Customer Reviews

Sesame Street: 25th Birthday - A Musical Celebration!

5 star:		(99)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Both my toddler and I loved this video. For my toddler, it has several advantages: one, it's an hour long and can replace Sesame Street itself if you missed it that day (just get an Elmo's World tape to follow up). Two, it has a full cast that includes the newer characters who weren't around in my day: Elmo, Telly, Prairie Dawn and many others make an appearance. Third, the celebrity cameos are few and serve the storyline well.

As a former puppeteer and avid Sesame Street fan, I really enjoyed watching it myself. It has old clips that have almost disappeared: the original "Rubber Ducky" with the floating bubbles, "C is for Cookie," "I'm an Aardvark, and I'm proud," and some of the letter and number clips you might remember as a kid. I also liked that the storyline was filmed outdoors, making the production values somewhat better than other Sesame Street videos. Having a store of all the "important" songs is really useful, too.

Enjoy this video with your kids - and tell them about the "olden days" when Snuffy was an imaginary friend of Big Bird's and Ernie grew critters - what were those things called? - in his window box.

Watching this video is very similar to watching an episode of Sesame Street on PBS...only not exactly the same Sesame Street that's on the airwaves today. It has musical clips from various episodes throughout the lifespan of Sesame Street and contains more clips of Bert & Ernie and Grover than you will see in a typical episode in 2001.

It's not just a series of old clips, however. The clips and new material are woven into a story of Big Bird looking for LaLa-ers for the show that the Sesame Street characters are planning. Not everything fits just right, but it is fun to watch and sing and dance to.

The most important reason for my high recommendation of this video is the fact that my 22-month-old son is FACINATED by it. It may not be teaching him his numbers or his alphabet, but he is starting to try to sing along.

Not the absolute Best Video out there, but thoroughly enjoyable and worth the price.

The plot is simple and silly: Big Bird, Prairie Dawn, and Telly decide to put on a show, and look for singers, dancers, and "la-la"-ers. Big Bird runs into some trouble finding the "la-la"-ers, but everything works out, and it's really just an excuse to show musical clips from the first 25 years of "Sesame Street", bringing back great memories for anyone born in the mid-1960s and after who grew up with "Sesame Street", and entertaining our children who are about to grow up with "Sesame Street". This tape is better than "Elmopalooza" because the song clips are the originals, not new versions done by celebrities (with one exception: "Sing" performed by Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the "Sesame Street" cast with lots of children), and this tape is lighter than "Elmopalooza", in which everything goes wrong and the characters freak out. My son is 14 months old, and has watched this tape more times than the Count can count.

When I saw this DVD available, I thought I'd found a sort of "Greatest Hits" compilation. It lists the featured songs on the back, which include manu Sesame Street classics. It failed to mention that all of the Rubber Duckie songs are cut short and mashed into an unsatisfying medley. The songs are all showcased within a story about Big Bird looking for "la la-ers," which makes this feel like a bad clip show. I realize that this was a TV special, but the way that the ...story cut into classic songs grated at me. To top it off, this DVD does not include menus or anything to help viewers navigate the disc (of course, it is an older DVD). I really hope that someday soon they decide to release a real "Best of" Sesame Street DVD, with each segment shown in its entirety. I would love to see these classic songs along with some of the great non-musical moments. Unfortunately, in this time of Elmo-centric releases, it doesn't seem likely to happen.

My kids and I LOVE this video. Starts out with En Vogue signing "Adventure" which is a great song to bounce around to. Big bird goes on a quest to find people to who can sing and in the end, learns that everyone can sing!

Musical Celebration's got some oldies but goodies, Kermit signing "Bein' Green", Bert "Doin the Pidgeon", Ernie driving Bert nuts signing "Dance Myself to Sleep" in the middle of the night and some fun new stuff like "Happy Tappin with Elmo". Also four fun rubber duckie songs that are great to sing in the bath.

"I'd like to visit the Moon", (sung by Ernie) is such a great song I memorized it and sing it to my 3-year old when she fusses in the car, she loves it.

"Beautiful Skin" is a peppy song and ,true to Sesame Street style, this video features all skin tones from white to black to blue to green.

This is a bright, fun, colorful, musical video, with not too much storyline to weigh it down.

At the end of the video Big Bird, Elmo and a whole slew of muppet animals sing "We are all earthlings" which is a very pretty song.

Then Big Bird realizes that in his quest to find singers he has been surrounded by them the whole time. A huge group of kids, adults and muppets (including Maria, Gina, a fabulous group of African singers, and two tapdancers) "Sing a Song".

This is not so much an education video (as far as learning ABC's etc.) but it has a good message - That we are all one on this big, beautiful Earth and that if you look around, you'll find all the friends you need.

Babies and toddlers will enjoy this video for the bright colors and fun, upbeat songs, especially if you sing along with them!

Having been a huge "Sesame Street" fan as a kid, I was
eagerly looking forward to sharing some of these songs with
my own children (preschool and grade school aged).

Some of the songs are great and just what I had hoped
for (Rubbier Duckie, Aardvark, Alligator King Seven), but
there was some censoring of others. Specifically, why
is it that the modern version of 'C is for Cookie' corrects
Cookie Monster's grammar? I find that jarring. Also, I
remembered the 'doo-wop hop' song as being sung by Kermit
with a lot more frog jokes, as opposed to by humans (though
their harmonizing was nice melodically). Oh, and it would
have been nice if the opening theme had been the old-fashioned
one instead of the modernized/syncopated version.

It was very pleasant to listen to Ladysmith and the other
professionals, and it is always nice to see our favorite
Muppets. I thought the "plot" gluing the songs together was
very weak, but then that's what I expected - no one is going to
buy this DVD for the strong overarching plot! :)

What I really wish existed is a way to buy "classic" scenes
or episodes from "Sesame Street". I think that some of the
newer content has lost its edgy humor, and I would really like
to show my kids the bits that I remember so fondly. Some of
them can be found in "Sesame Street" video games, but there
isn't really a good collection anywhere.

That said, this is a reasonable purchase for fans.

I really don't understand the negative reviews. This is a GREAT video, my daughter absolutely LOVES it. It has the best segments from the past, plus a great storyline in between with fantastic new songs. My husband and I also love to watch this one the most. Yes some songs are abbreviated into medleys but a lot of them are in their entirety. Highly highly recommended.

This DVD is chock full of the classics. Even though we've seen in at least 500 times, it never fails to bring a smile to our faces. So many great messages, too, about diversity, protecting the environment, being good to one another--Jim Henson was truly a genius! Best of all, my 18 month old literally cheers when it comes on. We have a blast singing and dancing together. If I could, I'd give it a 10!

I bought this video for my son because he couldn't get enough of another Sesame Street video (123 Count with Me). He really enjoys this one as well. This may be the best Sesame Street video out there so far. It has enough older clips and songs and includes newer characters as well - and it doesn't go overboard on the amount of Elmo. I can actually remember a lot of these songs from when I used to watch Sesame Street.

This is a good video for a child who likes songs and music. Not all of the Sesame Street videos have as much music and are more dialogue. Because there is more music it appeals to younger viewers more than some of the other videos out there (my son is 19 months old).

Enjoy!

I bought this DVD for my daughter when she was 6 months old. At that time, she was basically just watching Baby Einstein DVDs. On the first viewing of "Sesame Street's 25th Birthday - A Musical Celebration", she was mesmerized. Fast forward eighteen months, and my daughter is still enjoying this DVD. This one, along with " "Fiesta" and Bert & Ernie's Word Play" are among her favorites.