The Province from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 34

34 ThC PrOViflCe Thursday, August 8, 1985 J'- Big-hearted farm children Alyson Court and Benjamin Barrett join Big Bird on the road. xs- By MICHAEL WALSH Movie Critic Knock Sesame Street? I wouldn't dream of it I can remember the dark, distant 1960s. In those days the Reader's Digest told us that Johnny couldn't read and went on to identify TV as the reason why. Parents and teachers worried that their kids were being warped by the "boob tube." The New Yorker ran one of its wry, conversational cartoons captioned: "When you consider television's awesome power to educate, aren't you glad that it doesn't?" Sesame Street changed all that From the day it went on the air Nov. 9, 1969 public television producer Joan Ganz Cooney's "experimental" kids show had a specific mission and a distinctive style.

The daily, hour-long program used the pacing and razzle-dazzle technique of commercial television (and television commercials) to perform a teaching function. Preschoolers not only loved it, they learned from it. The theatrical motion picture called Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird is another matter. A mild, undemanding musical fantasy, it has no clear reason for being. Structurally, the feature resembles the various Jim Henson Mup-pet movies not surprising in that Sesame Street is populated by Henson creations.

The central character here is an ambulatory puppet, the eight-foot tall canary operated and voiced by Caroll Spinney. Thought to be deprived because he is the sole avian inhabitant of the Street, Big Bird is removed to Oceanview, Illinois, where he is placed with the Dodo family. Discovering that he is unhappy among "his own kind," Bird runs away and begins the long trek back to New York. As in the Muppet pictures, the storyline is a series of episodes punctuated by musical interludes' and guest star appearances. Villainy is provided by the Sleaze brothers, Sam (Dave Thomas) and Sid (Joe Flaherty), a pair of inept carnies who want to make Bird the star attraction of their broken- REVIEW with which instruction and entertainment could be combined.

Director Ken Kwapis's bland, unexciting feature suggests that without instruction as its purpose, the show's characters and situations are not particularly entertaining. Looking like a TV special that's lost its way, Sesame Street Presents: Follow that Bird is a Canadian production of the Children's Television Workshop. Filmed in and around Kleinburg's Toronto International Studios, it is sponsored by the letter (for SESAME STREET PRESENTS: FOLLOW THAT BIRD. Written by Tony Gets and Judy Freudberg. Music by Van Dyka Parks and Lannie Nie-haus.

Directed by Kan Kwapla. General entertainment at the Vancouver Centre, Park Royal, Richmond Square, Lough-eed Mall and Eagle Ridge. down funfair. Making every effort to locate their lost friend are the various Sesame Street denizens, both human and Muppet. As they gathered in the late Mr.

Hooper's store, I found myself recalling the Star Trek movies and how such TV cast reunions unkindly emphasize the aging players' jowls and middle-age spread. On television, Sesame Street made us marvel at the cleverness ar raised ARE YOU TIRED OF DRAGON A VACUUM? FABRICS MONTREAL Beautiful knitted fabrics all types, Fleece, Ribs, Interlock, Light heavy, Jersey Prints, Lacoste some wovens. Please contact: DICK ABOUD SALES 1488 Sauve West Montreal, Quebec H4N 1CS (514) 331-2806 Vocu-Moid's built-in vacuum is the better way to clean Other findings: Women who took Dilantin and phenobarbital to prevent epileptic seizures had four times the usual risk of producing babies with heart defects. 0 Antibiotics ampicillin and tetracyclene were associated with a six-fold rise in the occurrence of two very rare forms of heart malformations. 0 Acetaminophen, a common over-the-counter pain medicine, was not linked with heart defects.

There was no significant link between heart defects and use of the anti-nauseau Bendectin. Associated Press BOSTON Mothers who take ASA (acetylsali-cylic acid) early in pregnancy may face an increased risk of giving birth to babies with heart malformations. A study by US. researchers was designed to find links between congenital heart disease and use by expectant mothers of a variety of common prescription and over-the-counter medicines. It showed that women who take ASA in the first trimester are twice as likely as non-users to have babies with cono-truncal defects: Malformations of the major vessels carrying blood between the heart and lungs and to the rest of the body.

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