20th Century Fox has picked up the rights to a film based on the 40+ year old Sesame Street television series and plan on turning it into a film. I guess my first question is: How? The greatness of Sesame Street is that it is one of the first shows to prove that educating kids can also be fun. It has music, sketches, and commercials that run through each episodes relatively light plot, but it works. It keeps childrens attention just long enough for them to not realize they are actually learning. It’s the perfect crime.
I can’t for the life of me imagine how this gets adapted into a film that works. If the intent is to keep it exactly like the TV show, with music, sketches, and commercials etc., then I can’t imagine that working on film. Just make a TV special and put it on prime-time or something in the summer. However, if the intent is to make it into a pure plot driven kids film then I really think this is an uninspired idea. You basically are mining the franchise purely for the familiarity of Bert, Ernie, Cookie Monster, and Big Bird, but changing the nature of the show. Maybe I am being overly pessimistic, but I just really don’t see how this works without resorting to stupid sight gags and farts , and a plot featuring an evil old man who wants to close down Hooper’s store or something. In which case, just give us another referential, self-aware Muppets film. But they can’t, because Fox doesn’t have those rights, Disney does.
This is where I get confused. How doesn’t Disney have the rights Sesame Street? They have the Muppets, and the Muppets and Sesame Street characters have pretty much always lived in the same world and cameo’d back and forth. I can’t believe I’m drawing this parallel, but it’s like Disney has the Avengers and Fox has the Xmen, and never shall the two meet all over again! Just with characters for kids. Maybe I’m territorial over Sesame Street because I grew up with it, but I’d much rather see some other property get strip mined. Wheres Gullah Gullah Island the movie?
Leave Cookie Monster alone!
