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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

#321

Post by unwind »

sheepscreek wrote: post #9
meristohm wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's been my experience; my spouse and I watched three seasons of Bluey, maybe 80% after our child went to bed. It's a visual parenting manual.

> It's a visual parenting manual. Haha - this is what I told someone the other day. Brandon (Bluey’s dad) is a source of inspiration for me. I’ve put his lighthearted parenting tricks to work with much success!

In Sweden he is called Billy, probably because "bandit" means gangster/thug/criminal, kinda. Most other names of main characters are unchanged, I think.

We really love Bluey.

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

#322

Post by shkkmo »

berrel wrote: post #123
The_Colonel wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

[flagged]

Perhaps you should teach children that it's good to respect people's beliefs because being nice to people is good?

I think it's ironically tragic that in an attempt to get people to respect your beliefs more, you argue that the main reason to do so it out of fear of retribution.

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

#323

Post by earthboundkid »

wizerdrobe wrote: post #110
rich_sasha wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

KotH is almost unique in that the dad isn't the dumbest character. It's hard to name many other shows like this. Bob's Burgers, I guess, but that's about it.

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

#324

Post by feoren »

aetherson wrote: post #252

Here's a somewhat embarrassing admission: I never appreciated Holst's "The Planets" until I saw it used (particularly "Jupiter") in a Bluey episode.

Jupiter is a masterpiece. Mars is fine. Honestly the rest of the Planets Suite is kind of a pass unless you're studying music. Of course Jupiter is the one they remix ("arrange"?) in Bluey.

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

#325

Post by vinaypai »

earthboundkid wrote: post #320
pylua wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also sets the bar very high for parents.

My friend says she tries to model herself on the Mum from Bluey. I say it gives children unrealistic ideas about how much play time the average parent can engage in without getting a crick in their back.

Children are capable of understanding the difference between pretense and reality.

My 4 year old loves playacting scenes and games from Bluey but he also understands that I'm not an anthropomorphic dog. Or, for that matter that our dog can't do most of the things the dogs on Bluey can.

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

#326

Post by rglullis »

afavour wrote: post #274
no-dr-onboard wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I'll go further. - It doesn't display the dad as a bumbling idiot for a start, an unmistakably uncommon move in home set shows. - It doesn't synthetically force women to the center stage for the sake of scoring points with left leaning audiences. - It doesn't shoehorn in political messages that don't belong and largely harkens back to a time where childrens television didn't require scrutiny of the publisher jus…

> The show unashamedly depicts an intact household with two loving, heterosexual parents. It's "stunning and brave" in the current culture. Eh? I'm trying to think of peer shows of Bluey... Peppa Pig and Daniel Tiger come to mind (Trash Truck anyone? Charming little show), heterosexual parents are by far and away the norm. The idea that it's "brave" to show them feels like a conservative talking point that's out of s…

Never seen Daniel Tiger, but Peppa Pig makes the Dad the butt of the joke and portrays him as the overconfident idiot in pretty much every story, while all moms are always infallible.

It's not something that kids might consciously notice, but it's grating and not what I'd exactly call a positive message.

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

#327

Post by mixmastamyk »

michaelt wrote: post #185
The_Colonel wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess this is more common in US then. I live in a pretty liberal European city, yet I haven't met any non-binary person. I know exactly one trans person, and only remotely (she lives in US). I guess to me, this topic seems "advanced", perhaps "irrelevant" in a way for such a small kid. There are many other things she needs to learn about, which she will commonly experience in the real world.

> I live in a pretty liberal European city, yet I haven't met any non-binary person. Being nonbinary is kinda unusual, but it's also probably something that's super easy to be closeted about, if you don't know how people will react. I mean in the 1980s I thought all 900 kids in my high school were straight, and that being gay was super uncommon.

80s in California... there was a sizable but not exactly large group. No one cared. We all knew "old people" were supposed to care, but it was more likely just a thing everyone had to pretend to care about on TV. None of the old people I knew cared either.

Future "not evenly distributed" and all that.

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

#328

Post by stiiv »

pylua wrote: post #245
ursuscamp wrote: post #213

Bluey blew me away when I saw it with my daughter. It's sweet, positive, emotional, well written. It's not the slightest bit cynical, handles every issue with tact, doesn't contain heavy handed messaging and has traditional values. It also has a very positive two parent dynamic. This is an absolute unicorn of a show. Note: my usage of "traditional values" is not meant to evoke anything political or intended to be int…

It also sets the bar very high for parents.

You're right, though a "high bar" in itself is not a bad thing! Hopefully not too many people struggle with pressure to behave like cartoon dogs. On the other hand, we might all take some inspiration from them here and there.

I think you can also see a shift to "lower the bar," though, especially in the third season. Bandit also seems to take a less prominent role. This was disappointing to my family; it seemed like some of the show's "purity" was lost to social pressure or something.

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

#329

Post by drunner »

pylua wrote: post #245
ursuscamp wrote: post #213

Bluey blew me away when I saw it with my daughter. It's sweet, positive, emotional, well written. It's not the slightest bit cynical, handles every issue with tact, doesn't contain heavy handed messaging and has traditional values. It also has a very positive two parent dynamic. This is an absolute unicorn of a show. Note: my usage of "traditional values" is not meant to evoke anything political or intended to be int…

It also sets the bar very high for parents.

My wife and I discussed this too. We just remind ourselves that the episodes are 8 minutes long (yes, the plots sometimes are for a whole day), so realistically the parents could be spending all this 'time' which is just in 8 minute increments throughout a day/week.

But yes, ignoring that kind of reasoning, it does set a very high bar.

Also, the parents do have quips/groaning about the requests of the kids from time to time which is does add to the authenticity.

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

#330

Post by willismichael »

_justinfunk wrote: post #239
willismichael wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Oh, and my cat now has a nickname: Muffin. Make of that what you will. My daughter sent me a meme with the punchline "When you think your child is Bluey but really your child is Muffin". Make of that what you will :)

Can you share?

Here it is, I got the wording wrong in my previous message, but the idea is the same: https://www.reddit.com/r/bluey/comments/xk4lvw/not_my_child/

Edit: I have to admit that Muffin is my favorite character in that show. Make of that what you will.

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