I bought the Elmo Live Encore when it was on sale last week here at Amazon. We received Elmo today and I must say that he really does move around pretty well. You'd never mistake him for a live action version, but it's pretty darned good, if I do say so. So far, my 23 month old son really likes this toy. He was playing with it before I even got it all the way out of the box (which required a master's degree and hands-on technical training, but I digress).
Once we got it out and started it up, he had quite a time with it. He loves just watching Elmo talk and move around, although I don't know how much he understands. I don't really think it's a terribly educational toy, but that's not why I bought it. At any rate, Elmo has been on the coffee table, and then he took a trip to the kitchen table, and then to the kitchen itself. Elmo was an honored guest who got to watch dinner being cooked tonight. My son also wanted to take Elmo to dinner with him, but I explained that Elmo was entitled to his own dinner break and couldn't play right then.
My only _real_ issue so far is that Elmo yells. Hasn't he heard of inside voices? Thankfully, it's not so loud that it would damage hearing, but you definitely couldn't take him to church or to the library with you. Minor nit-picky stuff: I'm already getting kind of tired of the stories about Big Bird's birthday and the Three Little Pigs. But, I guess, that's not so bad since my kid makes me read "Silly Sally" over and over and I've gotten used to repetition to an extent. Oh, and the little chair. I wish it were bigger (not that my son actually lets Elmo sit down or anything).
All in all, loads of fun so far and overall worth the purchase.