The Sign (Bluey)

"The Sign"
Bluey episode
Episode no.	Series 3 Episode 49
Directed by	Richard Jeffery Joe Brumm
Written by	Joe Brumm
Featured music	"Lazarus Drug" by Megan Washington
Original air date	14 April 2024 (2024-04-14)
Running time	28 minutes
Guest appearances
Joel Edgerton Deborah Mailman Rove McManus Brendan Williams

"The Sign" is the 49th episode of the third series of the Australian animated television programme Bluey, and the 153rd episode overall. Bluey explores playtime, imagination, and family life as experienced by the titular character—an Australian Cattle Dog puppy—and her family and friends. In "The Sign", Bluey's family—the Heelers, also comprising her sister Bingo and their parents Bandit and Chilli—contend with selling their Brisbane home and moving away, along with an upcoming marriage between Bandit's brother Radley and Bluey's godmother Frisky.

Animated by Brisbane's Ludo Studio, and inspired by creator Joe Brumm's real-life moving experiences, "The Sign" is the show's first special episode, and also the longest at 28 minutes in length. Promoted as the Series 3 finale, it was produced as a test drive for a potential feature-film adaptation. It was broadcast on 14 April 2024 on Australia's ABC service (to an audience of nearly 2.3 million), and overseas on Disney's cable and streaming platforms. Reception was mainly positive, while views on the ending were mixed; various outlets also took note of the episode's emotional impact on viewers and fans. A bonus Bluey episode, "Surprise!", was released the following week.

Plot

"The Sign" takes place after the events of the previous episode, "Ghostbasket", in which Bandit Heeler—an Australian Cattle Dog, and the father of the female puppies Bluey and Bingo—role-plays as a real-estate agent. The "For Sale" sign revealed at the end of that episode gives the follow-up story its name.

Bandit decides to move from Brisbane after receiving a better-paying job in another Queensland city; a family of sheepdogs is planning to live there soon. Bandit's wife, Chilli, is not too keen on moving, and nor is Bluey herself. Regardless, Chilli insists it may be for the better of their family, but Bluey fears that things may not turn out so well. At school, Bluey's classmates give a collective howl after hearing the news; her teacher, Calypso, consoles her with a pop-up book called The Farmer, a retelling of a tale from the ancient Chinese text The Huainanzi. Its title character, who experiences good and bad events, insists that "We'll see" what happens next at each opportunity.

Meanwhile, Bandit's brother Radley (nicknamed "Rad") is about to marry his girlfriend (and Bluey's godmother), Frisky. When Frisky calls off the wedding due to Radley unknowingly planning the couple's future and drives off, Chilli sets off to find her while accompanied by Bluey, Bingo, and their cousins Muffin and Socks. Soon after, they spot her at a lookout where Chilli and Frisky once hung out as adolescents.

Later that night, Rad and Frisky marry at the Heeler home after making up their differences. Among their guests is Brandy, Bluey's maternal aunt, who turns out to be pregnant after many infertility setbacks. The next day, the Heelers receive a phone call informing them that the sheepdogs changed their mind about moving in; the latter have settled for a better-looking home with an outdoor pool in another part of Brisbane, which they sighted with a binocular machine that Muffin accidentally lodged Bluey's "lucky coin" in at the lookout. Said home was once the residence of Winton, a friend of Bluey's, and his father Cornelius. Bandit and the others ultimately choose to keep their home, although their furniture and other belongings have already been trucked away. In due course, Bandit uproots the "For Sale" sign from the ground, and throws it upon the nearby cul-de-sac, before he and his family happily return inside.

Voice cast

Children of the production team behind Bluey lend their voices to various puppy characters. For privacy reasons, none of the child actors are credited.

• David McCormack as Bandit
• Melanie Zanetti as Chilli
• Megan Washington as Calypso
• Patrick Brammall as Radley
• Claudia O'Doherty as Frisky
• Rose Byrne as Brandy

Guest appearances

• Rove McManus as Bucky
• Joel Edgerton as the Policeman
• Deborah Mailman
• Brendan Williams

Production

"If you think of Bluey as a sitcom, they all have a wedding episode, so I fancied a crack. The idea lodged in my head and the story grew from there."

—Show creator Joe Brumm on the genesis of "The Sign"

Bluey is animated and produced by Brisbane's Ludo Studio for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), with support from Screen Queensland and Screen Australia, and distribution/financing by BBC Studios. The programme explores playtime, imagination, and family life as seen and experienced through the titular character, a Blue Heeler puppy, and her family and friends.

