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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

#421

Post by james-skemp »

Aeolun wrote: post #414
drunner wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Also, the parents do have quips/groaning about the requests of the kids from time to time which is does add to the authenticity. I love the episode where the mom is trying to leave the house with the kids, and she just runs back into the bedroom to scream for a bit before coming out to talk. Might misremember the details, but it immediately made me love the show.

She has the breakdown in the doorway in front of the kids. But they all calm down together after the Bluey (mostly, IIRC) asks why they're going to the park.

(We haven't watched an episode in many months, but referenced it when my son was taking forever to brush his teeth and I got frustrated.)

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

#422

Post by jcul »

fillskills wrote: post #411
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…

For fans of Bluey, I would highly recommend a similarly positive Puffin Rock: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffin_Rock It shows about a kid bird and her younger sibling exploring their island. It has supportive parents. Themes in the show are exploration, family ties, friendships, problem solving, independence etc.

I'm Irish, but I've never heard of this. I was surprised to see it is an Irish production, and narrated by Chris O'Dowd!

I guess my kids are a bit young and missed it. Same as how many people without kids in the appropriate age range may not have heard of bluey.

Going to try it with my kids, thanks for the recommendation.

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

#423

Post by [deleted] »

QuercusMax wrote: post #303
thepasswordis wrote: post #287

Our kids absolutely adore this show, and so do my wife and I. It is just about the only thing we'll let them watch. As others have said: it's because the show isn't trying to force any ridiculous cultural progressivism on my children. But also: it doesn't seem to be made by (am I joking?) the same people who would otherwise make slot machines. While other kids shows seem like an outright attack on my children's atten…

Even though it's not political, the right-wingers feel the need to make their own version with "traditional family values". It's called Chip Chilla: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/oct/17/is-new-kids-... Seems ridiculous to me; they show "traditional" gender roles in the ripoff show to avoid "indoctrination".

[deleted]

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

#425

Post by nozzlegear »

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…

> 3. I don’t have to expose my kids to American accents. They’ll have more than enough of that from regular programming when they grow up.

What’s the concern here? I understand American media dominates everything, so I’m guessing you don’t want your kids to pick up small bits of American accent when they’re still developing?

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

#426

Post by dharmon »

wharvle wrote: post #300
xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> tons of them go on and on and on with the trappings of a story but no actual story, just things happening one after another and weird nebulous goals that never seem to get any closer, So like every JJ Abrams production.

He's not that bad, he tells actual stories, kinda, he's just the laziest plotter in the history of script writing. "They throw Kirk off the Enterprise! And... uh... Old Spock just happens to be there! Like, right there! Because it's less work for me if he just is , for no reason! I don't want to think of a real reason and maybe have to go back and revise stuff, or remember things later, to integrate that! He just is!…

You’re probably being too generous in your EDIT EDIT. They are bad. They don’t really make sense except in the very moment, and I think that’s why I can’t remember a single part of even the ones I’ve seen several times (I usually have a movie memorized by third viewing).

It’s like that experiment with chess masters. They show them a board mid-game then ask them to re-create it (which they can do easily), but then they do the same with a random configuration of pieces, which they fail. It’s because there’s no logic to it for their brain to “chunk”. I think it’s the same reason why a movie that you didn’t think was “bad” is completely forgettable. Your brain is built for remembering narratives, but it can sniff out when it doesn’t make sense. Has nothing to do with genre. You can probably remember the main beats of a Pixar film you’ve seen once, even though it was talking toys or whatever.

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

#427

Post by ethanbond »

theultdev wrote: post #360
sophacles wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

He never said he was offended by those things. Just those things don't always need to be in all kid shows. You can support those ideals and not want pandering in your show. Crazy, I know.

Isn’t the point of kids media to help prepare them for the real world?

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

#428

Post by ZeroGravitas »

rglullis wrote: post #326
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…

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.

Well that de-escalated quickly!

One moment it's considered brave to even feature a single, intact heterosexual couple of married pigs in a cartoon, but when challenged on this being an insane take, utterly divorced from reality, we've fallen back to "sometimes the cartoon pig dad has humourous foibles as part of his character"?

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

#429

Post by ranger_danger »

Sanzig wrote: post #148
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…

The other thing is that there is zero conflict in Peppa Pig - any bad thing that happens is resolved immediately. Peppa always gets what she wants. Bluey is far more realistic: the parents can't just wave a wand to make Bluey and Bingo's problems go away, and it leads to a life lesson. For example, in the "Copycat" episode Bluey finds an injured bird and she and her dad take it to the vet. It dies anyway. But it's a…

Granddad Dog's conflict with Grandpa Pig never goes away though.

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

#430

Post by ranger_danger »

lebski88 wrote: post #196
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…

The makers of Peppa Pig made another program aimed at slightly older children called Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom that was much much better than Peppa Pig. It was much funnier and the characters were so much better and more likeable.

We tried to watch Ben and Holly and it just wasn't entertaining at all. We like Peppa way better.
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