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[[File:Sleaze brothers.jpg|thumb|300px]]
 
[[File:Sleaze brothers.jpg|thumb|300px]]
 
[[File:FTB-cropped.png|thumb|300px|Copies of the film presented on home video prior to 2009 featured a cropped 1.33:1 screen aspect ratio. The [[Follow That Bird (video)#deluxe|deluxe edition DVD]] released in 2009 presents the film in its original 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio.]]
 
[[File:FTB-cropped.png|thumb|300px|Copies of the film presented on home video prior to 2009 featured a cropped 1.33:1 screen aspect ratio. The [[Follow That Bird (video)#deluxe|deluxe edition DVD]] released in 2009 presents the film in its original 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio.]]
[[File:Elmo-followthatbird.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Elmo|Elmo's]] very brief appearance. Seen with an unnamed yellow monster, [[Roosevelt Franklin]] and [[Prairie Dawn]].]]
+
[[File:Elmo-followthatbird.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Elmo]]'s very brief appearance. Seen with an unnamed yellow monster, [[Roosevelt Franklin]], and [[Prairie Dawn]].]]
 
[[File:Big Bird scarecrow.jpg|thumb|300px]]
 
[[File:Big Bird scarecrow.jpg|thumb|300px]]
 
[[File:Birdfamily.jpg|thumb|300px|Big Bird's dream family, animated by [[The Animation House Limited]].]]
 
[[File:Birdfamily.jpg|thumb|300px|Big Bird's dream family, animated by [[The Animation House Limited]].]]
 
[[File:Caroll Spinney Follow That Bird screening.jpg|thumb|300px|Caroll Spinney attends a screening of ''Follow That Bird''.]]
 
[[File:Caroll Spinney Follow That Bird screening.jpg|thumb|300px|Caroll Spinney attends a screening of ''Follow That Bird''.]]
 
 
'''''Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird''''' is the first feature-length film to star characters from ''[[Sesame Street]]''.
 
'''''Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird''''' is the first feature-length film to star characters from ''[[Sesame Street]]''.
   
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* The movie was filmed on location in Ontario, [[Canada]], and at Toronto International Studios. Thus, in addition to the regular ''Sesame Street'' puppeteers, many of the performers from ''[[Fraggle Rock]]'' were used for the film.
 
* The movie was filmed on location in Ontario, [[Canada]], and at Toronto International Studios. Thus, in addition to the regular ''Sesame Street'' puppeteers, many of the performers from ''[[Fraggle Rock]]'' were used for the film.
   
* The movie was also filmed shortly after production wrapped on ''Sesame Street''’s [[Season 15 (1983-1984)|15th season]], but released in the summer following [[Season 16 (1984-1985)|Season 16]]. It is noted as [[Martin P. Robinson]]'s first filmed performance of [[Telly Monster]] (following the departure of [[Brian Muehl]]).<ref>see [[Talk: Telly Monster#Brian Muehl & Bob Payne|Talk: Telly Monster]]</ref> [[Fred Garbo|Fred Garbo Garver]] also plays [[Barkley]] for the first time, continuing the role through [[Season 24 (1992-1993)|Season 24]], and [[Pam Arciero]] performs [[Grundgetta]].
+
* The movie was also filmed shortly after production wrapped on ''Sesame Street''’s [[Season 15 (1983-1984)|15th season]], but released in the summer following [[Season 16 (1984-1985)|Season 16]]. It is noted as [[Martin P. Robinson]]'s first filmed performance of [[Telly Monster]] (following the departure of [[Brian Muehl]]).<ref>"[https://youtu.be/Gtv7GM6uGp0?t=3913 EP#6: Martin P. Robinson/Jerry Stories (Paul Rudolph)/'Little Red']", ''Below The Frame with Matt Vogel'', September 2, 2020. (01:05:13)</ref><ref>see [[Talk: Telly Monster#Brian Muehl & Bob Payne|Talk: Telly Monster]]</ref> [[Fred Garbo|Fred Garbo Garver]] also plays [[Barkley]] for the first time, continuing the role through [[Season 24 (1992-1993)|Season 24]], and [[Pam Arciero]] performs [[Grundgetta]].
   
