The Australian animated show “Bluey” is now a hit with kids and parents, and even other adults are hooked on its seven minute-long episodes. The show was created in 2018 and began streaming on Disney in 2020.
“Bluey” is a once-in-a-generation kids’ TV show, much like “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” and “Sesame Street,” says Kathryn VanArendonk, TV and comedy critic at Vulture. But what separates the program from its silver screen predecessors is its cross-generational storytelling.
“It is about the life of this family. It is about children's play. And it is about what it feels like to be both a kid and a parent, and presents feelings from all of those angles,” Van Arendonk says. “It is just about making space for the fact that everyone has different needs and feelings in all these different family circumstances. It is so humane and so funny, lovely. I am obsessed with it.”
Kids are also hooked on “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” on PBS, an animated spin-off of “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.” The show takes lessons from the original series and transforms them into storylines for its preschool audience.
“It's a show that is about feelings, that is about how to share, what it feels like when you're worried about things. [It’s] taking children's emotions very, very seriously, and these very small circumstances that are familiar, everyday things for kids, but that it is so so important and so comforting to have somebody articulate.”
She adds, “The experience of watching ‘Daniel Tiger’ … is learning all of these little songs that have very, very helpful jingles about the things that preschoolers need and care about. Like the fact that when you need to go potty, you need to stop playing right then and go potty, but that your toys will still be there when you get back. They are just little tiny keys to how to go about the world when you're 4.”
Apple TV+ has also invested in its children’s programming, including “Pinecone and Pony.” It’s based on comics from artist Kate Beaton and follows a young girl who has a pony as her sidekick.
“[Pinecone] lives in a fantasy world, but she regularly charges into situations, fully confident that she knows everything about what the right course of action is, and is often reluctant to hear other people's opinions. … It is very regularly a show about how to navigate listening to other voices. …. It's such an important thing for kids to be able to learn.”
While some of these shows might not be as educational as, say, a PBS documentary, VanArendonk argues that kids still learn valuable lessons.
“These shows, that I think a lot of times parents find inane or empty, are still actually doing really important narrative things that are so comforting for kids — that kind of repetition of structure, that formula. It's so comforting for kids to have that feeling of … conflict and resolution over and over and over again. Sometimes these shows can be providing things that we may not immediately be assuming that they are.”