Bluey

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Fandom
Name: Bluey
Abbreviation(s):
Creator: Joe Brumm
Date(s): 2018 - Present
Medium: Animated TV
Country of Origin: Australia
External Links: https://www.bluey.tv
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Bluey is an Australian children's animated slice-of-life TV series on ABC Kids and Disney+ created by Joe Brumm and produced by Ludo Studios. Each standard episode is approximately seven-minutes long, first broadcasted in Australia on ABC Kids and ABC iView, followed by a worldwide release on Disney+. The series follows the life of a family of Australian Cattle Dogs, also known as heelers: six-year-old Bluey, her four-year-old sister Bingo, her mum Chilli, and her dad Bandit.

The show has been praised for its depiction of parenthood in the 21st century, showcasing loving parents who emphasize play and imagination. The soundtrack of the show, composed by musician Joff Bush, has spawned two chart-topping albums[1]. The show has a mix of humor, kindness, and occasionally tackles more difficult topics such as death, anxiety, and infertility.

Canon

Characters

Heeler Household and Extended Family
Character Status Relationship
Bluey Heeler Main Titular character, older sister to Bingo, and daughter of Bandit and Chilli
Bingo Heeler Main Bluey's younger sister, daughter of Bandit and Chilli
Bandit Heeler Main aka "Dad", Chilli's husband, father to Bluey and Bingo
Chilli Heeler Main aka "Mum", Bandit's wife, mother to Bluey and Bingo
Muffin Heeler Recurring Bluey's cousin, older daughter of Stripe and Trixie
Socks Heeler Recurring Bluey's cousin, younger daughter of Stripe and Trixie
Stripe Heeler Recurring Bluey's uncle, younger brother of Bandit
Trixie Heeler Recurring Bluey's aunt, married to Stripe
Radley Heeler Recurring aka "Uncle Rad", Bluey's uncle, older brother of Bandit
Frisky Recurring Rad's partner (wife as of "The Sign"), Bluey's "fairy" godmother, friend of Chilli
Chris Heeler Recurring aka "Nana", Bluey's paternal grandmother
Bob Heeler Recurring aka "Grandpa Bob" and "Bobba", Bluey's paternal grandfather
Mort Cattle Recurring aka "Grandad", Bluey's maternal grandfather
Brandy Cattle Side Bluey's aunt, older sister of Chilli
Mrs. Cattle Side aka "Grandmum", Bluey's maternal grandmother

See Category:Bluey Characters‎ for more characters.
Additional canon information for characters can be found on on the official character page on bluey.tv."

Fandom

Fan Terminology

  • Blueyverse: term used in the fan space to refer to the world / universe that Bluey is set in. The society is populated by bipedal dogs of a variety of breeds that mirror the dog breeds seen in the real world. These dogs are from an “quadrupedal antecedent” as discussed in the Bluey short “Archaeology”.
  • Blueysona: fans of the show often create their own Bluey-fied personas, or Bluey OC, in which OC/original characters are drawn in the style of the show. OCs are often assigned a particular dog breed, including breeds that have been featured and not been featured on the show.
  • Fans have adopted various phrases and kid-friendly curses used by the characters on the show, including:
    • “Oh, biscuits!”
    • “Aw, duck cake!”
    • “It’s just monkeys singing songs, mate.”
    • “Wackadoo!”
    • “For real life?”
    • “This episode of Bluey is called X.”

Fanworks

Many fanworks, especially those categorized as General, mirror the slice-of-life stories seen in the show, but more often slashworks feature more adult themes and topics as well as alternate universes and canon divergences.

Pairings in the Bluey fandom can be categorized into two main types: ships between the adults in the current timeline of the show, and ships between the child characters. Both canon and non-canon ships are prevalent. Many stories featuring ships between the child characters are aged-up, often to high school or college age. Pairings are often referred to by slash and less frequently by portmanteau. Fan art depicting pairings is common and popular, and frequently features side characters, even those that have been shown in only one episode. Characters with unknown names are often referred to by their profession or by the episode they first showed up.

Reader-Insert and OC-insert content is also present, though they make up a minority of works on AO3 and Fanfiction.net. These type of works often feature found family story trope, often featuring characters moving into the Heeler household, whether as long-lost half-siblings, adoption, or foster care situations. Less frequently, OC characters are paired with a character, both main and side, from the show.

While not the titular character, the dad, Bandit, is the most popular character to be paired and written about in the fandom. He is apart of the most popular ship, which is the canon ship between him and his wife Chilli, as well as a couple other M/M ships, such as Pat (also known as Lucky’s Dad, a friend and neighbor of the Heeler family) and Fido (dad from the S2 episode Cafe). In addition, with more show presence from his extended family as well as the flashback episode Fairytale showcased his life growing up in “the 80’s”, his childhood and family life before Chilli, Bluey, and Bingo are often the subjects of fanworks. He is often head cannoned as bisexual in fanworks, however there is no confirmation from the showrunners on his, or any other characters’, sexuality.