* In addition to its own [[Follow That Bird! (storybook)|storybook adaptation]], the movie inspired five storybooks, ''[[Big Bird's Day on the Farm]]'', ''[[Big Bird Visits the Dodos]]'', ''[[Big Bird Joins the Carnival]]'', ''[[Count All the Way to Sesame Street]]'' and ''[[Welcome Home, Big Bird]]'' which takes place after the movie.
+
* In addition to its own [[Follow That Bird! (storybook)|storybook adaptation]], the movie inspired five storybooks: ''[[Big Bird's Day on the Farm]]'', ''[[Big Bird Visits the Dodos]]'', ''[[Big Bird Joins the Carnival]]'', ''[[Count All the Way to Sesame Street]]'', and ''[[Welcome Home, Big Bird]]'' which takes place after the movie.
   
 
* The aircraft that Big Bird flies on from Sesame Street to Oceanview, Illinois is a [[wikipedia:Fokker F27|Fokker F27 Friendship]].
 
* The aircraft that Big Bird flies on from Sesame Street to Oceanview, Illinois is a [[wikipedia:Fokker F27|Fokker F27 Friendship]].
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* A widescreen DVD presented in the film's original 1.85:1 screen-aspect ratio was available for the first time in 2009, when a 25th-anniversary Deluxe Edition DVD of the film was released. Previously, all region-1 copies of the film were presented full screen 1.33:1.
 
* A widescreen DVD presented in the film's original 1.85:1 screen-aspect ratio was available for the first time in 2009, when a 25th-anniversary Deluxe Edition DVD of the film was released. Previously, all region-1 copies of the film were presented full screen 1.33:1.
   
* Just before Big Bird's entrance roller-skating down the street, he's visible through the Fix-It Shop window waiting for his cue for just a moment or two before he skates home.
+
* Just before Big Bird's entrance roller-skating down the street, he is visible through the Fix-It Shop window waiting for his cue for just a moment or two before he skates home.
   
* The turkey-truck driver's license plate reads "GOBBLE."
+
* The turkey truck driver's license plate reads "GOBBLE."
   
* The scene with Big Bird running from Ernie and Bert's approaching plane is a spoof on a visually very similar scene from the [[Alfred Hitchcock]] film ''North by Northwest'', in which [[Cary Grant]]'s character hides in a cornfield after a crop duster attack. The subsequent pesticide cloud, in this version, is replaced by Bert's falling bottlecap collection.
+
* The scene with Big Bird running from Ernie and Bert's approaching plane is a spoof on a visually similar scene from the [[Alfred Hitchcock]] film ''North by Northwest'', in which [[Cary Grant]]'s character hides in a cornfield after a crop duster attack. The subsequent pesticide cloud, in this version, is replaced by Bert's falling bottlecap collection.
   
 
==Songs==
 
==Songs==
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:Richard Campbell as Boy with apple
 
:Richard Campbell as Boy with apple
 
:Liston Bates as Rescue Boy
 
:Liston Bates as Rescue Boy
:Tawny Richard as Rescue Girl
+
:[[Tawny Richard]] as Rescue Girl
 
:Adrian McCalla as Kid at map
 
:Adrian McCalla as Kid at map
:[[The Kids|Tanya Marie Cook]] as Tanya
+
:[[Tanya Cook|Tanya Marie Cook]] as Tanya
 
:Shawna Stoll as Airline Announcer
 
:Shawna Stoll as Airline Announcer
   
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* ''Background Characters''
 
