The Bluey Phenomenon: Voiced by Bandit Heeler reveals all about playing the world's greatest dad

It’s not often that shows aimed at young children get an audience outside of their age group.

Yes, many tired parents and siblings end up watching programs about animated characters, over and over again, often when there’s plenty of superior stuff for them to watch, while entertaining little ones.

But shows that not only appeal to fussy toddlers, but also their family members and even people who have no reason to watch children’s TV — heck, even awarding voters and “best” list writers — is definitely not the norm.

Picture:
Bluey and Bingo make Daddy play the game he hates the most, sheepdog. photo: BBC

But Bluey is one such event.

A co-production between the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the BBC, Bluey is set in Australia and is about the life of the eponymous Bluey, a blue heel pup, his younger sister Bingo and parents Bandit and Chilli.

Having first aired in 2018, it won acclaim – the first series became the number one children’s show on Australian TV, won an International Children’s Emmy Award, was listed as one of the best sitcoms of all time, attracted celebrity fans including Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes. , and has been played 97 million times on iPlayer in the UK.

And while Bluey is the central character, the breakout star has to be his dad Bandit Heeler, who doesn’t fit Daddy Pig and Homer Simpson’s “lazy cartoon dad” stereotype – instead he’s the one who stays at home with his girls, teaching them life lessons through play. .

He is voiced by musician David McCormack, who told the Sky News podcast Backstage that he was initially invited to read just a few lines.

“Through mutual friends, they were like, someone did this show, it’s about the dog family and do you want to read to be a dad? And I was like, I can’t act, I can’t do anything about it, because I’m from a background. music, I’ve never done anything like this before in my life,” he said.

“And I walked into the booth and they gave me a script with the lines highlighted, then I started reading and we just kept going. We did a few hours of different lines and tried different things and I said, ‘Cool, thanks, bye’. I thought it would be some kind of glitchy animated webisode online called Bluey.

“And then they make pilots and people love pilots, and now we’re 486 episodes later or whatever and we’re still doing it – so yeah, I totally fell into it, I’ve never done anything like this before and I probably don’t. doing something like this again, but it’s fun right now.”

But perhaps it was his lack of acting experience that made McCormack the right fit for the role. Like Bandit, he’s a dad, so he says it doesn’t necessarily require a lot of acting.

“My secret weapon is when we started doing it I had daughters who were three and five years old, and maybe that’s Bingo and Bluey’s approximate age. So they gave me the script and I would read it and whatever happens in the script might happen to me.” that day or last week or that morning.”

Bandit is often hailed as a brilliant father, an inspiration to parents who don’t have the time or effort to play with their children like he does.

But while McCormack agreed he was great, he said the playing field wasn’t completely level.

“I wish I was more like Bandit Heeler, but you know what’s the advantage of Bandit? He’s only been Bandit for seven minutes at a time – we have to do parenting 24/7, 365,” he laughs.

“And if you get a Bandit Heeler show that’s like Big Brother style, I’m sure we’ll see some things that aren’t quite Mr. Perfect Bandit Heeler, you know what I mean? The truth will come out.”

Whether it was because of his parenting skills, or something else, Bandit had also become an object of desire – even though he was a cartoon dog.

“I gave it to the beautiful animators,” McCormack said. “The animators have made him really interesting in every way – he’s a little chubby, a bit messy, he’s a cool guy.

“But, yeah, it’s funny, that he’s become a kind of cartoon pin-up dog.”

Bluey series two will be coming to CBeebies and BBC iPlayer starting August 1, with series three premiering worldwide on Disney+ on August 10. To hear more from David McCormack, check out the latest episode of Backstage – the film and TV podcast from Sky News

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