Friday, November 10, 2023

Friday Creature Feature - Muffin Heeler

Her cry chills you to the bone. 

Her mere presence can send grown men running. 

She is the queen of all she sees as long as she can see it. 

Her wrath is legendary. 

And she's three years old.

That One Kid..

The cousin of title character Bluey, Muffin is a fan favorite among the adult Bluey connoisseurs. She's the kid that when we hear is coming over we put all the breakables somewhere safe and are ready for at least one meltdown during the visit.  She's the kid who's screaming in a princess costume at Disneyland with at least one parent scrambling to get her whatever will make the noise stop. 

And we love her for it.

Chaos Incarnate

Muffin is three years old, which means she is full of energy and has little to no concept of people outside of herself. She wants what she wants right now and she's going to take it or throw a fit if she doesn't. Muffin is strong-willed towards the adults and children in her life alike, seeing no reason to treat one group different from the other (An equal opportunity monster). Besides being able to drift like a pro street racer, she doesn't have any special abilities or powers that a normal 3 year old human child would have, except she's a dog—which in the Bluey universe makes her the equivalent to a human. 

Muffin has three notable episodes where her chaos is put on full display. The first, The Sleepover, Muffin is trying to get away from an afternoon nap and shows up to the Heeler house exhausted, which is code for drunk in the episode. She proceeds to destroy anything within arms reach and ruin Bluey and Bingo's games, culminating in a high-speed chase in a pedal car with a stolen lawn flamingo. The episode is so unhinged compared to most Bluey episodes that it almost feels like a clip from another show spliced in, like Family Guy or Rick and Morty. This is Muffin taken to the next level as she has lost whatever filter she may've ever had from lack of sleep. 

The second Muffin episode, Faceytalk, the girls are playing on a Skype style app with their cousins but Muffin refuses to share with her little sister, so her dad puts her into time out. Muffin gets ahold of her dad's phone and her sister and cousins are treated to front-row seats at Muffin's frantic chase through the house, which climaxes with her accidentally dropping the phone two stories into their pool. Another unhinged episode, the first person view of Muffin running gives us a little insight into what life is like at Muffin's house, and since her little sister is completely unbothered by proceedings, we can assume that these chases are a regular occurrence. 

The last Muffin heavy episode is Granny Mobile. We see the return of two other fan-favorite characters, Bluey and Bingo's granny personas Janet and Rita, with Muffin taking on her own grouchy granny Gladys. Muffin gets into an argument with a real life grouchy granny, who either doesn't realize that Muffin is a child or doesn't care, but haggles with Muffin over the price of an electric scooter. Muffin saves the day by negotiating up and getting a great deal on it, helping the real owner go on holiday with her newfound funds. 

Not the Villain

One of the best parts about Bluey is that the kids are kids. They're not the exaggerated versions we caught in Rugrats, or the completely sci-fi versions we got in Codename: Kids Next Door. they're kids, with kid personalities and kid foibles. Muffin as an agent of chaos works because she's not one of the main characters so she's not an ever-present conflict like Angelica was. She doesn't overstay her welcome and isn't a constant problem, she's one that's around just enough to make life more interesting. 

Most episodes she's in, besides the ones mentioned, she's not completely unhinged, despite the occasional outburst. Usually she gets along well with everyone, plays with her cousins and sister, and just enjoys being a a kid. Muffin is what we wish we could still be as adults: wild, a little crazy, and not afraid to get what we want. 

Even if results do vary...

-JOE


No comments:

Post a Comment

Followers