Promoted as its third-series finale, "The Sign" is Bluey's first special episode, as well as its longest at 28 minutes in length; Amy Amatangelo of the Los Angeles Times likened it a two-hour film by the show's standards. According to Ludo co-founder Daley Pearson, the episode serves as a potential test drive for a feature-length installment, and will be followed by Series 4 on a future date. It was also inspired by show creator Joe Brumm's real-life moving experiences, and makes many references to previous Bluey episodes.

On the "epic" scope of "The Sign", two of the programme's personnel said:

It's actually quite Shakespearean in a comedy for it to end with a wedding, so it just feels momentous and joyous. There's a lot that gets explored that we can't really do in seven minutes and I think that's one of the exciting things about the 28-minute episode.

— Melanie Zanetti

We always said wouldn't it be incredible if we could do three seasons and a movie. We would love to do beyond that but that wouldn't be an Everest to climb. I think this is a version of deilvering on that promise. It was such a great creative challenge that we had to do it.

— Daley Pearson

Episodes of Bluey are made by four different teams at Ludo; "The Sign" was the first time they worked on one together, "a big production challenge in itself" in Pearson's words. Zanetti and David McCormack recorded their lines in a two-part session, not knowing in the process how the story would end or if the Heelers' move would succeed. The episode also featured guest performances by Rove McManus (as real-estate agent Bucky), Joel Edgerton (as a roadside policeman), Deborah Mailman, and Brendan Williams.

Music

As with the rest of the programme, Joff Bush served as composer of "The Sign", and contributed with an extended version of the Series 2 cue "Dance Mode". Megan Washington, the voice of Calypso, performs a re-recording of "Lazarus Drug" (from her 2020 album Batflowers) during the final scene; Brumm "fell in love with" the song in 2020, and planned to use it on Bluey sometime afterward. During a preview screening of the episode, Washington was "moved to tears" when the song played, and later said that its appearance was "a small miracle" for her and "a beautiful crossover."

Themes

• Bluey: "Why do stories always have happy endings?"
• Calypso: "I guess because life will give us enough sad ones."

—Dialogue from "The Sign", which Utah's Deseret News found reflective of the episode's exploration on the challenges children face while moving.

"The life lesson [in 'The Sign']," wrote Jack Seale of The Guardian, "is that adults sometimes have to make major life changes, and that although these might look as if they will cause unhappiness, it is hard to know what is around the corner – especially since the grownups themselves don't know either." The episode's message about dealing with life's uncertainties and hoping for the better was noted by Amatangelo, as well as Andy Swift of TVLine. The assurance Calypso, Bluey's teacher, gives her on fairytales having happy endings "was real as hell. Was that lesson part of her school-approved curriculum?" wondered Swift. "Probably not. But it's a literal dog-eat-dog world out there, and she'll be damned if she doesn't prepare these puppies for it." Vulture's Kathryn VanArendonk deemed the Heelers' decision to stay "electrifying, ecstatic news" for Bandit's relatives, and also found it "a bizarre choice for a children's show that has, until this point, prioritized empathy and acceptance toward normal life events that cause real anxiety and turmoil for young kids." Thomas Mitchell of The Sydney Morning Herald saw the episode as a commentary on Australia's housing crisis.

As Oliver Brandt of Men's Journal surmised, "The Sign's" plot echoed the undertones of a venerable Australian proverb, "She'll be right", which is used to express uncertainty during a given situation. Moreover, the episode references Chinese philosophy through the tale of The Farmer, according to Julian Glassman of The Mary Sue.

Amanda Yeo of technology-news site Mashable stated that "fans [responded] with disbelief, sorrow, and denial" over the reveal of the "For Sale" sign at the end of the "Ghostbasket" prelude. As Yeo added, "The idea that we may have to say goodbye to this series stalwart [the Heeler house] is not one many viewers care to contemplate." Various U.S., Canadian, British, and New Zealand outlets reported that audiences were largely left in tears while watching "The Sign", and were worried over whether the show would end with it.

Release and marketing

"The Sign" was announced by the ABC in early November 2023. A teaser was released on the 14th of that month, and a trailer the following 25 March; the day before it aired, Ludo uploaded a "Previously on..." recap on YouTube covering all three series. The lead-up to its broadcast was shrouded in secrecy on BBC Studios' part. In advance of the episode's premiere, the Heeler family's home was "listed" (with an address in Brisbane's Oxley suburb) on Domain, an Australian real-estate site.

