Bluey Leads the Pack: Creating Australia’s Latest Kids TV Hit
I first heard of Bluey when I was backpacking in Australia and my sister was telling me about this Australian series of a family of dogs that she and my niece instantly fell in love with. She would send me photos of things she knitted based on the characters as no merchandise was available in the UK and every time I talked to her, she made me more and more intrigued as she described it’s humour and look.
The first time I watched it was in the most unexpected of places and one where I and others may feel scared of being in: the dentist! I was having a tooth extraction and during the whole procedure, the show was comforting and distracting me as it was playing on the ceiling. By the time the episode was done, I could see why my sister and niece loved it and now I did too.
Despite the bushfires and floods hitting the beautiful country of Australia and the pandemic affecting the whole world, I found Bluey brought a smile to my face with it’s beautiful animation, talented voice work and storylines filled with laughter for all ages. And yet despite it’s very Aussie roots with school puppet Bob Bilby, dad cooking on the BBQ, the stars being based on Australian Cattle Dogs (or Heelers) and strong Aussie accents from the actors, the show has resonated with everyone all over the world. And with a second season already released on ABC Kids and bringing home an International Emmy award, it shows no signs of slowing down.
But how was the show conceived and who was responsible for creating the most popular Australian children’s television series since The Wiggles?
Bluey was created by Joe Brumm, an Australian animator who got his foot into the animation industry not in his home country, but in the UK. He moved to London in the mid 2000s and stayed there for ten years to work as an animator on popular pre-school shows like Charlie and Lola and Tinga Tinga Tales.
He returned to Australia after a decade in the UK and founded Studio Joho and his team worked with College Humour to animate some of their most popular videos on YouTube in the past decade, which led to him being a co-producer on Dropout’s WTF 101. They also partnered with Halfbrick (the video game company behind Jetpack Joyride and Fruit Ninja) to create the web series Dan the Man. Joe’s experience from his time in the UK would eventually pay off as he was not also able to use the same software, CelAction, for his own studio, but also his future productions.
After their collaborative projects and producing their own short film, The Meek, Joe and the team set their sights on children’s television. They produced a one minute long pilot in 2016 and grabbed the attention of Ludo Studios in Brisbane, Queensland, who then pitched it around the major animation conferences across the world. It eventually made its way to ABC Kids and after funding a seven minute pilot, they picked it up for a first season consisting of over fifty episodes to be produced by Ludo Studios with Joe at the helm. Bluey quickly became the biggest show on ABC iView with seventy five million views between October of 2018 to March of 2019 and with a global deal with the BBC and Disney, the series gained success all around the world.
But while Joe Brumm, Ludo Studios and ABC all deserve the success after putting all their efforts to bring Bluey to life, what exactly made it the run-away hit that resonates with so many children and families not just in Australia, but globally? In an interview with ABC, Joe explained that:
Bingo and Bluey are four and six years old and fits very neatly in that developmental phase of kids that sits after fine motor and just before abstract academic onset and it’s what psychologists would call a number of things but it’s broadly defined as the social-emotional developmental phase where the kids are learning not to be little toddlers anymore. Toddlers are naturally very egocentric and all that so it’s that first step into “I’m a little social creature.” You want to play these games of doctors and café, but that involves other kids also having their input through these games.
The relationship that Bluey has with all of the cast of colourful dogs and puppies easily reflects Joe’s description of social-emotional development, especially with how she reacts and plays with her younger sister Bingo compared to friends at the same age as her. Most of the episodes consist of either Bluey playing with Bingo and her Dad as he looks after them while Mum is at work, or Bluey playing with other puppies. While they usually play together, we do see that Bluey and Bingo are learning differently due to their age gaps that makes their chemistry understandable for audiences and show children the relatable goals that they are striving to achieve too.
Bluey and Bingo – Spy Games
In the episode Spy Games, Bluey is trying to learn how to share the “device” that controls the grown-ups on a BBQ in the park, but as Bluey usually controls the games at home with Bingo and Dad, she does find it hard to be social and learn how to share with her friends who are the same age. Bingo is seen to be annoyed with Bluey as she won’t let her play the game equally and while it is reminiscent of Joe’s statement of toddlers being “egocentric”, it’s done in a positive way where we can see them Bluey and Bingo learning to play and socialise together.
This is shown throughout the series and it’s honest approach to the children’s development between four to six both gives the range of emotions they are personally experiencing and how they come together to play the games, whether it’s with the fun and laid back Dad or the puppies with their own quirks. It’s something universal that grown-ups will recognise equally as the children seeing their own experiences, both good and bad, on the screen.
Bluey Playing with Dad, Bingo and Friend
No matter how you look at what has made Bluey the hit it’s become or why so many people do, it very much deserves it’s acclaim for telling a truthful, emotional and often funny portrayal of young childhood and sibling relationships. Compared to the rest of the world, we don’t often see many children’s television shows coming out of Australia and it’s brilliant to see this beautiful animated series giving the country a huge spotlight.
In my eyes, it deserves to be up there with some of the most recognisable titles in Australian children’s television including The Wiggles, Blinky Bill and Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. Bluey is simply one of the best offerings in preschool shows in years and one that anyone and everyone will enjoy!
(You can also read our interview with Bluey writer Tim Bain, who tells us what it was like to write for such a successful Australian production.)