If you have small kids and are trying to score points after accidentally running over somebody’s teddy bear in the driveway, you could do a lot worse than taking them to see The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. The first “Sesame Street” Muppet movie since Follow That Bird fourteen years ago, it stars the fuzzy, preschool, always-refers-to-himself-in-third-person little monster, who loses his blanket down Oscar’s trash portal to Grouchland. There it gets stolen by selfish, bushy-eyebrowed song-and-dance man Huxley (Mandy Patinkin). Elmo’s pals help him get it back, and Ernie and Bert show up frequently to reassure the kids in the audience that everything will work out okay, and encourage them to shout back at the screen.

Relax. Elmo’s a lot more bearable than Jar Jar Binks, and is onscreen a lot less, since this Adventures in Grouchland only lasts 70 minutes. Any adult should be able to tough it out that long. Because if you don’t suck it up now, you’re liable to give in to demands later when it comes out on video. Trust me on this, as cute as it may be, you don’t want to be exposed to repeated serial viewing, which is guaranteed to have you and any other adult in the household fighting over who’s going to climb into the oven first. B-+

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