As a Queenslander now living in the UK, seeing Bluey for the first time filled me with homesickness in a way that no other media has.
Despite the huge media industry in SEQ, it's so rare to see it actually represented as itself (rather than dressed up as Manhattan, eg). I also remember growing up and feeling that there was never really any media I could relate to; everything "Australian" is set in Sydney, Melbourne, or some non-descript outback setting. There was always a feeling of being second best - always America in the news, not Australia; always NSW or Victoria for settings, not Queensland; always Sydney or Melbourne, not Brisbane.
The first time I watched Bluey, immediately I could see not just vague Australianisms, but actual places and sights I recognised. From small details like the bus stop signs to scenes which I can pinpoint exactly in Brisbane. Combine that with stories which I don't just identify with, but which I feel I can remember viscerally.
Try Hey Duggee - it's not as explicitly British-coded, but there's a ton of stuff in there if you were watching Spaced in your late teens and now find yourself a parent…
Seconded, Hey Duggee is a fantastic show. In a way it's the anti-Bluey - same delightful vibes, just as playfully animated, but intentionally ridiculous (and, to me, hilarious) stories.
I'd argue Peppa Pig is not crap, it's quite funny and surprisingly watchable by grownups. Not something I'd watch by myself, but I didn't get bored when I watched it with my daughter. Of course, the art style is no good, intentionally so, I suppose for budget reasons.
I'd argue Bluey is "a better Peppa": similar kind of humor (slightly more elaborate, but not by a lot) but with great artwork.
I think part of the problem is definitely that Bluey exists. It's a "Better Peppa" and when watching Peppa I can't help but compare them. Given I'm a Dad myself I find the difference in the Dad characters to be illuminating: Daddy Pig is a klutzy idiot who, more often than not, makes mistakes other have to fix. By comparison Bandit is an incredible parent (maybe too incredible at times, so says my ego)
Peppa hanging up on Suzy because she has just been able to whistle following basic instructions while Peppa has been frustrated to discover she can't do it is stuck in my head.
That might not entirely be an accident, given Joe Brumm was originally an animator that worked on Peppa Pig and decided he wanted to do an Australian version of it when he moved back home.
Peppa just feels like one more of those random grab bag of terrible kids shows. There's no comfort like bluey has, no quiet episodes. It's just noise for the children, with rather dumb, flat characters
My kids will watch it, if someone like Grandma or the neighbor put it on, but their attention wanders. Bluey? They stay locked on for the entire duration of the episode
There are plenty of great TV shows and movies set in London at least.
Its weird - I know about little american towns like Boulder, Colorado. I've never been there. But I know what it looks like because its featured - or at least mentioned - in plenty of movies and shows.
But the population of Boulder is just 100k. Australia has lots of way bigger cities - like Brisbane, Queensland (population 2.8 million) or Perth, WA (2.4 million) that are never depicted on screen. Even on Australian TV, I basically never see brissie or perth shown at all. I only know what they look like because I've visited.
But maybe that's normal in the english speaking world - at least outside the US. We've gotta raise our game and make more good content.
Part of the problem is selling into America - as an American, I can recognize London (smog and Sherlock Holmes!), Paris (Eiffel Tower), Sydney (Seashell Opera House), and New Zealand (Middle Earth).
I can't recognize Brisbane (and visiting it would feel like visiting Bluey).
Producers are SCARED of using unrecognizable areas (and/or for live-action, just film near where everyone is located).
If it makes you feel better, the USA has tons of large cities - far north of 100k, north of 1 million (especially if considering urban areas), that rarely or ever get featured in TV or movies; and if they do, it's often older ones.
Which is sad, mind you. Every city should have its own feel (too many places now feel like suburbs of Los Angeles, even in Europe or Asia), its own beer, its own food, its own media and music.
I don’t think it’s just unrecognisable places, it’s non American culture. Australia has made a bunch of really good shows. But it’s often quite Australian. I think it’s hard to break through on a meaningful level.
Eh, lumping the gold-coast in with Brisbane is easy enough. Tanned bodies, barrel waves, way more tourists than you expect... it's basically California except it faces east, not west.
Boulder's metro area is around 330k - not quite "small town". That 100k is people inside one of the local government boundaries of the area. The US Census considers 5k to be the upper limit of a small town.
Brisbane is often called a "big country town" by other Australians, and it's 2.8 million people, so don't take that phrase too strongly :)
That said, agreed with the GP - places like Boulder, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, or New Orleans are places that we know about through culture and are internationally recognised, while being much smaller than Australian cities. That's mostly a factor of a huge amount of English-speaking media being from the US.
Australia attempts to counter this through laws requiring a certain quota of Australian content in the media, but that hasn't really worked - and is one of the factors which spawned many Australian reality TV shows.
New Orleans is tiny by global scale and not very large even in the US. It is, however, culturally unique (there is nothing else even close) and strategically insanely important.
Plenty of towns and cities in the UK are also totally unique culturally.
I visited Edinburgh a couple years ago and was blown away by the city and its people. God, everyone I met was so funny and interesting. But it’s almost never depicted on tv, outside of the occasional BBC crime drama or something. And those usually don’t get much air time outside of the UK. Peaky blinders has done an amazing job telling some of the history of Birmingham. I want more of that! The world is just so big and interesting. Far bigger than Hollywood will ever bother to portray.
Peppa Pig doesn't attempt to portray a particular place afaik. Axel Scheffler's books often have visual references to Blackheath/Greenwich, with particular places often recognisable. Perhaps you think those are crap too, though.
I'm surprised I haven't seen a "visit Brisbane" (or at least "visit Australia") tourism campaign featuring Bluey anywhere. The show makes it look like an amazing place to visit and live.
It really is an amazing place to live (although hot in the summer!), but career opportunities can be limiting in Australia and Brisbane. Catriona Drummond touches on the same in her substack [1] mentioned in the OP:
> As I mentioned, before Bluey I’d resigned myself to the fact that if I wanted to achieve something resembling my ‘full potential’ on a technical level as an artist, I would have to not only probably move to the United States [...]
> Even deeper than that, was the pervasive thought that perhaps for my whole life I was just never going to be in the right place at the right time. That being from somewhere like Brisbane just meant I was doomed.
As a life long Melbournian, I absolutely loved how intensely Brisbane Bluey is. I know from the outside many see oz as the unified thing but the differences between cities can be drastic. Even between Hobart and Launceston in Tassie is significant.
It is like the works of Stuart McMillen (https://www.stuartmcmillen.com/), and how they depict Canberra in a way the locals can really appreciate.
I live right in Red Hill. Bluey is literally my home! This is my neighbourhood! This is the first time I've ever felt that... and its amusing to feel that as a person in my mid 30s from a childrens show.
I love Brisbane so much, and this article captures the uniqueness so well.
You should watch Harrow, too. It’s a bit cliched as a police procedural, but they show a “TV version” of Brisbane: everyone lives in beautiful big Queenslanders, it’s sunny all the time, etc.
I actually didn't realise how Brisbane it is until I stayed at southbank and wandered around the CBD a little bit. Even curlews were new to me, I couldn't believe it when I first saw one, I thought it was a statue.
When visiting Los Angeles a few weeks ago from Sydney, it was wonderful to see relos’ kids watching Bluey on Disney Plus, in top spot too. Everyone loves it. Heartwarming.
I'm afraid I don't have the specific episodes burned into my brain well enough to remember the names of them all. :)
That said, one that's burned into my brain is when they're walking along the South Bank riverside; the episode is apparently called "Ice Cream".
The shot at ~0:48 in this video: https://youtu.be/cBti7aQBMk4?si=o3sWwfKJwQ-VEa8e&t=48
Is approximately from here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Y1UmtCK5si8drVaD7 - It's not exactly the same as the show, but that's more a limitation of Google Maps; I bet you could recreate the shot. There's also usually an ice cream vendor just about there. :)
The bridge in the background is Victoria Bridge, the clock on the right is the Suncorp building (I think now demolished), the weird multi-part building next to it is Brisbane Square Library (now also a Suncorp building), and the arched building to the right of that is the Treasury Building (formerly the casino).
The rest of the shots in that episode are from various other parts in the parklands if you walk along it, including the lagoon beach, fountains, and walkway. The whole area (and the ibises) are an iconic part of Brisbane, as a legacy of Expo 88.
Aside from that, I think quite a lot of the shots in the city take place in real places, whether recognisable places like Mt Coot-Tha or random shops in the suburbs.
I haven’t watched any scenes from Bluey before (though I have a newborn now so I suspect that will soon change), but I lived in southbank for a few years during uni, basically right beside the cultural center bus stop.
I watched the clip and within a few seconds I knew exactly where in the parklands they were. Very cool, thanks for sharing. I had a similar feeling of under representation (for lack of a better term?) most of my life and while classic shows like Kath and Kim or either of the soaps show pretty quintessentially Aussie home interiors and outdoor areas, it still feels very Sydney/Melbourne.
The other show recently I’d say gave us that Brisbane feel (and a bit of homesickness, we live in NYC atm) was Love on the Spectrum: Australia. One of the guys is a bus driver in Brisbane and we’d often pause it to try and figure out if we could recognise which route.
I used to work for Suncorp (~10 years ago) in Brisbane square, pretty sure they are no longer using the building and it’s now a super company.
I’ve not watched Bluey (don't have kids of my own or niblings the right age), but am looking forward to when the time comes, so I can point out places I know.
Like many here, I grew up in Brisbane but moved elsewhere for opportunities etc. Given the cost of everything there these days I doubt I’ll make a permanent move back, but I do get nostalgic seeing the locations and the little details represented so well.
When my son was in the last stages of leukemia, Bluey was on repeat all day. He was completely immersed in that world and we, his parents were there with him too.
Now, 5 years after his death, he's little brother is also in love with the show and we watch an episode at least once a day.
There will never be another TV show like this one for those personal reasons and also because it's just too good.
My wife and I watched the episode about infertility with our little niece who kept asking when she'd have a cousin. Despite its subtlety it completely broke me. It addresses the subject in the best of ways. Well here we are 7 IVF cycles later and still trying.
Can i take a moment to say I admire the strength that it takes to try 7 cycles. We gave up at 5, it became too heart breaking. Keep positive mate, I wish the best for you.
Bluey is the best children's cartoon of this generation. The art is a joy to see, being full of color and well-defined lines/objects, without being overwhelming. I sincerely appreciate the creator's resistance to engineer the show for maximum attention and, instead, focus on telling a good story with relatable characters. The show can move slowly when appropriate and isn't afraid to keep the scene mostly static. The music is great and well directed to capture meaningful emotional moments without being campy. The episode length of ~7 minutes is perfect, especially for families wanting to limit screen time, as it covers a quick breakfast/lunch (or laundry/dishes break) and provides a natural stopping point to move to the next activity. I can't praise it enough and just hope its success inspires more studios to avoid the brain-rot algorithmic-lead nonsense.
