Blue's Clues: Blue's Big Musical

When I was little, I had this movie on VHS. I was a huge "Blue's Clues" fan and the series was where I learned some basic knowledge. Knowing that I loved the show, my mom used to buy me toy Handy Dandy Notebooks, but my dog kept chewing on them. I loved the songs and the subject matter of the story; learning to not give up, know what you want to be when you grow up, and how to make up a song. I like Steve (he was always really cool), Blue, and the Amazing Periwinkle (he was cool too). This movie is where I first knew the name and voice of blues singer Ray Charles, who voiced the talking G-clef. I'm 22 years old now, and I still remember watching this amazing movie from when I was little. I just wish watch it again.

I think this is great for kids. My three-year old just loves it, and would watch it every day if I let her.

A lot of children's movies are either obnoxiously repetitive, sappy or just plain irritating. Blue's Clues isn't, and this movie is really fun. I also like that the musical "lessons" go from very simple to somewhat more complex to keep children interested when they begin to learn the easier concepts. Problems that the characters have are easy for children to relate to, such as shyness and frustration. The music is easy to listen to, and in some cases, wonderfully catchy.

A special appearance by Ray Charles as "G Clef" and his great friends "the notes" really gives it soul.

My 2 year old LOVES Blue's Clues, and saw every episode while it was free on Amazon Prime over and over. I'd rate that show 10 stars. This movie, however, doesn't quite capture the show's level of excellence. Probably because it's trying to stretch the exact same elements from 25 minutes into an hour plus long movie and you can feel the middle dragging.

Okay, first the good. Almost all of the characters from the TV show (at the time this movie was made) are in this movie and it's fun to see so many of them together. As always, Steve, our sole live actor, does a fantastic job! As a unique twist, Steve gets a chance to find a clue (rather than the audience pointing them out to him).

The bad: The boring middle section. In the middle, Steve gets a music lesson and I think it's something like 15 minutes of lesson. My two year old got bored at this point EVERY TIME we watched this. He'd wander off. And it isn't the length of show because he'll watch episode after episode in a row if I let him. It's just that the music lesson isn't engaging, either visually or any other way. In the end, I've taken to skipping it for every showing. That's a large chunk of this movie that's "wasted".

Overall, this isn't a bad movie. For a 2 year old, I'd say it is probably one of the best things out there, actually! But if you have to choose, I'd highly recommend buying the episodes over the movie.

***Yes, Blue's Big Musical Adventure is a movie about a CGI dog of an unnatural hue aimed at the Juicebox set.***

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's talk about Steve Burns. WHAT A GUY. It doesn't seem like there'd be much at all to singing a bunch of cheerful, encouraging songs to toddlers, and waiting for them to yell out answers when you find a "clue." But, as the sole human of the house, Burns does all his work in front of a bluescreen (no pun intended.) Must get pretty lonely, don't you think? If not for the neon fur and disproportionate features of Blue, I'd believe Steve was really talking to his cuddly costar - the man's that fantastic.

Any movie that can hold my 4 year old's attention for the entire hour and 20 minutes has my approval. I enjoyed it too. I think that it works very well with the topics it tries to address, low self esteem, morality, ..etc. plus it's fun too