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.
How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment
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Re: How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment
#42Anyone 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…
Re: How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment
#43Bluey, 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…
Since some parents actively control what their kids watch it makes sense to create a show optimized for that niche - you increase parent appeal, but this will decrease kids appeal, so now you have an optimization problem to solve.
It would be interesting to see a chart with kids preferences - I bet kids enjoy Bluey far less than other shows since it's not optimized for them, but for parents.
When I was a kid it was a free market - I had a bunch of channels with a bunch of cartoons and I chose which ones to watch.
If you think about it, kids crack like addiction to cartoons doesn't make sense to adults (there are theories), so that raises questions if adults can pick for kids, and not for what they imagine kids would enjoy.
Re: How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment
#44I love Bluey but my kid won’t actually watch it. I wonder how common that is
Yeah she much prefers cocomelon!
Re: How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment
#45Bluey 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…
can I watch this episode adhoc, or do I need to watch the rest? emotional entertainment really gets me
I disagree a bit with the sibling commenter. This episode falls into about the second season of the show midway through. So putting yourself into that context: you’re watching something like 35 episodes of this show and it’s cute and wholesome and the stories are great, some with some emotional impact, but then you get to this episode and it just absolutely blindsides you.
So, I think it will _make sense_ on its own, but I think it _really_ hits hard if 1) you weren’t expecting it and 2) if you have kids.
Re: How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment
#46The 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!
Quite a few of those drew an eye-roll from me.
https://www.fatherly.com/entertainment/banned-censored-bluey...
A couple of them I can understand (like being safe, not showing kids to slide on a wet tile floor), some I can see parents being appreciative for not having to answer questions about certain topics --- but some "edits" like cutting out farting seems a bit too over the top. My preschooler has just discovered farting and thinks it is _hilarious_ (because it is!). I'm proud as can be, but Mom just rolls her eyes. Proud dad here.
Re: How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
My wife will run in from the other room to skip “Sleepytime” because she knows she’ll be bawling by the end of it if she even thinks about it. Does me the favor because I will be too. My endorsement of the show is that it feels like one of the great sitcoms like Cheers or Frasier, Golden Girls or Roseanne. The stories are never pandering or simple. You never quite know where they’re going to go with a plot line so wh…
> Most kids shows seem like a low effort afterthought full of contrived vapid nonsense. Kids brain is not adult brain. You need a different kind of training material.
We’re not talking about the same thing here. Lots of kids shows don’t even try to make sense or have a cogent story. So not only are they insulting the intelligence of their audience, they’re also refusing to enrich their critical thinking skills at all. That’s the _other_ kind of kids show out there right now.
Re: How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment
#48Just 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.
The Australian government runs a fully funded free-to-air children's TV channel, called ABC Kids. Without knowing much about what other countries are doing, I can probably assume it one of the best children's content creators of its kind in the world.
The channel is required to make a certain percentage of Australian content, and without the need to worry about advertising, subscriber numbers and merchandising revenue, it has become a haven of local creativity.
I think Australia also struggles to find global audiences, as in some ways the world is still recovering from Australian craze global audiences had in the 90's (Crocodile Dundee, Crocodile Hunter, Mad Max, etc). So finding a new audience with children is perfect.
Re: How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
My wife will run in from the other room to skip “Sleepytime” because she knows she’ll be bawling by the end of it if she even thinks about it. Does me the favor because I will be too. My endorsement of the show is that it feels like one of the great sitcoms like Cheers or Frasier, Golden Girls or Roseanne. The stories are never pandering or simple. You never quite know where they’re going to go with a plot line so wh…
> Most kids shows seem like a low effort afterthought full of contrived vapid nonsense. Kids brain is not adult brain. You need a different kind of training material.
That's true, but just like adults, what kid's brains "need" isn't always the same thing they're most stimulated by. I also think since adults are often around it's very very appreciated to not be obnoxious to adults.
Taking Bluey as a specific example, it's really nice to model positive family relationships. Sesame Street's original goal was to "master the addictive qualities of television and do something good with them."
Re: How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment
#50Bluey 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…
Of all the children's programming my children have watched, Bluey is by far the nicest for us (the parents) to watch or listen to, and has been the most enduring in terms of popularity with our kids.
Similar to Peppa Pig, the scenarios are often recognizable in a family with young children, but they're generally funnier and the characters are more loveable.
The animation style is a refreshing break from the bright colourful garbage most CGI studios seem to churn out on an assembly line.
And like you said, they won't pick up bad ideas from the show.