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

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

#91

Post by awilfox »

gambiting wrote: post #69

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…

I don't see how there are unhealthy relationships. I will agree that Bingo's behaviour in Backpackers was unacceptable - I personally would have gently nudged her with a "don't play so rough", which would have been a great way to reverse the lesson from Yoga Ball.

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

#92

Post by rich_sasha »

Caligatio wrote: post #40
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so much complete crap out there now that Bluey is a breath of fresh air Out of curiosity, as a non-parent, what makes it crap?

I'm not the OP so I don't know what they define as "crap." However, there is a lot of programming out there that solely exists to keep children's attention while doing nothing with it. The most egregious example that comes to mind is the CoComelon channel on YouTube: literally 1-2 hour videos of nursery rhymes with mediocre animation. It's not some small channel either; one of their 2+ hour videos has 484M views.

Cocomelon is seriously the elite of YouTube. And fine for small kids I think, who wouldn't understand things like Bluey. All the messages are around "be nice", "share", "say please and thank you".

There's lots of videos of kids unpacking presents, or having tantrums to get what they want, or weird videos of adults shouting at children... Or videos showing people play computer games for hours on end.

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

#93

Post by oska »

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

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

#94

Post by awilfox »

DanHulton wrote: post #14

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…

I don't know if I really agree. The creator has stated that the point was to appeal to kids and adults, and I think Bluey pulls that off perfectly.

This is similar to Friendship is Magic, which I'm surprised nobody else has brought up yet. A kid's show that doesn't write "down" to them, and is written by people who are creating what they wanted to see when they were that age. That's how you make truly good entertainment!

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

#95

Post by awilfox »

bitwize wrote: post #79

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").

> It's not all happy, singsongy, bright-colored drivel

"Oh man, the songs." - Bandit, "Movies".

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

#96

Post by awilfox »

laingc wrote: post #22

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. Unfortun…

> with heavy-handed social messages infecting what should be simple cartoons.

I kinda giggled at this, because I just last night saw "Pass the Parcel", which to me was the one time they sent this up and they did it so well.

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

#97

Post by defrost »

bitwize wrote: post #79

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").

> the real Australian shepherd

Technically breed through and through to be cattle dogs.

Big difference being shepherd dogs focus outwards and protect, sheep dogs work and move herds on command using eyballs and stalking body language, whereas cattle dogs are "heelers" they get in close and literally bite the heels of massive stubborn cattle that won't budge until nipped.

Heelers are great dogs IF you can live with their needs - they seriously live for three to four hours of hard exercise a day, flat out running, herding, chasing, interacting. If you can't do that then don't get a heeler, they're smart and you'll pay for it.

If you don't have a herd of cattle at least live 10 km from a beach and make them run after you while you bike, motorcycle, or drive slowly there.

Getting a throwing stick that'll travel the lebgth of a football field and|or a tennis ball launcher is a good way to keep them moving, they'll fetch at extreme range for good few hours.

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

#98

Post by awilfox »

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.

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

#99

Post by Doxin »

The_Colonel wrote: post #64
robby_w_g wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "This family has two mommies. They love each other so proudly and they all go marching in... the... big parade," sing the lyrics. Other terms featured include "trans," "non-binary" and "queer." > “Love is love is love you see, and everyone should love proudly,” Acknowledging LGBTQ people are capable of love is somehow an example of “culture war”. It’s incredible people can be so bothered by a simple, sweet message.

Bluey is targeted towards pre-school children. I'm not really bothered if my 4-year-old daughter sees stuff like this, it's just that she won't really understand things like "non-binary". It seems like a topic more appropriate for older children - maybe from age 8 or later?

She might not understand it yet, but there's value in exposing young children to concepts you'd like them to understand later.

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

#100

Post by throwaway87651 »

The_Colonel wrote: post #64
robby_w_g wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "This family has two mommies. They love each other so proudly and they all go marching in... the... big parade," sing the lyrics. Other terms featured include "trans," "non-binary" and "queer." > “Love is love is love you see, and everyone should love proudly,” Acknowledging LGBTQ people are capable of love is somehow an example of “culture war”. It’s incredible people can be so bothered by a simple, sweet message.

Bluey is targeted towards pre-school children. I'm not really bothered if my 4-year-old daughter sees stuff like this, it's just that she won't really understand things like "non-binary". It seems like a topic more appropriate for older children - maybe from age 8 or later?

My 5-year-old understands that her older sibling is non-binary, so perhaps it is an appropriate topic even at this young age.
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