from Hacker News

How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment

by propter_hoc on 1/5/24, 3:32 AM with 430 comments

  • by greenyoda on 1/5/24, 4:08 AM

  • by ursuscamp on 1/5/24, 4:44 PM

    Bluey blew me away when I saw it with my daughter. It's sweet, positive, emotional, well written. It's not the slightest bit cynical, handles every issue with tact, doesn't contain heavy handed messaging and has traditional values. It also has a very positive two parent dynamic. This is an absolute unicorn of a show.

    Note: my usage of "traditional values" is not meant to evoke anything political or intended to be interpreted from a culture war lens. I just mean it positively portrays a family dynamic that can be universally appreciated.

  • by jboggan on 1/5/24, 5:54 AM

    Bluey is a godsend in our household. It's not annoying and the amount of classical and original music woven into each episode is wonderful.

    There's one particular episode - "Sleepytime" - which I cannot bring myself to watch anymore because I get so emotional. Every parent I talk to with young kids who has seen the episode agrees and knows what I mean. It's really that good, and despite being a fun little show there are a lot of episodes that are actually art.

    I'll add that although the kids in the show sometimes get up to mischief, they never do anything that I don't mind my own toddler emulating. My child now rings her xylophone, commands the rest of the family to freeze, and we have fun playing along.

  • by awilfox on 1/5/24, 8:25 AM

    I'm going to be honest here: Bluey means a lot to me, as a 32-year-old childless woman, because this show has really touched me in ways that may not be obvious at first:

    I've felt more in touch with my own imagination since I started watching Bluey. I've actually been writing music and sketching in my spare time again, which is something I haven't done since before the pandemic.

    It's actually helped me piece together things that I felt as a child that I never properly dealt with, or even knew how to voice back then. I've been able to find healing and peace, and articulate stuff in therapy a bit better.

    In general, I just feel a bit happier and a bit better after watching an episode of Bluey. Sometimes I just want to watch something to feel positive emotions without it being overly-happy fluff. There's a realism to Bluey that makes it easier for me to "let my guard down" and feel happiness.

    I do kind of live vicariously through Chilli, with my hope being that I can be a mum some day.

    Oh, and my cat now has a nickname: Muffin. Make of that what you will.

  • by laingc on 1/5/24, 5:59 AM

    As the father of two young daughters, I adore Bluey. Quite apart from how good the episodes are for adults, I really enjoy the following aspects:

    1. It portrays wholesome and positive family relationships, particularly between father and daughters. The girls are also good to one another, with occasional conflict kindly and realistically resolved.

    2. It tells simple stories without pushing political messages. Unfortunately, children’s television at large has become another victim of the culture wars, with heavy-handed social messages infecting what should be simple cartoons. Bluey is something I can trust.

    3. I don’t have to expose my kids to American accents. They’ll have more than enough of that from regular programming when they grow up.

  • by monkeydreams on 1/5/24, 6:14 AM

    One of favourite Bluey facts is that the Dad is an archaeologist and the Mother works airport security.

    One digs up bones and the other sniffs for drugs.

  • by Arubis on 1/5/24, 5:13 PM

    I'm also a girl dad (ages 3 and 4) and Bluey is a total favorite in our (mountain west US) household. In utter contrast to the singsongy dreck of CocoMelon and its imitators, our kids actually take away memorable lessons they enjoy (going to bed like a big girl, like Bingo!), and my wife and I regularly comment that we'd watch the show on our own without the kids for its sheer relatability.

    It's an absolute gem, folks.

    If you're so inclined, we found a nice cake topper on Etsy for _my own_ birthday this year: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1481048560/inspired-bluey-caket... turns out to be easily adapted to read "Turning 40" rather than "Turning 4". Super cute & the girls adored it.

  • by ashton314 on 1/5/24, 4:24 PM

    Has anyone else noticed that “Camping” is basically the Star Trek TNG episode Darmok? Bluey meets a French dog named Jean-Luc. They construct some shelter together and have to hunt a monster. (I.e. Bandit pretending to be a wild boar.) They find a way to communicate despite speaking different languages. One leaves. Shaka, when the walls fell.

