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| Such a lovable family of Blue Heeler dogs. |
It will change your life.
Creative Genius
Now, with all that, I cannot begin to express my excitement for the new Bluey movie. After KPop Demon Hunters' runaway success, I can't help but feel like Bluey is the next feature length phenomenon in children's film that will take the world by storm. Maybe it won't be transformative of the way we see and watch movies: but it could be, and there are ways I think they'll be able to accomplish the same kind of miracle for the big screen that they accomplished in short-form animation. It all comes down to this: Joe Brumm.
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| Joe Brumm also worked on Peppa Pig and Charlie and Lola |
Well in all fairness, it's success is actually from Joe Brumm, Joff Bush, the voice actors, the whole team at Ludo Studios, and everyone else behind the making of Bluey coming together (and maybe some divine help for good measure); but there has to be someone working at the beating heart to keep the pulse. You need a good team, and every team needs a visionary leader. What do I want for the Bluey Movie to be a success? Joe Brumm needs to have creative freedom and direction. Past work has shown us that he's been able to beautifully lead and direct the show for 3 seasons, and his direction has only increased the depth and breadth of Bluey over the years. I trust the vision of the artist at work, and we need the executives at Ludo, the BBC, and Disney to step aside and let the team do the work they are passionate about doing.
Our Favorite Characters (and then some?)
With that said, that team has given us a fantastic set of characters. In the 30 minute special episode "The Sign," we get to see and revisit almost all of the characters we've been introduced to in the show. In no small part is that due to the family wedding, but we also see Bingo's and Bluey's friends at school, as the story their teacher Calypso tells becomes central to understanding the message of that episode: that, no matter how things go, we don't know. Will it turn out well? Will everything go badly? We'll just have to see. The characters make everything that makes the story so wonderful. They're filled with so much life and presence.
Speaking of, one thing that's hinted at in the "surprise" episode that followed "The Sign," (titled, of course, "Surprise") is that Bluey eventually gets married to someone we've already met in the cast; as we get a look at the future, Bluey's child torments Bandit with a ping-pong ball blaster. While the child resembles Bluey of course, it's uncertain who that character's father is yet. Is it Mackenzie, since he has a somewhat black-speckled appearance, and has a droopy ear? Is it Jean-Luc, since he has a darker color, and droopy ears? Is it someone we haven't met? Will that even be answered?
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| This isn't even all of the characters in the show. |
Regardless, we must see all the characters. The kid at the store, whose first day was when Bandit desperately needed help to interpret the girl's charades when they played "the Quiet Game," the Tradies who dug the pond for Chili, the Grannies (who are just characters Bluey and Bingo play periodically throughout the show), Rusty, Chloe, Honey, the parents of the kids friends, every character you can imagine: I want to at least see them, once, in the movie, even if they're just doing something in the background. This is the chance to see every one of them in the limelight, and we have a whole hour and a half to see it! We only saw Jean-Luc for one seven minute episode–if the movie is only an hour and a half, that's still almost the same as twenty episodes! Will there also be new characters? Will there be explorations of themes and ideas that we never could have before? So many questions, but I know what I want the answer to be.
The Art
One of my favorite things about Bluey is the deep, vibrant, rich color and artwork found in every episode. Sure we're in the Heeler family's house pretty much every episode, but they find ways of making even the house be a beautiful thing to see. From the tree in the backyard, to artwork on the walls, to the vintage architecture, to the way the seasons and the flowers change (as much as they can change in subtropical Brisbane), and the way the neighborhood is so inviting, it's something that they manage to keep original and interesting every time. Whether that's the hallway that goes on forever upstairs (way longer than it should be), to the veranda and the porch, everything has so much character. I want to live in that house.
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| Who wouldn't want to live in a Victorian era Australian house? |
Then there's the color palette. Everything is colorful and inviting. It's never garish or overbearing, or an explosion of color; it's always tasteful, but also never dull or uninteresting. It makes everything more alive. How would we know we were at the ocean if the blues weren't as deep as it was? How would we appreciate the flowers if they weren't as bright? Or appreciate the subtle differences in shades between the characters and the different colorations that you see in the different breeds represented in the show? I want to see those colors on the big screen. Just as vibrant as ever.
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| Everything in the show is beautiful. |
Plus there's the style of animation itself. It is digital, not exactly something you'll see out of Studio Ghibli anytime soon, but they make it digital in a way that owns the style. It presents itself knowing fully well what it is. No equivocating, no apology; it plays to its strengths. Everything is very clear, the details are sharp, and everything connects well artistically. They accomplish a lot with it, and it's clear that it provides a lot of strength to the quality and the quantity produced. If they switched to 3D, it just wouldn't be the same. Of course, there should be even more production value poured into the show's artsyle, but being someone who's more familiar with physical animation, as I haven't looked very much into how digital animation is produced these days (I definitely should look into that), I don't know what more production value would accomplish. Smoother frames? More expression? I don't know! Just give it to us!
