Bluey Word Painting

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Bluey Word Painting

Worksheet

Uploaded by

nicky.rose

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Linking Music

and Visuals
The finale of the hit Australian children’s
show, Bluey, titled “Sleepytime” was
named as one of the “the Best Television
Episodes of 2020” by the coveted New York Times.

The episode focuses on Bluey’s little sister, Bingo after their mum reads her a bedtime story about space. Bingo’s
dream that night brings to life the solar system.

Bluey is known to use excerpts of very famous classical pieces of music, and this episode brings to life Gustav Holst’s
Jupiter movement from The Planets. This clever use of the Jupiter theme supports the visuals of space through word
painting.

The story becomes larger than life as the size and expanse of the orchestra and music reflect the scale of the story of
the child and parent learning to leave each other at night.

Below is an extract from an interview with the musical director, Joff Bush about this episode:
Russell: A lot of ABC Classic listeners text me about classical music used in
‘Bluey’, particularly when I play music from Holst’s The Planets. They tell me
about ‘Sleepytime’.

Joff: ‘Sleepytime’! It’s a very emotional experience watching it. It’s an amazing episode!
Again, I really have to tip my hat to Joe Brumm for coming up with the idea of using
Jupiter.

We went through that episode and found the point which show the parents’ love, and
tried to seed little echoes of that tune in the soundscape. It’s a very synthy soundscape,
then it has these bursts of orchestral music swelling up.

We did make some changes to Holst’s music to make it fit the picture at the end, but
mainly it doesn’t stray too far from the original. Then we went back and took hints of the
main melody from Jupiter and tried to create an association with the parents’ love. So
whenever the parents are carrying their kid, or walking past, or trying to get them to go to
sleep, we have this echo, the orchestra swelling up over those 80s synth pads!

I really think that that structure in the musical storytelling adds to the impact at the end of
the episode, when it’s really like, ‘This is what it’s about’.

Watch the episode “Sleepytime” and Consider the following:

As Bingo is being tucked in, what instruments are playing? (timbre – identify): _______________________________

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What could this be foreshadowing? (identify, explain & justify): ___________________________________________

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As Bingo and Floppy are ‘hatching’ what instruments are playing? (timbre – identify): _________________________

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