I first discovered Bluey in a New York Times article entitled ‘A Children’s Show About Everything, Especially Music’. Hmmm, that’s interesting, I thought, sounds kinda like the rohn report so I decided to report on it. laughter
The first thing I have to report about Bluey is the great interaction between the kids and the parents. It’s amazing. Maybe not too realistic but refreshing. They’re always playing and having fun in some goofy way: Bluey turning her dad into a donkey with a magical asparagus, turning her sister into a piglet and his mum into a chicken. Hilarious. laughter
Each episode is another game that the kids come up with to play with their parents or their parents come up with to play with them. In the process, of course, they learn valuable life lessons like how to share in ‘Let’s get an Ice Cream’ and the importance of being your own person ‘Baby Race’.
Bluey and her little sister, Bingo, live in a lovely suburban house in Brisbane Australia and the dad is a stay at home dad trying to get some work done (looks like maybe he’s writing a TV show) so he’s available to hang out with the kids during the day while the mum goes off to work. Many of the stereotypical roles are reversed here, which I am happy to report. laughter Seeing the dad do laundry and the mum driving off to work must reset some boundaries in the minds of the little boys and girls watching it, not to mention the adults.
Besides that, Bandit, the good natured dad, is never too busy or stressed out to play with the kids. He respects them as equals, in a way, although he doesn’t mind playing the trump card when necessary. Imagine such an idyllic family where the kid’s values are as important as the adults. Revolutionary.
The next thing I’d like to report about is that this show has gone big time. Bluey won an International Emmy Kids Award for the best preschool program in 2020 and then Disney picked it up. Now it’s on Disney+ and all over the world. It’s also playing in China dubbed into Mandarin on the Chinese streaming service Youku. It’s coming to the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio as a theatre production. How about that?
Oh, by the way, Bluey and her family are dogs, Blue Heelers to be exact. In fact everybody that appears in this show are dogs. I’d also like to report, in case you didn’t know, Blue Heelers are a cross between wild dingos, native to Australia, and domestic dogs and were originally bred as cattle herders. Their playful, energetic nature makes them the perfect dog for this show. Other characters include Poodles and uh . . . looks like maybe a Golden Retriever and possibly a Spaniel.
Here’s one of my favorite Bluey episodes that I found on Youtube, ‘The Baby Race’. It’s a storytelling episode.
The next thing I would like to report is the extensive use of classical music in the soundtracking. Mozart, Wagner and Bach all get a chance to enliven the action and set the mood. Not only classical music but folk, rock and jazz make an appearance. See for yourself in “Let’s Get an Ice Cream” sweetened with Tchaikovsky’s ‘Waltz of the Flowers’ .
It’s zany and it’s crazy; lots of screaming, squealing and laughter and cute South Parkish voices. After binge watching Bluey on Youtube for awhile I can report that it did raise my vibrational level to that of a 4 year old. laughter A worthy accomplishment.
There’s something wonderful about watching kids and adults playing together. I think that’s one of the charms of Bluey. The kids are relentless in their pursuit of play and the adults, of course, discover that they need to play too as evidenced in this episode.
So if you’ve caught the Bluey bug here’s a smorgasbord of Bluey including ‘Keepy Uppy’, where the object is to never let the balloon touch the ground and ‘Magic Xylophone’ where when you hit the right note you freeze the other person. Honestly, didn’t you play this when you were a kid? Right then, maybe that’s what’s wrong with you. laughter
Bluey