My only complaint is that I am a grown-ass man and shouldn't be tearing up every other episode of a children's cartoon...
> Bluey is the best children's cartoon of this generation
Bluey is the best children's cartoon _for adults_ of this generation.
Our kids are about the same age and age difference as Bluey/Bingo are portrayed, and I can't express how much relief it gives to watch it see your own life played out line for line.
Some days, as a parent you wonder how (badly) you're doing, and Bluey takes some weight off as you realise (and talk to other parents about Bluey) that some things are just universal and you're possibly doing better than you think.
> Bluey is the best children's cartoon _for adults_ of this generation.
One of my regular hangouts often puts Bluey on one of their TVs and I know for a fact there have been multiple occasions where no one at the bar even has children but we're all sitting there drinking beers while watching the antics of a family of cartoon dogs.
I will happily watch Bluey (as will my wife) if it happens to be on and the kids aren't around, I can't say that for any other cartoon they watch, even ones I can appreciate for the educational value they provide the children (our daughter loves Octonauts and learning and telling us all about sea creatures).
I can't think of another cartoon targeted at that young an audience that I'd even consider sitting down and watching a half-dozen episodes of without a kid around, but I can imagine doing that with Bluey. Like I've for-sure left it running for multiple episodes after the kids left the room, and enjoyed it.
Older-audience stuff like Avatar: The Last Airbender or Justice League Unlimited, oh yeah, for sure, but something specifically aimed at lower-grades elementary school kids? Nope, can't think of another, not even nostalgia shows from my own childhood. I'd maybe do an episode just like "oh wow, remember this?" but not a session watch.
One of the things not talked (much) about is how families are much more isolated now - since the average person is from a two-child family, and has a two-child family, most of their peer group growing up and when they have kids is in the "same boat" so they don't really have insight and experience of what the youngest years brings.
Even the basic idea of "kids like games, make things games" that permeates Bluey is likely unknown to many new parents.
Absolutely, it's one of those things where you're truly thrown in at the deep end, so to speak, with no guidance or experience (you likely remember little to nothing about your time as a child in those early years) and have to work it out.
Nobody teaches you anything (besides some basic courses for new parents like NCT here in the UK) and there's really no-one to ask; your own parents likely did things very differently to how you would now, so you have to weigh any advice they can/do provide.
The biggest help, I've found, on all sides, is talking to other parents; those of our children's friends, and we're quite friendly with a bunch of them having spend a lot of time talking to each other during COVID and meeting for the children's play-dates after. Many of them, like us have two children, with a similar age gap, their eldest is the same age as we met at our first children's births and they go through the same phases at roughly the same time.
Sometimes you just need to ask, "is this normal", and they'll corroborate, and some times you just need to support them by confirming you have the same challenges.
I completely missed your point, I think. Do you mean that the current generation of young parents didn't experience enough things being games as kids themselves?
My interpretation was that we haven't experienced it as adults; We may have experienced it as children, but my experience (maybe not everybody's) is that I don't remember enough about being a young child to necessarily know the best way to approach things with my own children, and we haven't necessarily seen how others do it.
I'm also much older (a decade) than my parents were when they had their first child.
My wife tells me a story about a young lady in one of the baby groups who was looking for other mothers to get to know.
She's a selfless woman my wife, and goes out of her way for anyone, but she felt bad that she just couldn't get a long with this young lady to the point where she'd exchange numbers and arrange to meet up for coffee or whatever; while the young lady was also feeling alienated from her childless friends.
There were almost two decades between them and she just couldn't find anything to relate on and she felt really awkward; she still thinks about that occasionally and regrets not trying harder.
I'm the voice of (un)reason and have to reign in her selflessness sometimes for her own wellbeing and had to convince her she had herself and a new born to take care of first and foremost.
My earliest memories, sketchy and faint, are around eight or so years old.
By that time my youngest sibling was already out of diapers; I had literally zero experience with newborns and had changed ONE diaper in my life before the hospital shoved one in my arms and said "good luck, don't shake her."
Larger families of yore, the eldest kids would be in their teens when the last baby was born; they would have living memory (and probably even were enlisted to help). And as others have mentioned, you don't really begin to meet the parents of your children's friends until they're old enough to have friends, which is usually daycare at the earliest; often school for many.
You have to make an effort and action to join a "mom's group" these days; before local family, church, even the neighborhood would spontaneously be a "mom's group".
> Bluey takes some weight off as you realise (and talk to other parents about Bluey) that some things are just universal and you're possibly doing better than you think.
No question, the I can't count the number of times I've sent the "Baby Race" to other parents who ask me "When did your kid start to talk?"
We watch the Bluey bike whenever the kids say "I can't do it!" or the Dad can't draw episode.
Or the curry quest, when I had to travel for work (after all the pandemic "no work travel").
Bluey's dad is an inspiration, like the puppets episode is so funny & I keep saying "Bauxite" in random times without context.
That's one criticism I've heard about it actually, but not sure how much it's actually true. Basically that people love Bluey because it appeals more to adults, but that may make it not as good as other shows for child development (which adults might find boring).
I don't know that I buy that though, I think the shows that claim they're for child development but are insufferable to adults would be better of just skipped entirely, probably those skills are better learned from real life play and interaction than tv.
Writing and writers changing every few decade. Reacting to the output of the previous gen.
Popular shows of 80-90s avoided trauma and ambiguity. Everything was simple and morally clear.
Then there was a huge counter reaction overload where we got Anti-Heroes, Moral Ambiguity, Trauma, "Realism" etc in every other show.
As viewers got tired and yearn for hope, faith, meaning, sincerity we got another wave (Ted Lasso, Reservation Dogs etc). Similar to the writing in Bluey they takes us back to Sincerity, but much smarter since they don't avoid Trauma. And show the viewer how healing and connection happens without power struggles.
Its basically a response to cynicism and fatigue. With comfort and care.
> Popular shows of 80-90s avoided trauma and ambiguity. Everything was simple and morally clear.
Popular western shows did; I've started watching the Gundam series, the first set started in '79 and while superficially it looks like your generic saturday morning cartoon, it starts off with trauma (many people killed) and while the villains are obviously evil - genocide, nazi ideologies ("sieg zeon"), etc - they also get more character development than what the protagonists get. The villains are the underdogs, only 1/30th the size of the "federation", and the good guys have a new set of superweapons that seems to win and kill their people on every occasion. There's two episodes where a "villain" character is introduced as a lover, ambitious military man, etc, then gets killed, his would-be wife killing herself in the next episode.
Anyway, that's just recent experience, I'm sure if you revisit some of the 80's / 90's shows you'd see more trauma / ambiguity too. I'm thinking of the X-Men series for example.
That first run is pretty interesting because they clearly had the foresight to make things morally grey and the villians human. It's very clear they added some mustache twirling villiany to a few episodes as an afterthought. It's not even clear until like the last dozen episodes that Zeon is evil.
I know Gundam quality is a huge spectrum, but the 'sloppiness' of moral ambiguity in the first one is pretty great. Way too often (Z Gundam) they just do a timeskip and say "what if the good guys became bad after they won?"
> It's not even clear until like the last dozen episodes that Zeon is evil.
Zeon is literally portrayed as eugenicist Nazis early in the show. They literally chant "Sieg Zeon!" while saluting. Literally the very first episode shows Zeon dropping a space colony on Earth, essentially nuking a major population center (and says half the civilian population dies in the war.)
It's pretty clear Zeon is evil. What's unclear initially is that it was the Zabi family that made it evil.
Originally, Zeon was an idealistic movement by an essentially leftist philosopher (Zeon Deikun) whose work was co-opted by a militant autocratic family (the Zabi family). The leftist guy gets assassinated, and a big part of the series is watching his son, Char (the primary antagonist of the show) trying to take down the Zabi's while fighting for independence from the Federation.
I would argue it's the best children's cartoon ever.
Also, as a dad, Bandit's character is so well written. I relate to him in every single episode that I've watched. Nearly every other dad character in children's programming is a flat, 2-dimensional, drooling idiot that nobody respects.
Even if Bluey was strange Australian propaganda to make fatherhood desirable and respectable, it still wins because it actually works at it.
Avoiding the "dumb sitcom dad" has been done before a few times, and well (Bob Parr of Incredibles; Stoick the Vast of How to Train Your Dragon; King Fergus of Brave could be some examples) - but Bandit just is a dad; he's not perfect, he's not brilliant - but he's there (except when he has to leave) and he loves - his children, his wife, himself.
And even though he says "I'm not taking advice from a cartoon dog" we all end up doing so.
Yes very weird stuff, unlike the conventional narrative we've typically seen across the media which is that men are simple-minded buffoons incapable of boiling an egg.
This is completely normal and good.
The "men are simple-minded buffoons" media is mostly comedy, and mostly resonates because we have, indeed, all been simple-minded buffoons at some point (who among us has not failed to boil an egg at least once? It's relatable).
But I can also name off the top of my head media where men are geniuses, and smart, and kind, and wise, and brave... And some of it isn't even Star Trek.
Honestly, if you're typically seeing men as buffoons across media, you may want to change your subscription services.
It's specifically fathers and not men - men are the heroes in countless movies, but only rarely are they such as fathers unless the movie needs to pluck your heartstrings.
I think part of it is that dads are fine being the “lovable buffoon” - even Bandit plays such. But underlying it is a seriousness that is always present but rarely seen (the “enough of that game” line in Daddy Putdown, for example).
Everyone knows the sitcom dad, and yet dads rarely strongly complain about it. Even in this thread it’s more praise for Bandit than anger at Homer’s portrayal.
> Even in this thread it’s more praise for Bandit than anger at Homer’s portrayal.
Initially, and more-or-less consistently for the first 7-9 seasons or so before it switched format and kinda became a straight (if goofy and heightened) version of the thing they'd been satirizing, The Simpsons was a satire of the standard family sitcom format developed over the preceding decades (with roots going back to radio).
At least in those seasons, the characters should be immune from criticism of being too stereotypical (for TV) since that's exactly what it was deliberately leaning into and satirizing—it's a combination of played-straight (and amped-up, even, for Homer) sitcom tropes with subversions of other tropes, with the latter mostly revolving around introducing more-"real" (if still played for laughs and caricatured) characters to the family sitcom format, especially when it comes to authority figures—the principal, teachers, mayor, et c.
> ...men are simple-minded buffoons incapable of boiling an egg
...and yet these buffoon sitcom dads almost always have a huge house in the suburbs, even when they have a stay at home spouse - who's way out of their league.