Music for the Soul
Now if the art is the pretty face, and the characters and the people behind the scenes the heart of the show, then, clearly, music is the soul. Every episode has music that will touch you, stir you, make you truly feel. I'll often be the type to listen to soundtracks on my own, but this is one my wife will actually listen to on her own. The kids too. Did you know, they even have special versions of certain songs that they've released? Sometimes, the version in the episode is just an instrumental cover for the one they've put words to. Oh, and did you know that they have three albums now? It covers everything from classical, to jazz, to rock, to electronic, to dance, to lofi, to folk, to progressive, it's got everything you could imagine. Even the songs that are meant to be annoying kid songs are bearable. Did you hear me? They're bearable! I actually like them! How is it possible?!?
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| This album is full of earworms. |
But seriously, the music is amazing. As a musician myself, I could go off and on and on about the music. So, I will spare you. Instead, just go and listen to it. There are three albums, have your pick! You'll get the chance for me to rant and rave about the music soon enough.
Okay fine, I'll actually talk more about the music than just platitudes and listing off what genres it covers.
There are some episodes where the music is 100% only for that episode, and other times where those themes are repeated throughout the show. The Grannies, for instance, have their own motif that is repeated whenever they show up, but the Creek episode's theme is used only once (as far as I can recall). As previously mentioned, Classical music shows up, and it shows up often, ranging from Pachelbel's' Canon to Gustav Holst's "The Planets." Even Saint-Saëns' 3rd movement of his "Organ Symphony" makes an appearance as a cover in one episode (it's not 1 for 1 of the original theme). As a classical musician myself, I've always appreciated the representation. I think some of the most profound music of all time is found in classical music, and Bluey gives it appropriate reverence and appreciation.
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| The Album that started it all. |
There's something to be said about both variety and repetition in music. We need to have music that is different, to show us different moods and attitudes. As well, we need music to give us contrasting feelings, and to help us relate to what's happening on the screen. Yet we also need to be able to have some repetition to be able to appreciate the pattern over and over again. We can't remember things without at least a little repetition. But there's more to it than just that: motif and return to ideas helps us find some grounding. It's one reason why opening themes to tv shows can (emphasis on can) be so effective: they bring us into the mood, and prepare us for the show we're about to watch. We need that repetition to bring us in. Then, the contrasting variety keeps things fresh and alive. Everything must be balanced in order to accomplish excellence. I would love to hear some recurring themes in the Bluey Movie, moments that need to be relived, but we also need to have all new music. I want something as catchy as "Burger Dog" in my life, and I need something as reverential as the treatment of Holst's "The Planets."
Oh, you wanted me to talk about the plot, the themes, and the ideas I want to see in the movie? Not just the presentation? Well, that is the question, isn't it? What comes to mind is this: what brought me into the show in the first place? What is the spark that ignited the flame that still burns to this day?
Rug Island
One afternoon, my wife came up to me and said: "You should watch this show called Bluey. It's made for kids, but it's actually really good." So, I sat down, and I heard the opening theme song. For the music nerd, it can be conducted in 17/4 time (among other things), but for me, it was just fun to see my daughter getting into saying the names as they were yelled off on the screen. Even before I actually saw or heard any part of the episode, I was transported into something fun. This was alive, exciting, playful, and it stuck with me. Am I saying the movie needs to have a musical statues dance party to feel like Bluey? Well, yes actually, yes please! But not really: what makes the show feel like itself is the fact that it feels so alive and vibrant in everything it does. It's never stagnant as if it were just revisiting the same old thing again and again. Sure, there are moments that are iconic, and approaches and staples to the show, but the theme is the one time that you come back again and again to the same idea, and it's always fun. Sometimes a title theme gets old or repetitive, but I can still dance along to this one.
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| This episode is so good, they titled an album after it (with three whole songs from the episode). |
Oh right, the content of the first episode of Bluey I ever saw. One of the things about Bluey is that the parents, Bandit and Chili, play along with the imaginations of their girls; almost in excess, but always present and actively there for their children. Rug Island is a season 2 episode about a morning that Bandit has to go to work, but he surprises his kids with a few extra minutes to play with them before he leaves. We don't know the reason why: whether he played it off as though it were part of the game, or if something happened that he could come to work later. All of those details are unimportant to what really matters: the time spent with the family, and how that time is spent.
As Bandit walks out of the kitchen, Chili tells the girls they have some new felt pens, and the girls immediately, excitedly, say they want to play "Rug Island:" a game where the big rug in the play room is brought out into the backyard, layered over a pile to make a "mountain" in the middle of the "island," and topped with pots and houseplants to make a "forest." The grass is the ocean. In the game, grown-ups can't stay on Rug Island: they can't understand the way things work there. Felt pens can be fruit, a snake, a fire, fish, a spear, etc. But you can't become rigid in the "rules" either, or else you lose the very essence of what it means to live on Rug Island.
