Last year, I purchased both specials on a 3 disc DVD collection of Christmas Specials from "Sesame Street", and since the DVD set came with a Sesame Street Christmas Special that I have not seen before, I'm deciding to review it for the Christmas countdown. This is...
At a time when I was getting to the point where I was too old for "Sesame Street", my little Brother Jack when he was a little boy would watch “Sesame Street” every morning before I went to School, so naturally, I sat down and watched it with him since I had nothing else to do. My Brother Jack of course loved the show, and despite that I grew up watching the show at a different era, as well as wanting to watch Nickelodeon instead, I did find myself enjoying the current run of the show. Jack and I's favorite segment of the show out of all the segments was the closing segment "Elmo's World". As simple and formulated as the segment was it still a ton of fun watch. The segment would take place a live action and computer generated environment of squiggly crayon drawings in an apartment where Elmo lives as every episode would feature a different topic (Such as Dancing, Clothes, Food, Sleep, Hands, etc, etc.) that would be taught in various ways. Elmo would open up his closet door, which would be the introduction to the segment's topic. Elmo would check his Email and see videos of his Muppet pals. We would visit his comical silent next door neighbor, Mr. Noodle (Who was easily our favorite part of the show). There would be a short cartoon, where usually our main character would wear glasses, and be voiced by Andrea Martin. We would see Elmo interact with his live action Pet Goldfish Dorothy, and see what she's thinking. Kids would appear on the show and talk to Elmo and Dorothy. We'd get a very cute, but at the same time very awkward moment when Elmo would ask a baby a question. Elmo would even talk to Muppet characters that either take part in the topic, or are the topic. And Elmo of course also interacts with the audience by asking them questions, having them count along with him, and even sing along with him, as he would sing a song about the topic, which is always in the tune of "Jingle Bells". So as you may have guessed, we both love the segment. Now that there's a whole "Elmo's World" Christmas special that not only goes past the 15 minute mark, but is something that me nor my Brother have ever seen, is it just as good and true to this 15 minute segment; ON WITH THE REVIEW!
The Special despite being nearly an hour long, it actually does treat itself like the actual segment to the show, and none of the stuff in the Special feels like its dragging only to lengthen it. Why you may ask, because the Special doesn’t just talk about Christmas. The Special also talks about Chanukah and Kwanza. Now granted, all these holidays could work as separate episodes, but seeing them together works just as well. On top of it, the Special doesn't even feel like it's half-assing any of the three holidays, they actually go into great and fun detail with why these celebrate the holidays are celebrated and what are the traditions of celebrating it, which I found to be both very fun and insightful. The Special while teaching the Holidays to kids, it does have a semi-story to it, which is Elmo trying to figure out what to give his Goldfish Dorthoy for Christmas, and as silly as it is, there's not only a really good touch of cute and innocence added to it, but it also teaches kids about the spirit of giving...even though, it's only for his pet fish. I mean seriously, Elmo gets worried about not giving his Pet fish a gift; I'd tell him to get real problems.
Since the Special acts like an hour long "Elmo's World" episode, all the good stuff is there. We see Mr. Noodle and his family decorate a Christmas tree, which is just as hilarious as all his other skits. Elmo gets a few letters and Emails from his friends as they wish him a Merry Christmas, and show him how they celebrate during the Holiday Season. A bunch of Carolers keeps knocking at his door to sing Christmas Carols, and while the joke was predictable it's still funny. Elmo learns why the Jewish people celebrate Chaunkah by watching a short cartoon from the Chaunkah channel hosted by Andrea Martin, and while I'm sure a good half of it (If not all of it) was rewritten to fit with the fun and innocent cartoon charm and atmosphere, it was still fun to watch. Also, just like in the show, I enjoy seeing Elmo interact with his crayon drawn items that are alive such as his computer, draw, TV, and his door (Who by the way, really whores over Elmo for his kisses). The humor in the Special, while predictable at times, and not as die hard funny as some of the gags in the previous Sesame Street Christmas Specials that I reviewed, they're still fun and innocent enough to keep you entertained, and give you an occasional laugh. I think the funniest sequence in the whole Special that kept me laughing just as hard as seeing Cookie Monster trying to write a letter to Santa in "Christmas Eve On Sesame Street"; or seeing Grover trying to sell Christmas Trees in "Elmo Saves Christmas", is the Natvity padget directed by Prairie Dawn. It teaches kids about the meaning of Christmas, but the play becomes a disaster, and that's all I'm going to say, since I don't want to spoil it for you. However, if I had to point out one flaw in it, if Bert is allergic to Hay, why is he surprised that there's Hay on the set? Did they even rehearse the play at all? Did Bert not realize that they were going to put Hay on the stage? However, I'm over analyzing, and it is a funny running gag in the skit.
