One thing I really appreciate about the show is the music - so many of the best episodes are extended musical variations on great themes from classical music, and done so skillfully that you don't realize you're listening to Mozart's "Rondo Alla Turca" or Saint-Saens' "Organ Symphony" until you're at the emotional climax of the episode when the entire piece is restated, which has been priming you for a big theme or breakthrough in the story.
This is strongest in the "Sleepytime" episode which is based on the "Jupiter" movement of Holst's "The Planets" . . . honestly I have to skip this episode when it comes up because it makes me tear up so much, and most parents I know who also watch the show have similar reactions. "Sleepytime" is really art.
> One thing I really appreciate about the show is the music [...]
The music is great but many shows have great music. What makes Bluey stand out for me is their commitment to 'avant-garde' formal constraints.
Some examples:
- In the episode 'Faceytalk' they never once break from the perspective of the iPad.
- In 'Rain' there's not a single word of audible dialog.
- In 'Turtle Boy' there's lots of sign language. Remember, characters in Bluey only have four fingers. The people making the show rose to the challenge of creating proper dialogue using only signs you can make with four fingers. I imagine that's about equivalent to writing English text without the latter 'e'. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Void)
They also break the 4th wall specifically by showing the animator's point of view in a really fun sequence at the end of Puppets, and it's just... such a treat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhvVl0CW670
I broke down in tears the first time I listened to it and paid attention to lyrics.
(Then I put it on a loop when everyone was asleep, and cried a couple times more. This episode combined with the song caused a major adjustment in my attitude to parenting pretty much overnight; it hit a nerve running that deep.)
This is a really sweet story. Thanks for sharing it. Out of curiosity, what was the adjustment you made in your parenting? Being more playful or something?
The major thing was realizing my wife and I care way too much about kids getting dirty in play. This came mostly from being overwhelmed by laundry and cleaning up (and sand, sand f-in everywhere).
The other big thing was, I grew so fixated about my own job and various adult stuff, that I actually kind of hated the playground, and often felt impatient when playing (wanting to get back to million unfinished adult things). I got stuck in a self-centered and rather sad mode of thinking, and with my wife going through her own hardships, we found it too easy to just let the kids do jigsaws or play with bricks, rather than playing with them or taking them somewhere.
The song broke me down, and broke me out of my various mental loops, long enough to realize how deeply unsatisfied I am with how I act as a parent. Not just in the usual, system-2 "I realize my performance is suboptimal, I vow to improve it" way. I actually felt the weight of everything, of how much we, how much growth and happiness I am denying our girls, and it flipped something in me permanently that night. Adult problems were still there, but I suddenly felt I really want to play more, and I absolutely want to take them to playground, which became priority more important than work, and generally made me stress a little less about everything. And so I did stay on the playground the next day, and I loved it, and things really got better and happier for everyone from that day on.
Specific things: we stopped minding the sand that much - which meant we started going to the other playground nearby, that's mostly built inside a big sandbox. Kids love it. And I started to engage with some of the more absurd imaginary stories my older daughter comes up with, to her great delight. And ever since, there was no more "can't do X/Y/Z, daddy needs to finish something for work" - I decided that, in Muffin's words, "this is unacceptable!"[0].
It's hard to put into words. It probably all sounds mundane from the outside, but inside of me, the change was as profound as it was unexpected. Switches flipped, priorities realigned, emotions purged.
This was a big thing for me. But there's a lot of smaller things I took away from Bluey, too, that I feel makes me a better parent. It's truly a special show.
Amazing write up thank you. If you haven’t already tried you may enjoy the how other dad’s dad podcast by Hamish Blake. It definitely has some things in it which may change your perspective.
This is so cool, thanks again for sharing. Did your wife have a similar epiphany or did you communicate yours to her and convinced her you both needed to change?
I only noticed the brilliance of Faceytalk when I looked over the shoulder of my daughter watching a recreation of the episode someone had done with merch dolls and put up on YouTube Kids.
The recreation sadly broke the strict rule of 'singe take / no cuts, iPad view only', but that drove home to me how great the original was.
The no-dialogue thing is an industry trick. It can allow for animation to start prior to the vocals being recorded and therefore provide some wiggle room in the production process. Simpsons did something similar with the couch gags which were detached from the plot and so could be worked on regardless of vocal progress. More recently, Bojack Horseman also had a no-dialogue episode.
That's an interesting aspect! Creativity thrives on constraints.
For the 'industry trick' part you can get most of the benefit from going 'most of the way'. Ie you get almost the same wiggle room, if 90% of your scenes are without dialogue, and 10% are voiced.
For the artistic effect, there's a big difference between 90% and 100%. (Sparse dialogue is also a perfectly valid artistic choice, but it's doesn't make much sense to analyse it as '90% of a no-dialogue' piece.)
I've mostly come to appreciate 'pantomime' in web comics. Many comics go overboard with text, be that speech bubbles, thought bubble or narration boxes. It's always interesting to me to see an author work out how use the medium to its full advantage, instead of writing a novel.
If anything, I would expect Bluey to be less available on YouTube in Australia than in some other random country, because they are more likely to have special local arrangements there with the rights holders.
YouTube is convenient, but it's not the only place where people might want to put their content.
