By CHEYANNE MUMPHREY (Associated Press)
PHOENIX (AP) — A little blue dog with an Australian accent has won the affection of people around the world.
She's the main character of “Bluey,” a children's show made up of episodes that are seven minutes long and have captivated both kids and grown-ups. The recent release of its longest episode yet — a hefty 28 minutes — led to a wave of praise for the show, even from those who aren't children or parents.
“Bluey” follows an Australian blue heeler who, along with her sister (a red heeler named Bingo), tackles the days between home and school. It's a favorite among children for its playful humor, but it also resonates with adults who look back on their own childhood.
“My childhood wasn't the best, so I've always connected with shows that depict a good life,” says Miriam Neel, who lives in Colorado. “The parents in ‘Bluey’ encourage imagination and creativity and really participate in their kids' activities, and I wish I had those experiences.”
Neel is 32 and has opted not to have children of her own. She says the show is now part of her morning routine and is often the preferred background noise when she is working from home.
“I'm not going to speak for the entire generation, but millennials find comfort in cartoons. It's what a lot of us grew up watching,” she said. “And if I'm going to spend time watching something I'd rather watch something that doesn't make me afraid of the world, like any of the ‘Law & Order’ shows.”
“Bluey,” which now has over 150 episodes, debuted in Australia in 2018 and started streaming on Disney+ in 2020. It has also been turned into a digital series where well-known fans like Bindi Irwin and Eva Mendes read some of the popular storybooks, and a live theater show that travels globally.
The show has also received numerous awards, including the Australian Film Institute Award for best children's television drama every year since 2019 and an International Emmy Kids Award.
The series presents a child's view of morning routines, errands, and chores, while also offering viewers a glimpse of what life is like for parents through mother Chilli and father Bandit.
This week's special episode, “The Sign,” delves into the feelings related to topics that resonate with both children and adults — moving houses, marriage, infertility, and relationships after divorce. In addition to these universal themes, the episode ends the third season with hidden references for devoted fans.
Lindsey Schmidt, 40, says the show's ongoing storyline keeps her family excited for more.
“There are so many references to previous episodes,” says Schmidt, who lives in Ohio with her husband and three children. “The shows that we watch with our kids regularly don't reflect our lives like this show does. These anthropomorphic dogs feel just like us.”
But there are mixed feelings about the conclusion of the episode — SPOILER — in which the Heeler family cancels their move. Some families who move frequently for work found it unrealistic. Meg Korzon, 31, is in the process of a cross-country relocation with her four children because her husband is in the military. It's her seventh move in 10 years.
“I was hoping it would be an episode that matched the realities of life, our lives, as a military family,” she says. “I was selfishly disappointed because it could have been an episode about change and growth.”
But the show doesn't avoid other difficult subjects — and that's part of the appeal for adults as well.
“As a parent you aim to be as good of parents as Chilli and Bandit are as parents. They always have a great way of talking kids through issues,” Schmidt’s 40-year-old husband John says, adding that the couple often refers back to episodes when trying to explain things to their children.
The series has touched on topics of getting older, death and making friends as an adult. It also has introduced a character who uses sign language and another with ADHD.
Jacqueline Nesi, an assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University, notes that “Bluey” promotes self-control and resolving conflicts for children and engaged parenting and patience for adults.
“We see them working through some of the challenges that we, as parents, might be facing, too. And at the same time, they offer a nice model for different parenting skills — asking open-ended questions to facilitate kids’ creativity, using natural consequences when they misbehave, actively playing with them and letting them take the lead,” she says.
The show has also done a lot to expose children to the world of animation, flaunting different styles in the episodes “Escape” and “Dragon,” providing a near-voiceless episode in “Rain,” and breaching the fourth wall in “Puppets,” where the show stops briefly to zoom out on the creation of just a couple seconds of animated frames.
It’s also credited with appealing to dogs — and not because the characters are the same species.
Research has said dogs have vision similar to red-green color blindness in humans, meaning their color spectrum is limited to blue, yellow, brown and shades of gray — which happen to be the colors of the Heeler family. There were more pets named Bluey, Bingo, Chilli and Bandit across the U.S. last year, too, according to Rover.
So it’s fairly safe to say “Bluey” has appeal across species, as well as generations.
“I used to tell people what do ‘The Sopranos,’ ‘The Wire’ and ‘Breaking Bad’ have in common? They all have lower IMDb scores than Bluey. It used to anyway. I watched all these great shows, but I think ‘Bluey’ is still a favorite, maybe because I have kids. But I put it right up there with all of them,” John Schmidt says, admitting that he and his wife have watched the episodes without their children.
Schmidt says the episode tied a nice bow to end the season, and would be a perfect series finale otherwise.
“I get emotional about the potential of Bluey no longer having new episodes,” says Schmidt. “But we’ll see.”
