| “ | Now get in the cartoonishly evil vehicle and drive! | „ |
| ~ Huxley |
Huxley is the main antagonist of the 1999 theatrical feature-length film The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. He is Elmo's arch-nemesis, Bill's former boss, and the Pesties' former leader. His goal is to make everything in Grouchland his property at all costs.
He was portrayed by Mandy Patinkin, who also played Satan in Touched By an Angel.
Biography
In The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland
When first encountered, Huxley drove an elaborate helicopter and terrorizes the Grouches in Grouchland, randomly stealing items with the use of a vacuum cleaner - when Grizzy refuses to give up her doll, he even went as far as to physically threaten her with the machine until Elmo shouted at him to stop.
Huxley was shocked and angered that Elmo had the courage to stand up to him, as the Grouches never did, so emerges from the helicopter and teases Elmo by showing that he has his prized blanket, but he refuses to give it back as he flies away again with it (now calling it his "wooby"), laughing evilly.
Although the Grouches on the whole remained mean-spirited to Elmo, Grizzy, the little girl he rescued was thankful and appreciative enough to help Elmo to find Huxley's hideout - a large castle on top of a mountain, but she refused to help him further and Elmo had to brave the long journey alone.
From his castle, Huxley observed Elmo with the aid of hidden cameras and a telescope - sending his minions to seal Elmo in a cave, so he couldn't retrieve his blanket.
However, Elmo immediately escapes with the aid of helpful fireflies, much to Huxley's surprise and the villain continued to watch as Elmo braved the trip towards the castle.
Seeing that Elmo wouldn't go away he decided to release a giant chicken to scare the little monster away, despite Bug begging him not to do it.
The giant chicken proceeds to terrorize Elmo and the woodland animals, trying to eat Elmo until Elmo convinced the somewhat dimwitted bird he wasn't a worm. Unfortunately, the chicken proceeds to toss Elmo a great distance from the castle in the aftermath of the encounter.
Eventually, Elmo did make it to Huxley's castle and tried to get his blanket back. However, Huxley (who was now wearing just his yellow sleeveless shirt) uses his machines against Elmo and cruelly taunted the little monster further until the Sesame Street cast arrived, having followed Elmo to Grouchland.
The Sesame Street cast are soon aided by the Grouches, who Oscar managed to convince to help the group out of a shared dislike of Huxley - who had bullied the Grouches as much as everyone else.
During the chaos, Huxley steals Elmo's blanket again and tries to get away only for his vacuum to suck the blanket up, revealing Bug at the controls - who handed the blanket back to Elmo.
Huxley is shocked that his own henchman had turned against him and tries to convince Bug that he can change and give back what he stole. However, Bug doesn't believe Huxley (who was obviously lying to avoid getting into trouble).
In the end, Huxley is presumably arrested as there was a police officer Grouch in the crowd, though it isn't actually seen as the film focuses more on the cast and Grouches celebrating as they head back home.
Huxley also served as a valuable and advantageous lesson to Elmo in this film, as Elmo was very possessive and cantankerous of his blanket, to the point of telling Zoe that she was not his friend after she accidentally ripped it due to Elmo tugging it from her in a jealous tantrum when she tried to hold it.
Once back in Sesame Street, Elmo apologizes to Zoe for hurting her feelings and allows her to hold his blanket, not wanting to be acquisitive, obnoxious, selfish, greedy, and mean like Huxley was.
Personality
Huxley is known for being greedy, ruthless, and manipulative. He has an obsession with taking things that do not belong to him (somewhat like kleptomania) - though he also takes unnatural delight in the hurt denying things to others brought: In essence, he is an embodiment of greed and selfishness at its worst while still being tame enough, so as not to scare the audience (who would be, on the whole, fairly young children). He is also extremely obstreperous, argumentative, and short-tempered towards Bill and his henchmen.
Gallery
Images
Videos
Trivia
- He was portrayed by Mandy Patinkin, who played another villain, 88 Keys, in the Warren Beatty film, Dick Tracy.
- He is very similar to Mr. Swackhammer from the 1996 half animated and half live action film Space Jam.
- Despite being a serious adversary, Huxley is shown to be somewhat comical and child-like, making buzzing noises when about to press a button, refusing to share even a simple tissue, saying that his things are "Mine!" like a kid would, and occasionally speaking in a high-pitched voice.
- Although little is known about his past and how he became the man that he is in the film, Huxley reveals that he auditioned in a "West Side Story" play as Maria, but was declined since they (most likely the directors) said he wasn't right for her.
- He is also illiterate, meaning that he is incapable of reading, so he has Bug do it for him.
- He is also very similar to Tex Richman from The Muppets.
- Both are arrogant, selfish, and greedy businessmen who are the main antagonists of theatrically released films with the late Jim Henson's legendary and popular characters as the heroes.
- Both wanted to take something very meaningful away from the protagonists and keep them from getting it back (Huxley wanted to prevent Elmo from getting his blanket back while Tex Richman wanted to tear the Muppet Studios to drill for oil and prevent the Muppets from stopping him).
- In the middle of Huxley's "Make It Mine" song, his voice while singing, "You say, you love, your old Atari", sounds very much like the timbre you'd hear in Roy Orbison's voice.