It's almost as if it's a deliberate depiction for a blank canvas of a character, similar to the plain-jane central character with no personality in YA novels who inevitably gets involved in a love triangle involving the hottest guys (one bad-boy and one nice guy). Being formulaic doesn't make it anti-${DEMOGRPHIC}.
A professor once said that some of the best art is really a head-fake.
Bluey is about half a show for kids and half a show for parents. It shows the kids neat things and fun ideas for play and it quietly whispers to the parents, over and over again, "You're doing fine."
> My only complaint is that I am a grown-ass man and shouldn't be tearing up every other episode of a children's cartoon...
Or maybe you should! Maybe we shouldn't be making people feel bad for being emotional! Maybe it's really successful art to be making so many people feel so strongly!
I'd say Bluey is a better Peppa Pig. Now, hear me out -- it's surprising how many gags meant for grownups are there in Peppa Pig (e.g. "one must become one with the mud" is not humor for kids), but the art is... well, it's intentionally flat and boring. But Bluey has a lot of the same kind of humor, with visually appealing characters and world.
Peppa Pig is in general funnier than Bluey. Visually, I also agree, Bluey is far superior. I just can't help, as a parent, the feeling of inferiority as there's no way two working parents have the energy and patience to make everything a game with their kids. That's the main crux of why I prefer Peppa.
As a non-parent who has only consumed either shows while staying with parent friends, I found Peppa Pig quite grating while Bluey was actually a fun watch. I can't imagine having Peppa Pig on frequently.
Peppa has a more "grating" and generally louder tone, agreed, but it's deceptively simpler than it seems. After you watch it for a while (something you can only really do if you have kids) it starts to grow on you, and you start noticing the subtler humor that is aimed at the parents.
Yeah. I think for me it's just the tone. Then again, I'm also deeply put off by the "everything is fast and loud" tone of a bunch of more adult-oriented content (eg: Adventure Time, Phineas and Ferb, or Rick and Morty are all unwatchable to me).
There are some real laugh-out-loud moment in Peppa Pig (like at the fair, where everyone was telling Mommy Pig that girls aren't good at said game and she in her anger absolutely demolishes it). However, I find those moments coming up less in Bluey. I almost always laugh at how Grandpa Pig says "metal detector", too.
I think if I didn't have kids, I would like Bluey better. Likewise, I would be able to watch it without any discrimination.
Peppa Pig is more ... "cartoony" if I can use the term, whereas Bluey is more "real life" - and I don't think it is just the animation (rounded rects live!) - Bluey is established with a continuity and detail that makes it seem we're looking into a real world as opposed to vignettes created for our amusement.
Yes, agreed. Bluey is simply better in all ways. I meant to say Peppa is deceptively not crap, it just looks bad. But at moments it's hilarious. It is for younger kids though, who I think require less "continuity".
Not just the best children's cartoon, but one of the best TV shows I've ever seen in terms of how close it comes to realizing its full potential. I have a hard time finding points to criticize.
My only complaint is the children’s bedtime story books are incredibly effective at delivering their core task - they deliberately draw the stories out so long that they put both parties asleep.
We've acquired a handful of their books and they're just not great for reading to a toddler. The dialog is in speech bubbles, and the layout is more like an episode. I have to come up with filler text and structure on the fly. Give me a Franklin or Little Critter, any day.
Such a lovely show! It’s always fun to see examples of how it takes so much intention to make something that appears simple.
For any adults who have either never heard of Bluey, or never thought of watching a “kids” show, maybe try to an episode the next time you can’t figure out what to stream next. “Sleepy time” (season 2 episode 26) is one of the most renown, but they’re all pretty good! (https://www.bluey.tv/watch/season-2/sleepytime/)
"Flat Pack" (S2 E24)
and
"Baby Race" (S2 E49)
Are my most favorite and bring out tears every time.
Then there is "Granny Mobile" (S3 E33) which cracks me up every time.
Even my 7 year old daughter knows this and uses Bluey to cheer me up if I am in sour mood.
Don't even get me started on Shaun the Sheep. My daughter and I have re-watched everything there is about Shaun the Sheep and laugh in anticipation before the funny things actually happen.
Edit: I absolutely love the minisodes where Bandit tells kids bedtime stories (Goldilocks and Three little pigs). I wouldn't be surprised if the voice actor just went off and made up bunch of stuff which they animated later.
My wife and I cry tears of laughter everytime Sean shows up.
And for those new to this - don’t miss the episode Cricket (3,47) which makes my wife tear up everytime.
The ability to tell a clear and focused narrative that has humor and a lesson in 8 minutes is stunning to me. I have legitimately used it with grad students learning to write a paper. Nothing is wasted, not a line not a shot.
They accuse mum of fussing while dad's all about fun, but soon come to realise there's good reason mum makes a fuss, and everyone starts having less of a good time when they realise they needed those things mum was fussing about.
That episode perfectly describes my experience as a father of a toddler. I'll decide on a whim to taking him hiking only to discover half-way through that I didn't bring enough snacks for him and forgot his water shoes at home. So now I'm out with a cranky toddler who's hungry and can't play in the river. I've learned to accept my wife's 30-minute packing phase to send us on our way with everything we need.
Absolutely; I think that's one of those things some of us learn the hard way; I don't know that it's specifically a dad thing, but at least for me and my wife; she's a planner, I'm a "FIWB"; If I think I can quickly fit a fun activity in by grabbing the keys and being in the car in the next 30 seconds we go, if we had to plan it we might not have time, but it's not necessarily always the best approach.
I look forward (though not rushing for) a time when the children are old enough that I can say "grab your coats and be at the car in 2 minutes" and we can just go do something fun on a whim, carpe diem, and all that.
I've started to come around to realizing that the van isn't the size it is because of the number of kids, it's because the thing should be packed full of "emergency" supplies so that you CAN grab the kid and run somewhere (within view of the van).
So far it's mainly a change of clothes (for everyone!), diapers, pacifiers, bottles, and water, but that's going to grow.
long-life snack food (couple different types of nuts, salty crackers), umbrellas, a large towel (for putting around someone who's cold, drying someone, or sitting on at the beach or on grass), plastic bags (for putting muddy/wet/sandy shoes into),
There was a brief moderation error, in which I changed the capitalisation to "How we built Bluey’s World", assuming that the article was about the immersive attraction called "Bluey’s World" [1,2], which has been open in Brisbane since last November.
I can attest that it is incredible; we took our kid a few weeks ago and it exceeded expectation. Probably more exciting for the parents even than the kids. Strongly recommended if you can get to Brisbane or if it comes to a city near you some day.
My niece would love this! As it is, we have to pay over a hundred dollars for our family to go watch bad acting in - not even costumes - but masks on sticks held up in front of faces. Seriously, that was a real, official show over here. Never again.
As someone who has lived in Brisbane, I can attest that it does a really good job of capturing the colour of the city. There is a unique golden hour shade there like no other city I have lived in.
As a companion to this, I'd recommend the podcast 20 Thousand Hertz: their two-party on the sounds of Bluey was excellent, and as a parent immersed in Bluey, really enjoyable. Seems like they put a lot of thought and care into nearly every aspect of the show.
Bluey is by far the best children's show I've ever watched. My son and I love watching it together. It's so refreshing after having to watch Peppa Pig for a year or so before we discovered Bluey. I disliked Peppa Pig and I was relieved when my son said he no longer wish to watch it after finding Bluey.
My daughter started commenting on people's appearance around age 5+ because she learned it from Peppa Pig. Everyone always talks down to and about the Daddy pig constantly. They try to incorporate some 'good' behaviors in the story but certain 'it's just a joke' jokes end up leaving more impressions on the kid than the shoehorned moral of the story.
It took us a while to teach her how it can hurt others if you comment on things (even if they are technically factual statements).
On the other hand, she learned some simple but useful things from Bluey that we weren't successful in teaching effectively. e.g. She learned to speak up and tell when Dad(me) was overdoing 'fun' things (literally an episode with exact same concept where Bingo has to tell her dad the same thing). She learned to be compliment and acknowledge many things verbally (instead of saying 'why do I need to say it, they know it already').
It's just not as wholesome and Peppa is kind of a brat. And the whole picking on the dad thing kind of got old after a while. It just doesn't really offer any thing of any value to my child.
Non-parents don't realize just how exactly toddlers and young children will mimic what they see; they don't see Bluey and decide to play 'keepy uppy' they see Bluey and decide to act out the entire episode, word for word, scene for scene.
And then you realize why Peppa being a bit of a brat sometimes can be an issue.
If onscreen, Peppa annoys me immediately and constantly. Just the plain tone of voice or something. A single word irritates me, let alone being such a willfully unhelpful, ungrateful brat.
I flatly refuse Peppa pig in my house. Not on TV, not on streaming, not on anything.
That little pig is only good for cartoon bacon, ham, porkbelly...
Bluey is so good that it's worth the subscription to Disney+ all on its own. It is hands down, the best children's cartoon I've ever seen. My kids are starting to outgrow it unfortunately, but when they were younger they would constantly ask me and their mother to play "Bluey games" with them. It's a great show to encourage parents and kids to play together imaginatively.
I agree with you on Tumble Leaf as well, it's a really good show. I also recommend Puffin Rock if you have Netflix.
It's an incredible show but the finale "season" catapults it into my personal top 3 children's shows of all time. They did an incredible job of bringing it full circle and tying a bow on it. Tumble Leaf doesn't normally make you cry the way Bluey does, but the finale will have you bawling.
Just seeing the sketches of the Heelers' kitchen brings a smile to my face, reminding me of one of my favorite episodes of Bluey, Pavlova. If you haven't seen it before, take the seven minutes to watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERyw2dz2-ZM
Despite being a cartoon specifically aimed at little kids, it's an absolute delight. I think my wife and I like Bluey more than our toddler does, actually.
Mr Roger’s and Reading Rainbow will always be the best children’s programs ever made. No other show in history has been able to entertain children with real people as successfully as they were. You won’t know unless you let your children watch it. It’s just amazing because they engage with it and when you turn it off they don’t have a tantrum like many animated shows or Ms Rachel
I love that its Brisbane. I hate that, the parts of brisbane you see are largely financially out of reach. I used to have a house on my street that was extremely similar to the Heelers, and it sold for 2 million, then the place next door to them went for 1.7.
I spend most episodes in financial distress wondering how to practically afford the lifestyle, and how my kiddo would ever be able to afford that lifestyle.
Even in terms of Nostalgia for the older generations, the suburbs depicted were well out of reach for a friends family. His father used to tell me he dreamed of moving into one of those suburbs but it was too expensive for their combined income, where one income was an aviation engineer.