    In the end, Muffin, her scream echoing—Bluey and Jean-Luc, their tails wagging!

    (My wife who’s not really an Trekkie pointed this out to me. Also there’s another read about Jean-Luc’s departure as death and an eventual reunion in the afterlife when we will all finally understand each other. Read it as you like it.)

  • by nightowl_games on 1/5/24, 4:11 PM

    It's truly a show about parenting. It covers realistic themes about parenting. It's very well written. With childrens shows, it's easy to make a show appeal to kids. Cocomelon is basically loved by every child ever, but its so annoying to parents. Bluey is great because the parents like it.

  • by ceedan on 1/5/24, 4:12 PM

    Bluey is great and we love it, but I do have to say that it is not as directly beneficial for very young children as something like Daniel Tiger. Daniel Tiger has episodes that directly and clearly address things that young children are going through (little siblings, using the bathroom, managing emotions, etc). Bluey has episodes that address those things but does so in ways that are less direct and comprehensible for a pre-school child. Many Bluey episodes are more for the parents, than the children. Bluey will be with us long after our last Daniel Tiger episode is watched.

  • by neild on 1/5/24, 6:24 AM

    Bluey is the only show my kid loved, and never wanted to binge watch. He’d watch one or two episodes and then want to turn the TV off so we could play Silly Hotel or Keepy Uppy or Grannies. Where other shows grabbed his attention longer, Bluey always inspired him to go out and play.

  • by stephen_g on 1/5/24, 6:12 AM

    One thing that I appreciate about Bluey, apart from the other things people have commented on, is that the animation style is very aesthetically pleasing. So many kids shows have the exact same 3D CGI style, and some of them honestly look just uncanny-valley creepy.

    Another thing that most people wouldn't experience is seeing episodes set in places I might have been in the last couple of weeks. It's obviously stylised and interpretive, but a lot of the buildings and places are very accurately represented!

  • by dexwiz on 1/5/24, 6:01 AM

    Kids shows teach lessons, but Bluey has all sorts of compassionate parenting lessons. I would love to be as good as a father as Bandit.

    My favorite scene is him assembling flat pack furniture without reading the instructions, proudly declaring he won’t take advice from a cartoon dog.

  • by maztaim on 1/5/24, 4:00 PM

    As a parent, I love watching all the episodes. My 5 year old also loves watching it. One of the few good children shows that has great entertainment with great values for all.

    My favorites are always the grannies ("Oh no, my coins!"). My wife loves "Fairytale" because we both grew up in a far off place called the 80s and can relate to all of it.

  • by seized on 1/5/24, 5:16 AM

    As a parent it's just a genuinely nice show to watch. There is so much complete crap out there now that Bluey is a breath of fresh air.

    A few others are good fun as well like Grizzy and The Lemmings. But Bluey reigns supreme.

    Although I wish the phone game didn't have in app purchases. At least the Bluey video game on Steam is good and without in app purchases or micro transaction nonsense.

  • by timeimp on 1/5/24, 6:03 AM

    The best part is how people are learning that the Disney+ version is censored.

    Yes, a childrens show is censored, in current year.

    Why? Because some jokes don't play well with adults, even though they go right over kids heads.

    Have a Google for "Bluey censored" to see what I mean!

  • by jph00 on 1/5/24, 6:56 AM

    I live in the area where the show is set (the Morton Bay region north of Brisbane) and it’s delightful how many details we recognise in the show.

    Having lived in the US for 10 years and returning couple of years ago (with my first 30 years in Australia), I feel like Bluey does a great job of showing some key cultural differences between these countries. I’ve seen some American viewers get quite cross by what they see as a totally unrealistic portrayal of life, but things really are pretty fundamentally different over here.

  • by mgd on 1/5/24, 3:48 PM

    The most interesting part for me is the relationship with the parents and children.

