Stream It Or Skip It: 'Bluey: The Sign' on Disney+, the first extended episode of the popular Aussie children's cartoon (2024)

If you have been the parent of a child under 8 years old at some point during the last five years, you’ve seen Bluey. Disney brought the animated series to the U.S. in 2019, the year after it became a huge it in its native Australia, and the best move it made was to keep its Aussie heart intact. Now, at the end of the third season, there is speculation that the highly-anticipated extended episode “The Sign” is a series, not a season, finale. What we wanted to know is if the show’s creator, Joe Brumm, and his writers handle an episode that’s four times longer than its usual runtime. (By the way, Brumm has never revealed the names of the children who voice the kid characters on the show, in order to keep their lives as normal as possible, so that’s why you won’t see an actor’s name next to the names of the kid characters in this review.)

BLUEY: THE SIGN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: There’s a “For Sale” sign in front of the Heelers’ house. Bandit (Dave McCormack) is pushing his youngest daughter Bingo on the backyard tree swing while older daughter Bluey watches.

The Gist: Why is there a “For Sale” sign in front of the house? Because Bandit has gotten a new job in a different city and the Heelers are going to move, as Chili (Melanie Zanetti) explains to her daughters when they see a Realtor and a couple of sheepdogs looking at the place. Bluey is sad, as you might expect, but Bingo seems to be unbothered by the fact that they’re leaving the only house she’s ever known. All Chili will say when Bluey expresses that she doesn’t want to go is that it’ll be a “big adventure.”

In preschool, Bluey tells the class that she’s moving away, and their teacher Calypso (Meg Washington) reads them a story about a farmer that lost his horse. When people said it was bad luck, the famer says “we’ll see.” He says the same thing when people tell him he’s experiencing good luck.

But there’s another piece of business that needs to be attended to first: The Heelers are hosting the wedding of Chili’s bestie (and Bluey’s godmother) Frisky (Claudia O’Doherty) to Bandit’s older brother Rad (Patrick Brammall). As the families set up the day before the wedding, Bluey, Bingo and their cousins Muffin and Socks are rehearsing their roles as flower girls. They decide to try to remove the For Sale sign, figuring if the sign isn’t there, the house can’t be sold.

When Bandit’s younger brother Stripe (Dan Brumm) lets it slip that Rad wants to move out west after the wedding, Frisky is surprised by the news. As she helps the girls to remove the sign — she thinks it’s too much of an eyesore for the wedding — Rad returns her voicemail message. At that point, Frisky gets so enraged by Rad’s insistence on the move that she drives away and tells the girls that the wedding is off.

Chili takes all four girls and gets in the car to go after her friend. Bluey is excited because she gets to sit in the front seat for the first time — Chili looks up the law in Queensland first and finds that kids over 4 can sit in the front if the back is occupied. During the pursuit, they’re stopped by a cop who sees Bluey in the front seat, then the girls need to hit the bathroom, then a butterfly gets into the car. At one of the stops, Bluey again asks her mother if she really wants to move. Chili again says it’s a “big adventure,” but less convincingly this time.

Will Chili and the girls find Frisky? Will the wedding be back on? And are the Heelers going to move away?

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? At this point, it’s hard to compare Bluey to any show but itself. When the show debuted in the U.S. in 2019, we likened it to a less annoying Aussie Peppa Pig. But the show has taken on a life of its own since then.

Our Take:

The good news is that “The Sign” feels like a Bluey episode. There are a few padded moments, like the story about the farmer, but Brumm and company have come up with a story that manages to fill the time quite well, as well as do the show’s usual job at making both kids and adults laugh their butts off one minute and then have the adults reaching for the tissues the next.

The big speculation is whether this is going to be the last-ever episode of Bluey. We aren’t going to spoil the ending for you, but let’s just say that while the ending of the episode is very satisfying, it doesn’t exactly indicate anything with regards to the show’s status. What we do know is that the episode feels like a bit of a culmination, where the world that Brumm and company has built over the show’s three seasons and 151 episodes has come together. Is it a sendoff? Who knows? For all we know, it just may symbolize the end of the third season and nothing else (though producer Daley Pearson recently told 7News in Australia that there will be a fourth season, so Bluey fans everywhere can breathe easy).

One of the things we appreciated about this episode is that it was Chili’s turn to shine. She’s usually the practical one that has to be the practical one as Bandit dives headlong into whatever play Bluey and Bingo are doing. Sure, she participates, but she’s generally the adult in the room. She’s still the adult here, but she’s also the good friend who managed to take her daughters and nieces on an adventure in order to find Frisky and convince her to go through with the wedding. And, she was only able to put a happy face on the Heeler’s move for so long, but even if she wasn’t sure whether the move would work out in the long run, she still stood strong.

Even with the story’s extended length, the story is well-constructed and goes in some unexpected directions. The only question is if your kids will sit still for the whole thing.

What Age Group Is This For?: As usual, Bluey is meant for preschoolers but it’s really entertaining for everyone. And we do mean everyone; more than one adult has extolled the virtues of the series on social media, and there are people who are fans that don’t even have kids.

Parting Shot: We can’t say what the ending is, but it’ll have you reaching for the tissues, as we mentioned above.

Sleeper Star: We didn’t realize how many of Australia’s comedy stars have done voices for Bluey the last few years, so it was surprising to learn that O’Doherty (Killing It) is the voice of Frisky and Brammall (Colin From Accounts) is the voice of Rad.

Most Pilot-y Line: For Sale signs in Australia are huge. They even have pictures of the house on them, as if they’re Zillow listings.

Our Call: STREAM IT. “The Sign” proves that Bluey works in more than its usual 7-minute format. Could a feature film be next?

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.