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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

#331

Post by eterpstra »

geraldwhen wrote: post #285
afavour wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

[flagged]

Jack has ADD Chili's sister is infertile Winton, Judo, and the Terriers are from single parent households There's a deaf kid featured in Turtleboy There's a wheelchair kid in Quiet Game "Chocolate Milk" from Tradies is in a mixed breed relationship In fact, the whole fact that different breeds are interacting is an allegory for racial inclusion.

So yeah, Bluey gets a little "woke" here and there. Sorry, not sorry.

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

#332

Post by wharvle »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #315
wharvle wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good children's programming often presents characters somewhat older (in affect, if not truly in age, e.g. Big Bird) than the target audience, to act as role models. You don't want a typical 3-year-old to look to a typical 3-year-old as an example for what to aspire to, you want them to look at well-developing 4-, 5-, and 6-year olds. This works well anyway, since children often look up to older kids and are interest…

Sure, but the content of Bluey is not going to understandable to a 2 year old. I would guess 3 is when some basic understanding starts, but 3.5 to be safe. In my experience, below 3.5 or so, more sing song-y and basic repetitious stuff is digestible. Bluey episodes have a plot and lots of dialogue that has to be followed.

That... very much depends on the 2-year-old. Maybe true on average, IDK.

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

#333

Post by drunner »

larrymyers wrote: post #279
nightowl_games wrote: post #188

It's truly a show about parenting. It covers realistic themes about parenting. It's very well written. With childrens shows, it's easy to make a show appeal to kids. Cocomelon is basically loved by every child ever, but its so annoying to parents. Bluey is great because the parents like it.

It's a great show that demonstrates how to play with your kids. Though I do appreciate the episodes where the parents are exhausted, or must do chores, instead of playing with their kids.

Showing the parents at the end of their ropes is really great to see. I love their pixar style adult only quips that get added from time to time. In the claw episode for example, Bandit (the dad) says `Magic Claw has no children. His days are free and easy` and it always cracks me up.

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

#334

Post by fredoliveira »

geraldwhen wrote: post #285
afavour wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

[flagged]

> Owl doesn’t have a mother. Miscellena is from an interracial household. Crissy has a physical disability of some kind and cannot walk.

Oh man, god forbid a child being exposed to the vile, vile ideas of single parenthood, interracial love, or physical disability! How dare they, I say!

Sigh.

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

#335

Post by quickcheque »

williamcotton wrote: post #311
cfiggers wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes—in an encouraging way.

Eh, well, I dunno. I’ve got kids and I don’t personally let them give me as much crap as Bluey and Bingo do. Like, if they’re running up to the screen at a kids movie I’m taking them home. There’s other people in the theatre to consider. Kids need boundaries along with compassion, and yes, I know that there are the odd Bluey episodes that deal with boundaries, not getting what you want, etc… …but there’s a lot of wha…

I tend to view parenting discussions on HN with a strong gell mann weight.

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

#336

Post by robbomacrae »

feoren wrote: post #272
ceedan wrote: post #189

Bluey is great and we love it, but I do have to say that it is not as directly beneficial for very young children as something like Daniel Tiger. Daniel Tiger has episodes that directly and clearly address things that young children are going through (little siblings, using the bathroom, managing emotions, etc). Bluey has episodes that address those things but does so in ways that are less direct and comprehensible f…

Daniel Tiger is so much more difficult to watch as an adult, but I have to give it credit for its potty training episode: that was a huge help when trying to potty train our 2.5-year-old. So I definitely agree that a targeted application of Daniel Tiger can really help, and also easier to digest for a pre-schooler. However, I do think that having complex messages that aren't easy to understand is probably important f…

I agree Daniel Tiger is great for targeting particular challenges with those little sing songs they do to help kids learn and also targets a slightly younger audience. When we were having our 2nd and our 1st was 2 years old we played the baby episode a few times "a baby is coming to our family...". Our son welcomed our newborn daughter perfectly and somehow even found a little red book to (almost) drop on her.

I love that this post is on HN. It's helping me frame why I like Bluey so much. I'm also going to try that Sarah and Duck mentioned elsewhere.

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

#337

Post by drunner »

xuther wrote: post #273
eggy wrote: post #249

Love this show! Although the Dad never seems to work, plays all day, and sets the bar pretty high for me especially on the last 2 of my 5 children. I'm out of steam. I too succumb to the emotional episodes, and I am grateful for every tear I share with my kids! I grew up watching Bugs Bunny, Davy and Goliath, Gumby, and All in the Family as a young kid for a contrast!

I love that they even address that in one of the episodes. In Tickle Crabs: Bluey: "You're always at work!" Bandit: "I'm never at work!" What a gem of a show, though yes, it does set the bar pretty high. Though on the plus side I can now burst into a room shout "It's Dad" and my 4 year old will reliably slow clap and then burst into laughter :P

Mine is 'Whats up party people' which he also uses in multiple episodes.

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

#338

Post by drunner »

warner25 wrote: post #195
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 have two data points for you: My wife and I banned Bluey in our house a couple years ago. We use TV as "quiet time" for our kids (currently ages 3 to 9) after lunch, replacing the time when they used to nap, and Bluey seems to make them go crazy . I haven't even watched any of the episodes, so I can't object specifically to any of the content; we just observed a consistent, counterproductive effect on their behavio…

A lot of the episodes can definitely have high energy moments (or the whole episode) where the kids are running around screaming, yelling, and playing. But, if you filter those episodes out, there are still dozens of high quality calm and thoughtful ones.

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

#339

Post by gnicholas »

Bluey is entertaining, and my kids like watching it. However, we've noticed that the behavior of the kids (pups) on the show is a bit contagious...and our little one has started mimicking some of the kids' bad behavior/sayings. This is a very big change from her normal personality, so we're yanking Bluey from the rotation in favor of Daniel Tiger and other similar shows. YMMV, of course, but for us the entertainment value is outweighed by the negative impact on behavior.

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

#340

Post by robbomacrae »

awilfox wrote: post #96
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.

That's because its never heavy handed.. How about the episode with grandpa struggling with the new app centric lifestyle: Phones "Are you sure we're playing this right?". Subtly provocative and brilliantly done.
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