    Compared to what I was brought up with (The Simpsons etc) it's nice that children are not only taught interesting values but also what the values of parents are

  • by gambiting on 1/5/24, 7:01 AM

    I feel like I'm the only parent on planet Earth that really doesn't like Bluey. Every time I watch it(which is often, my son likes it), it just seems to be promoting bad behaviour at the expense of the dad(like many other shows to be fair - looking at you Peppa Pig), including physical violence(one episode the kids decide the dad now has a stomach ache, so they punch him in the gut - and the dad just plays along with it, it's never commented on as a bad thing). And the mum keeps making reductive comments and making fun out of the dad, even though he literally drops everything the second his kids want anything.

    I don't know, I just don't get it. When people describe it as wholesome to me it feels like the opposite - it shows an unhealthy relationship between the kids and the parents, and I don't feel like it teaches my son any valuable lessons at all.

  • by thepasswordis on 1/5/24, 6:01 PM

    Our kids absolutely adore this show, and so do my wife and I. It is just about the only thing we'll let them watch.

    As others have said: it's because the show isn't trying to force any ridiculous cultural progressivism on my children.

    But also: it doesn't seem to be made by (am I joking?) the same people who would otherwise make slot machines. While other kids shows seem like an outright attack on my children's attention, this show is just happy, wholesome short stories about a family having fun together. We absolutely adore this show in my household.

    As a sidenote: it's very hopeful to me that a show like this (utterly non-political, just shows a happy family) is as popular as it is. It's culturally dominant for kids. I hope this is a lesson for Disney et al. (Disney+ does carry this show in the US, but it is not produced by them.)

  • by lettergram on 1/5/24, 6:05 AM

    Bluey is just a wholesome show focused on showing good role models. Much of the kids TV today is just trying to distract them, Bluey teaches lessons about family and is entertaining for adults too.

    Reminds me of shows like Little Bear or Magic School bus. Teaching kids about topics, while entertaining them and modeling good behavior.

    One other interesting note: all the home schooled families around us (from the hippy commune to survivalists, left & right) rave about Bluey. So it has a very good cross ideological / cultural appeal (given the global audience). Ultimately, I think it’s because it hits on a deep truth about supporting one another - that everyone can connect with and want to pass to the next generation.

  • by rfarley04 on 1/5/24, 3:43 AM

    Pay walled but I assume it's "somethingsomething parents actually like watching it too." Since that seems to be everyone's reaction, including mine.

    My 20 something sister with no kid watches it.

  • by lmpdev on 1/5/24, 11:09 AM

    One underrated aspect of the show is the backgrounds being grounded in reality

    I live in the city (Brisbane) the show is set in

    Effectively every detailed background is recognisable but tastefully selected (not shoved down the viewer’s throat)

    If you do ever visit Australia, take the kids to see Brisbane

    My partner manages front of house for the Live Action Bluey theatre show, she was the first person to put Bluey on my radar (we have no children)

    The live action show was so popular they’ve recently just put it on for a second session

    The kids get to watch Bluey inside the QPAC building (a common background in the show, next to the Eye of Brisbane)

  • by jaimex2 on 1/5/24, 7:38 AM

    Bluey is awesome, the one disappointing thing is hearing US and UK media try and modify it.

    A few episodes have been butchered because something was found offensive - like the kids playing cavemen and saying Ooga Booga or the parents sighing while weighing themselves on a scale. Come on!

    Just leave it alone and serve it as is. The creators expressed a few times he's almost had enough of edits over dumb things.

    They also tried to get re-dubs done to remove the Aussie accents, luckily that was pushed back on.

  • by bgmeister on 1/5/24, 6:32 PM

    Fun fact for the non-Australians, the actor who plays Bandit is part of an awesome indie-rock band named Custard formed in the late 80s. Worth checking out if you're into that sort of thing.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custard_(band) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v03j7my0V6c (relatively recent single)

  • by oska on 1/5/24, 8:05 AM

    Couple of nice attention to local detail things in Bluey :

    1. The internal walls of Bluey's house are timber using VJs (vertical joins), typical in Queenslanders (historical style of house in Brisbane & Queensland).

