How times have changed. My first trip to the movies was in 1958. My two older brothers brought me along to see a horror flick called The Blob, Steve McQueen’s first movie. Great stuff for a six year-old to see! I was so scared, I ended up on the floor under the seat. No wonder I write such acerbic film reviews, doctor. Same time next week for my therapy session?

Forty years later, parents exercise a lot more caution about the movies and TV shows they want their young children to see. If you’ve been waiting for the right film to take along your three year-old child or grandchild, The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland might just be the one.

I note with interest that every single kid watching the Friday afternoon show was carried into the theater by a parent. Each time Elmo, the red shag carpet hero from "The Muppets" appears, little kids in the audience point their little fingers at the screen and yell, "Elmo," or "Eeeeeee," or something to that effect. I guess that means they all like Elmo.

The plot, for lack of a better term, revolves around Elmo losing his blue security blanket and getting it back. Kids today all have their "blankees," so this is a concept they can identify with.

Elmo loses his blankee to a bushy-eyebrowed human character named Huxley (Mandy Patinkin). He follows Huxley by falling to the bottom of a trash can owned by Oscar the Grouch. Each time the "action" appears to be going too close to the edge for young children to absorb, Bert and Ernie appear to assure kids that everything will be okay.

Vanessa Williams appears as the Queen of Trash, singing a song that registers with no one, especially the poor parents who have to sit through this harmless thing without succumbing to total boredom.