Review of The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (1999) by Harry W — 25 Feb 2014

The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland sounded terrific since Sesame Street was always a great show for me as a kid and Elmo was my favourite character, so a feature length film adaptation of the series featuring the participation of Frank Oz was not something I would miss.

I haven't seen Sesame Street in many years so many of the story elements in The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland were new to me or were something I hadn't seen in a long while, and in that sense a few of them felt a little distant from me since I wasn't as able to adapt to them as I would have if I was a child. Some parts are even a little bit creepy for kids movie, but when it's one full of monsters I pretty much predicted that. And also, even though it only runs for 71 minutes a lot of The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland is rather repetitive in its story antics and jokes. But nevertheless, I still enjoyed it.

The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland succeeds because it manages to capture the true spirit of the original Sesame Street TV series. It has all the colourful characters set in the childish universe that the show is famous for which proves convincing thanks to an incredibly dedicated team working behind the production design of the film, as well as the strong visual effects. Really, the production team of The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland really went all out on the film by convincing financiers to put $26 million into developing it into a colourful feature. It's a true shame that it lost over $14 million at Box Office.

And with the visual elements come some amazing puppetry work which brings the characters to life so incredibly well that it's easy to forget that the characters are puppets. I mean their movements seem so organic and their mouths are perfectly in tune with the dedicated voice actors, and so the Sesame Street Characters are at some of their most vibrantly energetic in The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland.

And the performance of Mandy Patinkin as the antagonist Huxley is perfectly villainous in the appropriate cartoony way without being too much as if he were like a bad guy version of Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy. Coincidentally enough he actually had a prominent role in that film.

Vanessa L. Williams was great as the singing Queen of trash as well as hypnotically attractive and paired with a great costume too, so she proves a good addition to the cast as well.

Plus, The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland benefitted from a lot of catchy energetic musical numbers which enhance the energy of the film.

And really, the directional work from Gary Halvorson gave The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland the path it needed to succeed as a clever children's comedy with a meaningful message to it about obsession with possession. Thanks to him and the direction he gives to the film and team behind the visual elements, The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland proves mostly successful entertainment.

So fans of Sesame Street can rejoice at The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, and others can enjoy its technical elements even if it's rather I consistent in entertainment value and pacing at parts.