Opinion column: ‘Bluey’ is an emotional ride for families
My family and I sold our home this past spring.
We’re now enduring the whole bit – building a new one, moving to a new town, the kids starting a new school and the parents starting new jobs. I’m surprised there’s not a second dog in the mix here.
My two boys are ages 7 and 10, still childlike enough that I naively didn’t think this big shake would haunt them as much as it did.
I thought maybe my older one would have a difficult time leaving friends – and he still does – but it was my younger one who took such an emotional blow.
Parenthood is like that, mocking you for thinking you have the kids all figured out.
I had heard there was a new “Bluey” episode around the time we were moving – not another 7-minute episode like most the others, but a 28-minute season finale that had both parents and children needing a Kleenex.
Family time! A nice distraction from stress! I swooned.
We did the baths and put on the pajamas and popped the popcorn and then hopped into bed to watch yet another fantastic episode with Bluey and Bingo, Bandit and Chilli. But was it?
“Bluey” is an Australian-based animated TV show that follows a young blue heeler pup and her family. It began in 2018, has released three darling seasons thus far, and all can be streamed in the U.S. on Disney+.
Parents commend the show for its pomp of tenderness, the thoughtful dialogue and showcase of admirable, unstructured play we all long to see in our living rooms.
The light and heavy are essentially treated as one and the same in the themes, and the show can make you feel as if the responsibility to be a parent is a privilege, not a burden.
A couple years ago, “Bluey” creators began a theatrical adaptation of the television series to continue its squeeze on families’ hearts around the world. Just like the show, “Bluey’s Big Play” touches beautifully on imagination, quality family time and the creative spirit within the child. The tour will return to the Washington Pavilion on July 23-24.
Sioux Falls first welcomed the Bluey puppets last summer to a sold-out audience. Gina Ruhberg, the Pavilion’s director of performances, says that family-friendly shows always do well here and that booking them is so critical to the success of diversifying entertainment for the city but also for the children in our community.
“Once you get them hooked at a young age, those are your future ticket buyers,” she says.
The “Bluey” performances next week keenly reflect the many opportunities local families have in Sioux Falls to connect with one another and enjoy an adventure right at home.
The Pavilion has brought in Blippi and Dora the Explorer, and a magic show is coming soon. The Orpheum presented “Finding Nemo,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “The Lion King” and many others this year alone and is selling tickets now for “The Wizard of Oz” and “Freaky Friday” before years’ end.
For many families, theater will win out in the choice to either take a vacation or see a show, the evening itself a magical adventure still providing the closeness any beach would afford.
Gina says when tours come to town, they often comment on the friendliness of our community and how much there is to see and do.
“Sioux Falls is the best kept secret for family culture,” she says.
We are all so eager to simply enjoy time together, and that’s exactly all I wanted when we snuggled up with the kids on a Friday night to watch the “Bluey” finale.
Have you seen the episode that aired in April? I spoil it for you here, but it threw me. Oddly, it was about the charming dog family selling their home, nearly a risky prank I was playing out on my kids. I only knew that the episode was an emotional one, not that it was this close to home.
My husband and I shared many panicked glances, but then I thought around 14 minutes in, Hey, what a great opportunity for the boys to see that other families sell their home, too!
“Bluey” is so clever, so universal like that.
Except this wasn’t that special moment. The decision to leave their home was so agonizing that the mum and dad decided to remove the For Sale sign from their yard and stay put. What!
Of course, my younger son expected this from us at once as well. “Everything will turn out the way it’s supposed to,” Bluey’s cousin Calypso says toward the end of the episode.
My son did not buy it. Many gentle conversations followed as well as some nights holding each other feeling tender but honored to endure as a family.
Bluey gave us the context we needed to meet each other in the vulnerable space that’s always waiting for families, if we are so willing to lean.
I encourage you to take your kids out to dinner, buy them the popcorn and the unnecessary tour merch and enjoy this beautiful show at the Pavilion, and the many others that unite us.
Let’s get out there.
Originally published in the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
