algodik

At some point, we have to stop comparing Bluey to other children's shows and call it "the best animation I've seen". With an already incredible run and now reaching a true cultural peak, it's time to start comparing Bluey to other media like TV shows, art films, and award-winning movies, in multiple genres like dramas, comedies, sci-fi, fantasy, and others.

Because Bluey has already exceeded any possible challenge that a form of media could exceed. This artwork has unique and genre-defining animation, a soundtrack that wrenches your gut or makes you uncontrollably dance depending on the story, voice actors that you just know are feeling what they are delivering in the scene, and most importantly, an unmatched story that somehow manages to tie multiple storylines into a network of themes that all ultimately connect to the human condition.

Sure, everyone can find something in Bluey, but if I had to analyze and pinpoint why the creators always find a way to "touch" people is that they correctly identify the elements of what makes us uniquely human, what we struggle to put into words - and they bring that unexplainable feeling inside of us at every time they attempt in one of their artworks.

Will Bluey creators be able to exceed this absolute peak in art with their 2027 movie? In the words of a wise blue heeler dog: "We'll see..."

This many concepts could only have been explored through a modern interpretation of the seventh art. This film's immediate somber beauty is only matched by the ideas it cascades which we realize once we dig deeper into how the film works.

The first thing I noticed when I started researching was the film's size. This entire film, with its many scenes, sound effects and two tracks, is 92kb. This might be my nerdiness talking, but compressing an entire film into this size is a massive achievement. It actually should not be possible.

This might not impress the reader immediately, but remember, the reason this technical effort is so that it can be stored on "blockchain", a medium typically used as a financial transaction ledger. The filmmaker here realizes that this ledger is stored on thousands of computers, so it is close to impossible to ever remove this film from the internet.

Now combine the impossibility to censor this film and its message - a message that is commonly censored today, especially in the film world.

This is before we go into other mechanics within the film - mechanics like donations enhancing art, or collective governance upgrading its scenes, and its connection with other artwork.

Crimson Echo is a masterpiece, something I have never seen before - and something I will likely not be able to see for the foreseeable future.

A very cute episode for the kids, but the deep symbolism in this episode is absolutely done for the adults watching this show.

It should not be possible to set up 4 different storylines that fit the classic hero's journey and somehow squeeze them into just 7 minutes, but Bluey does it. It doesn't stop there either. These storylines aren't independent, they're intertwined into each other in such a way that the danger of one hero is the journey of another hero.

You can take away so many messages from this short art film (I refuse to call this an episode at this point): Bravery, power of human connection, sharing, compassion... But as a father, this is the message I resonated with the most:

"That's what makes them heroes. They go anyway"