My Week with Sesame Home Video – Friday

Let’s Get Musical
Friday, May 24

Watching nothing but Sesame Street for a week can really start to mess with you. Danny’s My Week with Everything proved that he’s insane, but it’s okay, because He’s Cool With It. Me, I like the luxury of being able to at least pretend occasionally that I have a regular life, so when I suddenly plunge headlong into five days of solid Sesame, I start to question things. Like, why am I watching Sesame Street for five days in a row when it so obviously makes me cranky? Am I cranky because I watch Sesame Street? Or am I watching Sesame Street because I’m cranky? And what kind of world do I live in that I think it’s perfectly sensible to express a preference for one Mr. Noodle over the other?

But every now and again, watching nothing but Sesame Street pays off, and you get a signal from the universe that Everything’s All Right. Today I got that signal, in the form of Elmo’s Musical Adventure: Peter and the Wolf. Yep, rest easy, fellow Tough Pigs, because Everything’s officially All Right. The video told me so.

(By the way, here’s a little conundrum for you. The title on the video cover is Elmo’s Musical Adventure: Peter and the Wolf. The actual onscreen title is Peter and the Wolf, but Elmo’s voice chimes in to say, “Sesame Street: Peter and the Wolf.” Which is the real title? And does anybody really care? First person to answer both questions correctly wins a prize. Danny, can you come up with a prize? I understand people like candy.)

Jack Benny was once asked how he maintained consistent quality on his radio show. He replied, “We try never to do a terrible show.” Which might not have sounded like much, until you consider the fact that a whole bunch of people don’t seem to care whether or not they make terrible shows.

My point being, Sesame Workshop worked really hard on Peter and the Wolf, and it paid off. This is definitely not a terrible show. It’s a first-rate straight-to-video production, with quality just screaming out at you. People spent time and money on this thing, and it looks and sounds gorgeous. Up until today, I feel like I’ve been watching the Workshop coasting along — but this one, this one feels special.

The story makes sense, for a start. Elmo, Telly, Big Bird and Zoe each have a musical instrument, and they sound okay individually, but together, it’s a bit of a racket. Maybe Baby Bear can pick up some tips for them when he goes with Papa Bear to see the Boston Pops Orchestra perform Peter and the Wolf. “What do they have that you don’t?” Baby Bear asks. “Besides yeaws of expewience.”

Papa Bear introduces Baby Bear to the conductor, Keith Lockhardt, who’s endearingly hammy. Keith talks Baby Bear through the characters, and the instruments which represent them. As each instrument plays, we see a glimpse of the characters, played by Elmo, Zoe, Telly, Big Bird, Oscar, and featuring the Wolf as himself, and a wonderful surprise as the Hunters — the Two-Headed Monster, in fine form.

The cast all look sensational — Telly as a duck, Zoe as a bird, Big Bird as Peter’s Grandfather (complete with Caroll S doing Big Bird doing a Grandpa voice), and Oscar, perfectly cast as a cat.

The treats don’t stop there, though — this is one for the fans. As Baby Bear and Papa Bear take their seats, the auditorium suddenly becomes the Sesame Street Cameo Capital of the World. Left to right, top to bottom, you can see Pam Arciero, John Tartaglia, Stephanie D’Abruzzo, Caroll Spinney, Fran Brill, John Kennedy, Sesame writer Chrissy Ferraro and Marty Robinson. I tell you this in the certain knowledge that someone out there will really, genuinely care about this as much as I do.

Then the music starts, and away we go with the story, which takes place on a series of gorgeous and expensive purpose-built sets. Each character is accompanied by his or her musician, conveniently color-coded, and again, endearingly hammy. Baby and Papa narrate only where necessary, and as you’d hope, the music is perfectly blended with the story. The dialogue is a really neat balance of comedy, character and action. Telly’s reaction to the revelation that the duck gets eaten is priceless: “Nobody told me that the duck gets eaten! Well, you can forget it! I quit!”

Watching Peter and the Wolf is just a pure joy. It wasn’t until halfway through my second viewing today that I realized that, Oscar and Big Bird aside, this is entirely a cast of New Generation characters, and at no point did I ever think, “This would be really great if Grover were in it.” This is the single best use of the current Muppet cast — each plays off the others in great fashion, as if they’ve been doing ensemble shows like this for years. (The Two-Headed Monster, for example, just looks like he belongs there. Have I raved about David Rudman yet? Consider him officially raved about. His vocals are simply superb, but apart from that, he just nails the character.)

The only negatives are quibbles which are as entertaining as the positives, such as the aforementioned endearingly hammy performances of the conductor and the non-speaking musicians. And my girlfriend pointed out that Papa Bear looks kinda scary, but she also noticed Baby Bear’s adorable side-part, so it all balances out.

(One final fan bonus, one of those things that only the Geekiest of the Muppet Fan Geeks care about — Big Bird, taking full advantage of the purpose-built set, uses both his arms in many shots, without the use of chromakey. Which is pretty cool.)

It’s not just for the fans, of course — Three-year-old Kynan loves Peter and the Wolf, too, but I’m too busy raving on about it to let him get a word in edgeways. I haven’t seen CinderElmo, although I’ve read Danny’s review of it, and Peter and the Wolf is obviously the antidote to CinderElmo — a well-written, well-directed, perfectly performed straight-to-video Sesame proudction which is genuinely not terrible.

And I know that Everything’s All Right, because now they’ve proved that it’s possible, it’s only a matter of time before they do it again. For all my cranky criticism this week, I’ve never been able to fault these characters or their performances. There’s a perfectly formed ensemble of Muppets on Sesame Street just waiting for the next perfectly conceived vehicle to knock ’em dead.

And even if they do find themselves coasting again from time to time, at least you can stay tuned to Tough Pigs, because, you know, at least we care enough to write about the terrible stuff.

Thank you for your attention, and enjoy Danny’s candy.

by Kynan Barker