Kudos Catriona Drummond for letting the secret out of Brisbane, and perseverance to become a visual artist. What really attracts people to Bluey is the art. Seriously, it can be on mute and it's mesmerizing (not that the music is not awesome, because it totally makes it 10x better, too).
The artistic mature here is also off the charts, to recognize that innate sense of what makes things amazing:
> Appeal is such an intangible element to visual art, I could try and harp on in some pseudo-scientific way about what I personally think creates that deep satisfaction when viewing something ‘visually appealing’. I think there’s a whole weird matrix of things firing off in our monkey brains to illicit it. But I’ll just leave it at: we know it when we see it. I wanted to make something that was truly delicious to look at.
She didn't touch on how visually captivating the colour scheme is for kids. It's unsettling just how much it draws their attention, it's like a drug. It's also (partly) why I prefer Peppa Pig for my 3 year old, it's much easier to him to naturally disengage after 15-20 minutes.
Peppa pig has little to no value though, whereas many people find Bluey wholesome and touching and sometimes really poignant. To each their own, but at least Bluey tries to encourage creativity and play and fun beyond jumping up and down in muddy puddles. The short episode length can be a natural disengage checkpoint with Bluey too, as long as auto play is turned off.
I know I’m the odd one out, but I really don’t find Bluey that wholesome (with the exception of two episodes - the rain one and the Bingo sleeping/space one, which I do think are fantastic). The others are very frenetic - it feels like a pure hit of sugar in television form. It also often shows a lot of bad behaviour that kids can interpret as funny (the cousin running away with the phone after being told, the old lady buying the scooter).
Peppa might be “empty” but I don’t worry that it’s inadvertently steering him in the wrong direction. The Peppa books are also far, far better than the Bluey books.
I think the pace is because a lot of the episodes revolve around play and games - and any sort of play with children does tend to be a bit frenetic. There’s a good number of episodes that aren’t that, including the two you mentioned, but it would be a bit strange for a show about play and imagination to not be a bit frenetic.
> It also often shows a lot of bad behaviour that kids can interpret as funny (the cousin running away with the phone after being told, the old lady buying the scooter).
There’s bad behavior that is funny, sure, but almost all of those episodes demonstrate the consequences of it even if in a humorous fashion: Muffin is constantly facing consequences for her actions, for example. I think that’s an ok trade off.
I find it's worth taking a look at your TVs colour settings for cartoons for children, lots of OLEDs can come over-saturated out of the box, our living room TV is tuned for more muted colours.
On the other hand, the topics and content of Bluey is in another league to Peppa Pig, portraying family life quite accurately and in an endearing way that even for us adults can hit home.
Generally we've found that Peppa does not, and the way the parents are portrayed and the children's behaviour doesn't provide any value to impressionable young children.
Bluey and Peppa Pig (and all shows, really) weren't meant to be binged; it's the downside to having local media or on-demand - it's terribly easy to put on a Bluey and realize you're still watching Blueys three hours later.
My kid drooled in front of Peppa (until she decides she doesn't like it after all). The engagement was at the level of YouTube Kids movies from "creators" - which means kid is unresponsive, clearly doesn't process what's going on, wants more of it like, an addict.
I had to cut off YouTube kids aggressively and my kid still wanted those idiotic movies even after a few months.
Peppa had similar effect, but my kid resigned on it's own. They show is just dumb. Teaches nothing. Unless you value things like feeding ducks with bread and cake is good, destroying countryside camping spot with heavy equipment and concrete is fine just because you dropped keys in a hole etc..
Peppa games are also really bad - not clear when you can actually engage, what can be done, instructions are unclear or wrong, plus the is no goal at all.
Youtube in the context of children is brainrot. I had to ban it entirely. It's so addicting and has zero intelligent value. The last video was of a hamster running an obstacle course. Engaging, cute, kinda silly.... but just complete rot. No educational value. It's like brain sugar. We crave it but it demolishes brain cells.
Bit unrelated to the post, but I hate how Disney has done Blumm dirty. They want to milk bluey as much as possible (understandable), but if the creator says no then Disney won't listen. There's a high chance we'll never get a season 4, and I'm honestly fine with that if an alternative is a rushed fourth season.
I don't really know why that "understandable". We see this with so many TV shows and movie francises. There's a reason why there's only two seasons of The Office in the UK version, but it's just beaten to death in the US version. Same with The Simpsons, Futurama, Big Bang Theory, pretty much the entire Marvel francise, Star Wars, Jurassic Park and so many more shows and movies.
You just find yourself in the corner yield "Please stop, it dead! It's been dead for years!" For example Star Wars, that francise is completely ruined, but the fans are insufferable and just keeps pouring money into something that quite frankly sucks by now.
Why must everything be milked dry to the point where we start hating it?
If "we all" hated it, they'd stop milking it, because the cow would be dry.
So clearly someone, somewhere is enjoying it - so they keep making them.
And it's safer from a business perspective for Blizzard to release "another WoW expansion" than try to make a new game.
(There is also the aspect that you can sell on nostalgia with the toys, etc, and that you can continue to sell the "old toys" and movies and account them as if they're part of the new, which makes you look better, etc).
I was going to reply gp with something in the vein of what you said
> ...Andor is peak Star Wars...
This is both true and false depending on how you mean it: Andor is one of the best story-telling set in the Star Wars universe, and yet, there's nothing emblematically "Star Wars" about it. The same story and characters could have been dropped into any universe, and it would have been fantastic television. It could have been a story about a partisan in WwII, or set in Babylon 5 or in any of the Mass Effect / Silo / Godfather / Fall Out / Dune / Marvel / DC universes, and it would still have worked been largely the same story. Andor gives to the Star Wars universe far more than it receives from the same, it was an expensive labor of love by people delivering their best work - I don't think we'll see anything like it again from Star Wars.
I know this trope has been beaten to death elsewhere too, but it certainly seems like we haven't seen much really 'new' for like 20 years (as far as popular media that is)
That depends on what you value, the money, or the art/story/quality. I get that studios also need to make money, but it feels like we swung to heavily in the "make money" direction.
I don’t feel like it’s unjustly trying to assert Bluey an unfitting credit at all.
Instead I feel like the use of “fact” here is a nod to how thoroughly this has been discussed and how common knowledge it has become, at least to anyone who knows what Bluey is, thus preemptively eliminating the need to explain what Bluey is to that part of the audience that found themselves reading an article about the art process of a show that they are unaware of in the first place. To those readers, it’s a concise cue to go do your own research if you’re lacking that context before getting too far into the article.
What show does come close in quality of production? Art, morale and educational value, actual fun ideas on how to play (some are impossible to reproduce, but still), consequence in plot over the seasons and even merchandise?
Plus Polish dubbing that I use is of insane quality.
It's not about the merit of the argument but rather the act of shutting down any argument by declaring something as a fact. It's completely unnecessary and quite off-putting.
As a Queenslander now living in the UK, seeing Bluey for the first time filled me with homesickness in a way that no other media has.
Despite the huge media industry in SEQ, it's so rare to see it actually represented as itself (rather than dressed up as Manhattan, eg). I also remember growing up and feeling that there was never really any media I could relate to; everything "Australian" is set in Sydney, Melbourne, or some non-descript outback setting. There was always a feeling of being second best - always America in the news, not Australia; always NSW or Victoria for settings, not Queensland; always Sydney or Melbourne, not Brisbane.
The first time I watched Bluey, immediately I could see not just vague Australianisms, but actual places and sights I recognised. From small details like the bus stop signs to scenes which I can pinpoint exactly in Brisbane. Combine that with stories which I don't just identify with, but which I feel I can remember viscerally.
> As a Queenslander now living in the UK
As a Brit now living in Queensland, thanks for swapping places with me. Appreciated. Cheers mate. Enjoy the rain and moaning.
As a Brit living in the US, I'm jealous. My comparative experience was seeing Peppa Pig for the first time. And it's crap.
Try Hey Duggee - it's not as explicitly British-coded, but there's a ton of stuff in there if you were watching Spaced in your late teens and now find yourself a parent…
Seconded, Hey Duggee is a fantastic show. In a way it's the anti-Bluey - same delightful vibes, just as playfully animated, but intentionally ridiculous (and, to me, hilarious) stories.
I'd argue Peppa Pig is not crap, it's quite funny and surprisingly watchable by grownups. Not something I'd watch by myself, but I didn't get bored when I watched it with my daughter. Of course, the art style is no good, intentionally so, I suppose for budget reasons.
I'd argue Bluey is "a better Peppa": similar kind of humor (slightly more elaborate, but not by a lot) but with great artwork.
I think part of the problem is definitely that Bluey exists. It's a "Better Peppa" and when watching Peppa I can't help but compare them. Given I'm a Dad myself I find the difference in the Dad characters to be illuminating: Daddy Pig is a klutzy idiot who, more often than not, makes mistakes other have to fix. By comparison Bandit is an incredible parent (maybe too incredible at times, so says my ego)
Among my friends who are also fathers we're in agreement that Daddy Pig is in for an episode titled "Shared Custody".
Meanwhile Bandit talks and acts like a real person would - well, at least one with top-tier parenting skills.
There have been articles written - including words from the writer of the show - that mention the issue of Bandit's impossible dad standards.
So yeah, don't take Bandit as the benchmark for being decent, but as something to aspire to.
I figure that in a world where good role models are lacking for men in so many ways, here's a good one.
Unlike Bandit, Daddy Pig didn't have to fight in War on Terror so he doesn't have to compensate.
Peppa hanging up on Suzy because she has just been able to whistle following basic instructions while Peppa has been frustrated to discover she can't do it is stuck in my head.
That might not entirely be an accident, given Joe Brumm was originally an animator that worked on Peppa Pig and decided he wanted to do an Australian version of it when he moved back home.
Peppa pig is crap. Full stop.
Peppa just feels like one more of those random grab bag of terrible kids shows. There's no comfort like bluey has, no quiet episodes. It's just noise for the children, with rather dumb, flat characters
My kids will watch it, if someone like Grandma or the neighbor put it on, but their attention wanders. Bluey? They stay locked on for the entire duration of the episode
How old are your kid? I would argue Bluey is for an older audience. A 3 year old can never fully appreciate Bandit.
2 and 3. They love Bingo and Bluey but are indifferent to Bandit and Chili
Hey wait, without the original Peppa Pig, we'd have never got the MeatCanyon version of it.
Oddly just watched my first meatcanyon video today on pirate software and now seeing it mentioned again.
"Full stop"? You didn't even explain why. If anything, it's a comma, not a full stop.
The accent. The “stories”. The shallowness.
Should I keep going?
There are plenty of great TV shows and movies set in London at least.
Its weird - I know about little american towns like Boulder, Colorado. I've never been there. But I know what it looks like because its featured - or at least mentioned - in plenty of movies and shows.
