''Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird'' (or simply ''Follow That Bird'') is a 1985 American

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by Ken Kwapis, and written by Tony Geiss and Judy Freudberg. Based on the

children's television series Children's television series (or children's television shows) are Television show, television programs designed specifically for Child, children. They are typically characterised by easy-going content devoid of sensitive or adult themes and are ...

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...

'' created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett, it was the series' first theatrical feature-length film. It stars Muppet performers

Caroll Spinney Caroll Edwin Spinney (December 26, 1933 – December 8, 2019) was an American puppeteer, cartoonist, author, artist and speaker, most famous for playing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on ''Sesame Street'' from its inception in 1969 until 2018. ...

Jim Henson James Maury Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer, animator, actor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notability as the creator of the Muppets. Henson was also well known for creating ''Fraggle Rock'' ( ...

and

Frank Oz Frank Richard Oznowicz (born May 25, 1944), known professionally as Frank Oz, is an American puppeteer, filmmaker and actor. He is best known for his involvement with Jim Henson and George Lucas through ''The Muppets'', ''Sesame Street'', and '' ...

alongside Sandra Bernhard,

John Candy John Franklin Candy (October 31, 1950 – March 4, 1994) was a Canadian actor and comedian who is best known for his work in Hollywood (film industry), Hollywood films. Candy first rose to national prominence in the 1970s as a member of the Tor ...

Chevy Chase Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He became the breakout cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1976), where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment b ...

Joe Flaherty Joseph Flaherty (born Joseph O'Flaherty, June 21, 1941 – April 1, 2024) was an American actor, writer, and comedian. He is best known for his work on the Canadian sketch comedy '' SCTV'' from 1976 to 1984 (on which he also served as a write ...

Waylon Jennings Waylon Arnold Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He is considered one of the pioneers of the Outlaw country, outlaw movement in country music. Jennings started playing ...

, and Dave Thomas with ''Sesame Street'' regulars

Linda Bove Linda Bove is a Deaf American actress, her most notable role being a fictionalized version of herself in the PBS children's series ''Sesame Street'' from 1971 to 2002. Bove was the first Deaf actress to be a member of the program's recurring c ...

, Emilio Delgado, Loretta Long,

Sonia Manzano Sonia Manzano (born June 12, 1950) is an American actress, writer and speaker. She is best known for playing Maria on ''Sesame Street'' from 1971 to 2015. She received a Lifetime Achievement Daytime Emmy Award in 2016. Her memoir, ''Becoming ...

, Bob McGrath, Roscoe Orman, Alaina Reed, and Kermit Love in supporting roles and the voices of

Laraine Newman Laraine Newman (born March 2, 1952) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. Newman was part of the original cast of NBC's sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' from its inception in 1975 until her departure in 1980. Newman took an ...

, Brian Hohlfeld, Cathy Silvers, Eddie Deezen, and

Sally Kellerman Sally Clare Kellerman (June 2, 1937 – February 24, 2022) was an American actress whose acting career spanned 60 years. Her role as List of M*A*S*H characters#Margaret Houlihan, Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in Robert Altman's film ''M*A*S ...

. Produced by

Children's Television Workshop Sesame Workshop (SW), originally known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization and television company that has been responsible for the production of several educational children's programs—includin ...

and filmed at the Cinespace Film Studios and on location in the

Greater Toronto Area The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the Toronto, City of Toronto and the regional municipality, regional municipalities of Regional Municipality of Durham, Durham, Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton, Regional ...

, ''Follow That Bird'' was theatrically released in the United States on August 2, 1985, by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

, and in the United Kingdom on November 22, 1985, by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

through Columbia-EMI-Warner Distributors and received mostly positive reviews from critics. However, it was a box office disappointment, grossing $14 million.

Plot

The Feathered Friends' Board of Birds, an organization whose purpose is to place stray birds with bird families discusses the case of Big Bird. A strict

social work Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social wo ...

er, Miss

Finch The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches generally have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where the ...

, is sent to

to find and bring Big Bird to a worthy family of

dodo The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinction, extinct flightless bird that was endemism, endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest relative was the also-extinct and flightles ...

s in Oceanview,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. However, he begins to feel uncomfortable staying with them as they all think poorly of non-birds. He reaches his breaking point when they insist he should have a bird as a best friend instead of Mr. Snuffleupagus, who is watching over his nest back on Sesame Street. When Big Bird leaves the Dodos' home to return to Sesame Street, but the very next day he ends up on the news at night where Miss Finch tells reporter

Kermit the Frog Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created in 1955 and originally performed by Jim Henson. An anthropomorphic green frog, Kermit is the pragmatic everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably as the showrunner and host o ...

that she intends to find him and bring him back to the Dodos. His friends on Sesame Street also see the news and band together to locate him before Miss Finch does, and take several vehicles on their quest after Bob instructs them to head to Toadstool, Indiana to meet up with him. While on the way home, Big Bird hitches a ride with a trucker who encourages him to persevere and later meets two kids named Ruthie and Floyd at a farm, who allow him to sleep in their barn overnight. The next morning, Miss Finch arrives and he sneaks away.

