Old Professor Hastings was once teaching a young Anything Muppet about life. “A fight is going on inside each and every Street you see. A terrible fight between two Sesames. One is grounded, a dirty city street in a seemingly-average part of New York City. The other has Abby Cadabby using a magic spell to make Elmo turn green so he can learn about environmentalism.”
“Which one will win the fight?” asks the young Anything Muppet.
“Ah,” says Professor Hastings. “The one you–”
And then he falls asleep. So I’ll take over for his lecture.
Anyway. The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland is 20 years old this month, folks. Truly, the red-headed (ha!) stepchild of the Muppet movie canon, Grouchland flopped, and flopped hard. We’re talking not even making half of its $26 million budget back. Muppets From Space did better financially than Grouchland (it also released [and flopped] in 1999). Surely, this movie belongs in a dumpster somewhere deep in Grouchland, right? A movie only Mean Old Huxley could ever love, right?
Rewatching this film, I couldn’t help but think about that idea of two Sesame Streets we were learning about before. Obviously, Sesame Street was never a realistic place. I mean, it’s a street where Big Bird lives. I’ve lived in New York City, and let me tell you–there are some very large birds, and some probably know the alphabet, but none of them can rollerskate. But like, there’s a clear delineation–at least regarding fan memories–between old-school, Roosevelt-Franklin-and-Mr.-Hooper Sesame Street and new-school, Abby-Cadabby-and-Neil-Patrick-Harris-as-Telly’s-Shoe-Fairy Sesame Street.
Nowhere is this more obvious than in the contrast between Grouchland and Follow That Bird. The latter film, regarded (rightly!) as a classic by you and all your Muppet fan friends, has Big Bird in the real world. The villains are misguided adults who think they know best and greedy slobs who don’t care about children’s feelings. The songs are sometimes heartbreaking. And the Street, of course, was re-designed to look more realistic and gritty than ever before.
Grouchland is not that film. Nothing takes place in the real world: only a fifth even takes place in our fictional version of New York City. The villain flies a giant helicopter, referred to as his “cartoonishly evil vehicle” and has a greed so over-the-top he is overly possessive of a dirty tissue. (His overly-possessive attitude towards this tissue spurs on a full, Broadway-style musical number.) And of course, folks, I served with Big Bird. I knew Big Bird. Big Bird was a friend of mine. Elmo’s good, but Elmo is no Big Bird.
But folks. I… I… I love The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. It’s a fantastic way to spend 70 minutes and you absolutely should give it a fair shake. Here’s why.
Like I said, Grouchland takes place in an extremely fictional world. It’s very much a send-up of The Wizard of Oz, and what this means is that the team got to be as creative as they wanted to be. I love the Grouchland set, a bizarre remake of Main Street USA with randomly tilted angles and filth everywhere. It’s not always filmed in a way that perfectly shows it (one very fair complaint is the film’s seeming refusal to ever have a wide shot), but what we do see of Grouchland is so much fun. It just feels like a world I’d love to explore in more depth, full of the glorious contradictions we love about Oscar.
I mean, this is a movie where Gordon, Maria, Telly, Zoe, Big Bird, and Cookie Monster get thrown in jail for asking politely for help. It’s great. I’m building some custom Grouchland materials for D&D right now as we speak.
In the mountains outside of Grouchland, the environments aren’t always as lovable, but the Queen of Trash’s kingdom is pretty and Huxley’s castle is a ton of fun. But there’s a genuine cutesy-cleverness to the worldbuilding, like how a vast majority of the singing woodland animals Elmo encounters are “grouchy” things like pigs, skunks, and nasty-looking foxes. And you gotta love the weirdness of the Queen’s henchmen, strange golems made only of trash like some kind of mini-Marjories.
Obviously, as hinted throughout this article, the movie focuses largely on Elmo. I joked about it earlier, but Elmo isn’t so bad. He’s cute and likable enough. This isn’t Elmo at his zany, ad-libbing best, but it’s not like he’s impossible to deal with. The other new puppet characters–Grizzy, Bug, the Pesties, y’know–are pretty forgettable overall, but they’re fine.
With all this, you might think there won’t be much time for the other Sesame Street Muppets. You’re right, there isn’t. But what we get of them is all very good. The opening fifteen minutes feels like a super-condensed episode of the show, with notable appearances from everyone from Baby Bear to Mr. Johnson. Super Grover is there, folks! Ernie and Bert have a ton of lines as they occasionally drop by to check in on the audience! There’s more Prairie Dawn time than Follow That Bird had (by, like, an incredibly small margin but hey)!
My absolute favorite part of Grouchland, though, is the soundtrack. It’s actually amazing. Every song is really catchy and memorable and fun. The opening, “Together Forever,” starts fine enough, but really picks up when it becomes a Stomp! number with the Sesame Street gang in a laundromat. “Welcome to Grouchland” is a bizarre, Munchkinland-esque song fronted by the inimitable Jerry Nelson. “Take the First Step” is possibly my favorite Steve Whitmire song? And the two celebrity numbers, “I See a Kingdom” and “Make It Mine” are both great too.
Actually, hold on. The latter, “Make It Mine,” is ridiculously great. Mandy Patinkin is honestly Tim-Curry-in-Treasure-Island-levels of good as Mean Old Huxley. He looks like he’s having the most fun he ever had in his life and his showstopping performance is so incredibly, perfectly Muppet-y. Please, at least go and watch “Make It Mine.” It’s on YouTube. I’ll wait.
Are you back? Well, Professor Hastings isn’t awake yet, but he seems restless, so let me wrap up. Grouchland isn’t a perfect movie. It’s absolutely worse than Follow That Bird. It’s got an actually pretty weird message about how Elmo not wanting to share his own possession is just as bad as Huxley stealing other people’s possessions. But it’s enjoyable and cute and fun.
Because here’s the secret. There are two Sesame Streets inside you, but you know what? They’re the same thing. They’re both cute shows trying to use creativity to entertain and teach. Big Bird and Elmo? They’re not actually fighting. They can both share the throne. And once we realize there’s not actually a competition between our two memories of Sesame Street, we can maybe actually enjoy a nice film about Elmo and his friends exploring Grouchland together.
Click here to get overly possessive of a dirty tissue on the Tough Pigs forum!
by Evan G