    2. The panoramic shots of Bluey's house identifies it to locals as clearly situated somewhere in the city's hilly inner west, with St. Brigid's Church [1] in Red Hill identifiable, as well as Mount Coot-tha in the background.

    Of course, there's a lot more in the drawings that shows local detail (plants, animals, etc). The above are just two that are particularly nice for Brisbane ppl to see and recognise.

    [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Brigid's_Church,_Red_Hill

  • by johnnythunder on 1/5/24, 4:44 PM

    Also interesting is the strangeness of the theme song time signature and game that goes along with it! https://www.businessinsider.in/entertainment/news/people-are... https://eightify.app/summary/music-and-performance/decoding-...

  • by eggy on 1/5/24, 5:16 PM

    Love this show!

    Although the Dad never seems to work, plays all day, and sets the bar pretty high for me especially on the last 2 of my 5 children. I'm out of steam.

    I too succumb to the emotional episodes, and I am grateful for every tear I share with my kids!

    I grew up watching Bugs Bunny, Davy and Goliath, Gumby, and All in the Family as a young kid for a contrast!

  • by bknight1983 on 1/5/24, 11:38 AM

    The beauty of Bluey is that, for me at least, all the games were games we played as kids (keepy uppy, shadowlands, mucking around in the stream). Now my kid wants to play these games (and not be on a screen) and I get to play again. Everyone wins

  • by jes5199 on 1/5/24, 5:39 AM

    I love Bluey but my kid won’t actually watch it. I wonder how common that is

  • by mayd on 1/5/24, 9:38 AM

    For those who want to see quirky Australian children's television programming for older children may I suggest this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_the_Twist

  • by krupan on 1/5/24, 5:57 AM

    Just watched The Wiggles documentary on Netflix. They were big when my kids were young and they are from Australia. I have heard of Bluey but didn't know it was also from Australia. They know something about kid shows there, apparently.

  • by jslaby on 1/5/24, 6:00 PM

    There is a sizable consumer base that buys episodes specifically for their dog. It is one of the few shows my dog will lay down and watch, which I guess is attributed to their use of "dog friendly" colors.

  • by programmertote on 1/5/24, 3:40 PM

    A bit tangential but also related -- I grew up watching 'Adventures of the Gummi Bears' back in the late 80s and early 90s. Recently, I came across it on Disney+ and re-watched it. I was pleasantly surprised that some of the episodes are teaching kids good (again, subjective) morals and behaviors. The language is never crass even when the characters are upset (meaning it's a good thing to teach kids). I liked it so much that I re-watched all of the six seasons twice.

    Now that I saw this article and discussion, I'll be trying Bluey next.

  • by gnicholas on 1/5/24, 7:06 PM

    Bluey is entertaining, and my kids like watching it. However, we've noticed that the behavior of the kids (pups) on the show is a bit contagious...and our little one has started mimicking some of the kids' bad behavior/sayings. This is a very big change from her normal personality, so we're yanking Bluey from the rotation in favor of Daniel Tiger and other similar shows. YMMV, of course, but for us the entertainment value is outweighed by the negative impact on behavior.

  • by bennyg on 1/5/24, 5:11 AM

    My only problem with Bluey is actually a problem with the Disney+ app on my Vizio TV. The episodes are all fairly short, but then there’s like 5m of credits before the next episode starts and it’s kind of annoying to manually fast forward through them via remote. I often reach for stuff on Netflix just so the next episode will auto play after a few seconds instead of requiring actual manual intervention to keep the little ones out of my hair while making dinner.

  • by anotherevan on 1/5/24, 1:40 PM

    Something else that is kind of awesome is you occasionally get posts on the /r/australia Reddit group along the lines of, "I saw this on Bluey, do you really do that in Australia?"

