Disney Junior’s/Ludo Studios’ Bluey is beloved by kids and their parents alike. It shows us the meaning of family, friendships, and what it’s like to go through tough times, and how to deal with them. We often find Bluey and her little sister, Bingo, playing make-believe games with their “mum” and dad. From “Keepy-Uppy” to “Magic Xylophone” to “Dance Mode," there’s nothing that can stop the wild imaginations of the two little Heeler dogs. Season Three bids us farewell with three specials, including a 28-minute-long extra-special. Allow me to walk you through them.
Ghostbasket-
Ghostbasket begins with Bandit, Bluey and Bingo’s dad, pretending to be a real estate agent named Hugo… only he can’t seem to get clients to buy a house from him. Chilli, Bluey and Bingo's mum, approaches the Heeler family’s house, which Hugo is trying hard to sell. He asks her how she likes it from the outside, but she just says, “it’s a bit small.” To this he replies, "it’s bigger on the inside.”
Hugo’s client reluctantly follows him to the front door. Just as he opens it to lead her inside, he is bombarded by two “Grannies," who are really just Bluey and Bingo dressed up. The Grannies, “Janet” (Bluey) and “Rita” (Bingo) have appeared several times in previous episodes. Hugo anxiously slips inside, leaving his client on the porch. He asks the Grannies why they aren’t out of the house and over at “Lawn Bowls," like they had told him before. They just say that “Phyllis had to cancel," leaving Hugo no choice but to show the house while the Grannies are at home. Of course, this causes much chaos along the way, since the Grannies don’t actually want their home to be sold.
“We’ve lived here for 50 years!” Janet moans to an impatient Hugo.
“No you haven’t! You bought it in a raffle at the surf club last April!” He replies.
“Did we?” Rita questions him.
“Just stay out of my way!” Hugo orders.
But a sly smile comes over both of the girls’ faces.
Hugo leads his client inside, trying to avoid the mischievous, even vicious, Grannies. He hastily shows her around the foyer, kitchen, and living room. Before long, however, the Grannies are inevitably discovered by Hugo’s client. Around this time, she states to Hugo that she’s interested in buying the house. Janet tries to change her mind by telling her that the house is haunted by a ghostbasket, which conveniently slides across the living room floor in the client’s direction just then. It quickly turns into a wild goose chase around the house for the ghostbasket, which actually turns out to have been Rita under the laundry basket all along! At this time, the client of Hugo’s announces that she is sure she wants to buy the house; that is, as long as the Grannies are kicked out as soon as possible.
Hugo, who was originally ecstatic about finally selling the house, actually begins to take pity on the Grannies. He sighs and decides to try and get the house back from his client.
Hugo’s client is relaxing on a tanning chair when a wheelbarrow begins sliding across the grass in her direction. Believing that the Grannies are underneath the wheelbarrow, she is taunting it when the actual Grannies appear beside her.
“We just forgot Jeremy,” Janet explains to her, picking up the family’s garden gnome. “So sorry!”
The client begins screaming as she takes off, leaving the grannies and Hugo, who was the one under the wheelbarrow all along, alone in the backyard.
“Look, I can’t do this every time…” Hugo explains to the girls as he wraps them up into a hug. The camera zooms out on the house as the client emerges from it, terrified. Soon, we see that a “For Sale” sign is standing out at the front of the lawn, indicating that the Heeler family is trying to sell their home, “for real life," as Bluey and Bingo say.
The Sign-
This is a 28-minute-episode, and therefore too much to go over in detail. Mostly, you’ll find that it ties a lot of the old Bluey episodes together. For instance, the techno song “Dance Mode” plays, and “Greeny," the green balloon from “Mum School," floats around high up in the air. Also, the butterfly from a more recent episode, “Slide," shows Mum a sign (literally) while on a mission to track down her best friend, Frisky. We discover that Bingo has named it “Flappy." Here’s what happens over the course of the episode…
First, a real estate agent named Bucky, who we learned about in another recent episode, “Dragon," interrupts Dad, Bluey, and Bingo’s usual playtime. He is showing two sheepdogs the house. They seem intrigued, though somewhat disappointed that there is no pool. Bluey is sad that their home is being sold, but Bingo doesn’t seem to mind. At school, Bluey announces to the rest of the class that she is moving, and “will never see any of them again." They are shocked, and wrap her up into a sorrowful group hug. But Calypso, Bluey’s teacher, tells her a story about change, and that some can be bad, and some can be good.