Bandit washes up on the island, and he has to learn all of these things. The entire time he plays along, learns the ways of the island, and becomes adopted into the tribe of islanders; but then he is tested. A ball crashes onto the "beach" of the island. He recognizes it as the neighbor's ball, but Bluey and Bingo (the "islanders") call it an "egg," and they must keep it and lick it as part of the ritual. The neighbor, almost always referred to as "Lucky's Dad" (since he's Lucky's dad), then climbs over the fence and asks for the ball back, which is exactly what Bandit says they should do. Can you imagine? The islanders let this grown-up onto their island, trusted him, and just as the special giant egg comes to their shores, he says they have to give it back, and that it's someone's ball of all things! At this moment, Bluey turns away with Bingo and says, "I told you: grown-ups don't belong on Rug Island." Wracked with guilt, but feeling obligated, Bandit then begins to hand the ball back to Lucky's Dad (we do learn his actual name in another episode down the road); but, at the last possible moment, he realizes there's a felt pen "snake" on the ground, and throws it at Lucky's Dad, yelling "Snake!" Of course Lucky's Dad couldn't help but be in shock as he found a snake in his hands (the other grown-ups in the show also play along with the games). Bandit, now fully accepting his role as an adopted islander, sends the girls to attack Lucky's Dad, and the rest is history. They take the "egg," and lick it as part of their victory celebration.
Later, Chili calls to Bandit, "Ahoy there." To this, Bandit says to the girls "Oh, it's my ship, They've come to take me home."
"But this is your home," Bluey says. Then Bingo responds: "You can't have two homes," to which Bandit replies, "Yeah, you're right. What am I gonna do?"
After a brief moment of thinking, Bingo tells him, "You should go."
"Really? Are you sure?" Bandit asks.
"Yes, it's okay. I'm just glad you came to rug island."
After this, Bingo gives him a present, wrapped in a leaf, and Bandit walks up the stairs. At the top, he opens the leaf, finding a yellow felt pen inside. Chili curiously asks him, "What did she give you?"
Looking as though he had the world in his hands, Bandit looks up at the girls, as they play on Rug Island, and replies:
"Everything."
Everything
If it wasn't already obvious, you can tell that I'm just gushing here. Bluey is special to me: it's helped me as a father, a husband, a person, and it's been a delight for my family. If there is anything I want from the Bluey Movie, it's that I want it to be everything I've seen in the show. I want to return to some of the motifs and themes, I want to see the beautiful artwork, meet all the characters again, get the chance to say hello at least one more time. We need to explore the depths and challenges of parenting, of being a child; the joys as well. In all of this I've sort of glossed over the fact that Bluey explores complex themes around emotion, behavior, family, relationships, death, life, loss, and even birth. That capacity to address challenging concepts head on, of course, must be near the heart of the movie, because that is one of the reasons Bluey is so beloved. Yet there is more to be said.
While the Bluey Movie needs to revisit what has made it wonderful in the past, this also needs to take the chance to be something more. Bluey's creator, Joe Brumm, has expressed at least once that it's getting harder for him to tap into the creative vein of what it's like to be a 6 year old, without just retreading the same ground as what's been done. He's poured his heart and soul into this show, and it, well, shows. We all get older, and the past gets further away from us. I'm sure those sorts of themes will also be addressed. Certainly, the movie will also address other themes, such as the cycle of life, how to deal with hardship, finding love and companionship and help in new and old relationships. Many things will be addressed about the future of the show, if there is a future after the movie, and the very nature of what Bluey is will be both challenged and defined. That's the beauty of Bluey: it's willing to tackle difficult ideas meaningfully.
So then, how will this be something that's truly different, that truly shapes the future of cinema itself, as I alluded to earlier? There's a future where the Bluey Movie maybe isn't earth-shattering, but gives us all the themes and ideas from the show to us in a way that's fulfilling. We can get lost looking for grandeur that we forget to appreciate the small and simple things in our lives that truly matter. Perhaps that's the earh-shattering idea we have to be taught again: we can't have our expectations so high, and our ideas too grand, that we forget what's truly important.
That's where I think the Bluey Movie will be different. We've all seen movies with musical numbers, with great art and cinematic direction, and movies, even kid movies, that explore challenging themes and make us look inside ourselves. All of these things have been done before. What is unique to Bluey is how it speaks to people emotionally and intellectually. It has the capacity to do more than just address challenges: it is able to bring healing to people. Bluey breaths. Bluey understands our nature. It understands how people connect to ideas, emotions, beliefs, hopes, dreams, imagination, play, sadness, even in ways that a child can understand.
That's what I think the Bluey Movie has the opportunity to do for us: it has the chance to be not only a continuation of all we've known before, but a new start, and a send-off. It can't just be a sequel machine. It can't just be "the movie" version of the show, exactly how'd you'd expect it to be if an episode was just an hour and a half long; this will be powerful and meaningful in ways that speak exactly to what everything Bluey is about. I honestly can't wait, but they'll need some time to make sure it can be what it needs to be. I look forward to that future. We all need something to look forward to, to hold on to. I'm glad that Bluey can be part of it. What, though, if it isn't everything I hope it'll turn out to be? I guess... We'll see.
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| I wouldn't mind some Holiday being part of the movie either. |