But the population of Boulder is just 100k. Australia has lots of way bigger cities - like Brisbane, Queensland (population 2.8 million) or Perth, WA (2.4 million) that are never depicted on screen. Even on Australian TV, I basically never see brissie or perth shown at all. I only know what they look like because I've visited.
But maybe that's normal in the english speaking world - at least outside the US. We've gotta raise our game and make more good content.
Part of the problem is selling into America - as an American, I can recognize London (smog and Sherlock Holmes!), Paris (Eiffel Tower), Sydney (Seashell Opera House), and New Zealand (Middle Earth).
I can't recognize Brisbane (and visiting it would feel like visiting Bluey).
Producers are SCARED of using unrecognizable areas (and/or for live-action, just film near where everyone is located).
If it makes you feel better, the USA has tons of large cities - far north of 100k, north of 1 million (especially if considering urban areas), that rarely or ever get featured in TV or movies; and if they do, it's often older ones.
Which is sad, mind you. Every city should have its own feel (too many places now feel like suburbs of Los Angeles, even in Europe or Asia), its own beer, its own food, its own media and music.
I don’t think it’s just unrecognisable places, it’s non American culture. Australia has made a bunch of really good shows. But it’s often quite Australian. I think it’s hard to break through on a meaningful level.
>I can't recognize Brisbane
Eh, lumping the gold-coast in with Brisbane is easy enough. Tanned bodies, barrel waves, way more tourists than you expect... it's basically California except it faces east, not west.
Boulder's metro area is around 330k - not quite "small town". That 100k is people inside one of the local government boundaries of the area. The US Census considers 5k to be the upper limit of a small town.
Brisbane is often called a "big country town" by other Australians, and it's 2.8 million people, so don't take that phrase too strongly :)
That said, agreed with the GP - places like Boulder, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, or New Orleans are places that we know about through culture and are internationally recognised, while being much smaller than Australian cities. That's mostly a factor of a huge amount of English-speaking media being from the US.
Australia attempts to counter this through laws requiring a certain quota of Australian content in the media, but that hasn't really worked - and is one of the factors which spawned many Australian reality TV shows.
New Orleans is tiny by global scale and not very large even in the US. It is, however, culturally unique (there is nothing else even close) and strategically insanely important.
Plenty of towns and cities in the UK are also totally unique culturally.
I visited Edinburgh a couple years ago and was blown away by the city and its people. God, everyone I met was so funny and interesting. But it’s almost never depicted on tv, outside of the occasional BBC crime drama or something. And those usually don’t get much air time outside of the UK. Peaky blinders has done an amazing job telling some of the history of Birmingham. I want more of that! The world is just so big and interesting. Far bigger than Hollywood will ever bother to portray.
Do Americans know what stoke on Trent looks like? Or Derby? U.K. towns of similar size
You might have heard of Aberdeen I guess. But have you heard of Geelong in Australia?
> Do Americans know what stoke on Trent looks like
American here. Literally the only thing I know about Stoke on Trent is that Messi would struggle there during a cold rainy night.
Peppa Pig doesn't attempt to portray a particular place afaik. Axel Scheffler's books often have visual references to Blackheath/Greenwich, with particular places often recognisable. Perhaps you think those are crap too, though.
Oh, I know. But Peppa is resoundingly British even if it's not deliberately channeled. It still makes me think of home.
Were you longing for all locations being on hills, or endless roadwork done by Mr. Bull?
I'm surprised I haven't seen a "visit Brisbane" (or at least "visit Australia") tourism campaign featuring Bluey anywhere. The show makes it look like an amazing place to visit and live.
They definitely have been using it in tourism campaigns, especially with Bluey's World: https://teq.queensland.com/au/en/industry/what-we-do/marketi... https://readytorumble.com.au/advertising/for-real-life
It really is an amazing place to live (although hot in the summer!), but career opportunities can be limiting in Australia and Brisbane. Catriona Drummond touches on the same in her substack [1] mentioned in the OP:
> As I mentioned, before Bluey I’d resigned myself to the fact that if I wanted to achieve something resembling my ‘full potential’ on a technical level as an artist, I would have to not only probably move to the United States [...] > Even deeper than that, was the pervasive thought that perhaps for my whole life I was just never going to be in the right place at the right time. That being from somewhere like Brisbane just meant I was doomed.
[1]: https://goodsniff.substack.com/p/creating-bluey-tales-from-t...
It is!
As a life long Melbournian, I absolutely loved how intensely Brisbane Bluey is. I know from the outside many see oz as the unified thing but the differences between cities can be drastic. Even between Hobart and Launceston in Tassie is significant.
It is like the works of Stuart McMillen (https://www.stuartmcmillen.com/), and how they depict Canberra in a way the locals can really appreciate.
I cannot agree with this enough :)
I live right in Red Hill. Bluey is literally my home! This is my neighbourhood! This is the first time I've ever felt that... and its amusing to feel that as a person in my mid 30s from a childrens show.
I love Brisbane so much, and this article captures the uniqueness so well.
You should watch Harrow, too. It’s a bit cliched as a police procedural, but they show a “TV version” of Brisbane: everyone lives in beautiful big Queenslanders, it’s sunny all the time, etc.
Extremely well said, as someone from the inner west suburbs I totally get it. Brisbane is having it's time in the sun, we deserve it!
Boy Swallows Universe felt pretty accurate (I grew up near Darra), but not in a good way!
I actually didn't realise how Brisbane it is until I stayed at southbank and wandered around the CBD a little bit. Even curlews were new to me, I couldn't believe it when I first saw one, I thought it was a statue.
When visiting Los Angeles a few weeks ago from Sydney, it was wonderful to see relos’ kids watching Bluey on Disney Plus, in top spot too. Everyone loves it. Heartwarming.
The setting to me felt oddly specific, but I didn't realise it refers to a particular place and isn't just a collection of all things Australia.
Don't feel too bad.
Whenever you see "America" in a tv/movie, it's actually Canada (Vancouver).
A bunch of them are literally filmed in Brisbane! Famously, it was used as NYC in Thor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMAzGeL4TW8
Well well I think you owe the world, as well as some daughters, to go through your memory of place and fish out street-view references for scenes...
Please! :-)
I'm afraid I don't have the specific episodes burned into my brain well enough to remember the names of them all. :)
That said, one that's burned into my brain is when they're walking along the South Bank riverside; the episode is apparently called "Ice Cream". The shot at ~0:48 in this video: https://youtu.be/cBti7aQBMk4?si=o3sWwfKJwQ-VEa8e&t=48 Is approximately from here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Y1UmtCK5si8drVaD7 - It's not exactly the same as the show, but that's more a limitation of Google Maps; I bet you could recreate the shot. There's also usually an ice cream vendor just about there. :)
The bridge in the background is Victoria Bridge, the clock on the right is the Suncorp building (I think now demolished), the weird multi-part building next to it is Brisbane Square Library (now also a Suncorp building), and the arched building to the right of that is the Treasury Building (formerly the casino).
The rest of the shots in that episode are from various other parts in the parklands if you walk along it, including the lagoon beach, fountains, and walkway. The whole area (and the ibises) are an iconic part of Brisbane, as a legacy of Expo 88.
Aside from that, I think quite a lot of the shots in the city take place in real places, whether recognisable places like Mt Coot-Tha or random shops in the suburbs.
I haven’t watched any scenes from Bluey before (though I have a newborn now so I suspect that will soon change), but I lived in southbank for a few years during uni, basically right beside the cultural center bus stop.
I watched the clip and within a few seconds I knew exactly where in the parklands they were. Very cool, thanks for sharing. I had a similar feeling of under representation (for lack of a better term?) most of my life and while classic shows like Kath and Kim or either of the soaps show pretty quintessentially Aussie home interiors and outdoor areas, it still feels very Sydney/Melbourne.
The other show recently I’d say gave us that Brisbane feel (and a bit of homesickness, we live in NYC atm) was Love on the Spectrum: Australia. One of the guys is a bus driver in Brisbane and we’d often pause it to try and figure out if we could recognise which route.
I've ridden a bus with that bloke before, very nice!
I used to work for Suncorp (~10 years ago) in Brisbane square, pretty sure they are no longer using the building and it’s now a super company.
I’ve not watched Bluey (don't have kids of my own or niblings the right age), but am looking forward to when the time comes, so I can point out places I know.
Like many here, I grew up in Brisbane but moved elsewhere for opportunities etc. Given the cost of everything there these days I doubt I’ll make a permanent move back, but I do get nostalgic seeing the locations and the little details represented so well.
One of the last scenes from "The Sign" is based on the Mount Coot-tha Summit Lookout. Lots of fond memories there, including a proposal in my family.
And it's 20 minutes from the CBD!
Its the plants and trees that I love. Makes me feel homesick for the north when I see the Poinciana trees.
> it's so rare to see it actually represented as itself
Peak Qld as Qld on film was very likely the moon party in He Died With A Felafel In His Hand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gug5ViK3KSw
.. at least IMHO.
When my son was in the last stages of leukemia, Bluey was on repeat all day. He was completely immersed in that world and we, his parents were there with him too.
Now, 5 years after his death, he's little brother is also in love with the show and we watch an episode at least once a day.
There will never be another TV show like this one for those personal reasons and also because it's just too good.
My wife and I watched the episode about infertility with our little niece who kept asking when she'd have a cousin. Despite its subtlety it completely broke me. It addresses the subject in the best of ways. Well here we are 7 IVF cycles later and still trying.
Can i take a moment to say I admire the strength that it takes to try 7 cycles. We gave up at 5, it became too heart breaking. Keep positive mate, I wish the best for you.
Bluey is the best children's cartoon of this generation. The art is a joy to see, being full of color and well-defined lines/objects, without being overwhelming. I sincerely appreciate the creator's resistance to engineer the show for maximum attention and, instead, focus on telling a good story with relatable characters. The show can move slowly when appropriate and isn't afraid to keep the scene mostly static. The music is great and well directed to capture meaningful emotional moments without being campy. The episode length of ~7 minutes is perfect, especially for families wanting to limit screen time, as it covers a quick breakfast/lunch (or laundry/dishes break) and provides a natural stopping point to move to the next activity. I can't praise it enough and just hope its success inspires more studios to avoid the brain-rot algorithmic-lead nonsense.
My only complaint is that I am a grown-ass man and shouldn't be tearing up every other episode of a children's cartoon...
> Bluey is the best children's cartoon of this generation
Bluey is the best children's cartoon _for adults_ of this generation.
Our kids are about the same age and age difference as Bluey/Bingo are portrayed, and I can't express how much relief it gives to watch it see your own life played out line for line.
Some days, as a parent you wonder how (badly) you're doing, and Bluey takes some weight off as you realise (and talk to other parents about Bluey) that some things are just universal and you're possibly doing better than you think.
