Elmo’s World: All About Animals

elmo

Here we are again with another review of a Sesame Street DVD. It is strange to look back on these reviews. When my daughter was younger we watched Sesame Street nearly every day. It was a huge part of our lives. But then she grew up and grew out of Sesame Street and I haven’t thought about them in several years.

And now I’m reading my old reviews – brings back memories.

I never found Elmo to be as obnoxious as some parents. But I will admit that trying to watch multiple episodes of Elmo’s World back to back was a bit more than I could take.

Here’s my review.

Sesame Street: Be a Good Sport

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When my daughter was little she absolutely loved Sesame Street. At the time we lived way out in the country, in the middle of Tennessee, and we had terrible Internet. So I used to request Sesame Street DVDs to review (and entertain my kid when nothing was on).

As I found out it is difficult to review Sesame Street. The show is funny and clever. It is wonderful for kids and there is enough pop cultural references to keep parents interested, but it is also extremely repetitive. There isn’t a larger storyline or big plot twists…

Anyways I said a few nice things about this one which ties together a bunch of sports-oriented stories. You can read it here.

Elmo’s World: All About Animals

elmos world

I grew up watching Sesame Street. Oddly enough I don’t remember watching it at all, but I do have distinct memories of watching Mr. Rogers’s Neighborhood.

When my daughter was born Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood was no longer on the air (well, there were reruns but in my town, they came on really early), but Sesame Street was still in full swing. My daughter loved it. I loved it. Still do, though the daughter is too old to watch and thus it doesn’t get much airplay anymore.

Obviously, Sesame Street is designed for little ones. But it also works well for adults. They have some very clever gags, and they love pop culture. They’ve made some great spoofs (one of my favorites is a Middle Earth parody called Lord of the Crumbs), and they often invite celebrity guests to do little skits. I especially love when a singer comes on and sings one of their songs but with slightly altered lyrics. Norah Jones once sang “Don’t Know Y” and I still regularly play Feist turning her song “1,2,3,4” into a counting song.

During those days that my daughter watched Sesame Street every day I requested a few of their DVDs and did some reviewing for Cinema Sentries. You can read my review of Elmos World: All About Animals here. Spoiler Alert: Despite me praising the show in the last several paragraphs I found this DVD to be a bit grating. But that’s because it is just the Elmo’s World section of the show and nothing but the Elmo’s World section of the show. And that gets tiresome fast.