* ''Background Characters''
:[[Grundgetta]], [[Osvaldo, el Gruñón]], [[Grouches]], [[Bruno the Trashman]], [[Barkley]], [[Herry Monster]], [[Gladys the Cow]], [[Elmo]], [[Two-Headed Monster]], [[Sherlock Hemlock]], [[The Amazing Mumford]], [[Biff]], [[Sully]], [[Buster the Horse]], [[Forgetful Jones]], [[Simon Soundman]], [[Dr. Nobel Price]], [[Poco Loco]], [[Maurice Monster]], [[Bruce (monster)|Bruce Monster]], [[Prairie Dawn]], [[Red Bird]], [[Roosevelt Franklin]], [[Ferlinghetti Donizetti]], [[Mr. Honker]], [[Old McDougal]], [[Honkers]], [[Slimey]], [[Anything Muppets]], [[:Category:Sesame Street Monsters|Sesame Street Monsters]], [[Board of Birds]], [[Preposterous]]
+
:[[Grundgetta]], [[Osvaldo, el Gruñón]], [[Grouches]], [[Bruno the Trashman]], [[Barkley]], [[Herry Monster]], [[Gladys the Cow]], [[Elmo]], [[Two-Headed Monster]], [[Sherlock Hemlock]], [[The Amazing Mumford]], [[Biff]], [[Sully]], [[Buster the Horse]], [[Forgetful Jones]], [[Simon Soundman]], [[Dr. Nobel Price]], [[Poco Loco]], [[Maurice Monster]], [[Bruce (monster)|Bruce Monster]], [[Prairie Dawn]], [[Red Bird]], [[Roosevelt Franklin]], [[Ferlinghetti Donizetti]], [[Mr. Honker]], [[Old McDougal]], [[Honkers]], [[Slimey]], [[Anything Muppets]], [[:Category:Sesame Street Monsters|Sesame Street Monsters]], [[Board of Birds]], [[Preposterous]], [[Granny Monster]]
   
 
==Additional credits==
 
==Additional credits==
 
* Producer: Tony Garnett
 
* Producer: Tony Garnett
 
* Executive Producer: [[Joan Ganz Cooney]]
 
* Executive Producer: [[Joan Ganz Cooney]]
  +
* Music Coordinator: [[Jeff Moss]]
 
* Associate Producers: Pat Churchill, [[Martin G. Baker]]
 
* Associate Producers: Pat Churchill, [[Martin G. Baker]]
 
* "Sesame Street" Muppet Consultant: [[Kermit Love]]
 
* "Sesame Street" Muppet Consultant: [[Kermit Love]]
  +
* "Sesame Street" Character Design: [[Don Sahlin|Donald Sahlin]], Kermit Love, [[Caroly Wilcox]]
 
* New Character Design: [[Michael K. Frith]]
 
* New Character Design: [[Michael K. Frith]]
  +
* Additional Muppet Design and Construction: Caroly Wilcox, with [[Rollie Krewson]], [[Ed Christie|Edward G. Christie]], [[Richard Termine]], [[Joanne Green]], Mary Dennis Kannapell, [[Maria McNamara]], [[Kay Stuntz]], [[Norman Tempia]], Jane Tschetter, [[Marian Keating]], [[David Velasquez]], [[Muriel Stockdale]], Tom Keller, [[Cheryl Blaylock]], [[Bob Flanagan]], Robert Marty, [[Jan Rosenthal]], Matthew Stoddart, [[Susan Moore]], Christopher Lyall
  +
* Muppet Special Effects: [[Larry Jameson]], with [[Fred Buchholz]], [[Leigh Donaldson]], [[Tom Newby]], Richard Loveless, Daniel Nauke, [[Faz Fazakas]]
  +
* New York Workshop Production: [[Will Morrison]], with Faye Kreinberg and Cathy Sherrill
  +
* Toronto Studio Co-ordinator: Richard Termine, with Sherry McMorran, [[Jean-Guy White]], Suzanne Hudson, Rob Gardner, [[Noel MacNeal]]
  +
* Special Assistant: [[Debra Spinney|Debbie Spinney]]
   