> Bluey is the best children's cartoon _for adults_ of this generation.
One of my regular hangouts often puts Bluey on one of their TVs and I know for a fact there have been multiple occasions where no one at the bar even has children but we're all sitting there drinking beers while watching the antics of a family of cartoon dogs.
I will happily watch Bluey (as will my wife) if it happens to be on and the kids aren't around, I can't say that for any other cartoon they watch, even ones I can appreciate for the educational value they provide the children (our daughter loves Octonauts and learning and telling us all about sea creatures).
I can't think of another cartoon targeted at that young an audience that I'd even consider sitting down and watching a half-dozen episodes of without a kid around, but I can imagine doing that with Bluey. Like I've for-sure left it running for multiple episodes after the kids left the room, and enjoyed it.
Older-audience stuff like Avatar: The Last Airbender or Justice League Unlimited, oh yeah, for sure, but something specifically aimed at lower-grades elementary school kids? Nope, can't think of another, not even nostalgia shows from my own childhood. I'd maybe do an episode just like "oh wow, remember this?" but not a session watch.
One of the things not talked (much) about is how families are much more isolated now - since the average person is from a two-child family, and has a two-child family, most of their peer group growing up and when they have kids is in the "same boat" so they don't really have insight and experience of what the youngest years brings.
Even the basic idea of "kids like games, make things games" that permeates Bluey is likely unknown to many new parents.
Absolutely, it's one of those things where you're truly thrown in at the deep end, so to speak, with no guidance or experience (you likely remember little to nothing about your time as a child in those early years) and have to work it out.
Nobody teaches you anything (besides some basic courses for new parents like NCT here in the UK) and there's really no-one to ask; your own parents likely did things very differently to how you would now, so you have to weigh any advice they can/do provide.
The biggest help, I've found, on all sides, is talking to other parents; those of our children's friends, and we're quite friendly with a bunch of them having spend a lot of time talking to each other during COVID and meeting for the children's play-dates after. Many of them, like us have two children, with a similar age gap, their eldest is the same age as we met at our first children's births and they go through the same phases at roughly the same time.
Sometimes you just need to ask, "is this normal", and they'll corroborate, and some times you just need to support them by confirming you have the same challenges.
I completely missed your point, I think. Do you mean that the current generation of young parents didn't experience enough things being games as kids themselves?
My interpretation was that we haven't experienced it as adults; We may have experienced it as children, but my experience (maybe not everybody's) is that I don't remember enough about being a young child to necessarily know the best way to approach things with my own children, and we haven't necessarily seen how others do it.
I'm also much older (a decade) than my parents were when they had their first child.
Oh that decade; man you feel that in your bones when you're pushing 40+ and the parents of your kindergartener's friends are barely 25 ...
My wife tells me a story about a young lady in one of the baby groups who was looking for other mothers to get to know.
She's a selfless woman my wife, and goes out of her way for anyone, but she felt bad that she just couldn't get a long with this young lady to the point where she'd exchange numbers and arrange to meet up for coffee or whatever; while the young lady was also feeling alienated from her childless friends.
There were almost two decades between them and she just couldn't find anything to relate on and she felt really awkward; she still thinks about that occasionally and regrets not trying harder.
I'm the voice of (un)reason and have to reign in her selflessness sometimes for her own wellbeing and had to convince her she had herself and a new born to take care of first and foremost.
My earliest memories, sketchy and faint, are around eight or so years old.
By that time my youngest sibling was already out of diapers; I had literally zero experience with newborns and had changed ONE diaper in my life before the hospital shoved one in my arms and said "good luck, don't shake her."
Larger families of yore, the eldest kids would be in their teens when the last baby was born; they would have living memory (and probably even were enlisted to help). And as others have mentioned, you don't really begin to meet the parents of your children's friends until they're old enough to have friends, which is usually daycare at the earliest; often school for many.
You have to make an effort and action to join a "mom's group" these days; before local family, church, even the neighborhood would spontaneously be a "mom's group".
> Bluey takes some weight off as you realise (and talk to other parents about Bluey) that some things are just universal and you're possibly doing better than you think.
No question, the I can't count the number of times I've sent the "Baby Race" to other parents who ask me "When did your kid start to talk?"
We watch the Bluey bike whenever the kids say "I can't do it!" or the Dad can't draw episode.
Or the curry quest, when I had to travel for work (after all the pandemic "no work travel").
Bluey's dad is an inspiration, like the puppets episode is so funny & I keep saying "Bauxite" in random times without context.
I’m like that with the ‘unicourse’ puppet he has.
Randomly saying ‘aaaaaaand whyshouldicare?’ tickles me!
That's one criticism I've heard about it actually, but not sure how much it's actually true. Basically that people love Bluey because it appeals more to adults, but that may make it not as good as other shows for child development (which adults might find boring).
I don't know that I buy that though, I think the shows that claim they're for child development but are insufferable to adults would be better of just skipped entirely, probably those skills are better learned from real life play and interaction than tv.
Of course there's also the mad science of cocomelon and their 'distractatron' https://www.readtrung.com/p/why-i-love-bluey-and-hate-cocome... - nothing can be worse than that.
Writing and writers changing every few decade. Reacting to the output of the previous gen.
Popular shows of 80-90s avoided trauma and ambiguity. Everything was simple and morally clear.
Then there was a huge counter reaction overload where we got Anti-Heroes, Moral Ambiguity, Trauma, "Realism" etc in every other show.
As viewers got tired and yearn for hope, faith, meaning, sincerity we got another wave (Ted Lasso, Reservation Dogs etc). Similar to the writing in Bluey they takes us back to Sincerity, but much smarter since they don't avoid Trauma. And show the viewer how healing and connection happens without power struggles.
Its basically a response to cynicism and fatigue. With comfort and care.
> Popular shows of 80-90s avoided trauma and ambiguity. Everything was simple and morally clear.
Popular western shows did; I've started watching the Gundam series, the first set started in '79 and while superficially it looks like your generic saturday morning cartoon, it starts off with trauma (many people killed) and while the villains are obviously evil - genocide, nazi ideologies ("sieg zeon"), etc - they also get more character development than what the protagonists get. The villains are the underdogs, only 1/30th the size of the "federation", and the good guys have a new set of superweapons that seems to win and kill their people on every occasion. There's two episodes where a "villain" character is introduced as a lover, ambitious military man, etc, then gets killed, his would-be wife killing herself in the next episode.
Anyway, that's just recent experience, I'm sure if you revisit some of the 80's / 90's shows you'd see more trauma / ambiguity too. I'm thinking of the X-Men series for example.
That first run is pretty interesting because they clearly had the foresight to make things morally grey and the villians human. It's very clear they added some mustache twirling villiany to a few episodes as an afterthought. It's not even clear until like the last dozen episodes that Zeon is evil.
I know Gundam quality is a huge spectrum, but the 'sloppiness' of moral ambiguity in the first one is pretty great. Way too often (Z Gundam) they just do a timeskip and say "what if the good guys became bad after they won?"
> It's not even clear until like the last dozen episodes that Zeon is evil.
Zeon is literally portrayed as eugenicist Nazis early in the show. They literally chant "Sieg Zeon!" while saluting. Literally the very first episode shows Zeon dropping a space colony on Earth, essentially nuking a major population center (and says half the civilian population dies in the war.)
It's pretty clear Zeon is evil. What's unclear initially is that it was the Zabi family that made it evil.
Originally, Zeon was an idealistic movement by an essentially leftist philosopher (Zeon Deikun) whose work was co-opted by a militant autocratic family (the Zabi family). The leftist guy gets assassinated, and a big part of the series is watching his son, Char (the primary antagonist of the show) trying to take down the Zabi's while fighting for independence from the Federation.
I would argue it's the best children's cartoon ever.
Also, as a dad, Bandit's character is so well written. I relate to him in every single episode that I've watched. Nearly every other dad character in children's programming is a flat, 2-dimensional, drooling idiot that nobody respects.
Even if Bluey was strange Australian propaganda to make fatherhood desirable and respectable, it still wins because it actually works at it.
Avoiding the "dumb sitcom dad" has been done before a few times, and well (Bob Parr of Incredibles; Stoick the Vast of How to Train Your Dragon; King Fergus of Brave could be some examples) - but Bandit just is a dad; he's not perfect, he's not brilliant - but he's there (except when he has to leave) and he loves - his children, his wife, himself.
And even though he says "I'm not taking advice from a cartoon dog" we all end up doing so.
How could making fatherhood desirable and respectable ever be considered "strange propaganda"? We live in very weird times indeed.
> How could making fatherhood desirable and respectable ever be considered "strange propaganda"?
Strange things are afoot in the "manosphere" - influencers & podcasters can push a lot of product around the idea of masculinity.
Yes very weird stuff, unlike the conventional narrative we've typically seen across the media which is that men are simple-minded buffoons incapable of boiling an egg. This is completely normal and good.
Really depends on the media you consume.
The "men are simple-minded buffoons" media is mostly comedy, and mostly resonates because we have, indeed, all been simple-minded buffoons at some point (who among us has not failed to boil an egg at least once? It's relatable).
But I can also name off the top of my head media where men are geniuses, and smart, and kind, and wise, and brave... And some of it isn't even Star Trek.
Honestly, if you're typically seeing men as buffoons across media, you may want to change your subscription services.
It's specifically fathers and not men - men are the heroes in countless movies, but only rarely are they such as fathers unless the movie needs to pluck your heartstrings.
I think part of it is that dads are fine being the “lovable buffoon” - even Bandit plays such. But underlying it is a seriousness that is always present but rarely seen (the “enough of that game” line in Daddy Putdown, for example).
Everyone knows the sitcom dad, and yet dads rarely strongly complain about it. Even in this thread it’s more praise for Bandit than anger at Homer’s portrayal.
> Even in this thread it’s more praise for Bandit than anger at Homer’s portrayal.
Initially, and more-or-less consistently for the first 7-9 seasons or so before it switched format and kinda became a straight (if goofy and heightened) version of the thing they'd been satirizing, The Simpsons was a satire of the standard family sitcom format developed over the preceding decades (with roots going back to radio).
At least in those seasons, the characters should be immune from criticism of being too stereotypical (for TV) since that's exactly what it was deliberately leaning into and satirizing—it's a combination of played-straight (and amped-up, even, for Homer) sitcom tropes with subversions of other tropes, with the latter mostly revolving around introducing more-"real" (if still played for laughs and caricatured) characters to the family sitcom format, especially when it comes to authority figures—the principal, teachers, mayor, et c.
> ...men are simple-minded buffoons incapable of boiling an egg
...and yet these buffoon sitcom dads almost always have a huge house in the suburbs, even when they have a stay at home spouse - who's way out of their league.
