A particularly loved feathered friend is flying north to Queens for the weekend.
The Museum of the Moving Image hosts Big Bird’s 40th Anniversary on both days.
Activities include screenings of Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird along with presentations and conversations with artists who worked on the 1985 road trip musical.
The first session, which begins on May 24 at 1 pm, will begin with an introduction by Jim Henson Legacy President Craig Shemin. After the showing, Noel MacNeal, a Sesame Street and Muppets veteran who has trained puppeteers all over the world, will chat with Richard Termine, an Emmy-winning workshop studio coordinator and lifelong puppeteer.
Then on May 25 at 12:30 pm, Muppet special effects expert Fred Buchholz will appear with Debi Spinney, a Queens native who is the widow of Caroll Spinney, the actor who played Big Bird for almost 50 years, after the film.
Ken Kwapis, who directed Follow That Bird, will participate via zoom on both days.
General admission is $17.50, but seniors and students can enter for $12 and youth (ages three to 17) only pay $10.
Standing eight-feet-two-inches tall, Big Bird is an anthropomorphic, flightless friend who can do just about anything humans do. He skates. He rides a unicycle. He swims. He even writes poetry. Plus, he lives in a large nest a short distance from Oscar the Grouch’s home (don’t forget that one man’s trash can is another man’s dwelling).
Follow That Bird was actually Big Bird’s big-screen debut. The 88-minute movie follows the tall, yellow protagonist as he journeys back to Sesame Street after a well-intentioned social worker places him within a family of dodos in rural Illinois, far away from his friends. Along the way, he encounters con artists, farmers, and circus performers while avoiding that darn social worker at every stop.
The all-star cast includes such cameo guests as John Candy, Chevy Chase, and Waylon Jennings.
The Museum of the Moving Image is at 36-01 35th Ave. in Astoria’s Kaufman Arts District. Both events are scheduled for the Redstone Theater inside the main facility.
Images: Rob MacKay