Shadowing Practice: My Thoughts on Bluey - Learn English Speaking with Video

Uncle James?

Can - can we play Space Explorer?

Shut up for a second, I'm watching this...

...unnaturally charming preschool show.

Why are you watching a show for babies?

Okay kid, this show is extremely sophisticated and can be enjoyed by both children and adults,

so why don't you shut your ignorant mouth and find someone who actually loves you to play your silly little space game?

Crikey, bingo!

You can't say that to your sister!

You have to say nice things!

Treat others how you want to be treated, mate!

Oh, I really needed to hear that today.

This episode of The Odd Ones Out is called...

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh preschool show?

I thought you were supposed to cater to my interests.

Let's read some of the comments on these Bluey TikToks, shall we?

No shame, I'm a senior in high school, but I watch Bluey religiously, and this episode made had me all in my fields.

I'd say I had a good childhood, but I binge Bluey because adult life is so stressful and I'm sad and it reminds me of a simpler time.

Bluey is for everyone.

I'm literally 27 and it's such a comfort show.

Bluey is absolutely destroying me as a teenager who wishes he had this childhood.

In my teen years and watching full episodes of Bluey.

Watching Bluey high is such a fun time, dude.

Huh.

You know, to me, I'm just thinking out loud here, it seems like a lot of these comments weren't made by preschoolers.

What's going on here?

Now, if your brain is anything like mine, you'll be thinking, why is this show about Australian dogs so popular with adults who don't even have children?

In fact, why does Bluey have over 5 billion views on TikTok, is searched more than Paw Patrol,

Peppa Pig, and Cocomelon, and why is this episode number 8 in IMDB's highest rated episodes of all time?

This phenomenon intrigued me, and I was also bullied by a large number of people on my own team to watch the show.

So, one day I sat down, put on the first episode, and...

I watched all 141 episodes.

Hang on James, 141, but there's only 129 on Disney Plus!

Don't worry my fellow obsessive Bluey fan, we're gonna talk about that later.

I work in cartoons, and I've been to furry conventions, so Bluey has always been on my radar of shows I'm aware of.

And just from the clips that I saw, I adored the art style, especially the backgrounds.

So much so that my very own background team has studied and taken inspiration from Bluey's backgrounds.

Here you can see my backgrounds taking on a more bluey aesthetic.

I mean, just look at the colors, especially their greens.

Oh my God!

Doesn't just looking at these backgrounds bring a smile to your face?

While I was watching the first season, I realized, Oh, okay, I see why this show is so popular.

Because it's genuinely a good show.

We've already established that the show is great to look at, but the voice acting, the sound design, and the music are equally as amazing so it's also great to listen to.

While most, if not all, other preschool shows will hire adults who can sound like toddlers, Bluey gets actual children to voice the actual child characters.

Somehow, every Australian toddler in Bluey can be so expressive and emotional,

it's impressive that the show got such a talented cast of child actors who don't sound annoying to listen to.

Or maybe it's just their Aussie accents that I like, I don't know.

The characters have so much personality, and the comedic timing is something I've never seen before in a preschool show.

I can't think of a single time Cocomelon has made me laugh this much.

Or even smile.

The four main characters are Chili and Bandit, the parents, and Bluey and Bingo, the six and four -year -old daughters.

Yes, Bluey is a girl.

You gotta catch up, dude.

Come on, it's 2023.

The show also does not hide the fact that it's Australian.

It references multiple Australian locations and animals, they call flip -flops thongs, and they say things like, Oh, no!

While some preschool shows focus on teaching kids numbers and letters,

Bluey focuses on the relationship of the family and teaches its lessons through the make -pretend games that the family plays.

And I want to emphasize how perfect these two parents are.

These two are the most patient and emotionally aware parents I've seen.. ever.

There are multiple times where the parents apologize to their kids for frankly not even doing anything wrong.

The dad is like the most perfect dad role model.

Okay, check this out.

Bingo was sad that dad didn't get to see the leaf bug outside She was like

But he was too busy playing with Bluey, you know, being a present father figure in her life.

And at night she's all boo -hoo about it, and he kneels down, gets to her level, and apologizes, explaining that he didn't hear her.

Now, I don't have any kids, but if I spent my weekend running around with toddlers, and then right before bed one of them said,

You didn't get to see the ladybug.

I would say, That's okay.

I've already seen a ladybug.

Good night.

In one episode, Chicken Rat, Bingo lost her favorite toy, and Mom asks, Well, where was the last place you had it?

The two retrace Bingo's steps, and through flashbacks, we see this bizarre day that Bluey and Bingo had.

