Mini Bluey? Bluey Shorts... Bluey Minisodes!

Bluey has new (mini) episodes

For those who don't know why that's a big deal, you can watch all of Bluey, seasons 1-3, on Disney Plus. Don't like Disney? Well, most of Bluey is available on its official YouTube channel as well. Still don't know why it's a big deal? Well, just read my previous article on Bluey to find out, and read on... 

Our favorite show where we find amusement and advice from cartoon dogs is currently in a short hiatus, as the creators take a break from making new episodes. While Bluey still specializes in short episodes, we now get access to more miniature episodes to pass the time before they announce the next project. How did they fare? Let's start in order:

Burger Dog

While the cultural zeitgeist is all around the song based on the title, "Burger Dog," this showed a rare, weak moment from the girl's father, Bandit, our favorite cartoon dog dad (though him and Goofy might rotate the spot in my book depending on my mood). Though Bandit entertained their request to dance to a new song, he found it repetitive and annoying, and then *gasp* lied to his children by telling them that his phone died. This got a bit too real for me when the mum, Chili, calls him and confronts him about it in front of the girls. Moments like this make us face some of the weak moments of being a parent, perhaps a bit too well.

Surprisingly, this is not the Burger Dog minisode

That said, Burger Dog now has karaoke. You can sing along:

Burger dog, b-b-burger dog,

He has pickles and he has cheese,

Burger dog, b-b-burger dog,

Fluffy bun with some sesame seeds,

Burger dog, b-b-burger dog,

Yum yum yum yum yum yum yum 

Burger dog, b-b-burger dog,

He was once a weiner dog,

But now he is a burger dog... 

Maybe we were all wiener dogs once, but now we can be burger dogs, together, finally, in the end.

Bingo 3000

In our second Bluey minisode, Bandit struggles to self-repair the Bingo 3000, and has to call the help line to get it to work. Unable to make it work, he comes up with a creative story of how it'd have to be shipped, and he can't go to all that trouble, so he instead just lives with a broken Bingo 3000 robot. Later, Bingo 3000 is seen serving her parents, but with her "broken" legs. One of the things I love about Bluey is that the parents and the children aren't just real with their games, but they're consistent about things that happened, rather than just changing the game "for convenience." Further, Bandit likes to throw in a preview of "real life" to his kids with his stories, which I think is great. This was a fun game.

Muffin Unboxing
(This picture is from Muffin Cone though)

Muffin now has an unboxing channel on DogTube (Unless they still call it YouTube in the bluey universe). She is everything you'd expect from our favorite, erm, energetic cousin. To be fair, I could totally see Stripe trying to set up a side hustle with his kids this way. This one even comes with our favorite style of editing we saw in "Bumpy and the Wise Old Wolfhound." Muffin is quite a perfect example of the foibles of being a kid, including only wanting toys when others want to play with them (and having very little self-control with candy). Her energy is pretty, erm, delightful though.

Letter

We get a trip back to the 80s, Bandit's childhood, through the lens of a spelling challenged child-Bandit, and his Grandma. Bluey and Bingo really thought his spelling mistakes were funny, but the level of detail in his drawings were top notch. He really should have kept up with drawing. Kris (or Chris? We catch a glimpse of Grandma's name in "Christmas Swim") is always fun on the show, and has great commentary on her son's youth.

Hungry

Bandit is hungry. Bluey is a convenient snack. Bandit learns a valuable life lesson. Then forgets it immediately. Plus it's a simple game to replicate. What's not to love?

Three Pigs

This really was an episode about the wolf and the pig justice system. Moral of the story, the system works. Also, don't pee in the pool. You'll regret it.

Animals

This is perhaps the simplest episode, and the final one of the batch. Chili and Bingo have a cute moment in the park, and Chili pretends to be animals walking around on "the ground," Bingo's back. This could have happened in any moment, on any day, between any other moment, and has such a variety, that it's so versatile. It's really all about the creativity of the parent, and it's such a simple, yet fun little game.

Ultimately, these minisodes could be easy to snuff at, since they're only about two minutes an episode. The thing is, even in such a tiny package, the show's creators where still able to develop characters, demonstrate games for kids and their parents to interact with, and tell a story. Even if we have a little time between a task, or a moment with nothing to do, we can take the time to spend it with our children, and create beautiful memories. We don't have to take twenty minutes with every interaction, we also don't have to pass up opportunities just because we think it's too small. There's enough to do something, to remember, and enough to make memories to last a lifetime.

Last of all, I will have Burger Dog stuck in my head for a long time.

-Kenton