A Blue Christmas: A Blue's Clues Movie

A Blue Christmas: A Blue's Clues Movie (also titled just A Blue's Clues Christmas in other territories) is a 2003 American live-action/computer-animated adventure comedy film directed by Games Anderson, Koyalee Chanda and Traci Paige Johnson and produced by Wendy Harris, Shannon George and Graham Moloy based on a story by Michael T. Smith and Angela C. Santomero and a screenplay by Traci Paige Johnson, Todd Kessler and Angela C. Santomero. The film is additionally co-directed by Cal Brunker and Andrew Millstein and co-produced by William Anderson, Lorne Cameron and Bob Barlen.

The film is based on the widely popular Nick Jr. live-action/animated television series Blue's Clues by Traci Paige Johnson, Todd Kessler and Angela C. Santomero, and stars Traci Paige Johnson as the titular character, along with Steven Burns, Donovan Patton, LaNae Allen, and more. The film follows Steve (Steven Burns) and Joe (Donovan Patton) who, with the help of their dog Blue (Traci Paige Johnson), must find the three clues hidden throughout the town in order to find out the true meaning of Christmas. However, along the way, they must enlist the help of the audience to help them find the clues and solve them.

Produced by Nickelodeon Movies, Nick Jr. Productions, Games Animation, Inc., Games Animation Kids, Buddy Entertainment and Buddy Family Entertainment, A Blue Christmas: A Blue's Clues Movie was theatrically released on December 25, 2003 by Paramount Pictures after its premiere at the Kodak Theatre on December 21, 2003. It received mixed to positive reviews from critics, with some praising its animation, cast (particularly Johnson and Burns), source material and musical score by Michael Giacchino, but criticized its plot, runtime and story. It was a critical box office success, grossing $672.1 million worldwide on a budget of $86 million. A sequel was considered, but never happened due to the rebranding of the show in late 2004.

Plot
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Cast
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Production
After the minor success of Blue's Big Musical: The Movie, there had not been a theatrical film based on the television franchise for over a year, until 2001. Games Anderson had just launched the children's subsidiary of Games Animation, Inc., Games Animation Kids, and had approached series creators Traci Paige Johnson, Todd Kessler and Angela C. Santomero with the idea of a theatrical film adaptation. The creators agreed on a film after seeing test CGI models of the characters, and production soon began.

Wendy Harris and Shannon George served as producers of the film, with William Anderson serving as co-producer. Games Anderson served as head director and head of animation in the department, with Koyalee Chanda and Traci Paige Johnson serving as additional directors. Johnson, Todd Kessler and Angela C. Santomero began development on a screenplay for the film, while Santomero and Michael T. Smith were developing a story that would soon be adapted into the screenplay. The storyboarding process lasted from June 11, 2001 and wrapped up on November 27, 2002.

Casting
Keeping the theme of the original series, series co-creator Traci Paige Johnson voiced the main titular character, Blue, after a recording session where Tara Strong was originally set to cast the same character. TBA

Filming
Principal photography commenced in Los Angeles, California. Additional scenes were filmed in New York City, New York, along with London, England and Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The scenes that were filmed in New York City, London and Toronto were included in letter segments, like the show. The scenes featuring Steven and Donovan were filmed on a green screen and were then dragged and dropped into the finished project, using a chroma key to key out the green screen, creating the illusion that they are in the actual animated world.

Post-production
Post-production began after the live-action scenes were put together. Series editors Rebecca Baron and Douglas G. Davis compiled and edited the scenes together, while Gregory Perler assisted in editorial work. Sound editorial work was done by Sarah Monat, Robin Harlan and Vince Nicastro, foley editors who did work on previous film work, including Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.

Animation
The animation, unlike the TV series, was animated completely with CGI. As stated in a 2002 interview by series co-creator Angela C. Santomero, she said she "wanted to give a more distinct feel on how Blue's Clues would be interpreted in cinematic form", and said that "computer animation for Blue and the rest of the characters would be a bit better than the traditional animation as seen in the regular episodes".

The animation was provided by Rhythm & Hues Studios and Sony Pictures Imageworks, and included 88 sequences per scene, including scenes that would last for more than 80 seconds. It costed upwards of $30 million for the animation to be produced and rendered. However, in flashback sequences, the scenes were animated by Rough Draft Studios' Korean division in Seoul. An additional $3 million was added to the budget.

Music
"Main article: A Blue Christmas: A Blue's Clues Movie (soundtrack)" The music for A Blue Christmas: A Blue's Clues Movie was composed by series music composers Nick Balaban and Michael Rubin, who wrote and produced original songs listed in the film's soundtrack, and its score was composed by American film composer Michael Giacchino. The album was released on December 26, 2003 through Geffen Records.

Release
A Blue Christmas: A Blue's Clues Movie was originally planned for release on June 20, 2003, with the working title Christmas is Blue. However, the release date was pushed back to Christmas Day of 2003, with the title A Blue Christmas. It premiered at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California on December 21, 2003 and was later released in the United States on December 25, 2003. It was rated G for General Audiences by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

Home media
A Blue Christmas: A Blue's Clues Movie was released on DVD and VHS on March 28, 2004 by Paramount Home Entertainment, and an HD-DVD and Blu-ray release was followed on June 9, 2007. The HD-DVD release was limited, as Blu-ray took over distribution of the format after the battle between HD-DVD and Blu-ray.

Critical response
A Blue Christmas: A Blue's Clues Movie received mixed to positive reviews from critics, with Rotten Tomatoes reporting an approval rating of 67% based on 217 critic reviews, with an average rating of 5.5/10. Its critical consensus reads: "As Blue's first ever journey to the big screen in Hollywood fashion for the Christmas season, A Blue Christmas: A Blue's Clues Movie is a fairly enjoyable kids movie for young children who are fans of the original show, and might not get used to the computer-animated look of Blue and her friends, but it is still a movie that kids and adults will enjoy." On Metacritic, the film is assigned a weighted average score of 53 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore assigned the film a grade "A-" on its scale of A+ to F.

Box office
A Blue Christmas: A Blue's Clues Movie was shown at 3,812 theatres across the United States and Canada on its premiere day on December 25, 2003. It grossed $284.8 million domestically and $387.3 million overseas for a worldwide total of $672.1 million against its $86 million production budget. It became the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2003 and the second-highest-grossing film of 2003, behind Disney-Pixar's Finding Nemo.

On its first opening day, it grossed $47.5 million in its first day, with an additional $8.58 million in Thursday night previews, becoming the biggest Christmas film opening of 2003. In its opening weekend, it made $68.5 million, immediately placing at first.

Accolades
A Blue Christmas: A Blue's Clues Movie was nominated at the 76th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Disney-Pixar's Finding Nemo. However, it swept the 57th British Academy Film Awards in the animation category, and won multiple Kids' Choice Awards at the 17th Kids' Choice Awards on April 3, 2004, including Favorite Movie.