Con artist A scam, or a confidence trick, is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using a combination of the victim's credulity, naivety, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibi ...

brothers Sam and Sid Sleaze operate a fraudulent

carnival Carnival (known as Shrovetide in certain localities) is a festive season that occurs at the close of the Christian pre-Lenten period, consisting of Quinquagesima or Shrove Sunday, Shrove Monday, and Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras. Carnival typi ...

called The Sleaze Brothers Funfair, and plot to catch Big Bird and put him on display for profit. When he arrives in Toadstool, Miss Finch does so at the same time and chases him through a parade. After escaping, Big Bird meets the Sleazes at their carnival and asks if they have a place to hide, resulting in them putting him in their cage and deciding to paint him blue and tout him as "The Bluebird of Happiness", though he sings sadly about wishing to be back home. Despite this, he brings in plenty of customers. After the show, two kids sneak backstage to see Big Bird, who asks them to call Sesame Street to inform his friends of his whereabouts. The next morning, his friends sneak into the circus tent and try to set him free. However, the Sleaze Brothers quietly wake up and just as Linda unlocks the cage, they drive off in their truck towing the cage with Big Bird still in it. Gordon and Susan give chase and rescue him after he jumps from the moving truck. Shortly afterwards, a state trooper pulls the Sleazes over for speeding and arrests the pair. Upon arriving back on Sesame Street, Big Bird is happy to be back home. His happiness is short-lived when Miss Finch arrives to place him with another bird family, having accepted that Big Bird was not happy with the Dodos but still insists that Big Bird would be "happier with his own kind." However, Maria tells her that he is happy on Sesame Street where it does not matter that his family consists of humans, honkers monsters, Grouches, and other species. Realizing Maria is right, and acknowledging that they traveled all that way to find Big Bird, a sympathetic Miss Finch officially declares Sesame Street to be his home and happily leaves with her job complete. Afterwards, Big Bird reunites with Mr. Snuffleupagus. As everyone celebrates Big Bird's return,

Oscar the Grouch Oscar the Grouch is a List of Sesame Street Muppets, Muppet character created by Jim Henson and Jon Stone for the PBS/HBO children's television program ''Sesame Street''. He has a green body, no visible nose, and lives in a Sesame Street (fiction ...

gets carried around the block in his

trash can A waste container, also known as a dustbin, rubbish bin, trash can, garbage can, wastepaper basket, and wastebasket, among other names, is a type of container intended to store waste that is usually made out of metal or plastic. The words "r ...

by Bruno the Trashman in order to get away from everyone's happiness.

Cast

Paul Bartel Paul Bartel (August 6, 1938 – May 13, 2000) was an American actor, writer and director. He was perhaps most known for his 1982 hit black comedy ''Eating Raoul'', which he co-wrote, starred in and directed. Bartel appeared in over 90 movies an ...

as the Grouch Diner

Cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (profession), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * C ...

* Sandra Bernhard as the Grouch Diner

Waitress Waiting staff ( BrE), waiters () / waitresses (), or servers (AmE) are those who work at a restaurant, a diner, or a bar and sometimes in private homes, attending to customers by supplying them with food and drink as requested. Waiting staff ...

as the State Trooper who arrests the Sleaze Brothers *

as the

Newscaster A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news broadcasting, news program on televisio ...

as Sid Sleaze, a con artist and one half of the Sleaze Brothers who is the more childlike of the duo *

as the Turkey

Truck Driver A truck driver (commonly referred to as a trucker, teamster or driver in the United States and Canada; a truckie in Australia and New Zealand; an HGV driver in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the European Union, a lorry driver, or driver in ...

* Dave Thomas as Sam Sleaze, a con artist and one half of the Sleaze Brothers who is the more intelligent of the duo * Alyson Court as Ruthie Darcy * Benjamin Barrett as Floyd Darcy * Richard Campbell as a boy whose apple is stolen by the Sleaze Brothers * Liston Bates as a rescue boy * Tawny Richard as a rescue girl * Adrian McCalla as a kid with a map * Tanya Marie Cook as Tanya * Shawna Stoll as an airline announcer

Muppet Performers

as Big Bird,

and Bruno the Trashman *

and

Ernie Ernie is a masculine given name, frequently a short form (hypocorism) of Ernest, Ernald, Ernesto, or Verner. It may refer to: People * Ernie Accorsi (born 1941), American football executive * Ernie Adams (disambiguation) * Ernie Afaganis ...