With the exception of Mr.Noodles' family, the Special does carry some special guest appearances. The one who shows up the most is Kelly Ripa as a Mail Carrier who's really passionate about her job, despite forgetting to deliver letters for Elmo on two occasions. Ripa's chemistry with Elmo is cute and her love and passion of delivering Mail so over the top, silly, and awkward that it's fun and yet charming to watch. You also have appearances from Julio T. Leitao and "Everybody Hates Chris" very own Tyler James Williams, and while it's nice seeing them in the special, they're only in it for a very short bit. My real praise in the Special guest appearances is really Charles Edward Hall as Santa. Not only is he ten times better then Charles Durning in "Elmo Saves Christmas”, but this is the guy who's best known for playing Santa at "The Radio City Christmas Spectacular" and here he does just as great of a job as he does on the stage. As for the rest of the “Sesame Street” cast, while not appearing too much in the Special, its still nice seeing them, as well as bringing back the memories of watching the show during the early 2000s, much like the previous Sesame Street Christmas Specials. The Special also includes some songs, which I'm not going to lie, are just as fun, catchy, and heartwarming as the songs in the other Christmas Specials of “Sesame Street” that I reviewed. You have the humorous "Christmas Padget" song; you see Baby Bear and his Papa show Telly and Elmo what games they play during Chanuakah (I thought Baby Bear celebrated Christmas, as shown in "Elmo Saves Christmas". Hmm, I guess he celebrates both.) as they sing the Draddle song; you of course have the Christmas Carols constantly and comically singing "We Wish You A Merry Christmas"; and you have the whole Sesame Street cast singing "Jingle Bells" to close out the Special. My favorite song in the whole Special is the song that Santa sings to Elmo called "Greatest Present Of All", which is not only sweet and heartwarming, but it really hits the moral of giving right on the nail, much like when Charles Durning sang "Everyday Can't Be Christmas" in "Elmo Saves Christmas".
With nitpicks aside, you can tell that I love the Special just as much as I love the other Specials and the segment that it spun-off from. Well, as much as I do love this Special, there's sadly only one thing I don't get. How did Elmo get to the North Pole so fast without any transportation, what-so-ever? I mean is this his imagination, it would make sense since the Special goes from seeing Elmo in a regular apartment, to zooming in on his drawings, which leads us to his imagination. However, if this is his imagination, it still doesn't make any sense. He's learning things he's never learned before; he's reading mail from his friends; and he even sits down to imagine things in his own imaginary world. What sense does that make? This is “Sesame Street”, not "Inception". I used to think that this was Elmo's house, or another World that Elmo lived in since the show never addressed that this was all in his thoughts, and to find out this crazy piece of information makes no sense. I'll admit, it’s not as bad or distracting as the complicated logic in "Elmo Saves Christmas", but it's nearly just as bad. I know the show itself doesn't make a whole lot of sense either, but at least they kept it simple and educational. In "Christmas Eve On Sesame Street", even though it was mainly the characters trying to figure out about how Santa goes down the chimney, it was not only done for comedy, but the ending leaving you in wonderment of how he did it worked, because Santa Claus who we thought was real was already a mystery to us. Stuff like this, just seems way too complicated to be simple Pr-School material.
With nitpicks (That don't really bother me) and the confused logic of "Elmo's World" aside, I was surprised that I didn't see this Special earlier when my Brother was a kid. It's honestly a really fun, cute, nostalgic, and educational Holiday Special that dives into all three Holidays perfectly! I enjoyed this Special so much that this Holiday Special out of the three I reviewed would be my second favorite, with "Elmo Saves Christmas" at the bottom (Even though I don't hate it). If you grew up with "Elmo's World" and haven't seen this Special yet, or if you know someone that's little who hasn't seen this Holiday Special, this is a must see.
RATING 4/5
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