Out of the four main characters, the mum, Chilli, has the fewest ships featuring her and a different character outside of the Heeler household. Majority of her works are with her husband, Bandit, or in polyamorous relationships, most often with Fido and less frequently with Wendy (another friend and neighbor of the Heeler family). Much of her fanworks surround her relationship with Bandit at different life stages, in particular with works featuring miscarriage, as well as her relationship with her kids and her relationship with her older sister Brandy. A less common, but controversial depiction is “Psycho Chilli”, a canon-divergence based on the idea of an obsessive, violent relationship between her and Bandit. Another trope is killing Chilli early on in a story, as evident by the tag “Sorry I killed Chilli” on AO3, typically portraying Bandit as a single, grieving father who will eventually move onto a new relationship after a period of time.

Bluey has two main ships, Bluey and Jean-Luc (portmanteau: Jean-Blu) and Bluey and Mackenzie (portmanteau: Blukenzie). Jean-Blu is a ship tracing back to the S1 episode Camping, in which Bluey and Jean-Luc, despite a language barrier, become friends over the span of a couple days camping. Due to the language barrier, Jean-Luc is unable to tell Bluey that his family was leaving early, leading into the episode lesson about special people who come and go in our lives. A flash-forward at the end of the episode reveals that the two will eventually meet up again, this time as teenagers, next to the pink trumpet tree they planted. Blukenzie is a ship that is mainly traced to the episode Barky Boats in s2 with fans pointing to "hints" in the s1 episodes Fruitbat and The Creek. The trope of friends turned lovers is popular. This ship is often used as a “past relationship” in stories featuring Bluey in other pairings, such as Jean-Blu, and vice versa. Less frequently, she is in a F/F pairing with her neighbor Judo.

Bingo is often paired with her childhood friend Lila (portmanteau: Lingo) and is the top F/F ship on AO3 for Bluey. This pairing traces back to the S2 episode Daddy Dropoff, where the pair first meets in Kindy and forms a lifelong friendship by the end of the episode. This is reinforced by S3 episodes Pass the Parcel and Slide. This pairing often explores discovering one’s sexuality, as well as the developing romantic relationships from childhood friendships. Less frequently, she is paired with side character Dougie, a Deaf cavapoo featured in the episode Turtleboy, where tropes of communication and accommodation are often highlighted, with Bingo and her friends learning Auslan in these stories.

The most popular M/M ship is between two recurring side characters, Jack and Rusty, two friends and classmates of Bluey from the Glasshouse Primary School. The two have been featured in multiple episodes, notably in the s2 episode Army and s3 episode Cricket. Works typically feature the pair as a budding romance from being childhood friends, with more recent works featuring Rusty’s love for the sport cricket. This is another pairing that often explores discovering one’s sexuality, though there are more instances of talking with parents about LGBTQIA+ topics, such as a discussion of bisexuality with Bandit.

Fan-created Content

Video and Podcasts

Fanworks

AO3

Fanart

Miscellanous

  • Episodes of the show are based on real life locations in and around the city of Brisbane, in Queensland, Australia, where Ludo Studios produces Bluey. Fans have documented places showcased in episodes and compared between real life and show settings, as well as analyzed the city planning and urban design in the show.

Censorship

Bluey is Australian series, which is distributed internationally, but not exclusively, on Disney+. The Bluey wiki lists all occurrences that they deem ‘censorship’, such as the season one episode ‘BBQ’, “ the Disney-distributed version of this episode, the word from the original Australian release "capsicum" is replaced with "pepper" possibly due to "capsicum" not being a familiar word in the United States.”[2] A change motivated to align with the language rather than sensibilities of North America. However, there are clear examples of Disney+ making changes which align with the sensibilities of either the Disney brand, or North America as a whole. Such as the season three episode Perfect, the character Bandit, Bluey’s father, had dialogue changed and mouth movements re animated to remove discussion of a vasectomy.  Disney+ has also skipped season two episode thirteen ‘Dad Baby’, “episode was skipped from Disney Channel and Disney+ in the United States, presumably because of the episode's depiction of “acting out child birth (even though playing)” could cause controversy from American parents. This has sparked some debate among watchers, some claiming that Disney was not justified in removing an entire episode.”[2]

Fan's also track changes made on Tiktok under the title of 'censorship' Disney edited/ censored Bluey again Australia's version vs our censored version. Fans are also able to pirate full episodes of Bluey, avoiding Disney+ changes, on Tiktok due to the less than 10 minuite run time, as Tiktok allows videos between 3 seconds to 30 minutes.

External Links

  1. ^ Wikipedia:Bluey: The Album
  2. ^ a b [1] Bluey Wiki
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