{{br}}
 
 
==Gallery==
 
==Gallery==
 
<gallery spacing="small" widths="200" orientation="landscape">
 
<gallery spacing="small" widths="200" orientation="landscape">
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==See also==
 
==See also==
*''[[Follow That Bird (soundtrack)|Follow That Bird]]'' (soundtrack)
+
* ''[[Follow That Bird (soundtrack)|Follow That Bird]]'' (soundtrack)
*''[[Follow That Bird (video)|Follow That Bird]]'' (video)
+
* ''[[Follow That Bird (video)|Follow That Bird]]'' (video)
*[[Follow That Bird Wendy's Kids Meal|''Follow That Bird'' Wendy's Kids Meal]]
+
* [[Follow That Bird Wendy's Kids Meal|''Follow That Bird'' Wendy's Kids Meal]]
   
 
==External links==
 
==External links==
*[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089994/ IMDb]
+
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089994/ IMDb]
*[http://www.dvdizzy.com/followthatbird.html DVD review at DVDizzy.com]
+
* [http://www.dvdizzy.com/followthatbird.html DVD review at DVDizzy.com]
*[http://www.babble.com/celebrity/celebrity-style/director-ken-kwarpis-sesame-street-movie-follow-that-bird/ Interview with director Ken Kwapis at babble.com]
+
* [http://www.babble.com/celebrity/celebrity-style/director-ken-kwarpis-sesame-street-movie-follow-that-bird/ Interview with director Ken Kwapis at babble.com]
   
 
__NOWYSIWYG__
 
__NOWYSIWYG__

Revision as of 17:20, 21 January 2021

Title.ftb
CHARACTERSHOME VIDEO
SOUNDTRACKMORE
Released August 2, 1985
Duration 89 minutes
Director Ken Kwapis
Written by Tony Geiss & Judy Freudberg
Music Van Dyke Parks and Lennie Niehaus
see also: songs
Studio Warner Bros. Pictures
Rated G
SesameStreetPresents-FollowThatBird-Poster-(1985)

The film's theatrical poster; art by Steven Chorney.

Easygoinday
FollowThatBird-NxNW

Sesame Street's North by Northwest spoof.

Big Bird and Dodos
Sleaze brothers
FTB-cropped

Copies of the film presented on home video prior to 2009 featured a cropped 1.33:1 screen aspect ratio. The deluxe edition DVD released in 2009 presents the film in its original 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio.

Elmo-followthatbird

Elmo's very brief appearance. Seen with an unnamed yellow monster, Roosevelt Franklin, and Prairie Dawn.

Big Bird scarecrow
Birdfamily

Big Bird's dream family, animated by The Animation House Limited.

Caroll Spinney Follow That Bird screening

Caroll Spinney attends a screening of Follow That Bird.

Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird is the first feature-length film to star characters from Sesame Street.

Synopsis

The plot involves an organization of birds called the Feathered Friends sending Big Bird to Oceanview, Illinois, to live with a bird family called the Dodos. However, after deciding that he isn't happy with them, he heads back to Sesame Street, not realizing that it will take more than just three hours to get back home.

Big Bird's road trip makes the news, and his friends on Sesame Street team up to find him. Also searching for him is overbearing social worker Miss Finch, who wants to return him to the Dodos. Big Bird's travels include a ride with a truck driver and an easy going day with farm children Ruthie and Floyd. He has a less friendly encounter with Sam and Sid Sleaze, crooked carnival operators who cage him as an act. In the end, Big Bird's friends find and rescue him and the bird returns to his true family and home, on Sesame Street.

