Similar to the original 1996 series, this series has a live-action host in an animated world. The series features new production designs and the characters (aside from the host) are animated digitally, though the visual style remains similar to the style used in the original series. Like the original show, Blue's Clues & You! depended upon built-in silences designed to encourage audience participation and what The New York Times called "direct address inviting preschoolers to play along with games and solve mini-mysteries". The show's producers recognized that its return was due to nostalgia, and that although young children had more access to technology and were more visual than preschoolers before, they still had the same developmental and emotional needs to "slow down".