Blue's Clues - Blue's Big Pajama Party (1996)

Grab your sleeping bag and your favorite bunny slippers: it's time for a night-time game of Blue's Clues. Our moon-eyed (human) host named Steve and his frisky, animated dog named Blue have invited a crowd of their usual pals for a pajama party. While the format of this episode mirrors the other Blue's Clues shows, standard tunes such as "Mail Time!" and "We Just Figured Out Blue's Clues" are practically whispered so as not to disturb sleeping characters. Together, the very sleepy Steve and his cartoon friends identify nocturnal animals by their sounds and venture off to outer space as "pajamanauts" to discover why there's night. In a bonus episode titled "What Was Blue's Dream About?", the much more awake--but quaintly clueless--Steve works to decipher a number of characters' dreams. The helpful lesson to youngsters here is that they can change their dreams at will. Capped off with a glitzy disco tune called "It's Our Dream," Blue and Steve help Sleeping Beauty turn a nightmare into a rainbow-colored birthday extravaganza. As always, the funky cartoon world in which Steve and Blue conduct their clue finding stimulates the eyes--just as the wonderful variety of music stimulates the ears. A pleasing choice for kids in the 3- to 5-year-old range. --Liane Thomas