On the way back from school, Bluey is in a much better mood, which Dad notices right away. Bluey tells him that “Calypso told her that everything was going to be okay, and so the ‘dogs with no eyes’ won’t buy their house." Bandit explains to her that that’s not what her teacher meant. At that very moment, Bucky calls to tell Dad that the sheepdogs want to buy the house, leaving Bluey once again discouraged.
Next, we find Bingo and the cousins practicing to be flower girls for Frisky and Uncle Rad’s wedding, which was to take place in the Heelers' backyard. Frisky discovers from an ongoing rumor that Rad assumes that she will move out west with him after the wedding. Angry, Frisky has an argument with him over the phone, and tells Bluey, Bingo, and the cousins that the marriage is off. Frisky takes off in her blue car.
Bluey tells Mum the bad news, and they, alongside Bingo, Muffin, and Socks, go off on a mission to track Frisky down. It takes a lot of twists and turns, but, thanks to some help from Flappy the Butterfly, Mum knows just where her best friend is. The five find Frisky at the lookout, where Bingo, Muffin, and Socks immediately notice a binocular machine. After running off to it, Mum and Bluey sit down with Frisky to talk things out. Mum then admits that she doesn’t like the idea of moving, much to Bluey’s surprise. Soon enough, Rad stops by, and he and his fiance make up. The wedding is back on!
After the wedding, Bucky stops by and sticks a “Sold” sticker on the “For-Sale” sign. Bingo says “that’s nice”, and skips away, but Mum finds out later that she never knew that, after you sell a house, you have to move out of it.
The Sheepdogs are at the lookout one day, where they take a look into the “binocliars”, as Muffin had called it not too long ago. In the process of trying to find their “new home," they come across another nice house for sale. And this one has a pool!
On moving day, Dad receives a call from Bucky, who informs him that the Sheepdogs backed out of the offer. The entire family is ecstatic, and couldn’t be happier to be staying put.
Surprise-
Surprise begins with Bluey in the kitchen loading up a tennis-ball gun that her friend had lent her, wondering what it’s like to have kids, and asking Mum about it. This gives Bingo the idea to pretend to be a mom and have kids. She asks Dad, who is in the middle of watching a race, to be “the dad." He reluctantly agrees, but being “the dad” in Bingo’s game quickly, and unfortunately for Bandit, morphs into being an alien invader in Bluey’s game as well.
As both games become more chaotic and challenging for Dad, because Bingo ends up with 4 kids for him to father while Bluey chases him all around the house, shooting tennis balls his way, Mum answers her oldest daughter’s question, pulling her aside. “Bluey, that’s what it’s like to have kids!” she says, suddenly making Bluey feel guilty.
Meanwhile, Bingo’s “youngest son” has to “go to the hospital” due to a head-body proportion issue. Dad, who so badly wants to return to the race back in the living room, still agrees to do this, and heads outside with the baby, where Bingo tells him the hospital is located. Bluey approaches Dad, deciding that it’s time for her to be motherly.
“I’ll look after him,” She tells her exhausted father. “I’m his big sister!” Dad is more than relieved to hear this, and gets back to his race.
Soon, after a scene change, we see that Chilli and Bandit have grown older, as they both head for the front door when the doorbell rings. Chilli opens it, and is greeted cheerfully by a “Hi, Mum!” It is Bluey, all grown up. After she has been led inside by her mother, Bandit hears the doorbell ring again. Opening the door to find no one standing there, he is puzzled. But, before shutting the door once again, he remembers something that his own kids used to do to him…
“Oh, no…”
Thanks for reading! I strongly suggest you go back and watch Bluey yourself, especially if you have younger siblings. Note that I didn’t spoil the ending of "Surprise" for you...
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