Plus Polish dubbing that I use is of insane quality.
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.
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 _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.
Even the basic idea of "kids like games, make things games" that permeates Bluey is likely unknown to many new parents.
I'm also much older (a decade) than my parents were when they had their first child.
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.
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".
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.
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.
This, so, many, times :)
Oh, just some real estate things ...
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 delivered worse and worse ones, one by one.... The fact that it "doesn't violate policy" doesn't mean it's good for anyone.
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.
Interesting, I've always found Peppa unlikable and quite rude to her friends/parents!
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.
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.
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/)
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).
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.
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.
I agree with you on Tumble Leaf as well, it's a really good show. I also recommend Puffin Rock if you have Netflix.
Many people in Italy think the same of L'Albero Azzurro.
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...
Good read so far! Chapter 3 delves more into the highs and lows of working on the show.
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.
I'd argue Bluey is "a better Peppa": similar kind of humor (slightly more elaborate, but not by a lot) but with great artwork.
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.
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.
Which I found here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43816546
ramon156•2h ago
righthand•2h ago
mrweasel•2h ago
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?
patentatt•2h ago
dbetteridge•2h ago
mrweasel•16m ago
superxpro12•1h ago