A look at the creative process behind Bluey and Cocomelon (2024)
89 comments
·March 12, 2025thepuglor
Not an entertaining show to a parent, but Wonderoos is another kids show that has had a positive impact on my 2 children. In each episode a wonderoo identifies a choice has to be made, makes the choice that leads to a worse outcome, and then rewinds to make the right choice. While making the choice they always say, "let's chalk it out", and I've heard my kids say this and then state two choices in their own activities. There is also an episode where a lonely wonderoo at the playground decides between trying to make friends with the other kids or just waiting to see what happens. First they wait, and nothing happens, and then they rewind and go introduce themselves and become friends. One day at the park my shy 4 year old asked me to help her introduce herself to another kiddo. Def she got that from the show!
I don't know about how that show is made, but my guess is that it is more like cocomelon, scientifically tested for efficacy, but with the right intentions set by child development experts.
Fire-Dragon-DoL
Well, I was horrified the first time I saw the Cocomelon and was unsettled as a dad. This article explains why.
I need to check Bluey, we watched Miraculous, tales of Ladybug with our kids and enjoyed it (the plot is for adults).
There is a whole bunch of "junk food" in both tv and videogames (those were you win no matter what). I'm hoping things get better.
ashton314
Bluey is next-level. S-tier television. It’s wholesome, calm, and entertaining. Episodes like Camping, Baby Race, Cricket, and Onesies are all emotional sucker-punches to the adults watching. (My pet theory, which my wife first suggested: Camping is essentially the Star Trek TNG episode Darmok.)
ranger_danger
The newer Bluey episode "The Sign" made me ugly cry.
tomhoward
I felt a lump in my throat as it came to mind while I drove around today with my 4yo son in the back, thinking about how to give him a “good life”.
jeffrallen
Let's not even mention Rug Island, the device in reading on is not nearly waterproof enough for the rain of tears it provokes!
Benjamin_Dobell
Bluey is much more wholesome than Miraculous. Not a judgement thing, my eldest watches Miraculous too and I don't really have a problem with it. It's just not on the same level as Bluey. A huge plus for parents is also that Bluey is WAY more engaging for adults. Far and away my favourite program to watch with my kids. Some episodes really pull at the heart strings.
conductr
Going into parenthood I never thought I'd say it about a kids show but Bluey has damn near made me cry and Bandit makes me strive to be a better dad
sdiupIGPWEfh
Personally, I'm convinced Bluey is covertly a wholesome show for parents, dressed up as a kids' show, but ultimately still for the sake of children by way of 1) encouraging watching together, 2) improving parents' mental health and well-being, which has positive outcomes for their kids, 3) getting parents to be more engaged and imaginative.
Fire-Dragon-DoL
Miraculous changes a lot in the later seasons. I'm saying this because while our kids were very much into the first 2 seasons, it was me and my wife who got hooked for the other 3 seasons. The first 2 seasons are also full of fillers if you want, I don't shy away from skipping them when I'm alone, but we did watch it all with our kids.
We had a good time with it. Not sure if you watched it all, I'm looking forward the next season to see how the plot unravels.
But I'll definitely check Bluey :)
That being said, I wish there was a genre tagged as "engaging for adults, fun for kids": there are a bunch of movies and shows along these lines, but they aren't tagged in any other way.
Another genre that exists but I can't find is "boring for kids but child-friendly", basically any tv show that says stuff they can't properly follow, doesn't have action scenes, but has a convoluted plot for adults. On the top of my mind I can think of Shrinking (my kids still don't understand cursing in english, only italian, so this is great), but I remember there was an even better one that I can't think of right now.
robertlagrant
Bluey is phenomenally good. Dance mode? Tears.
danielvaughn
I cannot recommend Bluey enough. It’s made me, a 40 year old father of one, ugly cry. And I’m not one to cry from watching a show.
If you hate Cocomelon like me, you’ll love Bluey. It’s like the polar opposite of it.
pfannkuchen
Can you help me understand why you feel that a show inducing ugly crying is desirable?
aredox
Better to point you to the vast corpus out there rather than try to rehash it:
https://www.britannica.com/art/catharsis-criticism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharsis https://www.persee.fr/doc/rbph_0035-0818_1965_num_43_1_2556
javier123454321
Usually creative work and the arts are judged by their ability to move something inside of us to which you can say that crying is a proxy for that. It's effectively saying it's good art.
frankgrimesjr
The appeal is in the strong emotions which it induces. The crying is a side effect of this, not the appealing factor in itself.
danielvaughn
Is this a serious question?