    E.g. https://old.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/16a8s6d/clothes_...

  • by benr on 1/5/24, 7:10 PM

    Here’s a podcast with the creator of Bluey about how he ‘Dads’ in real life that I suspect a few of you might enjoy.

    https://howotherdadsdad.com/episode/how-joe-brumm-dads

  • by jnsie on 1/5/24, 5:33 PM

    > achieving a level of poignancy alongside its humour

    This quote about a particular episode sums up Bluey for me. It's tremendously well written - funny to both kids and adults alike, and often hits you in the feels. It's genuinely good TV.

  • by ramesh31 on 1/5/24, 4:50 PM

    Millenials and Gen Xers (the cohort of which are now raising young children) were raised in a cultural wasteland of sarcasm and irony poisoning, that arose as a response to the perceived "campiness" or naivety of sincere art. And we were force fed it for decades until our "guffaws" and recognition of it were habitual, instinctive, and always expected. Nothing could possibly ever be funny without being hyper self-aware and critical of everything.

    The reason these new shows are connecting with us now is precisely because of their outright rejection of this. Sometimes things can just be nice, and fun, and good, and there's no smirk to the camera, or higher level joke being made. It just is.

    Postmodern meta-irony is out. Radical sincerity is in.

  • by bobsmith432 on 1/5/24, 2:38 PM

    My niece likes this show and I had never heard of it before. When I was a kid I liked cartoons that were on the air like 5-10 years before because even when I was 5 I found newer cartoons annoying. This one was pretty neat though and I agree it's refreshing after seeing the slop on the screen blasting from iPad kids.

    One thing I really appreciate is that it's quiet, the characters are soft spoken, stock sounds don't play constantly, there isn't constant music, it's simple and doesn't make my head hurt.

  • by contemporary343 on 1/5/24, 5:23 PM

    Bluey is great. For younger ones, Tumble Leaf (sadly now discontinued) is also wonderful - clay-mation, gentle with lovely music and promoting a sense of discovery.

  • by yardstick on 1/5/24, 6:16 AM

    Anyone else for the longest time thought the opening title sequence[1] was just them farting their names?

    Turns out it’s them playing stop the music, and each character is called out as they keep dancing. Still, the names are definitely coming from farts…

    1. https://youtu.be/8nv1m-aTCZI?si=gXynjB7rJpPr5Ref

  • by calmworm on 1/5/24, 6:12 PM

    Love the show, all around great characters, stories, problem solving and conflict resolution… One thing I’ve found strange is what items/scenes they choose to change (“censor”) from the AU version to the US version. Could be a Disney decision and the mouse gets what it wants but still…

  • by gnicholas on 1/5/24, 7:08 PM

    One thing we've been unable to figure out: is the phrase "for real life" (seemingly a portmanteau of "for real" and "in real life") a phrase that is used in Australia, or is it a Bluey-specific neologism?

    Hopefully some HNers down under can enlighten us!

  • by mech4bg on 1/5/24, 10:28 PM

    I saw some people wondering if there will be more shows - my kids use the iView app and a VPN to watch Bluey (which has been handy to get access early to new episodes!) and they've been advertising they'll be doing a long-form 28 minute episode this year.

  • by DanHulton on 1/5/24, 5:43 AM

    Bluey, I honestly believe, is a show for adults (more specifically parents, but, you know, parents are adults) that kids can also enjoy. Like, traditionally, the "best" kid's media from an adult point of view has been kids shows that are also enjoyable for adults, but Bluey is genuinely the opposite.

    There are episodes where it feels like the entire point is to get the adults in the room misty-eyed and sniffling, and it all relies on contexts that younger children just absolutely wouldn't have - but they'd still have a good time! And while Bluey and Bingo (the kids on the show) frequently learn lessons, as you'd expect from educational children's media, those lessons are almost always coupled with examples from Bandit and Chilli (the parents) on how to constructively _teach_ those lessons.

