YMMV / The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Did Oscar simply fail to warn the others about Grouchland having a law against asking for help (aware that they were searching for somebody and it would come up), or had such a law passed in the time since Oscar was last there (implied to have been a long time ago, even though the trip is just a portal away in his trash can)?
• Audience-Alienating Premise: Similar to Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird, parents didn't find taking their kids to see Elmo in theaters worth the money when they could just show it to them on television for no charge. Also, this was at the time when Elmo's popularity was subject to Hype Backlash to the point where he was referred to as the "Little Red Menace" by detractors.
• Broken Aesop: Elmo has a blanket, and an argument over whether his friend Zoe should play with it leads to it landing in Grouchland and being stolen by a kleptomaniac hoarder named Huxley. At one point, the Queen of Trash says that Elmo's clinginess over his blanket makes him "sound like Huxley", which ties into the anti-greed moral. However, Elmo's and Huxley's behaviours were fundamentally different — Huxley was taking other people's belongings and saying they were his, while Elmo's blanket really was his.
• Contested Sequel: There's a divide on whenever fans like Elmo In Grouchland or not. On one hand, fans like this film for its entertaining characters and more lighthearted plot. On the other hand, fans don't like this movie for the focus on Elmo, and for not being as appealing to adults as Follow That Bird! was.
• Crosses the Line Twice: The scene in Grouchland Jail where Big Bird sings the alphabet to cheer his friends up, to which the Grouches think is pure torture and beg the guards to release them. Prison torture shouldn't be funny, but Grouch prison torture is freakin' hilarious!
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: During his interview on Matt Vogel's podcast "Below the Frame", fellow Muppet performer Eric Jacobson revealed that he assisted Frank Oz in performing Bert (a role for which he went uncredited), to which Vogel remembers that he assisted Steve Whitmire in performing Ernie. Around the time the film was released, Jacobson began taking over Oz as Bert (and Grover) until he became his full-time performer beginning in 2002.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Have a rotten day!
  • "ABCDEFG..." "Lemme outta here! It's torture!"
  • When Grover switches from his waiter role to Super Grover, Mr. Johnson asks "but what about breakfast?" (meaning his breakfast) but Grover says "No thank you, I cannot fly on a full stomach!" A later episode has Super Grover learn that one should not skip breakfast.
• Informed Wrongness: Elmo's attachment to his blanket in this film is presented as him being greedy as well as him refusing to share it with anyone else. However, Elmo's attachment to his blanket comes off less as him being greedy and more as him being a child attached to a security blanket, which is perfectly normal for a child, and not wanting to lose it or have it damaged by someone is also understandable. And Elmo did allow Zoe to hold his blanket for a couple of seconds, but Zoe's refusal to give back something that's not hers and getting into a tug of war over the blanket with Elmo, resulting in Elmo losing it, makes Zoe come off as more of the one being greedy instead of Elmo. ^note  A Season 50 episode rectifies this issue when Rudy takes Julia's stuffed bunny Fluffster to play with. Julia, who is also autistic, doesn't take too kindly to it and begins having a meltdown. Alan explains to Rudy that Julia's bunny is a comfort item that helps her when she's scared or in a bad mood, so it's not for sharing. Rudy understands, as he has a comfort item of his own with his blanket, and apologizes for taking Julia's toy.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Huxley and the Queen of Trash are remembered as the best parts of the film, even by people who don’t like it. You would think that the Muppets would be more interesting? But no! It’s the two humans! They’re just so hammy, over the top and have the best songs in the whole film.
• Love to Hate: Huxley is a hammy, Laughably Evil Card-Carrying Villain. Mandy Patinkin was clearly having fun with the role.
• Moral Event Horizon: Huxley is the only villain in Sesame Street history to attempt to kill Elmo, first by sending a giant chicken to eat him alive, and later trying to crush him under his stamp press.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • While the portal scene does look bright and colorful, it can be pretty scary watching Elmo and his blanket get sucked down different paths. The background music and the bizarre animation of the two portals don't help either.
  • Huxley trying to crush Elmo with a giant stamp. The film's initial test audience was scared of Huxley and legitimately worried about Elmo, leading to the Bert and Ernie scenes being made in order to reassure the audience.
  • And, before that, sending a giant chicken to eat him (in fact, his introductory scene is preceded by several forest animals fleeing in terror, to hype up the chicken's threat). The horror of that one is downplayed a great deal, thanks to the silliness factor (the chicken being dim-witted and performed by Dave Goelz), but this still makes Huxley the only major Sesame Street villain, to date, to actively attempt to kill a main character, and a toddler, at that.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • For some reason, the Queen of Trash (portrayed by Vanessa Williams) is one of the most remembered parts of the movie.
  • The giant chicken is likewise a well-remembered character, particularly for his dim-witted personality and his performance by Dave Goelz (in one of his few Sesame Street-related appearances).
  • To a lesser extent, Super Grover. He is only in one scene, but he makes the most of his screen time.
• The Problem with Licensed Games: The Game Boy Color game is extremely easy, even on Hard (except for Huxley's Chopper), and to accompany with the game's low difficulty, it's also extremely short, being only 8 levels long.
• Rooting for the Empire: A good few fans (especially Elmo haters) wanted Huxley to win, since they thought that he was more entertaining and fun than the little red monster.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Elmo realizing he's not so different from Huxley.
  • The end credits song, "Precious Wings."
  • The final scene where everyone joins in to sing "Together Forever" again. While technically also a Heartwarming scene as well, just knowing that everyone is back to loving each other being kind after such hardship is enough to bring tears into someone's eye.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The Sesame Street residents’ rescue mission doesn’t really go anywhere and they spend much of the movie in jail. It doesn’t help that there were more scenes featuring them that got cut from the final product.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: We only see Grouchland a handful of times. The rest of the movie consists of random locations. There were more scenes filmed that involved Oscar and his hometown, but ended up as deleted scenes.

---