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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

#221

Post by ramesh31 »

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.

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

#222

Post by klyrs »

berrel wrote: post #157
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some people believe that whether you're a woman or a man is a thought in your head, and they also believe that these thoughts mean you can be neither, which they call 'non-binary'. It's helpful to respect these people's beliefs and act as if they are true, because they can get very angry and vindictive if you don't agree with them. And then we ask why some kids wind up entrenched away from economic opportunity… Lik…

The point is it's not a private affair. Retribution from people who react harmfully when others do not share their beliefs is a real thing, ask anyone who was brought up in a strict religious environment who became a non-believer. Sometimes the easiest path is minimal appeasement to avoid conflict where you'll end up worse off.

Rarely is the virtuous path the easiest.

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

#223

Post by wnevets »

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…

> scene where Bluey is playing “Penguins” in the bathroom was cut from the U.K. and the U.S., although it’s still referenced in the episode.

Huh? I'm pretty sure I saw this scene on Disney+.

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

#224

Post by Bjartr »

IanCal wrote: post #193
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…

> there are a lot of episodes that are actually art. Indeed, I can't emphasise enough just how much this is underplayed in: > One storyline contrasts the adult dogs struggling to construct flat-pack furniture while the children create their own adventure This is a short episode that's fun for kids to watch with some adventure and a bit of parents struggling to build some furniture. It also covers the evolution of lif…

> some adventure and a bit of parents struggling to build some furniture. It also covers the evolution of life on the planet and futures beyond, growth, aging, letting your children go. It's like 5 minutes and entirely self contained, it's truly incredible.

They crammed so much into so little time, it's truly impressive. That episode also depicts a religious creation myth with the parents as deities who provide materials that create the world and are depicted as gods in the kids' "cave paintings". It joins with the aging theme by having the raised deck where the parents are be where the kid playing the aging mother goes after her child moves on, complete with a blink and you miss it homage to Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam" followed by the Dad saying "This is heaven" to close the episode.

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

#225

Post by paradox460 »

mgd wrote: post #169

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

There's a YouTube video essay I watched a month or so back that touched on this. It looked at parental figures throughout the history of television and used them as a reflection for generational ideals of what a parent should be

The boomers parents made shows like Father knows best, leave it to beaver, etc, where the father was an almost unimpeachable authority figure. Boomers (and gen x) made shows like the Simpsons and family guy, where the oaf father comes in, and family is mostly viewed as dysfunctional, an obligation rather than something to be enjoyed. Gen x produced shows like Bob's burgers which removes some of the physical violence of the family but maintains the Father as an aloof oafish character. And millennial fathers, as depicted by TV, are like bandit. The oaf is gone, but so is the dictatorial authority figure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRN5gKC9_CU

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

#226

Post by klyrs »

TehCorwiz wrote: post #179
jimbob45 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

How is this different to when Mr. Rogers shared a wading pool with his Black mailman? Or Captain Kirk kissed Uhura? Both evoked the same conservative outrage we hear about today over things like this. Introducing and celebrating people different from ourselves is how we become more comfortable with them. It eliminates the other-ness of them. As these kids grow up they're going to become aware of a vocal minority of a…

> Yes it's a culture war, but it's not being waged by LGBT people, it's being waged against them.

As is tradition. The road from conversion camp to concentration camp is short and steep.

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

#227

Post by berrel »

karmajunkie wrote: post #219
berrel wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it? How did you come to that conclusion?

Because you cloaked it in false concern about misogyny by redefining misogyny. Really, well done, I feel certain that it fooled about 4 people on HN.

I did not redefine misogyny.

If I'd written a comment about the racism inherent in 'blackface' performance regarding its mockery of black people, would you claim I was redefining racism?

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

#228

Post by lotsofpulp »

gambiting wrote: post #139
lotsofpulp wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> including physical violence(one episode the kids decide the dad now has a stomach ache, so they punch him in the gut They are pretend playing. There is no indication Bingo meant to actually harm her dad. I pretend fight and let my toddlers beat me up, but I am sure they know only to do that when pretending.

The core of pretend playing, is pretending. Bluey very clearly punches her dad square in the stomach, he lets out an audible sound of pain, and......nothing happens. I agree that maybe Bluey didn't actually mean to hurt her dad - but the way the scene plays out she clearly does and she isn't told about it, the dad just takes it. Because the dad is portrayed as a (in this episode - literal) punch bag who has to accept…

> but the way the scene plays out she clearly does and she isn't told about it, the dad just takes it.

I did not interpret Bandit feeling any material amount of pain in the scene. More like feigning it for the kids’ entertainment. Also, it was Bingo that punched him (the 4 year old).

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

#229

Post by inerte »

germinalphrase wrote: post #160
a_bonobo wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'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)

A great deal of the show is directed at parents which accounts in no small part for its popularity. For instance, new parents who do not have much exposure to young children may find playing with their own kids to be frustrating, boring, etc. The parents in the show are excellent models for how to talk to, play, and have fun with young children

Yes, one of my surprising takeaways from this show is how many new different ways I learned to play with my children. It’s humbling to say this, but there are genuine interesting, quick, and free stuff that I learned watching Bluey. I sometimes finish an episode with my daughter and think “let me give this a try…”

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

#230

Post by charlangas »

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)

It took me reading your comment to realize that Bella's "You're doing great" at the end is directed at us parents. Thanks for the unexpected tears :)
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