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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

#101

Post by pcthrowaway »

Rebelgecko wrote: post #61
grendelt wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It's ironic that they pulled an episode for using a term that is offensive to indigenous Australians and "fixed" it by releasing a version where the phrase was replaced with a racial slur for Italian people

Interesting.. I've always associated "ooga booga" with cavemen or proto-humans; didn't realize there were racial connotations

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

#102

Post by throwaway87651 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #27
seized wrote: post #12

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.

> 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?

If it exists just to advertise toys (beyblade) or is so saccharine it makes you sick (Daniel tiger) then it's crap. There's good stuff out there though - bluey, octonauts, peg + cat, carmen sandiego.

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

#103

Post by bsagdiyev »

grendelt wrote: post #46
timeimp wrote: post #29

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!

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…

Yep, our son has learned he can "throw" his farts toward our noses with his hands and does it every. damn. time. It is hilarious but man that kid is stinky.

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

#105

Post by throwaway87651 »

awilfox wrote: post #98

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…

I hope you get to be a mum. You sound like someone thoughtful and imaginative, which are great qualities for being a parent. Infinite patience would also help - I'm still trying to develop that myself!

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

#106

Post by defrost »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #101
Rebelgecko wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's ironic that they pulled an episode for using a term that is offensive to indigenous Australians and "fixed" it by releasing a version where the phrase was replaced with a racial slur for Italian people

Interesting.. I've always associated "ooga booga" with cavemen or proto-humans; didn't realize there were racial connotations

As a 60 year old Australian that's heard pretty much every insult thrown at Aboriginals I'd say that's more of a recent "some cities" kind of thing.

Aboriginal players of Aussie Rules football had to put up with a lot of abuse from some few members of the crowd making monkey noises and shouting "ape man" and stuff along those lines .. I'm guessing the "ooga booga" comes from idiots chanting that from the cheap seats.

Adam Goodes coped the worst of it for calling them out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Australian_Dream_(2019_fil...

https://thefinalquarterfilm.com.au/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3OJ0kzSXQE

There are worse insults, but none of them are good.

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

#107

Post by AndrewDucker »

rich_sasha wrote: post #92
Caligatio wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, it's fine to distract a two year old with.

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

#108

Post by aaron695 »

a_bonobo wrote: post #37
jboggan wrote: post #18

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…

'Onesies' and 'Babyrace' are also highly emotional episodes. Onesies is, hidden for children, about the inability to conceive children, not being able to deal with your relatives' children; 'Babyrace' is about the doubt all parents have about their parenting ('You're doing great' is aimed directly at the audience)

[dead]

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

#109

Post by eesmith »

hdhfjkrkrme wrote: post #57
dclowd9901 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Are cartoon physics insulting kids intelligence? Tom coming back 1 second after being blown up with dynamite makes sense? Maybe these kinds of cartoons are bad according to you. There it research that kids are more interested in stuff which is surprising (fixation period, ...) because that builds a model of how the world works, not the easily predicted stuff.

> Are cartoon physics insulting kids intelligence?

dclowd9901 already said the issue is when it's "just lazy storytelling". Pixar shows you can tell great stories with cartoon physics.

You don't eat only sugar. You don't eat only carbs. You don't eat only protein. Your body needs a mix.

Many people want their kids to have a healthy diet. Saying Nutella is a "sometimes food" is not the same as saying Nutella is "bad", or that it's a "never food."

Tom & Jerry is a sometimes food. Other shows exercise a different range of critical skills.

I was gobsmaked when I saw a clip from Mr. Rogers where Daniel Striped Tiger asks Lady Aber­lin "What does assas­si­na­tion mean?", in a special episode created after the assassination of RFK. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQv0ZtpRdNk And Mr. Rogers could tackle racism head-on, like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4recJ6qXyk in an era when blacks were prohibited or physically attacked for trying to go to "white" pools.

Bluey could take on these sorts of topics for kids, in an age appropriate way. Tom&Jerry could not.

Nor could Blippi, so it's not just cartoon physics that's the issue.

But Mr. Rogers couldn't pull off the classic "coyote paints a picture in a wall, Road Runner enters the picture and speeds off into the distance, coyote tries and crashes into the wall" gag, nor should it. I don't think it's a good idea for kids to only watch Mr. Rogers-type shows either.

> kids are more interested in stuff which is surprising

Strange then that kids' cartoons are often so formulaic.

"The Animal Mechanicals are sent to a new floating island to resolve a problem. The team comes up with a plan, and each team member gets to use their special abilities to help out. There are problems along the way, but they are resolved and everyone is happy at the end."

"Something goes wrong. The Paw Patrol are called to help. Ryder comes up with a plan, the pups use their special abilities to help out. There are problems along the way, but they are resolved and everyone is happy at the end. Except for Mayor Humdinger."

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

#110

Post by wizerdrobe »

rich_sasha wrote: post #89
sspiff wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 co…

As a dad, I used to like Peppa Pig, but now can barely stand it - as opposed to Bluey. Daddy Pig is fat, useless, convinced he's an expert in everything but failing every time. His parenting skills hover around 0, and always needs to be rescued, usually by Mummy Pig. So much for healthy co-parenting. Furthermore, Peppa is mean to her friends, who like her regardless, she always gets special treatment. I'm not saying…

That’s virtually every sitcom and children’s cartoon, the father is a bumbling idiot. Talk about “toxic masculinity” …

On the other had, I wonder if that is why I gravitated towards King of the Hill in my early years. Generally a positive male role model, competent, trying to do the right thing by his family and community.

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