazing how popular Elmo is getting today, having two Christmas specials with his name in the title. I know Kevin Clash is just eating up all this attention his character's been getting.

Three actually: this, Elmo Saves Christmas, and Elmo's World: Happy Holidays.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Dang, I missed the first part. But it was really funny to me! I liked stiller a lot in this special! Elmo was not that annoying to me in this and they used the right amount of Abby in my opinion. I love the Erine & Bert sketch in this! Very funny stuff! I also really likes Santa! I thought he was the prefect way to end and really added to the comedy! I also loved how Stiller reacted to the news reports about his! Awesome stuff! I loved the report where they Charles Blitzen was saying how mad everyone was at Stiller The Elf! It reminded me of those live action scenes from Muppet Babies, LOL!

 

[theprawncracker]

Okay, so I saw it. All in all, I liked it a lot. There was some stuff, of course, I didn't find too appealing, but I feel the same after about anything I see. It had some VERY good points, and some not-so good...

The Good-
Variety of chracters: Sure Elmo played center-stage, but what else is new? At least we got to see a whole lot of other characters in new material! Grover, Big Bird, Snuffy, Count, the Three Bears, Ernie, Bert Prairie, Oscar, Cookie, the whole gang was there! (Aside from the hideous lack of speaking roles by Telly, Zoe, and Rosita. What happened there?)

Great music: Seriously, really liked the music in this one. The special really deserves an album release. Maybe next Christmas with the DVD. I especially enjoyed "I Hate Christmas" and "I Want a Snuffleupagus for Christmas" great stuff.

Grown-up humor: No, not dirty jokes, but funny, adult oriented jokes. Stiller and Charles Blitzen had some great lines. Even Grover and Abby had a few that made me laugh. But The Count's bit with Ty was the funniest, IMO.

And Muppets are just so darn cute: Seriously. These things should come with a warning label. "Do not watch unless capable of retaining extreme amounts of cuteness."

The Bad-
The Celebrities: Most of them were great! In fact, the only appearance I didn't like was Jamie Foxx, the costumes were adorable, and so was the Rat King, and the puppet movement was GREAT, but the song was horrible. And the Sopranos/Ernie and Bert segment was laugh-out-loud funny. I loved that SO much. But there were just TOO many celebrities. They took up too much time, and didn't leave any for the Muppets to shine. More Muppets I say. I mean, we saw Hoots and he didn't even sing! (Though having penguins and Grover in the same place was genius.)

Reindeer News Segments: WHY did THREE of the boxes have to go to those segments? Those three spots could've EASILY gone to three different Muppet/Celebrity things. How 'bout Telly and someone? Or even better, a group Muppet song. Why not have put the Alicia/Elmo song in one of those boxes and have Bob, Gordon, Susan, Maria, Luis, etc. cheer Elmo up with "True Blue Miracle"?

Ho! Ho! NO! - Wow... Kevin James as Santa Claus... when I first heard that I was concerned. When I saw it I became even more concerned. Why? I mean, the song wasn't good... and Santa was kind of scary. I don't think kids want to think of Santa as scary. I dunno... Though he does get props for giving shoutouts to the Muppets during the song; "Back me up Big Bird!" and "Finish it Grover!" Loved that.

The Ugly-
The set: ...What happened there? I mean, sure, the pop-up book idea was cute... but why? How hard could it possibly be to coat the set they already HAVE with snow and decorate it for Christmas? I really, really did not like the set.

All in all, I really liked it. Sure it could've been better, could've had more Muppets, and could've had a good set halo: ), but, hey! We got a new Sesame special! And it was awesome!

Great job on this one Sesame Workshop! Just use the set you have from now on, 'kay?