Cookie Monster Cookie Monster is a blue List of Sesame Street Muppets, Muppet character on the PBS/HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street.'' He is best known for his voracious appetite and his famous eating catchphrases, such as "Me want cookie!" As ...

, Bert and

Grover Grover is a blue Muppet character on the PBS/HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street''. Self-described as lovable, cute, and furry, he is a blue monster who rarely uses contractions when he speaks or sings. Grover was originally perfo ...

Jerry Nelson Jerry Nelson (July 10, 1934 – August 23, 2012) was an American puppeteer, best known for his work with The Muppets. Known for his wide range of characters and singing abilities, he performed Muppet characters on ''Sesame Street'', ''The M ...

Count von Count Count von Count (known simply as the Count) is a Muppet character on the PBS/HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street.'' He is meant to parody Bela Lugosi's vampiric character, Count Dracula. His first appearance on the show was in the 4 ...

, Herry Monster, Simon Soundman, Sherlock Hemlock, The Amazing Mumford and Biff * Richard Hunt as Gladys, Bird Member #2, Sully and

Elmo Elmo is a Muppet character on the children's television show ''Sesame Street''. A furry red monster who speaks in a high-pitched falsetto voice and frequently refers to himself in the third person, he hosts the last full 15-minute segmen ...

* Kathryn Mullen as Grouch Diner Patron #2 and Little Girl *

as Miss Finch (voice) ** Cheryl Wagner as Miss

(performer) * Brian Hohlfeld as Daddy Dodo (voice) ** Gord Robertson as Daddy Dodo (performer) *

as Mommy Dodo (voice) ** Patricia Leeper as Mommy Dodo (performer) * Eddie Deezen as Donnie Dodo (voice) ** Jeff Weiser as Donnie Dodo (performer) * Cathy Silvers as Marie Dodo (voice) ** Shari Weiser as Marie Dodo (performer) * Martin P. Robinson as Mr. Snuffleupagus, Telly, Grouch Diner Patron #1, Poco Loco and Bird Member #1 ** Bryant Young as Mr. Snuffleupagus (back-end performer) * Noel MacNeal as Madame Chairbird * Fred Garbo Garver as

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

and Barkley * Tim Gosley as Bird Member #3 and Honker * Patricia Leeper as Bird Member #4 * Pam Arciero as Grundgetta Additional Board of Bird members performed by Bob Stutt, Nikki Tilroe, Lee Armstrong, Rob Mills, and John Pattison. Additional Muppets performed by Kevin Clash, Frank Meschkuleit, Terry Angus, Matthew Pidgeon, Stephen Brathwaite, Tom Vandenberg, Francine Anderson, Ron Wagner, Martine Carrier, Karen Valleau, Michelle Frey, Gus Harsfai, Patricia Lewis, Charlotte Levinson, Carolanne McLean, Peter McCowatt, Brian Moffatt, Myra Fried, Jani Lauzon and Sandra Shamas.

Humans of Sesame Street

as Linda * Emilio Delgado as Luis Rodriguez * Loretta Long as Susan Robinson *

as Maria Rodriguez * Bob McGrath as Bob Johnson * Roscoe Orman as Gordon Robinson * Alaina Reed as Olivia Robinson * Kermit Love as Willy

Production

The film was shot on location in

Ontario, Canada Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

(

Bolton Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...

, Schomberg, Woodbridge and Georgetown), and at Toronto International Studios (now Cinespace Film Studios) in 1984. The street set, rebuilt to make it look more realistic than in the television series, was expanded in the film to include a music store, a fire station, an auto body shop, a family clinic, a bakery, a bookstore, and a grocery store. According to Noel MacNeal, after completing the footage of Big Bird on the farm with Ruthie and Floyd, the filmmakers discovered that the film was badly scratched and unusable. The actors, crew, and performers promptly had to return to the same location months later in winter, whereupon many of the green leaves in the film are spray-painted and after each take, the kids would run to put their coats on. Early in production, the crew noticed that Oscar's trash can looked too new, so they banged it up and dirtied it to match the one in the television series. While filming Bert and

's "upside down world" song,

and

were actually in an upside down

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

eighteen feet from the ground. After filming wrapped, the filmmakers did not believe that the voice of Cheryl Wagner, who had performed Miss Finch while simultaneously voicing her, seemed appropriate for the character, so her voice was dubbed over by that of

. This would be her only Muppet film before her death in 2022. Before Ken Kwapis was chosen to direct,

John Landis John David Landis (born August 3, 1950) is an American filmmaker and actor. He is best known for directing comedy films such as ''The Kentucky Fried Movie'' (1977), ''Animal House, National Lampoon's Animal House'' (1978), The Blues Brothers (f ...

