Sesame Street: Elmo's Musical Adventure: The Story of Peter and the Wolf (2001 VHS)



Here's the opening and closing to the 2001 VHS of Sesame Street: Elmo's Musical Adventure: The Story of Peter and the Wolf

Release Date
January 9, 2001

Characters

 * Elmo
 * Big Bird
 * Telly
 * Zoe
 * Baby Bear
 * Papa Bear
 * Keith Lockhart
 * The Boston Pops Orchestra
 * Wolf
 * The Two Headed Monster
 * Oscar the Grouch

Synopsis
Elmo (on the violin), Big Bird (drums), Telly (tuba) and Zoe (piano) have started their own band. Baby Bear listens in, but they can't seem to figure out what goes wrong when they all try to play together. Papa Bear arrives to announce that he's taking his son to see the Boston Pops Orchestra, who will be playing Prokofiev's ballet, Peter and the Wolf.

Baby Bear and Papa Bear arrive at Boston Symphony Hall (shot on location, and on a separate sound stage) and they meet an old friend of Papa Bear's: the Boston Pops conductor, Keith Lockhart. Backstage, Lockhart introduces Baby Bear to the solo instruments that each play a character in the story (much like it would be done on an album recording of the piece). Baby Bear is trying to understand how music can tell a story without any words. Though he is still not sure, they head back to their seats as the rest of the audience is arriving.

As the music plays, Baby Bear pictures the events of the story in his head (with a little help from his father), acted out by the Sesame Street Muppets. Peter is portrayed by Elmo, who runs in with the bird (Zoe), the duck (Telly) and the cat (Oscar)... all dressed for the part. Peter's Grandfather (Big Bird) warns Peter not to go looking for the Wolf (who only speaks in wolf), because the hunters (the Two-Headed Monster) will take care of it. Just when the wolf is about to catch Telly, he gives up being the duck and decides to take the role of the hunters. As the story unfolds, each character is accompanied (in Baby Bear's imagination) by the instrument soloist we met earlier backstage. The story plays out and Baby Bear has a better understanding of how music can tell a story.

On their return to Sesame Street, Baby Bear has also figured out why Elmo's band doesn't sound quite right: they need a conductor to keep them in time and so that they all don't play over each other. Baby Bear volunteers for the job, and with his help, they're finally able to play music together.