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This article contains spoilers about "The Sign" episode of "Bluey."
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Everyone's favorite Australian dog family is going supersize.
"The Sign," a highly anticipated 28-minute special episode of "Bluey," is now streaming on Disney+. Although a typical episode is about seven minutes long, "The Sign" is the equivalent of a two-hour movie in the "Bluey" universe.
"We always said wouldn't it be incredible if we could do three seasons and a movie," executive producer Daley Pearson says. "We would love to do beyond that but wouldn't that be an Everest to climb. I think this is a version of delivering on that promise. It was such a great creative challenge that we had to do it."
"Bluey," which is produced in Brisbane, Australia, by Ludo Studio (which Pearson co-founded), typically has four animation teams that work on individual episodes. For "The Sign," they collaborated. "This is the first episode made by the whole studio," Pearson says. "That was a big production challenge in itself."
Since the show's inception, Pearson says, it has taken risks. He cites episodes like Season 2's "Sleepytime," which takes Bluey's younger sister Bingo on a dreamy nighttime journey, and "Flat Pack," which is about assembling furniture but also about evolution. "There were always these traditional 'Bluey' episodes but then there were always these avant-garde episodes," he says.
"The Sign" is the pinnacle of that.
"It's an episode about these very important things that these characters are going through," Pearson says. "It's probably the biggest possible changes these characters have ever gone through. There's a bit of experimental feel to it. Will it work? Will the audience stick with it? I think it's one of the most beautiful episodes we've made."
The episode, which was written by series creator Joe Brumm, finds Bluey, Bingo and their parents, Chilli (Melanie Zanetti) and Bandit (Dave McCormack),...