Blue's Clues
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Actors have the job of playing people (or creatures)
other than themselves.
The goal is to make their performance
as realistic as possible,
so we will respond emotionally
as if they are who they pretend to be,
and be drawn into the story.

But here's an interesting variation:
an actor who's trying to simulate a fictional character.
He isn't merely playing a fictional character
-- he's pretending to be a fictional character.

He plays a cartoon,
or something much like a cartoon,
and, thus, must make his performance
seem not realistic but unrealistic
-- cartoonlike --
so we will perceive him
as a character who belongs in a world of make-believe.

The program is Blue's Clues on Nickelodeon.
It helps teach young children
about reasoning and figuring things out
by giving them clues they can use to come up with
answers to questions
about what the dog Blue wants to do that day.

Using what is known as a blue screen technique,
the program superimposes the actor's video image
on an image of a simple, but almost 3D, animated environment,
so he appears to be inside it.
It also uses cartoonlike props, such as this notebook.

He then interacts with the props,
and pretends to interact with the animated images.

Here he is having animated thoughts,
while the dog, Blue, looks on in back.

Note the way he engages in large,
exaggerated, and whimsical movements,
so he will seem like a human cartoon
or a storybook figure come to life.

Of course, his large features,
which he exploits through exaggerated expressions,
help as well.

Blue's Clues is an example
of the way art and technology
have come together to create new kinds of fiction,
in this case, for very young children.

Now that's a puzzle worth thinking about. Isn't it Blue?

Blue? Has anybody seen Blue...

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