Kermit’s brushing up on his Spanish and heading down to South America to greet kids at Brazil’s Great Adventure theme park, set to open in Vinhedo, São Paulo State in early 1999. He’ll be there as part of a 15,000-square-meter Sesame Street section to be built into the theme park thanks to a deal between park owner, The Playcenter Group, and Children’s Television Workshop. Named Vila Sésamo, the area will include rides, play areas, a restaurant, retail stores and live character performances in a 600-seat theater. This will be the fourth Sesame Street-themed entertainment area worldwide, joining Sesame Place in Pennsylvania, Parque Plaza Sésamo in Mexico and Tokyo Sesame Place in Japan.

Meanwhile, the The Jim Henson Company has struck a deal with Disney to incorporate an expanded version of the Muppet Vision 3-D attraction presently found in Florida’s Disney-MGM Studios into Disney’s California Adventure park. The new US$1.4-billion Adventure park is part of a Disneyland expansion and is set to open in 2001. The Jim Henson Company has also announced plans to build a series of Muppet-themed entertainment centers in Southern California and Florida.

Finally, Disney recently held a ground-breaking ceremony in Tokyo for a new US$2.9-billion water theme park to be called DisneySea. The new park, part of an expansion of Tokyo Disneyland, is set to open in 2001 and will be run by Oriental Land Co. under license from Disney.