Are Bluey’s Parents Cooler Than Me?
Bluey is a kid’s show, but the real lessons are for Mom and Dad. Just don’t expect too much from the video game.
When it comes to being a modern parent, I fancy myself as being one who goes against the grain - just like every other thirtysomething Mom or Dad. “I do it differently,” we tell ourselves as we all buy the same Bento boxes on Prime Day. Just kidding, I don’t use Amazon because I refuse to support Jeff Bezos. See – I’m not like other Moms. So, you’ll forgive me for admitting that Bluey was not really on my radar until relatively recently.
Bluey, the Australian preschool series premiered in October 2018 in its homeland, with international broadcasting rights secured by Disney the following year. The show premiered in the United States on Disney Junior in September 2019 before making its streaming debut a few months later on Disney+ in January 2020. Do you remember what you were doing in January 2020? How about March 2020? I do.
My life was simpler then. I had a two-and-a-half-year-old with another on the way, but screen time was not exactly big in our house. We thankfully missed the Paw Patrols, Cocomelons and most of Baby Shark. All that to say, we missed the Bluey train at first. The show is about a family of dogs who live in Brisbane, Australia. There’s Bluey, her sister Bingo, and their parents: Mom, Chilli, and Dad, Bandit. The premise is so simple it’s arguably divine: the family that plays together, stays together - and has lots of fun in the process. It’s not breaking new ground, as we see some of it in other programming aimed at a similar age group, like Peppa Pig.
Bluey blew up in 2020 and has since become an international hit. It was the second most streamed program in 2023. It’s a great show, and I enjoy watching it with my kids. The episodes are short, sweet, and don’t have any particular structure. I’m not able to recite favorite episodes, even though I loved the Dance Song before I knew where it came from. There is something so inherently enjoyable about the show’s clean visuals, background music, and especially the voice acting. Yet there’s one thing that nags at me when I watch it: Bluey’s parents. They just seem so damn cool, and chill. Why can’t I be like that?
It turns out, I’m not alone in that feeling. Bluey’s parents are relatable, kind, and loving. They are the kind of parents we want to be - the ones that get down on eye level when providing gentle discipline. Bandit Heeler in particular, is a wonderful reversal of the tropey idiot dads we always see on TV and cartoons. He’s no Homer Simpson or Fred Flintstone. In fact, unlike those other dads, Bandit appears to have inspired a generation of young fathers to show up and be there for their children. Al Bundy could never, although Phil Dunphy probably could.
That’s what brought me to write this piece. I was watching an episode (or three, or four) of Bluey with the kids when I kept thinking about how effortlessly cool her parents are - especially Bandit. He’s funny, creative, earnest, and always down to clown with the kids. Sure, we’re only seeing seven minutes of their lives at a time, but in those seven minutes, fictional parents Bandit and Chilli are setting examples for real-world parents. It’s a show that entertains children, but for many parents, it seems to be serving as a break - and a reminder - that while we don’t have to be perfect, we have to be perfectly present.
It’s also what led my children and I to rent the game from our local library. Bluey: The Videogame, developed by Artax Games and published by Outright Games, was released last November for consoles. It has a story that could be from the show, involving the discovery of a treasure map in the home. The game has players exploring four different locales from the show: the Heeler home, the playground, beach, and creek. Imagine searching for stuffies around the house or finding a friend at the park.
The game is broken up into four “episodes.” The exploration based game allows for local co-op with up to four players, each controlling a family member. That’s how I played it with my two bigger kids, each of us picking a character. During our first play session, we jumped on the beds in the Heeler home before going to play Keepy Uppy and Ground is Lava at the local park. The gameplay is a bit rudimentary, basically going from point to point and playing some basic minigames. As with multiplayer, it’s not terribly fun. I also found the minigames to be a bit buggy. It’s certainly serviceable for the younger fans of the show, even if it is not necessarily elevated gameplay or something Mom and Dad will be seeking out on their own.
That said, my kids didn’t really enjoy the game. There were a lot of loading screens on the Switch and there’s a certain clunkiness during transitions. It’s graphically competent, and mostly captures the visual essence of the show. The music, sound design, and voice acting directly involve the cast and crew of the show which lends an air of authenticity to the experience and helped engage my young audience, even if they weren’t necessarily engaged with the gameplay.
Maybe it’s not necessarily the point, when these licensed titles are able to recreate the essence of the show in a video-game format. Is it something I want to play? Certainly not. I don’t even think it’s something my kids want to play. But when playing it with the kids, it had a similar effect as to when they were watching the show. They were mesmerized. By that metric, it is a success.
Ultimately, the game failed to keep the long-term attention of my littles or myself. It was something I half-expected and was one of the reasons I was reluctant to purchase the game for $40. It’s also one of the reasons I’m so thankful for my local library. My kids returned to Astro Bot and Luigi’s Mansion, and I’m fine with that. We’d rather play Keepy Uppy in real life, together.
Meanwhile, Bluey: The Videogame returned to the library, where there was already a three-person queue for the game. Those parents are probably going to learn something that I did, both from Bluey the show, but definitely from Bluey: The Videogame:
“Sometimes, the best game is the one you make up.”
Bluey sounds awesome. Were I a parent, I would definitely watch this with my child. Shame the game is kind of a cash grab, but that's tale as old as time for licensed games!
Thanks for the post!