Bluey Wedding Special Is an Emotional Roller Coaster With a Too-Real Lesson for Dogs (and Humans) of All Ages

Andy Swift
·4 min read

To all the unsuspecting parents who fired up Disney+ on Sunday, hoping to chill out with the family and laugh along to the new Bluey special… how are you holding up?

The Australian ‘toon has always been more substantive than many of its contemporaries (we’re looking at you, Peppa Pig!), but this latest special is on another level. It’s a thrilling half hour of television — a fast-paced, sharply-written, deeply thoughtful examination of the human spirit. Also, two dogs get married!

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“The Sign” exists at the intersection of two potentially life-altering developments for the Heeler family. Not only is Uncle Rad finally making an honest English Cocker Spaniel out of his longtime girlfriend Frisky, but Bluey’s parents also explain that they’re selling the house and moving to a new city. The former is a cause for celebration, while the latter is an existential crisis waiting to happen. And it happens big time.

While Bluey’s younger sister Bingo remains blissfully ignorant of what “selling the house” really means, seven-year-old Bluey is painfully aware of how things are about to change — as are Bluey’s classmates, who erupt in an adorable group howl when she breaks the news of her impending departure.

What unfolds next is sheer chaos from start to finish. Frisky calls off the wedding because she finds out that Radley is already planning their future without consulting her, sending Chilli and the flower girls on a wild goose chase to track down the runaway bride. A run-in with the police, a harrowing butterfly attack and an emergency pee break later, Chilli finally realizes where Frisky must be hiding: “the lookout where Frisky and I used to come as teenagers to… um… think!” (That one was just for the grown-ups.)

In a moment of brutal honesty, Chilli admits that she doesn’t want to move either, but she believes that it could be good for their family. When Bluey suggests that it could also be bad for them, she concedes that it’s impossible to know either way. All she can tell her daughter is, “I guess we’ll see.”

This is a callback to the story that Calypso reads to Bluey’s class earlier in the episode. It’s also a recurring theme in the special, which stresses the importance of accepting life’s unknowns and trusting that things will work out however they’re supposed to.

Speaking of Calypso, teaching Bluey that fairytales have happy endings “because life will give us enough sad ones” was real as hell. Was that lesson part of her school-approved curriculum? 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.

Anyway, we’re fully invested in (and deeply concerned about) every bit of developing doggy drama at this point. Is Frisky seriously calling off her wedding? And are the Heelers really moving to a new city?! As it turns out, the stress rash we’ve acquired has been for naught. Not only do Rad and Frisky tie the knot after reconciling, but Bluey’s family also doesn’t follow through with their big move. The sheepdogs who bought the Heelers’ house stumble upon another property they like better, a discovery they only made because the kids got Bluey’s “lucky coin” stuck in a binocular machine at the park earlier in the episode. You have to admit, it’s a fun twist.

While this ultimately gives Bluey the happy ending she wanted, the timing couldn’t be less convenient. Think about it: The Heelers spent hours (days?) packing up every last piece of furniture in their house, then loaded it all into a moving truck, only to find out mid-move that the buyers changed their mind. After all that time, energy and expense wasted, we aren’t surprised when Bandit dramatically rips the “For Sale” sign out of the ground. Moving is a pain!

All told, the Heelers’ lives will remain largely unchanged, but we do have a few questions concerning the future of the Bluey-verse: Can Bandit easily get his old job back now that he’s decided to stay, or did his company already hire a replacement archaeologist when he accepted his new gig out of town? Will those two puppies’ lonely single parents end up getting together? And we totally echo Nana’s gasp of excitement — when are Rad and Frisky going to give us more grand-puppies already?!

It’s a lot to process, we know. But that’s what comment sections are for, so drop your thoughts about Bluey’s latest special after grading it in the poll below.

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