Blue's Clues: Meet Blue's Baby Brother - DVD Review

I have a nearly 6 year old grand daughter who loves to play a game called Blue's Clues and who recently, on a visit to our local video store, introduced Grandma and I to the selection of videos for children using the same characters as are in the game - and, as I soon discovered - in a set of children's books as well.

This particular Blue's video has three sections. The first is the Blue's Room main selection. In this section, the human is Joe, Blue is a speaking puppet - as are the other critters and most of the objects whereas in the later two sections, those under the rubric of Blue's Clues, the human is Steve and Blue and the other characters are non-speaking, sound-making animations. In either incarnation, I was struck at the degree of her enjoyment of and engagement with these familiar characters.

The contrast between this Nickelodeon, Jr. production and so many other 'children's' shows is that there is no evident hook to keep the adults engaged. No Sesame Street cleverness and double entendres; no Nemo, or Alladin subplots or adult humor woven in to be sure that the parents can hold their attention to what is, nominally, an entertainment for the kids. This is REAL entertainment for children - to be enjoyed by preschoolers through first or even second grade without frightening images, loud characters or adult motifs that the children just don't understand.

The degree of her evident enjoyment of this DVD kept ME engaged - though it wasn't for me at all. It was for HER. The lessons are simple and straight forward - shapes, numbers and siblings. Issues involving the development of problem solving, social and math skills are also built in - unobtrusively and are, for the children, a part of the entertainment. From my point of view, this is GOOD educational material. The fact that it may bore adults is a complete non sequitur.

The characters are all gentle and understandable to young children. The singular human in each scenario simply lends words and a 'bridge' to real life for the kids - nothing more.