The very first flashback we see, Bluey and Bingo are cooking a chicken rat egg while wearing weird costumes.

And through this creative, backward storytelling, we piece together what a chicken rat is and how the kids ended up in this situation.

It's episodes like that which really make me appreciate the care that went into this show, and really sets Bluey apart from every other preschool show.

Most preschool shows stick to a formula and talk down to the viewer, because typically their viewers are short.

As a childless adult, I don't want to say, this show teaches you how to be a good parent, because I don't know how to be a good parent.

But on paper, there are lessons in this show that are just as important for the parents to learn.

So while watching season one, I got a feel for the world and characters.

I started to piece together, okay, this show is depicting perfect parents, it's well written and wholesome, anyone regardless of having kids can enjoy the show.

Let's watch the rest, shall we?

Season two and season three is when things go from a hundred to a thousand.

This is when episodes cover deep and emotional topics that I think toddlers are too baby to understand.

And, let's see, there's...

The struggles of keeping romance in your relationship alive when you have two toddlers to look after, why taking time to play with your kids can have a ripple effect that lasts into adulthood, feeling inadequate as a mom,

what it's like having a dad in the army, parents disagreeing on different parenting styles, moms getting tipsy, implied, dealing with infertility, abandonment, potentially a miscarriage?

That one's still up in the air. And death.

Actually, that one was in season one.

You can't even compare Bluey to other preschool shows.

Like, what the fk was Dora the Explorer even doing?

Was she even trying to entertain the adults who were also going to be watching her show?

Dora had the same formula every episode, and there was a map who sang a song that was just repeating the same three words 14 times.

Season 2, there's an episode where Chili is telling Bluey about how when she was a baby, she wasn't crawling or rolling over as fast as the other babies in her mom group,

and she compared Bluey's developmental delay to the other babies and felt inadequate as a mother.

And then this pink poodle comes to console her, looks directly into the camera and says, You're doing great.

I'm a he -him male with no kids, and I still get teary -eyed just thinking about that episode.

People will tell you that Bluey is a kid's show that adults can enjoy too.

No, that episode wasn't for the kids.

It was directed at all the moms watching who are doubting their motherhood.

When has Cocomelon ever done something like this?

All the babies stop singing mid -nursery rhyme, look directly into the camera and say, Hey mom, just wanted to say you're doing a great job raising me.

Keep up the good work.

Like, no, that'll never happen!

I'm still not done talking about how impressive the writing in Bluey is, okay?

So please indulge me for a bit, I'm switching into video essay mode as we do a deep dive into the themes

and symbolisms of one of my favorite Bluey episodes, Flatback.

The entire episode is an allegory of human history told from a religious and scientific perspective respectively.

And it touches on the ever -growing relationships between a mother and child, all within seven minutes.

No, I'm not reading too deep into this.

Let's begin.

Bandit and Shilly set out to build a new swing for their porch.

And we get this great meta self -aware joke from Bandit when he complains about the instructions saying, I'm not taking advice from a cartoon dog.

Meanwhile, the girls play games with the leftover packing materials that are thrown into the yard by their parents.

Bluey and Bingo are given bubble wrap, which they pretend is water, so they pretend they're fish.

Then they're given cardboard, which they pretend is land, so they pretend they're frogs.

Then they're given tails and become lizards.

Then T -Rexes, then birds, then furry little animals.

Is this chart starting to look familiar?

Then they're monkeys, and then bipedal cave dogs.

What?

Is that you, Mr. Darwin?

Were these girls playing out the evolution of man through a silly game?

Now, if you didn't like the evolution symbolism, I know you're going to love the parents being an allegory for the creators.

You know, the big guy upstairs.

The whatever you believe is going on.

The parents supply the girls with their entire world.

They give the girls the sea, the land, the volcanoes, and the trees.

In these cave paintings the girls make that tell their history, they depict the parents as gods, higher up and in the clouds.

They do look a little angry, perhaps they're still in the Old Testament.

The parents being the creators is hinted at again by Chilly when she looks at the girls lovingly saying, Aww...

We made them.

The parents give the girls an Allen wrench, aka tools, and one industrial revolution later, the girls evolve from cave dogs to modern dogs,

building futuristic towns and spaceships.

Throughout the episode, as the girls go through different stages of evolution, they also go through different stages of their lives as a mother and child.

As fish, Bluey says that she's the mommy fish and Bingo is the baby.

Then as frogs, Bingo pretends to be a toddler and Bluey teaches her how to catch flies.

