The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland
*** / ****
Rated G
This was a happy film concerning the red furball from Sesame St, Elmo, and how he learns about unselfishness from the negative example of a "greedy selfish villain" called Huxley, played by Mandy Patinkin.
Elmo loves his blanket but won't allow his friend Zoe to hold it, and through a series of misfortunes ends up in Grouchland ("Positively NO Smiling!") where everyone is very unfriendly and Huxley (singing "I Make It Mine") is the most selfish of all. Elmo needs to retrieve his blanket from Huxley's castle and encounters a series of difficulties along the way, including a meeting with the "Queen of Trash", played by Vanessa Williams, who teaches him about giving.
I am 22 and I enjoyed it, particularly the musical parts. The signs in Grouchland are funny for adults, e.g. a movie theatre "Sharon Groan in Basically It Stinks", and the self-deprecating comments made about the show - Huxley, "I bet you have a grand old time together just saying the alphabet and counting *all day long*." Grouchland saying - "You look like a million yuks." In jail, some people are told, "You have the right to scream your head off, and if you choose not to exercise that right, you can have someone scream their head off for you."
At one point Elmo encounters a humongous chicken. This scene, in the tradition of Gonzo the Great (_The Muppet Show_) and his bohemian flock, lends itself readily to Freudian analysis. We can see Elmo retreating into childish verse to flee his realisation, in light of his dawning sexuality, of a prepubscent Oedipus complex.
Grouchland is like a ghetto, so the producers had to be careful to avoid any racist suggestions at that point (witness the outcry over Phantom Menace). The background music is a Latin/South American rhythm. The Queen of Trash's dump has an African/Andean rhythm with the pipes in the background. This could be intrepreted as symbolic of North American hegemony over Third World countries.
The incipient bourgeois mentality evinced throughout the film was its most disturbing aspect; apparently we are supposed to find both the ghetto dwellers and the prosperous of Grouchland (the socialist, Huxley) reprehensible. The writers attempt to de-emphasize this dialectical tension in the aforementioned jail scene.
Also, had this film been made in any country except the U.S., there would surely have been some reference to recycling. When Sesame Street first screened in November 1969, trash cans were omnipresent in the inner city street; however, today's film producers should be more environmentally conscious.
Postmodernist doctrines are blatantly promulgated in the Queen of Trash's song concerning her dump (or creation?) "It's all about your point of view".
Bert and Ernie often break in and get the audience to "participate". They are very fond of using each others' names in their conversation in every sentence, even more than once. My friend detected homosexual overtones in this tendency and in their interaction generally, although I failed to notice. I don't think kids would either. Jerry Falwell might.
Another unusual aspect of this film is that Elmo refers to himself in the third person all the time. "Elmo loves his blanket", "Elmo wants to find his blanket" etc. This may promote narcissism in children. The opening scene with Elmo's blanket is endearing and yet his selfishness should be censured. Kids will quickly notice that the main characters are abstractions of children's moods.
My conclusion, though, is that this is a funny film suitable for all ages.
Richard Bean (rwb@maths.uq.edu.au)
Thanks to Raymond Smith for helping me with this review.
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