It's almost as if it's a deliberate depiction for a blank canvas of a character, similar to the plain-jane central character with no personality in YA novels who inevitably gets involved in a love triangle involving the hottest guys (one bad-boy and one nice guy). Being formulaic doesn't make it anti-${DEMOGRPHIC}.
Bandit singing "99 bottles of thing on the wall" in a couple episodes is just fantastically real.
A professor once said that some of the best art is really a head-fake.
Bluey is about half a show for kids and half a show for parents. It shows the kids neat things and fun ideas for play and it quietly whispers to the parents, over and over again, "You're doing fine."
> My only complaint is that I am a grown-ass man and shouldn't be tearing up every other episode of a children's cartoon...
Or maybe you should! Maybe we shouldn't be making people feel bad for being emotional! Maybe it's really successful art to be making so many people feel so strongly!
> My only complaint is that I am a grown-ass man and shouldn't be tearing up every other episode of a children's cartoon...
This, so, many, times :)
Why are you bawling your eyes out listening to Aussie music?
Oh, just some real estate things ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ngwtA3WRK8
> My only complaint is that I am a grown-ass man and shouldn't be tearing up every other episode of a children's cartoon...
You should try moving across the country with littles, after selling their childhood home, and then watching the finale...
Bluey is great, agreed.
I'd say Bluey is a better Peppa Pig. Now, hear me out -- it's surprising how many gags meant for grownups are there in Peppa Pig (e.g. "one must become one with the mud" is not humor for kids), but the art is... well, it's intentionally flat and boring. But Bluey has a lot of the same kind of humor, with visually appealing characters and world.
Peppa Pig is in general funnier than Bluey. Visually, I also agree, Bluey is far superior. I just can't help, as a parent, the feeling of inferiority as there's no way two working parents have the energy and patience to make everything a game with their kids. That's the main crux of why I prefer Peppa.
As a non-parent who has only consumed either shows while staying with parent friends, I found Peppa Pig quite grating while Bluey was actually a fun watch. I can't imagine having Peppa Pig on frequently.
Peppa has a more "grating" and generally louder tone, agreed, but it's deceptively simpler than it seems. After you watch it for a while (something you can only really do if you have kids) it starts to grow on you, and you start noticing the subtler humor that is aimed at the parents.
Yeah. I think for me it's just the tone. Then again, I'm also deeply put off by the "everything is fast and loud" tone of a bunch of more adult-oriented content (eg: Adventure Time, Phineas and Ferb, or Rick and Morty are all unwatchable to me).
There are some real laugh-out-loud moment in Peppa Pig (like at the fair, where everyone was telling Mommy Pig that girls aren't good at said game and she in her anger absolutely demolishes it). However, I find those moments coming up less in Bluey. I almost always laugh at how Grandpa Pig says "metal detector", too.
I think if I didn't have kids, I would like Bluey better. Likewise, I would be able to watch it without any discrimination.
Peppa Pig is more ... "cartoony" if I can use the term, whereas Bluey is more "real life" - and I don't think it is just the animation (rounded rects live!) - Bluey is established with a continuity and detail that makes it seem we're looking into a real world as opposed to vignettes created for our amusement.
Yes, agreed. Bluey is simply better in all ways. I meant to say Peppa is deceptively not crap, it just looks bad. But at moments it's hilarious. It is for younger kids though, who I think require less "continuity".
Peppa Pig is really underserved by the art; it's a much better show than the better-animated Cocomelon, for example.
Cocomelon is particularly bad and weaponized intentionally against kid attention: https://www.readtrung.com/p/why-i-love-bluey-and-hate-cocome...
The creator of Bluey worked as an animator on Peppa Pig and wanted to create something like that for his home.
Not just the best children's cartoon, but one of the best TV shows I've ever seen in terms of how close it comes to realizing its full potential. I have a hard time finding points to criticize.
My only complaint is the children’s bedtime story books are incredibly effective at delivering their core task - they deliberately draw the stories out so long that they put both parties asleep.
We've acquired a handful of their books and they're just not great for reading to a toddler. The dialog is in speech bubbles, and the layout is more like an episode. I have to come up with filler text and structure on the fly. Give me a Franklin or Little Critter, any day.
> My only complaint is that I am a grown-ass man and shouldn't be tearing up every other episode of a children's cartoon...
Cricket. Every time. .. I love it.
Such a lovely show! It’s always fun to see examples of how it takes so much intention to make something that appears simple.
For any adults who have either never heard of Bluey, or never thought of watching a “kids” show, maybe try to an episode the next time you can’t figure out what to stream next. “Sleepy time” (season 2 episode 26) is one of the most renown, but they’re all pretty good! (https://www.bluey.tv/watch/season-2/sleepytime/)
"Flat Pack" (S2 E24) and "Baby Race" (S2 E49) Are my most favorite and bring out tears every time.
Then there is "Granny Mobile" (S3 E33) which cracks me up every time.
Even my 7 year old daughter knows this and uses Bluey to cheer me up if I am in sour mood.
Don't even get me started on Shaun the Sheep. My daughter and I have re-watched everything there is about Shaun the Sheep and laugh in anticipation before the funny things actually happen.
Edit: I absolutely love the minisodes where Bandit tells kids bedtime stories (Goldilocks and Three little pigs). I wouldn't be surprised if the voice actor just went off and made up bunch of stuff which they animated later.
My wife and I cry tears of laughter everytime Sean shows up.
And for those new to this - don’t miss the episode Cricket (3,47) which makes my wife tear up everytime.
The ability to tell a clear and focused narrative that has humor and a lesson in 8 minutes is stunning to me. I have legitimately used it with grad students learning to write a paper. Nothing is wasted, not a line not a shot.
Follow up recommendations: Camping (s1e43) and The Creek (s1e29). But TBH there's so many good ones it's hard to pick. Hammerbarn is hilarious too.
The Pool (s1e22).
They accuse mum of fussing while dad's all about fun, but soon come to realise there's good reason mum makes a fuss, and everyone starts having less of a good time when they realise they needed those things mum was fussing about.
(I'm dad).
That episode perfectly describes my experience as a father of a toddler. I'll decide on a whim to taking him hiking only to discover half-way through that I didn't bring enough snacks for him and forgot his water shoes at home. So now I'm out with a cranky toddler who's hungry and can't play in the river. I've learned to accept my wife's 30-minute packing phase to send us on our way with everything we need.
Absolutely; I think that's one of those things some of us learn the hard way; I don't know that it's specifically a dad thing, but at least for me and my wife; she's a planner, I'm a "FIWB"; If I think I can quickly fit a fun activity in by grabbing the keys and being in the car in the next 30 seconds we go, if we had to plan it we might not have time, but it's not necessarily always the best approach.
I look forward (though not rushing for) a time when the children are old enough that I can say "grab your coats and be at the car in 2 minutes" and we can just go do something fun on a whim, carpe diem, and all that.
I've started to come around to realizing that the van isn't the size it is because of the number of kids, it's because the thing should be packed full of "emergency" supplies so that you CAN grab the kid and run somewhere (within view of the van).
So far it's mainly a change of clothes (for everyone!), diapers, pacifiers, bottles, and water, but that's going to grow.
long-life snack food (couple different types of nuts, salty crackers), umbrellas, a large towel (for putting around someone who's cold, drying someone, or sitting on at the beach or on grass), plastic bags (for putting muddy/wet/sandy shoes into),
Thank you, such a good episode. I adore bluey writing
Facey Talk! Funniest episode of the whole series :)
There was a brief moderation error, in which I changed the capitalisation to "How we built Bluey’s World", assuming that the article was about the immersive attraction called "Bluey’s World" [1,2], which has been open in Brisbane since last November.
I can attest that it is incredible; we took our kid a few weeks ago and it exceeded expectation. Probably more exciting for the parents even than the kids. Strongly recommended if you can get to Brisbane or if it comes to a city near you some day.
[1] https://www.bluey.tv/blueys-world/
[2] https://www.bbcstudios.com/news/bluey-s-world-opens-in-brisb...
My niece would love this! As it is, we have to pay over a hundred dollars for our family to go watch bad acting in - not even costumes - but masks on sticks held up in front of faces. Seriously, that was a real, official show over here. Never again.
As someone who has lived in Brisbane, I can attest that it does a really good job of capturing the colour of the city. There is a unique golden hour shade there like no other city I have lived in.
As a companion to this, I'd recommend the podcast 20 Thousand Hertz: their two-party on the sounds of Bluey was excellent, and as a parent immersed in Bluey, really enjoyable. Seems like they put a lot of thought and care into nearly every aspect of the show.
https://www.20k.org/episodes/thesoundofbluey
https://www.20k.org/episodes/thevoicesofbluey
Bluey is by far the best children's show I've ever watched. My son and I love watching it together. It's so refreshing after having to watch Peppa Pig for a year or so before we discovered Bluey. I disliked Peppa Pig and I was relieved when my son said he no longer wish to watch it after finding Bluey.
What’s your beef with Peppa?
My daughter started commenting on people's appearance around age 5+ because she learned it from Peppa Pig. Everyone always talks down to and about the Daddy pig constantly. They try to incorporate some 'good' behaviors in the story but certain 'it's just a joke' jokes end up leaving more impressions on the kid than the shoehorned moral of the story. It took us a while to teach her how it can hurt others if you comment on things (even if they are technically factual statements). On the other hand, she learned some simple but useful things from Bluey that we weren't successful in teaching effectively. e.g. She learned to speak up and tell when Dad(me) was overdoing 'fun' things (literally an episode with exact same concept where Bingo has to tell her dad the same thing). She learned to be compliment and acknowledge many things verbally (instead of saying 'why do I need to say it, they know it already').
Theres a video somewhere of some guy reviewing Bluey and Peppa.
"This episode of bluey is about the trauma of growing up and experiencing change with references to these 3 popular films"
"And in the episode Peppa goes to the beach, Peppa pig... goes to the beach"
It's just not as wholesome and Peppa is kind of a brat. And the whole picking on the dad thing kind of got old after a while. It just doesn't really offer any thing of any value to my child.
Non-parents don't realize just how exactly toddlers and young children will mimic what they see; they don't see Bluey and decide to play 'keepy uppy' they see Bluey and decide to act out the entire episode, word for word, scene for scene.
And then you realize why Peppa being a bit of a brat sometimes can be an issue.
If onscreen, Peppa annoys me immediately and constantly. Just the plain tone of voice or something. A single word irritates me, let alone being such a willfully unhelpful, ungrateful brat.
I flatly refuse Peppa pig in my house. Not on TV, not on streaming, not on anything.
That little pig is only good for cartoon bacon, ham, porkbelly...