Notes

  • The street set used in this movie is a rebuilt version of the show set, made to look more realistic. The expanded street includes a bakery, a grocery store, a fire station, an auto body shop, a music store, and a bookstore.
  • The Dodo family's home address is 35 Canary Row, Oceanview, Illinois.
  • The movie was filmed on location in Ontario, Canada, and at Toronto International Studios. Thus, in addition to the regular Sesame Street puppeteers, many of the performers from Fraggle Rock were used for the film.
  • The aircraft that Big Bird flies on from Sesame Street to Oceanview, Illinois is a Fokker F27 Friendship.
  • A widescreen DVD presented in the film's original 1.85:1 screen-aspect ratio was available for the first time in 2009, when a 25th-anniversary Deluxe Edition DVD of the film was released. Previously, all region-1 copies of the film were presented full screen 1.33:1.
  • Just before Big Bird's entrance roller-skating down the street, he is visible through the Fix-It Shop window waiting for his cue for just a moment or two before he skates home.
  • The turkey truck driver's license plate reads "GOBBLE."
  • The scene with Big Bird running from Ernie and Bert's approaching plane is a spoof on a visually similar scene from the Alfred Hitchcock film North by Northwest, in which Cary Grant's character hides in a cornfield after a crop duster attack. The subsequent pesticide cloud, in this version, is replaced by Bert's falling bottlecap collection.

Songs

Cast

  • Muppet Performers
Caroll Spinney, Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Richard Hunt, Kathryn Mullen, Jerry Nelson, Martin P. Robinson, Bryant Young, Fred Garbo Garver, Cheryl Wagner, Patricia Leeper, Gordon Robertson, Jeff Weiser, Shari Weiser, Tim Gosley, Noel MacNeal, Robert Stutt, Lee Armstrong, Nikki Tilroe, Robert Mills, John Pattison, 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 MacLean, Peter McCowatt, Brian Moffatt, Myra Fried, Jani Lauzon, Sandra Shamas, Kevin Clash, Pam Arciero
  • Sesame Street Cast
Linda Bove as Linda
Emilio Delgado as Luis
Loretta Long as Susan
Sonia Manzano as Maria
Bob McGrath as Bob
Roscoe Orman as Gordon
Alaina Reed as Olivia
Kermit Love as Willy
  • Human Cast
Dave Thomas as Sam Sleaze
Joe Flaherty as Sid Sleaze
Alyson Court as Ruthie
Benjamin Barrett as Floyd
Richard Campbell as Boy with apple
Liston Bates as Rescue Boy
Tawny Richard as Rescue Girl
Adrian McCalla as Kid at map
Tanya Marie Cook as Tanya
Shawna Stoll as Airline Announcer
  • Voice Actors
Sally Kellerman as Miss Finch
Laraine Newman as Mommy Dodo
Brian Hohlfeld as Daddy Dodo
Cathy Silvers as Marie Dodo
Eddie Deezen as Donnie Dodo
  • Cameo Guest Stars
Paul Bartel as Grouch Cook
Sandra Bernhard as Grouch Waitress
John Candy as State Trooper Nelson
Chevy Chase as Newscaster
Waylon Jennings as Truck Driver

Muppet cast

  • Muppet Characters
Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Ernie, Bert, Kermit the Frog, Cookie Monster, Grover, Count von Count, Mr. Snuffleupagus, Telly Monster, Miss Finch, Mommy Dodo, Daddy Dodo, Donnie Dodo, Marie Dodo, Madame Chairbird
  • Background Characters
Grundgetta, Osvaldo, el Gruñón, Grouches, Bruno the Trashman, Barkley, Herry Monster, Gladys the Cow, Elmo, Two-Headed Monster, Sherlock Hemlock, The Amazing Mumford, Biff, Sully, Buster the Horse, Forgetful Jones, Simon Soundman, Dr. Nobel Price, Poco Loco, Maurice Monster, Bruce Monster, Prairie Dawn, Red Bird, Roosevelt Franklin, Ferlinghetti Donizetti, Mr. Honker, Old McDougal, Honkers, Slimey, Anything Muppets, Sesame Street Monsters, Board of Birds, Preposterous, Granny Monster

Additional credits

Gallery

Sources

  1. "EP#6: Martin P. Robinson/Jerry Stories (Paul Rudolph)/'Little Red'", Below The Frame with Matt Vogel, September 2, 2020. (01:05:13)
  2. see Talk: Telly Monster

See also

External links