The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland

The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland is a 1999 musical adventure comedy film directed by Gary Halvorson. Based on the popular children's television series Sesame Street and a stand-alone sequel to Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird (1985), the film stars Mandy Patinkin and Vanessa Williams alongside Muppet performers Kevin Clash, Jerry Nelson, Frank Oz and Steve Whitmire.

Produced by Jim Henson Pictures and the Children's Television Workshop, the film was released by Columbia Pictures on October 1, 1999. This film is one of the few Sesame Street productions directly produced by The Jim Henson Company. Alongside Muppets from Space (which was released the same year), this is the final Muppet feature film to have the involvement of Oz, who retired from being a full-time puppeteer the following year.

Plot
The film begins with Ernie and Bert introducing the film. As the story opens, Elmo welcomes the viewer, finds his fuzzy cotton blue blanket and plays with it in his bedroom. After spilling juice on his blanket, he takes it to the laundromat to have it washed and dried. Elmo then makes music with the laundry equipment, but Big Bird, the Count, Rosita, Baby Bear and Prairie Dawn hear it unexpectedly. When he is about to take his blanket home, Elmo encounters his friend Zoe, who is feeling depressed because her father, due to having work, cannot take her to the zoo so Elmo decides to cheer up Zoe up by imitating some zoo animals. When Zoe sees Elmo's blanket, Elmo denies sharing with her resulting in a game of tug of war that rips Elmo's blanket. Upset at this, Elmo declares that Zoe is no longer his friend.

Suddenly, Telly Monster accidentally swipes the blanket while rollerskating out of control, leading into a chase around Sesame Street. The blanket accidentally lands into the hands of Oscar the Grouch, who drops it in his trash can after sneezing on it. Elmo dives into the bottom of Oscar's trash can, where he finds his blanket snagged on a door.

Elmo attempts to retrieve it, but he and his blanket are both teleported through a colorful and rainbow swirling vortex wormhole tunnel to Grouchland, a city filled with Grouches, stinky garbage and Huxley, a mean, immature and greedy man who steals anything he can grab, including Elmo's blanket. Wanting his blanket back, Elmo begins a journey through Grouchland. A kindhearted Grouch girl named Grizzy tells Elmo that his blanket is in Huxley's house at the top of the faraway Mount Pickanose, but also warns that he may never make it there. Feeling that Grizzy is right, Elmo becomes discouraged. However, a green plant named Stuckweed, encourages Elmo that he will make it and that he just has to take his first step into the journey, and Elmo sets out on a quest to get his blanket back.

Meanwhile, the Sesame Street residents are informed of Elmo's absence and go to Grouchland to find him, with help from Oscar. Big Bird and Zoe find a Grouch police officer and ask him for help, but instead the entire group ends up arrested and imprisoned as the police officer informs them that it is against the law to ask for help in Grouchland, because Grouches aren't supposed to cooperate.

Meanwhile, when Huxley is informed of Elmo coming to retrieve his blanket, he has his trusted sidekick, Bug the bug and his minions, the Pesties, trap Elmo in a tunnel. However, Elmo gets out with the help of fireflies. Upon noticing that Elmo is still coming, Huxley has Bug and the Pesties pose as construction workers, set up a fake construction zone and misdirect Elmo into a nearby garbage dump where he is forcibly brought before the Queen of Trash for trespassing in her kingdom. At first, she assumes that Elmo might be in league with Huxley. Elmo denies this, but then he remembers that he refused to share his blanket with Zoe and feels ashamed. The Queen gives him what she believes is an impossible test by requesting that he blows 100 raspberries for her, in a set time of 30 seconds.

By getting help from the audience, Elmo succeeds at this and the Queen allows him to continue on his way to Huxley's house. Left with no other remaining options to stop Elmo, Huxley sends his humongous chicken to confront Elmo as the chicken mistakes Elmo for a worm. Elmo successfully convinces the chicken that he is not a worm, but this only prompts the chicken to toss Elmo far away, leaving Huxley to conclude that he defeated Elmo. Resting on a rock, Elmo realizes that night has come and gives up on returning his blanket.

Meanwhile, Grizzy sneaks into the jail where she informs Elmo's friends that he went to Huxley's house. Oscar is convinced to help set things right as well as admitting that Elmo is his friend. He then convinces the police officer as well as all of the Grouches of Grouchland that, even though Grouches hate to cooperate, the only way they can finally stop Huxley from stealing any more of their trash once and for all is if they swallow their pride and work together just once. The police officer releases the Sesame Street residents and the Grouches aid them into the night to go to Huxley's house to fight for their trash and rescue Elmo.

A caterpillar wakes up Elmo the next morning on the rock. He gives Elmo advice to look inside himself and he'll see that he has what it takes to be brave. Taking the caterpillar's advice, Elmo makes it to Huxley's house before Huxley has the chance to make Elmo's blanket his blanket. However, Huxley sends the Pesties to stop Elmo from making his getaway but Elmo evades the Pesties by jumping into a nearby laundry basket, and Huxley foils Elmo's getaway himself by grabbing the basket with a remote controlled claw while Elmo is in it, intending to rubber stamp "MINE" on him. Just as Elmo is about to face the fate of never seeing his friends again, the Sesame Street and Grouchland citizens appear in time to rescue Elmo and the Pesties flee in a panic.

