We had two seasons of Malyshariki, 75 episodes of Peppa Pig, five Disney features, half a flash drive of Tom and Jerry and a whole multitude of children's songs of every sort and colour, plus Blue Tractor, Pocoyo, Super Simple, five hours of Cocomelon and Three Cats. Not that this was a necessary supply for the trip. But once you start collecting the stuff, it's hard to stop. The only thing that worried me was Cocomelon. There is nothing more helpless, irresponsible and depraved than Cocomelon children. I knew that sooner or later we'd move on to that filth too.
For the past two months we've been solidly on Bluey, so it's worth telling you about it as well. I've worn everyone out on Twitter, I've talked everyone's ears off privately, so now to the next stage — Telegram channels.
Let me start from a distance. Does the name Peppa mean anything to you?
Modern "children's" animation leaves scars that heal badly. YouTube is stuffed with two-, three-, five-hour compilations — a ceaseless bacchanal of low-grade 3D, revolting music, wretched vocals and forced smiles. Plot swerves, canned baby laughter. It's hard being the parent of a two-year-old.
At some point, having gone completely insane from CoCoMeLoN, we decided to move on. A friend who understands the pain of parents of small children recommended, among other things, a series called Bluey.
I love animation, but I've never encountered anything so healing for the soul. And that's setting aside the fact that it's a children's c-a-r-t-o-o-n. It's completely obvious that these talking dogs gave me back a small piece of faith in tomorrow and in the idea that the world isn't entirely cursed and lost. A soul-healing watch that suits everyone — even if you have no children outside, there's always a child inside.
Three seasons of 52 episodes, each around seven minutes; the third is wrapping up now. The show is broadly episodic, so you can jump in anywhere, but towards the end of season three the episodes start connecting and it helps to know what's going on.
Animation is by the Australian studio LUDO and it's at a very respectable level. Everything on the visual side is good: setting, design, characters, world-building, animation, colour, VFX — art direction 10 out of 10. The art director, incidentally, is a young guy, Costa Kassab, a Griffith graduate.
The soundtrack has been on repeat in our car for two months now. Yes, the music is also 10 out of 10; it's by Joff Bush, an Australian composer — worth checking a couple of albums on Spotify or YouTube.
And the writing? You guessed it: 10 out of 10. Storytelling is by Joe Brumm, an Australian animator and writer. He graduated from Griffith in '98, went off to London where he worked on Peppa Pig, then came back to Brisbane. Broadly, the main family in Bluey is drawn from his own — he was also the middle of three siblings, and he's also a father of two daughters. The pilot came out in 2016; Brumm got lucky with his producers, so the first season aired in 2018.
As you know, I have a soft spot for anything Australian — I lived and worked there, I love Sydney, I can talk about the kangaroo country for hours. But this one got to more than just me: even my extremely sceptical wife started seeing Australia slightly differently.
In other words, if you have trouble with "celebrating life" content and want a little faith in humanity back, I strongly recommend it. Just don't watch it dubbed — you'll kill all the joy of the voice acting.
(and:) Worth adding separately that some episodes and moments produce full-on ugly crying. Absolutely.
