(courtesy Sesame Workshop)
Ever since I was a kid, which let’s face it, was a good long while ago now, I have loved the character of Grover from Sesame Street – yes, yes I know you’re not supposed to have favourites (sorry Bert and Ernie, and Oscar the Grouch, and Big Bird and … – and most especially his 1971 starring Golden Books appearance in The Monster at the End of This Book.
In this delightfully Grover-ish story, officially known as The Monster at the End of This Book: Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover, everyone’s favourite clumsily awkward, sweet, funny, goofy blue monster finds himself terrified by the titular promise of a monster waiting at the end of the book and does everything in his poorly executed power to stop readers reaching the last, monster-lurking page.
But noting works including bricking up the page, and so Grover reaches the end of the book to find out he’s there, he’s the monster and that there was nothing to be scared of at all, which he then turns into a lovably funny gaslighting of the reader for being silly enough to think the monster would be scary.
It’s a delight, it’s a joy and it perfectly captures this most innocent, well-meaning and charmingly goofy of characters.
It took almost 50 years and five years for me to notice it (let’s face it, I am not the core demographic) and review it, but The Monster at the End of This Book now has its very own animated special, The Monster at the End of This Story which brings together not just Grover but Cookie Monster (whose creation preceded Sesame Street’s 1969 launch), his mum, and Elmo (1980), Rosita (1991) and Abby Cadabby (2006; “I’m not a monster!”), all of whom sprang into existence well after the release of the book.
If you’re wondering how you spin a Golden Book into a 1/2 hour 2020-released animated special, the animation for which looks exactly like the book sprung to charmingly realised 2D animated life, it’s by adding the aforementioned characters, some very cute songs and by drawing out themes of being scared, having courage and owning who you are.
It absolutely works with Grover’s book-based attempts to stop people getting to the end of the boom such as roping off the remainder of the pages and bricking up them up too joined by a rewind/fast forward console with which the creators of the special have a lot of narrative fun.
While The Monster at the End of This Story was supposed to be all-Grover much like the book on which it’s based, the decision was made to include other “Furry Monsters” who add extra life and fun and sage wisdom to this delightful animated half hour which is now on Netflix, celebrating the book’s 55th anniversary.
What really works for The Monster at the End of This Story is that it hews super close to the look and feel of the book and while Grover now has company, the special still captures our favourite blue monster’s mix of fear at what awaits him when the book ends and his relief that he is, in fact, the titular monster.
It’s gorgeous as a book and it’s delightful as an animated special, adding so much more to the story and giving it new life for what I hope will be fifty more years of life and of teaching kids that fear and anxiety do exist but that being brave and facing up your fears absolutely works and can transform life from something to tremble before into something that delights you every step you take, hopefully with really good friends by your side.
The Monster at the End of This Story streams on Netflix.