DVD Review: Nickelodeon Double Pack: Musical School Days & Blue’s Big Musical Movie

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Kids love to sing along with the TV even if they haven’t a clue what’s being sung. You want to distract a whining kid for a few minutes, put on a singing cartoon and they’re eager to ignore you. It’s a scientific child raising fact. Nickelodeon Double Pack! Dora the Explorer: Muscial School Days & Blue’s Clues: Blue’s Big Musical Movie is nearly three hours of animated tunes that should get your preschooler humming away. Dora the Explorer: Musical School Days are four episodes that add a like music to her normal adventures. “La Maestra de Musica,” “Boots t the Rescue,” Happy Old Troll” and “A Letter For Swiper” gives quite a few tunes to be sung along the way. It’s rather touching when she gives something to Swiper that he doesn’t need to swipe from her. Blue’s Big Musical Movie really is a movie. Do not put this on before bedtime thinking it’s a normal 20 minute episode. This is nearly 80 minutes of Blue and Steve (Steve Burns) singing their hearts out. There’s going to be a big music show and Steve thinks things will go wrong because there’s so much to do before the curtain goes up. Even more unexpected disasters hit, but Blue and his pals are ready to make it happen. If you are not prepared for a movie, you’re going to be in for a jolt with the world’s longest game of Blue’s Clues. Here’s Josie’s take on the double feature:

The video is 1.33:1 full frame. The transfers are fine for video from 2000. The audio is Dolby Digital Stereo. They both sound good whether characters are talking or singing. Dora has tracks in French and Spanish. It’s also Closed Captioned. Blue’s Big Musical is subtitled.

Backstage at Blue’s Clues (15:53) is a tour of the production with Steve. There’s a lot of blue screen.

Music Videos are provided for “I Can Be Anything I Want to Be” and “There It Is.”

Who Am I? Game lets kids guess away.

DVD-ROM Games for Blue’s Clues. Not sure if these work since they require Mac OS 8.6 or higher and Netscape Navigator 4.5.

Nickelodeon and Paramount present Nickelodeon Double Pack! Dora the Explorer: Musical School Days & Blue’s Clues: Blue’s Big Musical Movie. Starring: Steve Burns, Dora the Explorer and Swiper. Boxset Content: 5 episodes on 2 DVDs. Released: July 23, 2013. Available at Amazon.com.

Joe Corey is the writer and director of "Danger! Health Films" currently streaming on Night Flight and Amazon Prime. He's the author of "The Seven Secrets of Great Walmart People Greeters." This is the last how to get a job book you'll ever need. He was Associate Producer of the documentary "Moving Midway." He's worked as local crew on several reality shows including Candid Camera, American's Most Wanted, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and ESPN's Gaters. He's been featured on The Today Show and CBS's 48 Hours. Dom DeLuise once said, "Joe, you look like an axe murderer." He was in charge of research and programming at the Moving Image Archive.