Everyone’s favourite blue pet has lastly gotten her personal movie. Twenty-six years after Blue’s Clues exploded onto the kids’s tv scene, the favored Nick Jr. sequence has gotten the function movie therapy with Paramount+’s Blue’s Big City Adventure, and the outcomes have been nicely well worth the wait. We are handled to toe-tapping, fun-filled journey with sufficient participating songs and story for the little ones, and sufficient nostalgia for the Gen Z viewers that grew up with the unique present (and their mother and father as nicely).
The movie has Josh (Joshua Dela Cruz) excited and nervous to move to New York City to hopefully notice his dream of starring in an enormous Broadway musical. He and Blue head to the Big Apple (by way of a Blue Skidoo, the one strategy to go away Storybook World) to audition for Rainbow Puppy’s new present. However, in his pleasure, he forgets his useful dandy pocket book, and in it, the tackle of the placement of the audition. Luckily, Blue is there as all the time to help (or somewhat a paw), and she or he helps out by leaving clues to assist Josh discover his approach.
The guidelines of Blue’s Clues that viewers are so aware of have not modified for the movie; Josh should discover pawprints left by Blue across the metropolis to search out out the placement of his audition (for these nervous that Josh will not have the ability to clear up the clues with out the good thing about his trusty Thinking Chair, worry not, as he manages to drum up a New York City Thinking Chair- a stack of five-gallon buckets). When their mates again in Storybook World notice that Josh forgot his useful dandy pocket book, Mr. Salt, Tickity Tock, and Slippery Soap (an anthropomorphic salt shaker, alarm clock, and bar of cleaning soap, respectively), head to NYC to convey it to him, stopping to get help from some outdated friends- former Blue’s Clues hosts Steve (Steve Burns) and Joe (Donavan Patton).
A Long Time Coming
Blue’s Big City Adventure marks the third Nick Jr. sequence to be tailored right into a function movie, the primary being 2019’s live-action Dora and the Lost City of Gold, adopted by 2021’s animated PAW Patrol: The Movie. Making a theatrical movie for an viewers that consists primarily of toddlers is a dicey proposition. In its over half-century run, Sesame Street tried it solely twice; 1985’s Follow That Bird and 1999’s The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, each of which have been monetary failures. However, Blue’s Big City Adventure has the benefit of being made within the streaming period, so youngsters can get pleasure from it within the consolation of their very own houses.
Old-school followers of Blue ought to observe that this movie relies on the present incarnation of the present, Blue’s Clues & You!, which Dela Cruz has been internet hosting since 2019. However, only a few modifications have been made to the present (outdoors of some upgraded animation), so there’s a lot right here to be enthusiastic about. This is especially true of the movie’s inclusion of Steve and Joe, whose appearances are completely grin-inducing. It must also be famous that there isn’t a multiverse trickery here- Steve and Joe have each appeared within the new sequence, and it has been established that Josh is a cousin of Blue’s two former house owners, who’re brothers.
The Real Star of the Film
While Blue stays the titular character, the star of the 2 variations of the sequence has all the time been the host (there’s all the time going to be the “Who’s your Batman?” debate over everybody’s private favourite host), however Blue’s Big City Adventure is definitely Dela Cruz’s movie. Burns and Patton have each proved their musical inclinations up to now, however Dela Cruz’s stellar abilities are actually on show right here. Prior to his internet hosting duties on Blue’s Clues & You!, Dela Cruz spent a while on Broadway, together with starring in Disney’s Aladdin, He units the tone of the movie within the showstopping opening track, during which he celebrates the chances of the model new day (this musical quantity alone might convert even essentially the most die-hard Steve/Joe supporter over to Team Josh).
The movie is peppered with nice musical items, together with the upbeat quantity, “We’re On Our Way,” in addition to some acquainted faces, together with Bill & Ted‘s Alex Winter and the Black Eye Pea’s Taboo, amongst others. Director Matt Stawski and cinematographer Derek McKane use New York City, primarily Central Park and Times Square, as a hyperreal set piece, creating an aesthetic that, whereas fully totally different from the fantasy world during which these characters often inhabit, nonetheless is sensible for them to occupy. While that is Stawski’s first function movie, his 15 years as a music video director is obvious and is exactly what this movie wanted.
Despite a comparatively brief run time and a narrative that strikes at a good click on, there are a number of sluggish moments which may lose the eye of the toddler group. Both Blue’s Clues and Blue’s Clues & You! have been lauded for his or her deliberate pacing, however that has all the time been for the sake of engagement and interactivity, whereas its goal right here is story pushed. It must also be talked about that the movie is not precisely for everybody. Young youngsters, their mother and father, and the now-grown youngsters who watched the unique run are the goal demographics, but when you don’t fall into a kind of classes, Blue’s Big City Adventure should be price a watch. The movie is boisterously joyful, and no matter your age, there is a sure gratification to determining Blue’s clues.
Blue’s Big City Adventure streams solely on Paramount+ on November 18.
