It’s a significant part of the Muppet canon, even if it gets left out of the usual Henson nostalgia talk. For those of us who grew up watching the early days of Sesame Street, this was an experience.
The real thrill of Follow That Bird (1985) is seeing those familiar characters outside the flat, diorama-lit studio world of the CTW. Big Bird walking through real cornfields, sitting in actual diners, standing under real sky. You don’t realize how powerful that is until you see it, these puppets suddenly had weight and dimension. They existed.
Sure, the show had done the occasional exterior shot, but this was different. They shot Sesame Street like an actual big budget movie. This felt like a big deal, even bigger than the time Luke Skywalker showed up on The Muppet Show.
It’s also a bit of a time capsule as this was right before Elmo took over the whole show. Back when it was more of an ensemble where everybody got their moment, before the idealism got filtered through a branded red megastar with a tickle fetish.
It’s basically a G-rated road movie. Big Bird gets forcibly relocated by well-meaning social workers, escapes, and walks his way back home – with the rest of the gang in pursuit. You get a few knowing cameos to be sure, but there’s no nudge-nudge parent joke and no irony, it’s just a straight-up kids’ movie. But if you were the right age to remember the fallout from Mr. Hooper dying between episodes, you knew the stakes might be higher than they looked.
For those of us who’d taken the daily drive through Sesame Street since the early ‘70s, especially if we were already too old to be watching by the time this came out, there was something thrilling about seeing part of your childhood walk away from the set.
And step out into the world. -Pop