It doesn’t matter whether you have children or not: Bluey is a fantastic series for all ages (yes, really) that has inevitably become a merchandising empire of all kinds. And Disney, obviously, has not put up any barriers: if you want Bluey, you will have it in every form and color: everything looked incredible and the future was bright… Until its creator, Joe Brumm, released two episodes, The Cartel and Surprise!, which worked perfectly as the series finale. Right after that, he announced that there would be a movie on August 6, 2027, and that’s it. It’s over.
Bingo!
It’s over… for their part, of course. The rights to the series are held by Disney, and it doesn’t seem likely that once Brumm has finished telling his story, they won’t make more and more episodes, even if it means losing much of what made it incredible, accessible, and sensitive in the first place. No one has announced anything official, and that’s why everyone was left not knowing how to react when Disney+ unexpectedly uploaded new Bluey shorts last week out of the blue. Who created them? Where did they come from? Why didn’t they launch a big promotional campaign about it? Fortunately, there are solutions to the mysteries.
Things, as they are: these shorts of one to three minutes are what anyone who hasn’t seen Bluey thinks the series is. That is, children’s songs, silly lessons, and very simple plots, not so different from a CoComelon or what can be found on YouTube Kids. And the reason for this neglect uncharacteristic of the series is that… they are small shorts, once called Bluey Bits, designed and created directly for YouTube, which were uploaded over the years and now, with the regular episodes finished and the movie on the way, have been released on Disney+ so that no one forgets the brand. As if that were possible, really.
As one might expect from this kind of vague and uncharismatic animation, there is no real signature. Of course, there have been animators and screenwriters behind it, but all authorship belongs to Ludo Studios, the production company of the show. In other words: they haven’t even wanted to provide exact details about who made these little shorts that -this is the good part- can be watched in ten minutes. No one knows if this will be all or if there will be more before the movie comes out, but it is to be expected that Brumm and his team will prepare new surprises by then, although a season 4 seems completely distant now.
If you’re curious and your kids are too eager for Bluey, you should know that in addition to the shorts, this year a new CD has also been released, featuring instrumental songs that play in the series, and a new video game with an original story created by Brumm. Ah! And also, a Minecraft DLC. I suppose they are saving the Fortnite thing for the movies, but being the most-watched television series in recent years, easily surpassing infinitely more expensive productions, it wouldn’t be surprising if Disney started making new episodes like that, without the original creator’s permission and without fully capturing the tone of the series, doing exactly the opposite of what Bluey preaches: treating children as fools.
