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 children's adventure comedy Christmas musical 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. Additionally, the film was co-directed by Cal Brunker and Andrew Millstein and co-produced by William Anderson, Lorne Cameron and Bob Barlen.

Based on the popular Nick Jr. live-action/animated television series Blue's Clues by Traci Paige Johnson, Todd Kessler and Angela C. Santomero, the film stars Traci Paige Johnson as the titular character, along with Steven Burns, Donovan Patton, LaNae Allen, Kathryn Avery, Nick Balaban, Spencer Kayden, Jenna Marie Castle, Seth O'Hickory, Stephen Schmidt, Marshall Claffy, Cody Ross Pitts and Koyalee Chanda, with guest appearances including Jim Carrey, Olivia Colman, Steve Carell, Johnny Depp, and many others. The film follows Steve (Steven Burns) and his brother Joe (Donovan Patton) who, with the help of their puppy 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., 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. Additionally, the CGI portrayal of Blue received praise, but received a significant amount of criticism, mainly for its realistic fur texturing done by Rhythm & Hues Studios and Sony Pictures Imageworks. It was a critical box office success, grossing $672.1 million worldwide on a budget of $86 million. A sequel, titled A Blue's Clues Movie 2: The Bluest Summer, was released in 2008, to negative reviews.

Plot
TBA

Cast

 * Steven Burns as Steve
 * Donovan Patton as Joe

Voice cast

 * Traci Paige Johnson as Blue
 * LaNae Allen as Side Table Drawer
 * Kathryn Avery as Tickety Tock
 * Nick Balaban as Mr. Salt
 * Spencer Kayden as Mrs. Pepper
 * Jenna Marie Castle as Paprika
 * Seth O'Hickory as Mailbox
 * Stephen Schmidt as Shovel
 * Marshall Claffy as Pail
 * Cody Ross Pitts as Slippery
 * Koyalee Chanda as Magenta

Guest stars

 * Jim Carrey
 * Olivia Colman
 * Steve Carell
 * Johnny Depp
 * Will Smith
 * Sylvester Stallone
 * Ryan Reynolds
 * Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
 * Christian Bale
 * Tom Hanks
 * Bruce Willis

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. Additionally, LaNae Allen stars alongside Johnson as Side Table Drawer, Steve and Blue's primary friend, along with Kathryn Avery, Nick Balaban, Spencer Kayden, Jenna Marie Castle, Seth O'Hickory, and many others.

On August 11, 2002, it was revealed that during the production, Donovan Patton, who plays the role as Joe in the series, would star in the film alongside Steven Burns. It spread rapidly, as in the series itself, Burns, who plays the role as Steve in the show, had left for college in Season 4's "Steve Goes to College", marking it his last appearance on the series. However, it was stated that the film would be Burns' true final appearance in the franchise.

Filming
Principal photography commenced in Los Angeles, California on May 12, 2002 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. Due to the heavy amount of snow the countries received during the filming, it gave the team a perfect opportunity to film in the snow. In February 2003, the United States, Canada and England had serious snow storms, which halted filming temporarily. However, once the storm stopped, the filming continued, and wrapped up on August 28, 2003.

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. The story was edited by story editor Adam Peltzman.

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, with Nickelodeon Animation Studios providing paper cutout animation for the flashback sequences. An additional $3 million was added to the budget. Reportedly, some people praised the idea of using CGI for the film, rather than the series' 2D paper cutout animation, though some criticized the use of hyper-realism in its animation, with the main criticism drawing at the CGI portrayal of Blue and Magenta in the film, pointing out the realistic fur texture.

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. A Universal Media Disc (UMD) port of the film was released on September 27, 2007, and a Game Boy Advance Video port was in talks of, but was quickly cancelled after the release of the media system in May 2004. The DVD, Blu-ray and UMD contained behind-the-scenes footage, the creation of the film, an interview with Steven Burns and Donovan Patton, three music videos, including the songs "It's Cold Out There" by Coldplay, "On A Journey" by Black Eyed Peas, and "Heading Back Home" by Beyoncé, and a full-CGI short film directed by Angela C. Santomero and produced by Games Anderson and William Anderson.

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.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times rated the film three out of four stars, stating that the film is "in many ways, a perfect film to pay tribute to the classic Blue's Clues series", and added that "Steven and Donovan's performances shine as the main characters of the film, with Traci Paige as the wholesome blue puppy. It's anything you can want in a Blue's Clues movie." While he praised the visual effects, musical score by Michael Giacchino and animation, he criticized the CGI portrayal of Blue and Magenta, mainly pointing out the hyper-realistic fur texturing, and called it "a bit unamusing" and added that it is "not the greatest portrayal, because of the fur texturing that was done by Rhythm & Hues Studios." However, he praised the CGI portrayal of the other main characters, writing; "the CGI portrayal of Blue's friends is beautiful, mainly thanks to Sony Pictures Imageworks for doing so." He concluded his review on the film, saying that it is "a delightful Christmas film to watch with the whole family, with plenty of laughs. Even if some people find Blue and Magenta's CGI appearance a bit unamusing, they will still thoroughly enjoy the movie."

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.