Monday, March 03, 2014

Endless Alphabet and Reader Characters: Big Blue

Big Blue is probably the character from Endless Alphabet / Endless Reader that appears most often.  Big Blue is a male monster who usually behaves responsibly.  In Endless Numbers his birthday cake has sixteen candles, so he is approximately 16 years old.  My guess is that he is the older brother of two other characters, Little Blue and Bean, because he often appears with them while performing guardian-type tasks, but this is never stated, and it is possible that he is modeled after an uncle or another friendly relationship. [This theory is also not supported by a couple scenes--for example, Big Blue is part of the one big happy monster family, but neither Little Blue nor Bean appear in that movie.]
Big Blue is reasonably active.  He cannot fly.  To go swimming, he wore an orange mask and fins, although we didn’t see him in the water because Pistachio was taking up the whole pool.  At the park he chooses to swing, with Pinkerton.  When exercising with other monsters, we saw Big Blue wearing a sweatband and stretching for his toes.  We also saw him ride a bike with Dapper Dandy and Pinkerton.


Big Blue likes to play with a ball—between Endless Alphabet and Endless Reader I noticed at least three times that he was playing ball; once alone, once with Little Blue, and once Sam caught his ball.  Another time when Big Blue is on an island, he makes a friend out of a coconut (reminding us of Tom Hanks’ Wilson in Castaway); Big Blue is lonely by himself, which may be part of the reason he appears so often with other monsters.

Big Blue plays the banjo, although he had trouble finding it for one word.  His talent with the banjo is not a big surprise, because those who are familiar with Endless Alphabet already know that he is a “musician” capable of playing the electric guitar, since he played in a band with Rod and Cone, Scampi, and Francis.  Big Blue is also a photographer, and he knows how to yodel.

We often see Big Blue in the role of an adult.  As mentioned above, he swings with Pinkerton when some of the monsters are at the park, and he also rides a bicycle with Pinkerton.  Big Blue is often seen with Little Blue—helping him reach cookies, watching clouds or bouncing a ball together, and celebrating various events.  Big Blue expected Sherbert to say please when she wanted some cupcake and then he shared half with her.  Big Blue occasionally feeds Bean—he fed Bean when Bean was very hungry because he hadn’t eaten breakfast, another time he let Bean have cake if he ate dinner, and another time he gives Bean broccoli when Bean wants a cupcake.


Big Blue is a popular guest at monster festivities.  He is part of “one big happy monster family”, he attended a big monster dance party, and he was present at the party to “celebrate” Little Blue’s third birthday. He also eats “scrumptious” cake with Little Blue and Rocky to celebrate the one year anniversary of Endless Alphabet.  This suggests that Big Blue and Little Blue may be the most original characters from the cast of EA characters. 

Big Blue also appears in a few random words that don’t seem to have much to do with anything: he dyed a shirt orange with Eli, drank a potion that made him “gargantuan”, he is overwhelmed by multiplying little green things, and he yawns and falls asleep while reading books.

Big Blue runs across the screen to scatter letters both with the group, and separately with only Little Blue.

(For the full list of characters from Endless Alphabet and Endless Reader, click here.)

Endless Alphabet and Reader Characters Biography Project

I've decided to make a little series of blog posts about the characters from Endless Alphabet and Endless Reader, because there is nothing about them anywhere on the Internet, aside from blogs and award pages recommending the app.  As I have watched Paisley play them I noticed a few cute themes and the researcher in me wanted to see what all we know about the characters and put it somewhere.

So, I've gone through each of the words in Endless Alphabet and Endless Reader, taken a bunch of screenshots, compiled information about each character, and I am working to turn my notes into little biographies for each character.  This is also part of another project that I will blog about later.

For now, here is the list of characters I have noticed, and I will begin posting information and pictures for each of the characters as I have the chance to turn my outlines into little biographies.  Then I will link this post to the pages about the characters.

(If anyone reads my blog and is not interested in an application for little kids, feel free to skip these posts!)

List of Characters that Appear in Endless Alphabet and Endless Reader:
(listed in order by approximately how often they appear, from most to least)

1. Big Blue
2. Little Blue
3. Yoshi
4. Scampi
5. Pinkerton
6. Pistachio
7. Rocky
8. Sherbert
9. Francis
10. Eli
11. Grok
12. Grumpkin
13. Rod and Cone
14. Dapper Dandy
15. Tuttle
16. Sam
17. Sunny
18. Amy
19. Bean
20. Green monster with lots of little legs
21. Purple DJ monster


Another time I will also discuss the six types of word movie clips I have noticed.