Python Hyena Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird (1985): Dir: Ken Kwapis / Cast: Dave Thomas, Joe Flaherty, Waylon Jennings, Sandra Bernhard, Alyson Court: Sesame Street celebrates one of its most beloved characters in Big Bird. He lives on Sesame Street amongst humans as well as other Muppet characters such as Oscar the grouch, Grover, and the Cookie Monster. Central plot regards an authority bird named Miss Finch who cannot mind her own business. Instead she sees Big Bird as unhappy because he doesn't live with other birds. So she sets him up with a family of dodos that are about as much fun as slamming your head repeatedly in the car door. Big Bird agrees and begins the trek back home where he makes interesting encounters. The human actors on Sesame Street set out to meet Big Bird and help him get home while his fellow Muppet pals set out as well. Cookie Monster attempts to devour a car. Grover becomes Super Grover and tries to take flight. Bert and Ernie go by plane. Cameos by Dave Thomas and Joe Flaherty as a couple of scheming circus swindlers out to capture Big Bird for their own use. Waylon Jennings sings the only decent song during the film as he gives Big Bird a lift. Sandra Bernhard works at a grouch diner. Alyson Court even makes an appearance as a youngster sheltering Big Bird on a farm. Delightful family romp that reminds us what true unity is all about. Score: 9 / 10

richspenc "Follow that bird" is a great film, just like the Seseme street show of the 70s and 80s. I always loved them both. Big Bird gets taken to the dodos in Illinois, he does not like it there, so he starts walking all the way back to Seseme Street. Along the way, he meets a singing trucker who gives him a ride while singing "ain't no road too long", and then he meets a couple of farm kids, who let him sleep in their barn, and then send him down the road while singing " easygoing ". They also help Bigbird hide from Mrs. Finch, who's been after him to take him back to the Dodos. He even hides out in a hayfield while Mrs. Finch actually gets out of her car to go look for him. Lol. At one point Bigbird, while in the middle of a wheatfield whines " l'll never get home! There's nothing around but amber waves of grain". Directly after that, he has a nice imagination sequence of seeing Snuffy. Several of our familiar Seseme Street members drive out to look for him. Maria and Oscar, while together, stop at an actual grouch style restaurant which literally gives you tossed salad. Gordon and Susan go with Cookie Monster, who bit by bit, keeps eating parts of their car. And Ernie and Bert, who fly a plane, and at one point sing an upside-down song while flying their plane upside-down. Then Super Gover flies to go look for him then flies right into Gordon and Susan's car. " Grover!", Gordan and Maria both exclaim. "That's Super Grover", Grover retorts. Then there are the two bad guys who run a carnival, steal apples from kids, and kidnap Bigbird, paint him blue, call him the " bluebird of happiness", and have him sing for a group of kids " to be back home again". But he can't get away, they have him locked up. My very favorite part of the film is when a cop (John Candy) pulls the two baddies over. He tells them that they are indeed in trouble for all that they've done, and then one of the bad guys actually starts crying. The cop says to him 'be a man". And the crying bad guy says "I don't wanna be a man". OMG. That's all I can say. OMG. Well, that and that I don't think that I've ever laughed so hard in my entire life. No matter how many times I've seen that.

trixie-k-88 Follow that Bird is a great children's movie. Unlike other Sesame Street productions it can be enjoyable for children well into elementary school, and even parents! All is well on Sesame Street, that is until it comes to the Bird Society's attention that Big Bird is not living with a proper bird family. They send out Ms. Finch, a social worker who is to place our favorite yellow muppet with a bird family. While nervous at first, Big Bird gets excited about the idea of a bird family and is sent to Illinois to live with the Dodos. The Dodos are rather dopey and strange, and Big Bird misses his friends on Sesame Street. Big Bird finally gives up on the Dodos and runs away when they say they do not want him to be friends with Snuffy, as he should have "bird friends". When the gang on Sesame Street hear Big Bird is running home they send out a search party to find him, including Maria, Linda, Gordon, Super Grover, Oscar, the Count, Cookie Monster, Bert, Ernie,and the honkers. We then follow Big Bird's journey home to Sesame Street in New York, while all his friends search high and low for him. On his trip he manages to find help from some farm kids and a friendly truck driver, but also gets kidnapped by the "Sleaze Brothers", two carnies who want him to be a sideshow attraction in their carnival. It is then up to the rest of the gang from Sesame Street to rescue their favorite yellow bird and take him home! I love this movie. It's something I loved when I was little and even if my daughter watches it over and over I don't get annoyed. It has a solid plot and is not just for preschoolers like many other Sesame Street productions. There is a clear positive message of the importance of diversity and even trans-racial adoption. There is also a good message of "don't talk to strangers" and shows the danger of trusting people too eager to get you into their car. While some have said this aspect of the movie is too scary, I disagree. It's far from traumatizing, and it is important that children have some level of fear of people who are clearly up to no good. Follow That Bird is both Jim Henson and Big Bird in their prime. It's definitely better than any Elmo movies, and a must for any Sesame Street fans, young and old.

rebeljenn I only watched this film when I was very young, and some of it stuck with me all over all these years. I remember seeing it for the first time. (Gosh, I can't believe I actually 'forced' to watch this with my parents at night and thought they loved Sesame Street! I can imagine them being very bored while they watched this with me.) I am guessing this is the film I saw when I was about six-years-old, based on the plot. What I remember was that Big Bird was lost or far away from home, and he looks up at the stars or something and wishes he was back home, and it was all very emotional. I remember that he was also in China or some other country and he had befriended a little girl. It seems odd that I remember some of this after all these years, but it must have been well done because I enjoyed it and it was very emotional and I wanted to watch it again but I was never able to.