The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland Review
by Frankie Paiva (swpstke AT aol DOT com)October 22nd, 1999
The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (G) ***
Starring Mandy Patinkin, Vanessa L. Williams
Directed by Gary Halvorson
A Review by Frankie Paiva
Everyone in the world must be avoiding the good children’s movies. If the failure of The Iron Giant, a terrific film about the relationship between a boy and his pet robot wasn’t proof than the flop that Columbia Pictures experienced with this should be proof enough. After Muppets From Space bombed, and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland didn’t do that well, all of us are left to wonder what is to become of Sesame Street and the Muppets which many of us have grown up with and still love and adore. At least this film stays true to it’s original formula, Elmo is aimed 100% directly, on target at kids. This isn’t to say it’s like the recent Rugrats movie, a huge success that sickened parents, this one will actually (gasp) have the adults in the audience having fun with their children. Plus the interaction with the audience (much like that of the enormously popular Blues Clues) helps to form a bond between movie and audience. This is a fun family film and I’m glad to give you this review.
Elmo loves and adores his fuzzy blue blanket more than anything in the world. He loves it so much he doesn’t want to share it with his friend Zoe, while they are in a struggle over who gets the blanket, it gets caught by a blast of wind and flies through the air, eventually landing in Oscar’s garbage can. When Elmo goes to retrieve it, he and the blanket are sucked into a vortex that magically sends them to Grouchland, a place where everything yucky and smelly reigns supreme.
In Grouchland there is an evil person named Huxley (Patinkin) who steals everything he can from all of the people who live in the area. However, no one in Grouchland is willing to do anything about it because working together to do anything is considered bad. Grouchland is basically the opposite of everything they teach you on Sesame Street. When good-hearted Elmo discovers Huxley has his blanket, he immediately goes to his dreaded castle to retrieve it. But not without being sidetracked and chased by the evil villain’s henchmen.
All of the characters you know and love make an appearance hear. Even classic cast members Bob McGrath and Sonia Manzano make an appearance. Vanessa L. Williams does a musical number as the Queen of Trash, her song, which is all about how beauty is everywhere, it just depends on your point of view, eerily sums up the message of American Beauty. But it’s really Bert and Ernie that steal the show. Everytime a major point of action occurs Ernie is there to tell the frightened Bert (and perhaps audience) that everything is going to be OK. I really enjoyed watching The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, even though I am 12. The makers of the film stuck with the original Street formula and didn’t screw it up at all (even if the songs sounds a little like those of The Lion King.) If you’re looking for a fun family film that the whole family will like, take the kiddies to see The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, which gets *** stars.
The Young-Uns: The film is aimed directly as young ones and has no objectionable content. Good For All Ages
A Review by Frankie Paiva
The 12 Year-Old Movie Reviewer
E-Mail me at [email protected]
Visit my website at: http://expage.com/page/teenagemoviecritic
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