The primary source cited in TFA was itself submitted to HN some months ago and garnered 100+ comments, for your reference: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43816546
I haven't seen it yet - but been watching Tumble Leaf on Prime w/ toddlers recently. Animator friend recommended it -- it's good.
Bluey is so good that it's worth the subscription to Disney+ all on its own. It is hands down, the best children's cartoon I've ever seen. My kids are starting to outgrow it unfortunately, but when they were younger they would constantly ask me and their mother to play "Bluey games" with them. It's a great show to encourage parents and kids to play together imaginatively.
I agree with you on Tumble Leaf as well, it's a really good show. I also recommend Puffin Rock if you have Netflix.
Apparently in 2023 Q4, 29% of all time on Disney+ was Bluey.
That's actually insane
It's an incredible show but the finale "season" catapults it into my personal top 3 children's shows of all time. They did an incredible job of bringing it full circle and tying a bow on it. Tumble Leaf doesn't normally make you cry the way Bluey does, but the finale will have you bawling.
Tumble Leaf is really good as well. Highly recommend it.
Tumble Leaf is incredible
It seems like a condensed version of the first 2 chapters of this: https://goodsniff.substack.com/
Good read so far! Chapter 3 delves more into the highs and lows of working on the show.
Just seeing the sketches of the Heelers' kitchen brings a smile to my face, reminding me of one of my favorite episodes of Bluey, Pavlova. If you haven't seen it before, take the seven minutes to watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERyw2dz2-ZM
Despite being a cartoon specifically aimed at little kids, it's an absolute delight. I think my wife and I like Bluey more than our toddler does, actually.
Mr Roger’s and Reading Rainbow will always be the best children’s programs ever made. No other show in history has been able to entertain children with real people as successfully as they were. You won’t know unless you let your children watch it. It’s just amazing because they engage with it and when you turn it off they don’t have a tantrum like many animated shows or Ms Rachel
*ever made in the US
Many people in Italy think the same of L'Albero Azzurro.
I love that its Brisbane. I hate that, the parts of brisbane you see are largely financially out of reach. I used to have a house on my street that was extremely similar to the Heelers, and it sold for 2 million, then the place next door to them went for 1.7.
I spend most episodes in financial distress wondering how to practically afford the lifestyle, and how my kiddo would ever be able to afford that lifestyle.
Even in terms of Nostalgia for the older generations, the suburbs depicted were well out of reach for a friends family. His father used to tell me he dreamed of moving into one of those suburbs but it was too expensive for their combined income, where one income was an aviation engineer.
Kudos Catriona Drummond for letting the secret out of Brisbane, and perseverance to become a visual artist. What really attracts people to Bluey is the art. Seriously, it can be on mute and it's mesmerizing (not that the music is not awesome, because it totally makes it 10x better, too).
The artistic mature here is also off the charts, to recognize that innate sense of what makes things amazing:
> Appeal is such an intangible element to visual art, I could try and harp on in some pseudo-scientific way about what I personally think creates that deep satisfaction when viewing something ‘visually appealing’. I think there’s a whole weird matrix of things firing off in our monkey brains to illicit it. But I’ll just leave it at: we know it when we see it. I wanted to make something that was truly delicious to look at.
Related: https://substack.com/home/post/p-160039885
Which I found here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43816546
She didn't touch on how visually captivating the colour scheme is for kids. It's unsettling just how much it draws their attention, it's like a drug. It's also (partly) why I prefer Peppa Pig for my 3 year old, it's much easier to him to naturally disengage after 15-20 minutes.
Peppa pig has little to no value though, whereas many people find Bluey wholesome and touching and sometimes really poignant. To each their own, but at least Bluey tries to encourage creativity and play and fun beyond jumping up and down in muddy puddles. The short episode length can be a natural disengage checkpoint with Bluey too, as long as auto play is turned off.
I know I’m the odd one out, but I really don’t find Bluey that wholesome (with the exception of two episodes - the rain one and the Bingo sleeping/space one, which I do think are fantastic). The others are very frenetic - it feels like a pure hit of sugar in television form. It also often shows a lot of bad behaviour that kids can interpret as funny (the cousin running away with the phone after being told, the old lady buying the scooter).
Peppa might be “empty” but I don’t worry that it’s inadvertently steering him in the wrong direction. The Peppa books are also far, far better than the Bluey books.
> Peppa might be “empty” but I don’t worry that it’s inadvertently steering him in the wrong direction
Interesting, I've always found Peppa unlikable and quite rude to her friends/parents!
> The others are very frenetic
I think the pace is because a lot of the episodes revolve around play and games - and any sort of play with children does tend to be a bit frenetic. There’s a good number of episodes that aren’t that, including the two you mentioned, but it would be a bit strange for a show about play and imagination to not be a bit frenetic.
> It also often shows a lot of bad behaviour that kids can interpret as funny (the cousin running away with the phone after being told, the old lady buying the scooter).
There’s bad behavior that is funny, sure, but almost all of those episodes demonstrate the consequences of it even if in a humorous fashion: Muffin is constantly facing consequences for her actions, for example. I think that’s an ok trade off.
I find it's worth taking a look at your TVs colour settings for cartoons for children, lots of OLEDs can come over-saturated out of the box, our living room TV is tuned for more muted colours.
On the other hand, the topics and content of Bluey is in another league to Peppa Pig, portraying family life quite accurately and in an endearing way that even for us adults can hit home.
Generally we've found that Peppa does not, and the way the parents are portrayed and the children's behaviour doesn't provide any value to impressionable young children.
Bluey and Peppa Pig (and all shows, really) weren't meant to be binged; it's the downside to having local media or on-demand - it's terribly easy to put on a Bluey and realize you're still watching Blueys three hours later.
My kid drooled in front of Peppa (until she decides she doesn't like it after all). The engagement was at the level of YouTube Kids movies from "creators" - which means kid is unresponsive, clearly doesn't process what's going on, wants more of it like, an addict.
I had to cut off YouTube kids aggressively and my kid still wanted those idiotic movies even after a few months.
Peppa had similar effect, but my kid resigned on it's own. They show is just dumb. Teaches nothing. Unless you value things like feeding ducks with bread and cake is good, destroying countryside camping spot with heavy equipment and concrete is fine just because you dropped keys in a hole etc..
Peppa games are also really bad - not clear when you can actually engage, what can be done, instructions are unclear or wrong, plus the is no goal at all.
Youtube in the context of children is brainrot. I had to ban it entirely. It's so addicting and has zero intelligent value. The last video was of a hamster running an obstacle course. Engaging, cute, kinda silly.... but just complete rot. No educational value. It's like brain sugar. We crave it but it demolishes brain cells.
We had a problem with those unboxing of toys videos. Adults unpacking or playing with toys.
YouTube delivered worse and worse ones, one by one.... The fact that it "doesn't violate policy" doesn't mean it's good for anyone.
Let's bring it full circle: https://www.bluey.tv/watch/minisodes/muffin-unboxing/
I think this and the Bob Bilby episode demonstrate that the show isn't afraid to critique screen time and the very platforms they rely on.
I quit Peppa Pig because it doesn't really teach anything and it actually (at least IMHO) shows poor behavior.
I finally watched an episode of Bluey because of this post. Bluey is a girl! Who knew?
Cute show, but it doesn't hold a candle to Phineas and Ferb.
This is wonderful. I am obsessed with the Bluey "aesthetic."
Bit unrelated to the post, but I hate how Disney has done Blumm dirty. They want to milk bluey as much as possible (understandable), but if the creator says no then Disney won't listen. There's a high chance we'll never get a season 4, and I'm honestly fine with that if an alternative is a rushed fourth season.
I don't really know why that "understandable". We see this with so many TV shows and movie francises. There's a reason why there's only two seasons of The Office in the UK version, but it's just beaten to death in the US version. Same with The Simpsons, Futurama, Big Bang Theory, pretty much the entire Marvel francise, Star Wars, Jurassic Park and so many more shows and movies.
You just find yourself in the corner yield "Please stop, it dead! It's been dead for years!" For example Star Wars, that francise is completely ruined, but the fans are insufferable and just keeps pouring money into something that quite frankly sucks by now.
Why must everything be milked dry to the point where we start hating it?
If "we all" hated it, they'd stop milking it, because the cow would be dry.
So clearly someone, somewhere is enjoying it - so they keep making them.
And it's safer from a business perspective for Blizzard to release "another WoW expansion" than try to make a new game.
(There is also the aspect that you can sell on nostalgia with the toys, etc, and that you can continue to sell the "old toys" and movies and account them as if they're part of the new, which makes you look better, etc).
I'm going to disagree on the Star Wars example because Andor is peak Star Wars. And in this hypothetical it would have never been made.
I was going to reply gp with something in the vein of what you said
> ...Andor is peak Star Wars...
This is both true and false depending on how you mean it: Andor is one of the best story-telling set in the Star Wars universe, and yet, there's nothing emblematically "Star Wars" about it. The same story and characters could have been dropped into any universe, and it would have been fantastic television. It could have been a story about a partisan in WwII, or set in Babylon 5 or in any of the Mass Effect / Silo / Godfather / Fall Out / Dune / Marvel / DC universes, and it would still have worked been largely the same story. Andor gives to the Star Wars universe far more than it receives from the same, it was an expensive labor of love by people delivering their best work - I don't think we'll see anything like it again from Star Wars.
I know this trope has been beaten to death elsewhere too, but it certainly seems like we haven't seen much really 'new' for like 20 years (as far as popular media that is)
If you beat the dead horse and money falls out, would you stop beating the dead horse?
That depends on what you value, the money, or the art/story/quality. I get that studios also need to make money, but it feels like we swung to heavily in the "make money" direction.
Nothing forces parents to keep a television in their house at all.
Dance with the devil and don’t be surprised when the devil steps on your toes.
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I don’t feel like it’s unjustly trying to assert Bluey an unfitting credit at all.
Instead I feel like the use of “fact” here is a nod to how thoroughly this has been discussed and how common knowledge it has become, at least to anyone who knows what Bluey is, thus preemptively eliminating the need to explain what Bluey is to that part of the audience that found themselves reading an article about the art process of a show that they are unaware of in the first place. To those readers, it’s a concise cue to go do your own research if you’re lacking that context before getting too far into the article.
What show does come close in quality of production? Art, morale and educational value, actual fun ideas on how to play (some are impossible to reproduce, but still), consequence in plot over the seasons and even merchandise?
Plus Polish dubbing that I use is of insane quality.
They weren’t talking about Bluey, they were talking about a writing technique
It's not about the merit of the argument but rather the act of shutting down any argument by declaring something as a fact. It's completely unnecessary and quite off-putting.
Suffixing "fact" makes it sound like marketing fakeness - fact!