Following 7 April's prelude episode "Ghostbasket", "The Sign" aired on 14 April 2024 on ABC Television/ABC Kids and ABC iView in Australia, along with Disney+ and Disney Junior/Disney Channel outlets elsewhere; it will also premiere on New Zealand's TVNZ+ on the 22nd. On its broadcast day, a crowd of hundreds gathered at Melbourne's Federation Square for a special screening.

Reception

"The Sign" received positive reviews during and after its initial broadcast. Jack Seale declared, "It's animated Australian canines' answer to Killers of the Flower Moon. But there is no need to be concerned: everything that makes Bluey magic is intact." Andy Swift called the episode "a thrilling half hour of television — a fast-paced, sharply-written, deeply thoughtful examination of the human spirit." Joel Keller of the New York Post's Decider service awarded it a "Stream It" rating. "There are a few padded moments, like the story about the farmer," he added, "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." Julia Glassman gave it "5/5 For Sale Signs", and also took note of its "meta-narrative" approach in which "the show subtly [comments] on the fact that it's a show." Sarah Shachat of IndieWire called Joff Bush's work "one of the best TV scores". Quoted in The Canberra Times, Liz Giuffre said, "The ultimate wedding television...[this episode] rewarded longtime viewers", and "is destined to join [its] forebears as part of the history of Australian screen weddings."

Despite this level of acclaim, the episode's ending received mixed reception. Kathryn VanArendonk found it "oddly unrealistic...[and] disappointing to the point of frustration, a departure from Bluey's usual ease in navigating complex emotions... a fairy tale that also feels like a cop-out." She added, "But as an ending, or as a way to transition the series into a new phase, 'The Sign' is like so much of Bluey: perfect and devastating." Meg Walter of the Deseret News suggested that young viewers "[deserve] a different ending" based in reality, and that Bandit's "last-minute decision might install false hope" in children moving to new cities. Collider's Kendall Myers wrote, "[While] few Bluey episodes are as much of an emotional rollercoaster as [this one]...the unexpected end [makes] the lesson fall flat. Though the longer episode is well-paced, engaging, and overall as good as any other installment, the backtracking in Bluey's storyline is a major flaw, as it isn't in line with what the series is all about." Conversely, Glassman praised the Heelers' decision to stay, leading to anticipation of future stories about the cattle-dog family.

Over its first two ABC airings, "The Sign" received an audience of 2,288,000 viewers, topping Australia's National TV Audience (OzTAM) ratings chart. It is currently the highest-rated Bluey broadcast in Australia; previously, series two's "Easter" held that feat. The day after its premiere, Canada's CBC News reported that users on the IMDb site gave it a 9.9 rating.

Sequel

Speculation on an extra episode following "The Sign" was discussed among fans and by The Mary Sue, with Bloomberg News reporting on Brumm's confirmation. Alongside a first-look image, Disney announced on 20 April 2024 that this episode, titled "Surprise!", would air the following morning on their outlets. "Surprise!", a regular-length story in which Bluey and Bingo play two different games with Bandit, had already aired on the UK's CBeebies as "Something Special" in simulcast with the ABC; the latter had previously substituted its television-guide listing with a rerun as a ploy to surprise fans during its timeslot.

Further reading

• Martin, Laura (12 April 2024). "The ancient philosophy behind Bluey's blockbuster episode The Sign". BBC Culture. Archived from the original on 14 April 2024. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
• Hitch, Georgia; McCarthy, Sasha (13 April 2023). "New long Bluey episode The Sign is full of hidden Easter eggs. Here's nine you might've missed". ABC News (Australia). Retrieved 16 April 2024.
• Gilbert, Sophie (15 April 2024). "Is This the End for Bluey?". The Atlantic. ISSN 2151-9463. OCLC 1399171809. Archived from the original on 16 April 2024. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
• Booker, Chloe (16 April 2024). "Bluey's blockbuster episode hit a nerve for my family by casting moving house as difficult and scary". The Guardian. ISSN 1756-3224. OCLC 1056142271. Archived from the original on 16 April 2024. Retrieved 16 April 2024.

External links

• Official website
  • The World Reacts to Bluey "The Sign"
• "The Sign" at IMDb