Movies - Sesame Street presents Follow That Bird

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	Movies - Sesame Street presents Follow That Bird

Sesame Street presents Follow That Bird is a film directed by Ken Kwapis, starring many Sesame Street characters (both puppets and live actors). This was the first-ever full-length Sesame Street feature film, and was followed in 1999 by Elmo in Grouchland. This film was produced by Henson Associates and Warner Bros. Pictures, and originally released to movie theatres by 1985.

Songs included "One Little Star" (sung separately by Big Bird, Olivia and Snuffleupagus), "Ain't No Road Too Long" (sung separately by Big Bird, Waylon Jennings, Cookie Monster, Bert, Ernie, Grover, the Count, Gordon, and Olivia), "I'm So Blue" (sung only by Big Bird), and "Easy Goin' Day" (sung by Big Bird and a young Alyson Court, who would go on to star in The Big Comfy Couch and numerous voice acting roles).

Plot

Big Bird is sent to Oceanview, Illinois, to live with a family of dodo birds by Miss Finch, a pesky social service worker who thinks he needs to be with his own kind (other birds, instead of the diverse Sesame Street). Unhappy, Big Bird sets off cross-country to return to Sesame Street, but he is caught by a group of travelling con artists and put on display for profit. Having learned of his (to them mysterious) disappearance after checking in with his 'adopted' family, Big Bird's friends set out on a wild multi-party search across the country to find their wayward comrade.

Morals of the story

As with many televised episodes of Sesame Street, Follow That Bird raises some important cultural issues, doing so in a way that children can relate to, while parents can use the benefit of their life experiences to draw a deeper meaning from it.

Racism, the value of diversity and the nature of family are all explored in the movie. Though Miss Finch is one of the "villains" of the story, in fact her intentions are good; she wants what she thinks is best for Big Bird (even though what she thinks is best for Big Bird, and what is best for Big Bird, turn out to be entirely different things). And she believes that he should have the benefit of living in "a nice bird house, with a nice bird family... and sing and play bird games all day long."

She believes Big Bird would be happier with his own kind (and so does Big Bird, at first), but ultimately his adoption by the Dodos is a miserable failure. Though clueless, they're kind enough in their own way-- but they don't treat him with the love he's become accustomed to on Sesame Street. "I should be happy here," he writes in his letter to his friends on Sesame Street. "What's wrong with me?"

The straw that broke the camel's back-- and convinced Big Bird to run away from his adopted family-- was when he got a postcard from Mr. Snuffleupagus, his best friend, saying that he was ready to come and visit. When he explains that "Snuffy" isn't a bird, but a Snuffleupagus, the Dodos laugh. "But your best friend should be a bird!" exclaims Daddy Dodo. "Why?" Big Bird asks. "Because... you're a bird," Mommy Dodo says, as if nothing could be more obvious. They say that there are lots of bird families around, and he could meet them and make some new best friends-- now how about going out and hunting for worms?

"But I don't wanna hunt for worms," Big Bird protests. "I want Snuffy to come and visit, and if he can't come and visit, I don't wanna be here anymore. I want to go home!" "But-- you are home," Mommy Dodo insists-- and at that moment, Big Bird realizes he'll never be happy in his new life, and makes the decision to run away. Of course, being six years old, he's ill-equipped to make it home by himself, so his Sesame Street family bands together to try and find him. Several human characters including Maria and Gordon, and several Muppets including Oscar the Grouch, Telly Monster, Grover, Cookie Monster, Ernie and Bert, Count Von Count, and others head out across America in search for their beloved Big Bird.

When he's finally brought home, Big Bird's family on Sesame Street convinces Miss Finch that Big Bird can be, and is, happy there on Sesame Street-- and it doesn't make any difference that his family consists of humans, monsters, grouches, honkers, and the other varieties of eclectic species on Sesame Street. What matters is that they're family.

What's also interesting about this message-- what's been one of the underlying messages of Sesame Street all along-- is that the humans themselves are of different ethnicities. There are Caucasians, African-Americans and Hispanics all living together as friends and neighbors on the same street. But there's nothing unusual about that at all to them-- why should the color of your skin matter?-- and so therefore they don't really need to address the issue of racism among humans as such in this movie. The racism issue is instead delegated to the Muppet members of the cast, as if to say, "If people of different species can co-exist like this, why can't humans of different ethnicities?"

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