This is what stuck out to me when I first watched it. Sleepytime is a masterpiece not only for the music but the whole episode. Everything about it is perfect. The pacing, the feelings, the moments, even the humor (Jupiter's giant spot).
It gets me every single time.
Many bluey episodes are like this. But Sleepytime especially stands out.
Agreed. My three-year-old's favorite episode, by far. Realizing how artistically ambitious and just plain good Bluey is has been an interesting lesson in how kids actually do have good taste/interesting preferences as long as you don't bombard them with the Cocomelons of the world.
My daughter likes to say "that makes me happy... and sad!" at the end of a particularly artistic episode, like Sleepytime, the wordless one where it rains, or the final episode ("The Sign" - the Citizen Kane of children's television).
When I watched The Sign for the first time, my wife said “you’re going to be crying at the end of it”
And sure enough, she was 100% right. It was like peak Pixar, entertaining for the little ones but very deep and full of incredible depth and emotion for the adults.
Yes, "Sleepytime" is one of the greatest few minutes of television the world has ever seen. It exhibits such deep empathy and understanding of what it is to be a parent of small children, what it is to be a child, a sibling, a member of a family, to dream, to tire, to need. And "The Planets", a beautiful work of art in its own right, fits so well it must be itself an inspiration for the story on the screen.
rain is my favorite episode. it so perfectly encapsulates the curiosity and innocence of childhood and the music is incredible. so much emotion for an episode with basically no dialogue.
I'm particularly fond of 'Sleepytime', but 'Rain' is probably the episode that I've thought of more often than any other. Because of that 7 minute cartoon episode, I have found myself _actively_ changing my behavior/decisions with my kiddo - letting them do something that will be a bit more work for me later on (extra laundry or whatever), but something that sparks their curiosity or gives them a new experience or similar.
Same here. After watching it and then looping the "Boldly in the Pretend" (official song to "Rain" music), my attitude to parenting and many specific behaviors changed pretty much overnight.
(For one, I realized we're both too harsh about kiddos getting dirty and making a mess. The other big thing was, it made me decide to make playground after kindergarten a priority more important than work.)
Beyond parenting, that story and song connected me with my own inner child, and had me realize I might be taking this "adulting" thing way too seriously. Work, play, it's still the same game - we're still just "racing those boats down the road to the end".
Can't think of anything else in my life that managed to break me down and put back together differently so quickly.
I remember one of the bluey episodes (something to do with monkey bars?) used ode to joy a few times throughout, and in the credits simply had
"music by Ludwig". A very cute nod.
For some reason — I am musically incompetent — "The Beach" really felt like the soundtrack was very emotive in a way that fit the story.
The stately feel in "Sleepytime" may have fit the solar system motif and provided contrast to the earthy elements of the story.
I liked "Sleepytime" in part from the expression of letting go while being faithful. Bingo's letting her rabbit go did not mean a complete separation but an expansion (as a few additional rabbits came to help later) similar to a parent allowing a child to grow up and leave while affirming that the child is loved.
Bluey also has some similarity to Calvin and Hobbes in that some fantastic elements are not explained. E.g., in "Sleepytime", do Bluey and Bingo have a psychic connection such that they shared part of the dream or is there imagination/unreliable narration or some third option?
The music really is top-notch. I’m no aficionado, but I remember watching a video breakdown of Stayin Alive by The Bee Gees. If I had guessed, I would’ve said that there were maybe 3-4 instruments in that song. But actually there are like 15 things going on simultaneously. The video showed how critical each one was, and how the mixing produced that distinct sound.
Now I can hear things a bit better, and Bluey’s music makes me think of that video every time. There’s so much going on melodically and yet they blend it so well that you don’t really notice. It’s amazing.
"Sometimes, special people come into our lives, stay for a bit, and then they have to go"
As a kid who grew up poor and moved around a lot as mom tried to make ends meet, this episode fucking obliterated me. Goddamn 36 year old watching a neighbor's kids having to explain that I'm fine, don't worry, to a couple of very confused littles.
My daughter's amazement that I can translate the French bits of dialogue from Jean-Luc were a joy, too. :-) But that made me appreciate the scriptwriting more -- because almost everything Jean-Luc says, Bluey _also_ says, independently, so it works if -- like my wife and kid -- you don't know a word of French.
oh wow we watched this episode a few days ago; i missed the Holst connection, and yes I also felt tears in my eyes at the denouement. definitely hugged my kids harder after that one.
The sound designer goes over their use of this type of music in this excellent podcast. You'd really enjoy it. (Available Apple Podcasts, which is where I listened to it, but linking directly here).
The next one about the voices is excellent too, so linking both. The care they put into both the show and the people involved is almost as touching as the show itself.
Their original musical is top notch too. I am not an expert on music but I was watching the music video for Rain and it hit home how much talent and effort they put in it.
The first episode I ever sat down to watch caught my attention because it used 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' throughout. That isnt typical of kids entertainment.
This is strongest in the "Sleepytime" episode which is based on the "Jupiter" movement of Holst's "The Planets" . . . honestly I have to skip this episode when it comes up because it makes me tear up so much, and most parents I know who also watch the show have similar reactions. "Sleepytime" is really art.