New! Bluey: What is the Rain?
Rain brings us an episode of Bluey that’s a little different than the rest: there are but 9 spoken words. And none of them are about rain.
However, in the quiet of the swelling music, we find a moment of connectivity that while, not unheard of, is rare in the series: parent and child, alone together beholding an unexpected storm before them.
The skies darken, but the show stays true to the pastel hues that, in a rainy day pallet, evoke mildly faded memories. As adults, we can call on some youthful memory of an afternoon that stands out, simply for how novel the purple-grey sky was.
Yet for Chili, like so many of us, the rain means work undone, work delayed, work created.
As for Bluey, and the novelty before her, the sense of urgency is much different. It’s not about saving the work, the urgency is about the rain itself.
And here we can explore the deeper metaphor able to stir so many feelings during the episode: what is the rain?
When asked what makes the rain special in this episode of Bluey during a behind the scenes clip, VFX creator Francis recalls that for this episode, “the rain was like another character in the show, and the stream of water was pretty much another character acting alongside Bluey.” With intense dedication to it's importance, the VFX artists focused to ensure the water portrayed a subtle and meaningful presence. This is a very old and impactful concept in story telling.
If we shift to literature, we can see through the ages how water, whether in spiritual, religious, or simply metaphorical observation, represents renewal, rejuvenation, rebirth. How this is a good thing. This is the flow of all the things that water brings. The things that are light and moveable are moved. The anchored and the firmly fasted stay, laying in the wake of the water that rushed before them. So too can be said of our own lives. The years of childhood washed quickly away by the flow of time, and we grow and become anchored, firm and fast in adulthood.
And so, we find Chili. Anchoring in the storm. Rushing to the efforts it takes to keep the home warm and dry. This is her duty, her challenge as a parent. She is compelled to resist the rain, and moves quickly through it, as to not let it impact her more than it is already able. The ramifications are messy, and damp, and undesirable, but she’s prepared. The waters will fall and rise, and she and her home will be appropriately guarded.
How does this apply to Bluey? Dancing in the rain, catching the drops on her tongue. And then, with realization of the wonder passing her by, makes a choice entirely different than that of her mother when facing the falling rain and rising water. She casually, gently, intuitively chooses to dam it.
To hold it back and watch it grow. She’s already embraced the messiness that rushed in, hand in hand with childhood, jumping with abandon into the puddles. She doesn’t fear or react to the rain with responses rooted in consequences of what may get wet. She’s where she wants to be, in the downpour.
And then arrives the aphorism, “you can’t stem the tide.”
But what if you could? What would you do, give, offer or forgo to just hold back the tide of time? What would it look like?
We watch the water collect and grow larger than the child’s feet and hands are able to dam. And what now? What is the solution to the swelling problem?
Everything is an option when it’s time to try to hold back the tide.
We see her become a force all her own. Her growth becomes a storm itself, forcing past Chili’s objections and defenses and supports. An umbrella, offered to protect a child from the rain she insists on standing in, used as nothing more than a tool to do the exact opposite of what her mother desires for her. But there is no ill intent here.
Bluey, like storms, like children, displays a rising pressure to continue no matter the obstacle. Her objective is clear. She is going to see this goal through as far as she is able. She does not doubt.
And it is a messy endeavor. It’s a soggy drenched muddy thing. And much like the water Bluey herself had been attempting to hold back, Chili is unable to stop the very force that her child is becoming.
Like a refreshing rain, the tale delivers a moment of rejuvenation. Chili, through the weather that her own child brought emphatically in her home, is reminded and so, renewed.
The rain finally sinks in. She sees Bluey in her struggle. What is she holding back? What exactly is happening, what is it in that slowly growing puddle she’s pooling there?
Time. It’s a moment, she’s collected it. Right there on the sidewalk. And with a little help, she can succeed in keeping it, in a way, forever.
Refreshed and recognizing the lesson her daughter has offered her, Chili arrives. And together, slowly, they enjoy the moment together. And this is the true holding back of time.
You capture it. You make it a memory. A moment. Like the moments we have kept in our own recollections, recalled in those dampened pastel hues.
They secured a core memory in which a child finds another foundation of trust and support in their parent. In which a parent learned from her child and could use that understanding to directly support her journey, straight away.
Life’s moments come together as we grow, as the children grow, and as we grow together. And its not always bright and sunny or clean and dry. the rain comes down when we least expect it. The kids come in and trample the work we’ve done with muddy feet and eager hearts, and we learn. No matter how hard we fight to keep them young, to keep them safe and sound in our warm dry homes, they will want to stand in the rain. They will desire to make an impact on the world around them.
And what really, is the better support Chili can offer? The umbrella which will protect, or embracing rain and getting drenched, which instead of shielding her, helps her doused daughter achieve.
They will want to do that which helped them grow and know.
What should we do when the rain comes down? Stand in their way as they fight against time and tide to stop the flow of water from simply washing away? Or stand beside them, rain coming down, so that they know, and we know, that we will work together to handle what comes our way.
And next time the water comes down, we will not only be ready, but we will also be eager.
What is the water? What is the rain?
And who, really, needs the umbrella?
And, at that rate, who needs all these words?
This is 🅔. 🅥🅐🅛🅔 🅘🅝🅚🅢.
References
All imagery created and attributed to Ludo Studios, Disney.