__alexander
Along with Bluey, Gabby's Dollhouse is pretty good. It’s not over stimulating and it’s interactive.
Benjamin_Dobell
If you're in Australia, there's a live Gabby's Dollhouse theatre show on at the moment that's also very good: https://gabbysdollhouselive.com/
basch
Tumble Leaf. Slumberkins.
kewho
Bluey is excellence, but I’ve always said Bluey is a kids show for parents.
It’s representation of how the parents behave around, and communicate with, their kids, and the numerous examples of ideas for how to play with your children make the show invaluable to parents.
The fact that kids love it too only reinforces its clever brilliance.
bombcar
It’s designed by a parent, specifically a dad, and it shows in so many subtle ways.
The way each episode tells you the name of the episode, for example. My kids can name the episode they want by name, which I can search. For other shows, you get a toddler’s description that can itself be a puzzle to interpret.
They’re also short enough that they don’t have to add filler.
smusamashah
Other than cuts every 2-3 seconds to keep engaged in Cocomelon, also notice that CAMERA NEVER STOPS, ever. Every scene you see it's moving. It could be a slight movement or exaggerated one, but it's never stationary.
protocolture
Blueys great, my kid loses his shit when the shows on. Its also interesting seeing a female character marketed to kids as a segment rather than just young girls which isnt that common.
My son is still under 2, so he prefers other low intensity shows like Mini Kids and Night Garden. The way he gets into Mini Kids is insane, I havent seen cocomelon but I am betting he would get drawn too far into that. Mini Kids sounds like the antidote to cocomelon, no fast cuts, slow music, and mostly just toddlers interacting with toys and each other on television.
bombcar
Bluey has the advantages of being dogs - Bandit and Bluey are identical except in size.
They’re also short episodes so they don’t feel too involved.
unwind
This quote:
The 153rd episode is scheduled for April 14 and many believe that it will be the end of the show in its current form (more on this later).
Measurably increased my stress level ... :(
bombcar
The article is from the past, all three series are available on DVD.
The last episode is great on an almost Pixar level - there’s three separate stories happening and kids will only really pick up on one and a half.
jonathanlb
Cocomelon just phones it in. Almost all of their songs have some similar catchy intro leading into the song. Sometimes the intro is the same across different songs. Recently, my kid got into the song "Bicycle Built for Two (Daisy Bell)". I grew up listening to Disney Children's Favorites sung by Larry Groce, who sings it expressively and dynamically. Cocomelon's interpretation is just flat and conservative, as if it's a chore to get through.
esafak
It's crack for kids.
dmagee
Watching the Cricket episode made me tear up. https://www.bluey.tv/watch/season-3/cricket/
justgaurav
The Rain episode is pretty cool too. It has almost no words apart from the goodbye at start. The good thing about bluey is that it teaches kids to do mischievous things and gives you ideas to do fun activities with kids.
basch
Cricket took out Sleepytime as my favorite.
bombcar
> The confusion stemmed from the fact that Brumm had originally planned to create an R-rated version of Peppa Pig.
I’m scared. Very scared.
christiangenco
My wife and I have a daughter in the demographic of these shows, though she's a little young for Bluey. There's a YouTube (and now Netflix) show called Ms. Rachel for a younger audience that I'd put in the same positive category as Bluey.
We probably watch one or two hours of Ms. Rachel videos a day with our daughter. We've got several family friends with a household rule of "no screens at all for kids" who would scoff at that but their rule seems both draconian and technophobic to me. Our daughter has picked up many words and concepts from the show and we've learned a lot of the songs as a family and sing them when the context comes up (ex: "baby put your pants on..."). Ms. Rachel has been a hugely positive parenting tool for us.
Every once in a while, though, YouTube will try to autoplay some Cocomelon after a Ms. Rachel video and wow it's just absolute garbage. I think this article captures it well: it feels like slop engineered to keep young eyeballs glued to the screen with no higher purpose than increasing the number of engaged minutes.
Instead of "no screens," the more granular "you can choose from this menu of approved content on your screen for a reasonable amount of time per day" is the better parenting move for our family.
__alexander
When your daughter gets a little older I’d recommend checking out Gabby’s Dollhouse.
When I was a kid my favourite show was Mr Rogers. I get the sense that Bluey is the closest we have to that level of energy in a kids show these days. I don’t have children yet but I look after my niece after school and we watch Bluey now and again. Even Bluey completely absorbs her. I can wave my hands in front of her face and she doesn’t notice. I’d like to think that that wasn’t the case with me and Mr Rogers but who knows…