TOP DOGS The ABC’s Bluey and Australian Children’s Animation
‘They forgot the spring rolls!’
Lots of kids’ shows are set around a fantastical premise: there are fruit in human clothing, princess knights, and mutant reptiles who are also teenage ninjas. Kids have short attention spans, so TV programming for them often needs to be big, loud and colourful. Yet the ABC’s Bluey focuses on the modest idiosyncrasies of Australian life – like waiting around for Chinese takeaway – and this animated series about a family of blue and red heelers is now the most watched television series in ABC iview history, having been seen 90 million times1 and counting.
Disney, a company famous for a mouse, is so enamoured with the pups that it has announced that the show would air not only on its dedicated broadcast channel for children later this year, but also on its yet-to-be-launched streaming service, Disney+.2 With this deal, Bluey’s reach will be more expansive than ever – its view counts growing from millions to likely billions – yet each seven-minute episode begins life at Brisbane’s Ludo Studio. It is even suggested that Bluey and her sister, Bingo,3 along with their parents Bandit (Dave McCormack) and Chilli (Melanie Zanetti) – collectively, the Heelers – share a home town with Ludo: the Brisbane city skyline can often be seen from the balcony of their home.
Bluey is hard to define, in the same way that we scratched our heads about Seinfeld – I’d argue, though, that the ABC series’ success is grounded in its relatable depictions of modern family life, its incredible sense of place and its beautiful animation style.
