Blue's Big Musical Movie (NR, 1999)

Like the TV series, BLUE'S BIG MUSICAL MOVIE provides its audience with interactive, stimulating exercises in logic. Steve's careful list-making and clue-recording teach the usual organizational skills, while the Blue's Clues game and the "Putting It Together" song encourage viewers to sort and make connections. But this movie goes even further, with a sophisticated yet accessible exercise in musical composition. Viewers learn the difference between notes, rhythm, and tempo. They also make the connection between the notes on a sheet of music and the keys on a piano. In another segment, Sidetable Drawer struggles with shyness. This plot is enriched by the other story lines as each of the characters faces an obstacle to overcome, and the musical's refrain--"You can be anything that you want to be/ Don't give up"--becomes the show's mantra.

Blue's Big Musical Movie rises above other Blue's Clues offerings with its discussion of music and character. The musical composition exercise segment is long, but even a two-year-old viewer remained enthralled. As fun as the music segment is--Ray Charles provides the voice of G-Clef--the real appeal of this video is Sidetable Drawer's story, which is heartbreakingly realistic; timid viewers will connect with her and find inspiration in her eventual bravery.

Much soul-searching by the characters dulls the participatory elements of the show-- because of the Sidetable Drawer saga, for example, the audience knows the answer to Blue's Clues from the beginning--but the video is still a powerful, affirming experience.

Studio: Paramount Pictures
Director: Todd Kessler
Cast: Nick Balaban, Steve Burns, Traci Paige Johnson
Genre: Family and Kids
Run time: 78 minutes
Theatrical release: October 10, 1999
DVD release: October 3, 2000
MPAA Rating: NR