However, Huxley takes Elmo's blanket again in all the chaos and it is suddenly sucked it up with the vacuum cleaner nozzle on the front of Huxley's helicopter, as Elmo intentionally falls and launches the basket over Huxley's shoulders, incapacitating him. Promptly, everyone sees Bug at the controls of the helicopter with Elmo's blanket, and Huxley demands it back. Bug refuses, as he has been sympathetic to Elmo, and gives Elmo back his blanket. Elmo is hailed a hero by the Sesame Street and Grouchland citizens while Huxley, shocked at being betrayed by his sidekick and finally feeling guilty for being greedy and selfish, promises to give back everything that he stole, but to no avail.

Happy to have finally gotten his blanket back, Elmo returns to Sesame Street with his friends (using a shortcut that Oscar knows of), where he apologizes to Zoe about hurting her feelings and then allows her to hold his blanket and she happily accepts his apology, agreeing that they can permanently resume their friendship. Elmo then says goodbye to the audience and thanks them for helping before going to dance with his friends, while Ernie and Bert congratulate the audience for playing along and head home as the film ends while Bert briefly stays to look at the credits, only to leave when Ernie tells him that it is time to feed his pigeons.

Muppet Performers

 * Kevin Clash as Elmo, Pestie #1, Grouch Taxicab Driver, Grouch, Jailer
 * Caroll Spinney as Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch
 * Jerry Nelson as Count von Count, Grouch Cop, Mr. Johnson, Grouch Mayor, Pestie #2
 * Frank Oz as Bert, Cookie Monster, Grover
 * Steve Whitmire as Ernie, Parrot, Stuckweed, Ice Cream Vendor, Football Stenchman
 * David Rudman as Baby Bear, Ice Cream Customer, Grouch Prisoner, Pestie, Collander Stenchman, Caterpillar
 * Carmen Osbahr as Rosita


 * Dave Goelz as Humongous Chicken, Mouse
 * Martin P. Robinson as Telly Monster, Pestie #3, Laundromat Manager
 * Fran Brill as Zoe, Prairie Dawn, Pestie #4
 * Joey Mazzarino as Bug
 * Stephanie D'Abruzzo as Grizzy, Pestie #5

Humans of Sesame Street

 * Alison Bartlett-O'Reilly as Gina
 * Ruth Buzzi as Ruthie
 * Roscoe Orman as Gordon
 * Sonia Manzano as Maria


 * Emilio Delgado as Luis
 * Loretta Long as Susan
 * Bob McGrath as Bob

Other Humans

 * Mandy Patinkin as Huxley
 * Vanessa Williams as the Queen of Trash

Casting
All the puppeteers who performed the primary Sesame Street characters (such as Kevin Clash, Jerry Nelson, Caroll Spinney and Fran Brill) were called to Wilmington, North Carolina for the table read on May 19, 1998. The regular puppets were used for the normal Sesame Street characters, and puppets for assorted Grouches (including Grizzy) were designed and built by Mark Zezsotek, who also built the puppets for Bug and the Pesties. Sonia Manzano reprised her role as Maria and Roscoe Orman reprised his role as Gordon. Vanessa Williams was cast as the Queen of Trash and the hairstylist colored her hair green for the role. Mandy Patinkin was a last-minute replacement for the original actor hired to play Huxley. For the role, the makeup artist designed false eyebrows for Patinkin to wear to make him seem like he had bushier eyebrows than normal.

Filming
The film was shot over a 30-day period (starting May 26, 1998) at the EUE/Screen Gems studio in Wilmington along with Muppets from Space. The set was raised so that puppeteers would be able to stand up instead of squatting below street level like usual. Filming wrapped for both movies on June 25, 1998, and visual effects were added during the following month.

Soundtrack
This album, released in 1999, is the soundtrack to The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland.

This album won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children in 2000.

Track List and Musical Numbers
1. Welcome to Grouchland - The Grouchland Ensemble

2. Together Forever - Elmo

3. Take the First Step - Stuckweed

4. I See a Kingdom - Vanessa Williams

5. Precious Wings - Tatyana Ali

6. Elmo Tells His Grouchland Story (Spoken Word)

7. The Grouch Song - Elmo / Grizzy / Oscar the Grouch

8. There's a Big Heap of Trash at the End of the Rainbow - The Stenchman

9. I Love Trash - Steven Tyler

Critical response
The film has a rating of 77% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 6.72/10. The film's consensus states, "This fun and moral tale entertains both first-time Sesame Street watchers and seasoned veterans." On Metacritic, which uses an average of critics' reviews, the film holds a 59/100, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Box office
The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland was the only family film playing in most theaters at the time of its release. Sony had planned a scaled-back release, making it difficult to make its money back. The film opened at #8 with a weekend gross of $3,255,033 from 1,210 theaters, averaging $2,690 per venue. In total, The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland earned back less than half its $26 million budget, grossing $11,683,047 during its two-and-a-half-month theatrical run. It is currently the lowest-grossing Muppet film to date.

Home media
The film was released on VHS and DVD on December 21, 1999.

Book series
The film inspired a trilogy of children's books, published in 1999: Happy Grouchy Day, The Grouchiest Lovey and Unwelcome to Grouchland. The book series was written by Suzanne Weyn and illustrated by Tom Brannon.