Notable guests

 Surfer (voiced by Layne Beachley),[11] a Shetland Sheepdog with a passion for surfing.
 Postie (voiced by Anthony Field), a Catahoula Leopard Dog who works as a post
office employee.[20][21]
o Field also voices Rusty's Dad, a Red Kelpie who is in the army.[22]
 Jack's Mum and Dad (voiced by Zoë Foster Blake and Hamish Blake), a pair of Jack
Russell Terriers.[20][21]
 Alfie (voiced by Robert Irwin),[23] a dingo who works as a customer service assistant at
the toy store.
 Bella / Coco's Mum (voiced by Leigh Sales),[14] a pink poodle and Coco's mother, who is
friends with Chilli.
 Whale Documentary Narrator (voiced by Natalie Portman), the narrator of a whale
documentary that Bluey and Bingo watch together.[24]
 Major Tom (voiced by Lin-Manuel Miranda), a horse next to Bluey's school which is given
a voice within Calypso's retelling of events.[25]
 Brandy (voiced by Rose Byrne), Chilli's older sister, a Red Heeler, who has been absent
from the Heeler family for four years.[26]
 The Terriers' Mum (voiced by Carrie Bickmore),[27] the single mother of the triplet
Miniature Schnauzers.

Development
Conception

An Australian Cattle Dog, known as a "Blue Heeler", which the

character of Bluey is modelled after.
In July 2017, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the British Broadcasting
Corporation (BBC) co-commissioned Bluey as an animated series for preschool children to be
developed by Queensland production company Ludo Studio.[28][29] The production received funding
from Screen Australia and Screen Queensland, with the setting of the series drawing upon the
unique semi-tropical Queensland climate. Created by Joe Brumm, the series was inspired by his
experience in raising two daughters. Brumm wanted to portray the importance of children
participating in imaginative play, creating the title character Bluey as a Cattle Dog to give the series
an Australian voice.[28] Brumm had previously worked on children's programs in the United
Kingdom as a freelance animator and decided to create Bluey as a replica of the program Peppa
Pig for an Australian audience.[11][30] He conceived the idea independently in 2016, and produced a
one-minute pilot through his company Studio Joho, with a small team in their spare time. [10] Brumm
approached Ludo Studio to develop the series; co-founders Charlie Aspinwall and Daley Pearson
pitched the pilot at conferences such as MIPCOM in France.[10][31][32] Brumm stated that the first pilot
contained some "dangerous" character behaviours which drew the attention of studio executives;
[10]
this included Bandit pushing Bluey on a swing in an unsafe way.[10][15] Pearson expressed that it
was difficult to pitch the series as it was not high-concept; but rather "just a show about family and
games".[6][33]
The studio developed a five-minute animation sample that was pitched at the Asian Animation
Summit in Brisbane in 2016, and was thereby noticed by ABC and BBC executives. [30][34][35] Michael
Carrington of the ABC viewed the presentation and secured $20,000 of funding for the studio to
produce a refined, seven-minute pilot.[10][34] The new pilot was presented at the Asian Animation
Summit in 2017.[10] The two networks officially ordered 52 seven-minute episodes of Bluey, with the
BBC investing 30 percent of the funding and acquiring the global rights for distribution and
merchandising.[11][28] The series was produced entirely in Australia by a local team, many of whom
were first-time animators from Brisbane.[11] The program was announced to premiere in Australia
on ABC Kids, followed by CBeebies.[28][29]
Production
Writing
"There's no counting in Bluey, there's no learning this or that ... just show 'em playing. It's to show parents that the kids aren't just
mucking around. They're learning to play, learning to share ... and generally you can just put your feet up and let 'em do it."
—Joe Brumm, 2019[11]
The stories featured in Bluey depict Bluey and Bingo engaging in imaginative play. Brumm wanted to
show that self-directed and unstructured play is natural in shaping children and allowing them to
develop.[1] He consulted research based on socio-dramatic play, reading the works of Sara
Smilansky and Vivian Paley, who both had backgrounds in early childhood education.[32] The
episodes show the parents as guides for their children, who allow them to explore their immediate
surroundings independently, giving them opportunities to practise adult roles.[1] Brumm drew
inspiration for scripts from his own experiences in watching his daughters play, which he described
was "as natural to them as breathing".[10][11][29] The program's scripts show how children can use
gameplay to learn lessons and integrate the world of adults into their own; Brumm noticed how his
children would recreate interactions such as visits to the doctor, through roleplay. [10][36] Pearson stated
that gameplay represents children's first experiences of collaboration, cooperation, responsibility and
emotions such as jealousy.[10] Brumm discovered the importance of play-based learning after his
daughter struggled with formal education, which led him to exclude elements of literacy and
numeracy in Bluey and focus on the depiction of life skills.[11] Brumm stated that he wanted the series
to depict his experience as a parent rather than aim for children to be explicitly taught something. His
creative aims were to make children laugh, and show parents what children can learn while engaged
in play.[32]
The characters of Bluey each represent a particular dog breed, some of which are drawn from
Brumm's personal life. Brumm had a Blue Heeler named Bluey throughout his childhood, in addition
to a Dalmatian named Chloe and an Australian Red Kelpie named Rusty, who was the title character
of the series in its early development.[37] Bandit is based on a Blue Heeler belonging to his father's
friend. Bandit's career as an archaeologist was inspired by Brumm's older sibling Adam. [10]