    (Not to mention, a bunch of episodes are just straight-up the parents learning lessons, while the kids are just being kids and having fun.)

    For me, it fills the niche that Bob's Burgers used to fill - an example of a family that's quirky but genuinely loves one another, and communicates (both their love and in general) to move past situations that could become much more serious without it. (Bob's Burgers has fallen off -- to me -- because the characters feel a lot more like caricatures of their earlier selves and most modern episodes seem to rely on one or more characters carrying the "idiot ball" to make anything happen, but that's a rant for another time.)

    My wife and I watch an episode every night after dinner to relax after stressful days (two episodes on the really stressful ones) and it's just... Its' very good. We always feel better by the time the credits roll. We've watched a few episodes with kids and they have a good time, but we've also watched a few episodes with other adults, and it's catharsis. It's on another level entirely. I can't imagine what it's going to be like for kids who grew up watching Bluey, to rewatch it as an adult and catch the entire other level it works on. I'm jealous. <3

  • by landswipe on 1/5/24, 7:49 AM

    Bluey is female, blew my mind when I first learnt this after watching a few episodes.

  • by robbomacrae on 1/5/24, 7:28 PM

    Bluey is #1 but I haven't seen Wild Kratt's mentioned anywhere yet. It's given my son a great introduction to the animal kingdom and given him a lot of ammunition for the animal guessing game.

  • by hilbert42 on 1/7/24, 3:38 PM

    When I was a kid one of my dogs was a Blue Heeler Australian cattle dog. Wonderfully faithful, energetic and powerful, and always inquisitive. I miss him terribly.

  • by ilrwbwrkhv on 1/5/24, 6:13 PM

    The stuff which makes it out of Australia in terms of media, food, and software (hello Sublime Text) is some of the best.

    What confuses me is why are their politics so messed up when it comes to tech.

  • by aetherson on 1/5/24, 5:19 PM

    Here's a somewhat embarrassing admission: I never appreciated Holst's "The Planets" until I saw it used (particularly "Jupiter") in a Bluey episode.

  • by mensetmanusman on 1/5/24, 4:05 AM

    So wholesome!

  • by gusbremm on 1/7/24, 4:19 PM

    Bluey is adorable, so is "Trash Truck" available on netflix.

  • by dccoolgai on 1/5/24, 6:15 PM

    "Lucky's Dad" is low-key the best character in the show.

  • by ssss11 on 1/5/24, 8:23 PM

    Bluey is an absolute master piece.

  • by bitwize on 1/5/24, 7:34 AM

    Bluey is a fair sight better than Cocomelon or Baby Shark, I'll say that much. I haven't had much chance to see much of it, but what I did see I liked. It's not all happy, singsongy, bright-colored drivel; the characters are well-developed and have struggles and meaningful arcs.

    It helps that I'm a fan of blue heelers, the real Australian shepherd (though I also love the American breed called "Australian shepherd").

  • by 0xbadcafebee on 1/5/24, 6:01 PM

    tl;dr it's actually a really good show

  • by smusamashah on 1/5/24, 5:58 PM

    We don't let our toddler watch Bluey. You can't show characters fighting verbally or physically and then later explain. You CAN NOT EXPLAIN to kids. If they see something being done, it can be done. So no Bluey for my kid.

  • by sandworm101 on 1/5/24, 4:24 PM

    Does anyone else note the underlying racial component? All the dog families seem to be purebred. I don't remember seeing any mutts, any mixed-race dogs. And there are a few references to certain breeds of dog being better at certain things. I'm sure it is totally unintentional and probably cuts on dialoged by identifying which kids are from which parents, but it did strike me as odd.

  • by 29athrowaway on 1/5/24, 5:57 AM

    The family lives in a mansion and their entire life is about playing and exploring all the time.

    What a great way to prepare the next generation for a life where most real estate will be beyond reach for most families. And where most parents work all the time and are tired on weekends.

    The series has a good soundtrack and voice acting. The mobile game is fine. The Nintendo Switch game is disappointing.