Then as T -Rexes, Bingo becomes a big girl, then as cave dogs, she's a teenager, and finally in the last stage,

she's all grown up, ready to traverse the universe on her own.

She thanks Bluey for looking after her and leaves on her spaceship.

Bluey, now much older as shown by her having to use a cane, crosses the styrofoam threshold, which represents her death, and she gets to live with her creators.

All while this orchestral masterpiece is playing, and suddenly you realize you're crying?

When did that start?

And then Bandit ties the allegory all together at the very end saying, This is heaven.

Are you joshing me right now?

This preschool show was able to tell a clever allegorical story with tasteful religious undertones in how many minutes?

Did you just make me feel emotions over a cartoon dog?

This isn't the only episode you can make an in -depth video essay on.

There are plenty of other episodes that hit just as hard as this one.

While I was doing research for this video, it got me thinking about another foreign animated kids show with eight minute long episodes

that focus on a family of two toddlers.

Except, unlike Bluey, this show is universally hated.

Caillou, it's Caillou.

I had this idea in my head that people only hated Caillou because he was a more accurate portrayal of a toddler.

But in the handful of Caillou episodes I watched, I was reminded, Oh no, that's why people hate Caillou.

Because he sucks.

His brattiness isn't even important to the plot.

It comes out of nowhere.

Caillou will be getting ready in the morning.

He spills cat food and says, Gilbert, look what you did.

He's at the beach and this bird who's done nothing wrong gets told to go away.

And there's a bunch more examples of Caillou being a whiny piece of shit.

And I can't help but think that Caillou's screeching, piercing, whiny voice does not help him be a likable character.

I bet real toddlers can be a little punk sometimes, but why would you show that in your cartoon and not have him learn any lesson?

There's never a lesson learned in Caillou.

Since Caillou was a brat all the time, a lot of people, myself included, wondered why Caillou's parents never disciplined or even tried to change his bratty behavior.

But after I thought about it, I realized it would be a very weird episode of Caillou if one day Caillou's mom was like, Caillou?

What did you do to your sister?

I made her look pretty, Mommy!

Caillou?

That was Mommy's expensive makeup!

How many times do I have to tell you not to touch Mommy's things?!

Come here, you little twit!

Ah!

Ah, Mommy!

Why are you here?

Get me your head!

He's getting a spanking!

Ah!

Ah!

Mommy, you're hurting me!

I've had enough of you, Caillou!

I f*ing hate you!

That kid got what was coming to him.

I don't know, maybe that episode would be cathartic to some parents.

Anyways, getting back to the actual best children's show ever, even though Bluey is literally the most mentally intelligent and educational show for the minds of children,

teens, adults, and parents, SOME unnamed mouse company decided to censor some of the episodes on their platform.

It's the strangest things that got censored too.

This horse pooping, Bandit getting hit in the groin, Bandit saying the word groin.

This hitchhiker is no longer from Argentina.

That one's kind of weird.

This pretend cat saying it will pretend pee on the curtains.

Bandit hinting at wanting to get...

Snip snip down there.

Adults, you know what I'm talking about.

And the last 10 episodes of season 3, which are some of the deepest episodes in the series, aren't even on Disney Plus.

But that could just be a licensing thing, I don't know.

I kept waiting for the infertility episode.

I heard so much about it.

I finally got to the last episode on Disney Plus and thought, Oh, okay.

They're saving the deepest one for last.

Alright, let's do this.

And the episode was about the family playing courtroom to determine if Bandit...

Farted.

I hope this video convinced you to give Bluey a chance.

I mean, you're still here listening to a grown man talk about it, so you gotta be at least a little interested in it.

Through its relatable and realistic portrayal of family life, the show has not only entertained, but also taught valuable life lessons to its viewers.

The show's emphasis on play and family bonding is so refreshing to see compared to the usual fast -paced, mind -numbing shows aimed at kids.

Bluey reminds us all the importance of spending time with loved ones and finding joy in the everyday.

And if you still don't want to watch Bluey, have you thought about getting high and watching it?

Thank you all so much for watching this episode of James getting obsessed over something he probably shouldn't be.

Did you have a favorite part about this episode?

Yeah, that was my favorite part too.

Just one quick announcement.

My newest Oddballs book is available on my website right now, so if you enjoyed the show, be sure to head over and reserve your copy today.

It'll be full of new stories and illustrations and will be released on September 6th, and I'm super excited to hear what you all think of it.

Anyway, thanks again for watching.

Big shout out to my amazing team.

They really crushed it this video, and you better be wearing your seatbelts.