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Sesame Street presents Follow That Bird
Follow That Bird movie poster
Directed by	Ken Kwapis
Produced by	Tony Garnett
Written by	Judy Freudberg Tony Geiss
Starring	Caroll Spinney Jim Henson Frank Oz
Music by	Lennie Niehaus Van Dyke Parks
Distributed by	Henson Associates Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	August 2, 1985
Running time	89 minutes
Language	English
Followed by	The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland
IMDb profile

Sesame Street presents Follow That Bird (commonly shortened to Follow That Bird) is a film directed by Ken Kwapis, starring many Sesame Street characters (both puppets and live actors). This was the first of two Sesame Street feature films, followed in 1999 by The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. The film was produced by Henson Associates and Warner Bros. Pictures, and originally released to movie theatres in 1985.

Songs include "The Grouch Anthem," "One Little Star" (sung separately by Big Bird, Olivia and Snuffleupagus), "Ain't No Road Too Long" (sung separately by Big Bird, Waylon Jennings, Cookie Monster, Bert, Ernie, Grover, the Count, Gordon, and Olivia), "Upside-Down World" (sung by Ernie and Bert), "I'm So Blue" (sung by Big Bird), and "Easy Goin' Day" (sung by Big Bird and a young Alyson Court, who would go on to star in The Big Comfy Couch and numerous voice acting roles).

Big Bird is sent to Oceanview, Illinois, to live with a family of dodo birds by Miss Finch, a social worker who thinks he needs to be with his own kind (other birds, instead of the diverse Sesame Street). Big Bird is excited about the prospect of having a family of his own at first. Though clueless, the Dodos are kind enough in their own way—but they do not treat him with the love he is accustomed to on Sesame Street. "I should be happy here," he writes in his letter to his friends on Sesame Street. "What's wrong with me?"

The straw that breaks the camel's back—and convinces Big Bird to run away from his adopted family—is when he receives a postcard from Mr. Snuffleupagus, his best friend, saying that he is ready to come and visit. When he explains that "Snuffy" is not a bird, but a Snuffleupagus, the Dodos laugh. "But your best friend should be a bird!" exclaims Daddy Dodo. "Why?" Big Bird asks. "Because...you're a bird," Mommy Dodo says, as if nothing could be more obvious. They say that there are lots of bird families around, and he could meet them and make some new best friends—now how about going out and hunting for worms?

"But I don't wanna hunt for worms," Big Bird protests. "I want Snuffy to come and visit, and if he can't come and visit, I don't wanna be here anymore. I want to go home!" "But— you are home," Mommy Dodo insists—and at that moment, Big Bird realizes he will never be happy in his new life, and makes the decision to run away. Of course, being six years old (and an eight-foot-tall bird), he is ill-equipped to make it home by himself. His disappearance is reported on the television so his Sesame Street family bands together to try and find him. In a Volkswagen Beetle is the group of Gordon, Olivia, Linda and Cookie Monster. Count von Count departs in his own car, known as the Countmobile. Bert and Ernie go out to search in a plane, Grover flies as Supergrover and later falls into the Volkswagen. Maria leaves with Oscar, Telly and a Honker in Oscar's Sloppy Jalopy. They all head out across America in search for their beloved Big Bird.

Big Bird has various adventures in his attempt to get home. First he hitches a ride with Waylon Jennings who plays a turkey truck driver. He then meets a pair of kids at a farm who let him stay with them for a while. All the time, Big Bird is being pursued by Miss Finch who wants to take him back to the Dodos. He has to leave the farm because of her arrival.

He is also sought by two scam artists, the Sleaze brothers, who operate a lousy carnival, the Sleaze Brothers Funfair. They want to capture Big Bird to put him on display.

Big Bird, the Sesame Street gang, Miss Finch and the Sleaze Brothers all converge on Toadstool, Indiana where Big Bird is running from Miss Finch and loses her in a parade. He hides at the Funfair where he is captured by the Sleaze brothers. He is painted blue and forced to sing for their carnival. Two children sneak in to talk to him and he tells them to go and call Sesame Street. The message is relayed to the gang in the cars who have been searching for Big Bird when they call Sesame Street to check in. They all sneak in to the carnival tent to help Big Bird escape from his cage in the back of a truck. They are almost successful but the Sleaze brothers drive the truck away with the cage door open. Big Bird then must jump out of the moving truck and into the Volkswagen where Gordon catches him.

When he is finally brought home, Big Bird's family on Sesame Street convinces Miss Finch that Big Bird can be, and is, happy there on Sesame Street—that it does not make any difference that his family consists of humans, monsters, grouches, honkers, and the other varieties of eclectic species on Sesame Street. What matters is that they are family.

At the beginning of the end credits, Count von Count begins to count the movie credits (in a nod to the original series, Count calls Joan Ganz Cooney, the co-creator of Sesame Street, "mom" when her name is credited as one of the executive producers). By the end of the credits in a brief "bonus scene" Count announces 278 credits and does his trademark laugh accompanied by a thunderclap (no lightning flash was present as was in his usual running gag).

As with many televised episodes of Sesame Street, Follow That Bird raises some important cultural issues, doing so in a way that children can relate to, while parents can use the benefit of their life experiences to draw a deeper meaning from it.

Racism, the value of diversity and the nature of family are all explored in the movie. Though Miss Finch is one of the "villains" of the story, in fact her intentions are good; she wants what she thinks is best for Big Bird (even though what she thinks is best for Big Bird, and what is best for Big Bird, turn out to be entirely different things). And she believes that he should have the benefit of living in "a nice bird house, with a nice bird family...and sing and play bird games all day long."

What is also interesting about this message—what has been one of the underlying messages of Sesame Street all along—is that the humans themselves are of different ethnicities. There are Caucasians, African-Americans and Hispanics all living together as friends and neighbors on the same street. But there is nothing unusual about that at all to them—why should the color of your skin matter?—and so therefore they do not really need to address the issue of racism among humans as such in this movie. The racism issue is instead delegated to the Muppet members of the cast, as if to say, "If beings of different species can co-exist like this, why can't humans of different ethnicities?"

The 2001 DVD release of Follow That Bird.

• Caroll Spinney as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch
• Jim Henson as Kermit the Frog and Ernie
• Frank Oz as Cookie Monster, Bert, and Grover
• Martin P. Robinson and Bryant Young as Snuffleupagus
• Kevin Clash, Board of Birds, verious Muppets, Elmo (uncredited small cameo)
• Laraine Newman
• Sally Kellerman Voice of Miss Finch
• Bob McGrath as Bob
• Roscoe Orman as Gordon
• Linda Bove as Linda
• Sonia Manzano as Maria
• Emilio Delgado as Luis
• Loretta Long as Susan
• Alaina Reed as Olivia
• Alyson Court as Ruthie
• Sandra Bernhard (Grouch waitress)
• Chevy Chase (news anchor)
• John Candy (state trooper)
• Waylon Jennings (truck driver)
• Joe Flaherty As Sid Sleaze
• Dave Thomas As Sam Sleaze
• George Lucas, in a small cameo

• Sesame Street presents Follow That Bird at the Internet Movie Database
• Follow That Bird fansite
• Muppet Wiki: Follow That Bird