Will the Real Bert and Ernie Raise Their Hands!

We’re all familiar with the adaptation of comic book characters into live-action films. The Batman franchise alone has given us numerous actors who “became” Batman. Some made (or continue to make) a mini-career of it; others were shown the secret door marked “exit” after one performance.

From left, an original comic; Michael Keaton; Val Kilmer; George Clooney; Christian Bale.

And the cartoon world has certainly seen its share of shows based on real people.

But at the “Big Kahuna” of children’s television, long-running and beloved Sesame Street has created clever spin-offs of popular Muppet characters and embedded them within each Sesame Street episode.

Bert and Ernie still appear on the show in their original Muppet identities, but they also appear in the clay-animated series, Bert and Ernie’s Great Adventures. Each episode finds the lads traveling the globe on quests, such as their search for the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland, or on a more surreal experience, such as caring for exotic “living” plants that barked orders at the boys. Sesame Workshop states that the show, “aims to show young viewers that each person experiences the world in their own way, and encourages honest expression of feelings.” It also introduces pre-schoolers to all kinds of interesting international facts, like the platypus being native to Australia. The clay animation style is beautiful and it does get Bert and Ernie out from behind that wall. They get to have legs in this incarnation.

Another spin-off with “legs” is Abby’s Flying Fairy School, a cartoon series featuring popular Muppet Abby Cadabby. Abby also appears on Sesame Street as a Muppet, but in her own series, viewers get a peek into her life at school where she’s beginning to learn the basics of her magical trade, sort of a Harry Potter for the pre-school set. Sesame Street describes the series as, “designed to promote children's reasoning and problem-solving skills,” and the gang at Abby’s school do get themselves out of fixes through thinking and cooperation.

These series stand side-by-side with the “real” Muppet characters, who exist in a recognizable world alongside human beings. This is a testament to the creativity and ingenuity of the people associated with Sesame Street. It’s always been the gold standard of children’s television and speaks to pre-schoolers with the right amount of gentleness, wit, and surprise. Their formula of introducing one letter of the alphabet and one number each episode puts the content level at an appropriate one for pre-schoolers. The extra enrichment of these embedded series continues to make learning fun. There certainly are a lot of choices out there when it comes to pre-school programming, but none better than Sesame Street.

I Liked You Better As a Stick Figure

The critics generally agree that the film, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules, is a disappointment. Mind you, it’s currently number one at the box office. The popular book series and first film that grossed over $62 million in 2010 vitually assured an audience for a sequel. To short-hand the franchise: funny books; lame movies. And the most-repeated criticisms of the movies—they lack dramatic arcs, they’re too episodic—are not problems at all … if you’re a book. At best, Rodrick Rules is so-so. You want it? Grab it.

My beef is that something precious is lost in the translation from these books to movies. And that something is a stick figure; to be specific, the supposed-to-be-kid-drawn illustrations from the book series.

To my mind, Greg is the figure on the left; not the right.

Nothing against child actor Zachary Gordon; I wish him success. I just wish it wasn’t at the expense of the expansive, clever, drawn figure millions have come to know and care about.

What’s wrong with a story living exclusively on the pages of a book? The illustrated Greg is every kid but Zachary Gordon’s Greg is specific and fixed forever as a particular living kid. And that weakens the impact and accessibility of the Wimpy Kid stories.

I know—there have been countless (and I mean countless) instances of drawn characters successfully translating to live-action cinema. But Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Ironman—I’m at risk of carpal tunnel here—and the X-Men are realistically drawn with human proportions; and a lot of the panels from their comics bear a striking resemblance to cinema story boards.

Movies aren’t better. They’re just different. Many adaptations from book to film only exist to milk a cash cow. Since nobody else is defending the identity of these drawn figures, I’ve taken the cause upon myself.

While we’re on the subject, this is The Grinch.

And that’s The Grinch on the left; but not on the right.