(who had previously performed

in the " Rainbow Connection" finale in '' The Muppet Movie'') was asked by Warner Bros. However, Landis had to decline due to scheduling conflicts with '' Into the Night''. Due to having a criminal record, Northern Calloway was banned from entering Canada for the film's production causing his character David to be written out of the script and not appear. This is the only ''Sesame Street'' feature film to star both Henson (as

and

) and Richard Hunt and the last Muppet film to involve them before their deaths in 1990 and 1992.

Musical numbers

# "The Grouch Anthem" (Jeff Pennig, Jeff Harrington, and Steve Pippin) – Oscar the Grouch and the Grouch chorus # " Sesame Street Theme" ( Joe Raposo, Jon Stone, and Bruce Hart) # "Ain't No Road Too Long" (Pennig, Harrington, and Pippin) –

, Gordon, Olivia, Grover, Count von Count and Big Bird # "One Little Star" ( Jeff Moss) – Big Bird, Olivia and Mr. Snuffleupagus # "Easy Goin' Day" (Pennig, Harrington, and Pippin) – Big Bird and Ruthie # "Upside Down World" (Moss) – Ernie and Bert # "All Together Now" ( Wood Newton and Michael Noble) –

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

# "Workin' on My Attitude" (Eddie Setser and Troy Seals) –

Ronnie Milsap Ronnie Lee Milsap (born Ronald Lee Millsaps; January 16, 1943) is an American country music singer and pianist. He was one of country music's most popular and influential performers of the 1970s and 1980s. Nearly completely blind from birth, h ...

# "I'm So Blue" ( Randy Sharp and Karen Brooks) – Big Bird

Soundtrack

; Track list ;; Side One 1. "The Grouch Anthem"
2. "Big Bird's Goodbye/The Runaway" - Big Bird, Mr. Snuffleupagus, and Kermit the Frog
3. "Ain't No Road Too Long"
4. "Big Bird on the Farm/One Little Star" - Big Bird, Ruthie, Floyd, Olivia, and Mr. Snuffleupagus
5. "Easy Goin' Day" ;; Side Two 6. "Don't Drop Inn/Workin' on My Attitude" - Ronnie Milsap (Written by Eddie Setser and Troy Seals)
7. "Upside Down World"
8. "I'm So Blue"
9. "The Chase/Sesame Street Theme" - Big Bird, Gordon, and Olivia
10. "All Together Now"

Reception

Critical response

The film was a critical success upon its release. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has a rating of 92% based on 12 reviews, with an average score of 6.40/10. The ''

Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region, in the United States. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by pare ...

'' called the film "a flip and funny ' road picture' for children that doesn't let its kind heart get in the way of its often biting wit." Walter Goodman observed in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' that "by and large, the script by Tony Geiss and Judy Freudberg and the direction by Ken Kwapis don't strain for yuks; what they seek, and more often than not attain, is a tone of kindly kidding."

Box office

Despite critical acclaim, the film underperformed at the box office due to having opened the same day as '' Fright Night'' and '' Weird Science'', and faced heavy competition from ''

Back to the Future ''Back to the Future'' is a 1985 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and Thomas F. Wilson. Set in 1985 ...

'', '' Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome'', '' Pee-wee's Big Adventure'',

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

's '' The Black Cauldron'' and '' National Lampoon's European Vacation'' among other films. It grossed $2,415,626 on its opening weekend. By the end of its theatrical run, its total gross was $13,961,370. This production, along with other unsuccessful ventures, hurt the Children's Television Workshop financially during the 1980s, though they did recover afterwards.

Home media

The film was first released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

and

LaserDisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...

in 1986. It received three successive home video re-releases by Warner Bros. Family Entertainment in 1993, 1999 and 2002, and also on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

(which was presented in a full-screen presentation). Another DVD release followed in 2004, which was re-issued as a special "25th Anniversary Edition" in 2009 in its original widescreen aspect ratio and new bonus features.

References

External links

* * * * {{Ken Kwapis 1985 films 1985 children's films 1980s English-language films 1980s musical comedy films 1980s children's comedy films 1980s comedy road movies American musical comedy films American children's comedy films American children's musical films American comedy road movies Columbia Pictures films Films about birds Films about missing people Films based on television series Puppet films Sesame Street features Warner Bros. films Films directed by Ken Kwapis Films scored by Lennie Niehaus Films scored by Van Dyke Parks Films set in Illinois Films set in Indiana Films set in New York City Films set in New York (state) Films shot in Illinois Films shot in Indiana Films shot in New York City Films shot in New York (state) Films shot in Toronto American films with live action and animation Dodo 1980s American films English-language musical comedy films 1985 musical films