Why did Disney cancel ‘Bluey’ episode? Where can I watch “Dad Baby” for free?

In the United States, Disney refuses to air “Dad Baby”, an episode of Bluey in which the central character’s father pretends to be pregnant. However, American viewers can now watch the episode elsewhere.

What is Bluey about?

A hit Australian animated series aimed at preschoolers, Bluey is about a family of Blue Heeler dogs who live in Brisbane. Its titular character is a six-year-old puppy who, according to producers Ludo Studio, “uses her limitless energy and imagination to discover, laugh and play with all of her friends and family”.

What happens in the Bluey episode “Dad Baby”?

The games Bluey plays with her parents, pals and younger sister Bingo reflect “the joy and strangeness of children’s imaginations and desires”, writes the TV critic Kathryn VanArendonk in Vulture.

This is evident in the 2020 episode “Dad Baby”, in which Bingo finds the baby sling in which her parents – father Bandit and mother Chilli – carried her when she was younger. When Bandit puts the sling on to demonstrate its use, Bluey eggs Bingo on to climb into it, before shouting: “Look! Dad has a baby in his belly!” Bluey then initiates a game in which Bandit must keep Bingo in the sling and pretend to be pregnant.

Throughout the rest of the episode, Bandit has make-believe cravings; endures the back pain typical of pregnancies as he struggles to carry Bingo around; and even ‘gives birth’, when Bluey ‘delivers’ her sibling by pulling her out of the bottom of the sling.

Why don’t Disney show “Dad Baby”in US?

The Walt Disney Company, which owns the US broadcast rights to Bluey, does not show “Dad Baby” on Disney Junior or the Disney Channel, and has omitted the episode from the online catalogue on its streaming platform, Disney+.

The entertainment giant has made no public comment on its precise reasons for not showing “Dad Baby” to American audiences. According to Collider’s Lloyd Farley, the “most prevailing theory” on online discussion forums is that the episode was considered inappropriate for preschoolers as it “borders on sex education”. “Whether that’s Disney being sexist, or prudish, or simply unwilling to put themselves in the crosshairs of religious groups is anyone’s guess,” Farley says.

Guardian journalist Stuart Heritage, meanwhile, suggests that the fact that it is Bluey’s father, rather than her mother, who simulates being pregnant may also have been deemed problematic: “Was it that the central conceit, of a man growing and giving birth to a baby, risked getting embroiled in the red-hot culture war screaming match about gender and biology?”

What has Bluey’s creator said about Disney censorship?

Bluey’s creator and writer, Joe Brumm, remains sanguine about Disney’s refusal to air “Dad Baby” in the States. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter last year, he spoke of the need to be “really careful” when putting together a show for early-age viewers, but stuck by his decision to create an episode that he described as “too funny” not to make.

“There are two categories [of things that won’t fly],” Brumm said. “There’s things that are going to get a kid hurt, and I rarely have an argument for that. The other one is more about taste – it’s what’s appropriate and what’s offensive. So, definitely lots of words have to get changed, and then behaviors and concepts get dulled down.

“And eventually I would just hit these walls, and sometimes I’d say, ‘Look, I can’t change this. This is too funny.’ Or, ‘I like it too much.’ And so, we’d just be like, ‘Well, we just won’t show that entire episode or that scene or that sequence.’ Some of them, like ‘Dad Baby’ for instance, doesn’t get shown in America. But what are you going to do, not make ‘Dad Baby’? I love it.”

How to watch “Dad Baby” in the US

While “Dad Baby” isn’t available on Disney in the US, viewers in the country can now watch the episode on YouTube, after it was uploaded onto the official Bluey channel on 1 May.

Bluey a runaway streaming success

While Bluey’s chief target audience is preschool viewers, it has earned praise as a series that adults will happily watch alongside children. “In his attempt to create a show that kids and their parents can both enjoy, Joe Brumm delivered a bona fide, global juggernaut,” says the Hollywood Reporter’s Lacey Rose.

Bluey, which now comprises more than 150 seven-minute episodes, has enjoyed wildly successful audience figures. Per Variety, Nielsen data showed that it was the second-most streamed programme in the US in 2023, with 43.9 billion minutes watched. And since “Dad Baby” was made available on YouTube earlier this week, the episode has been viewed just under five million times.

Bluey has also accrued multiple accolades, including two Logie Awards, an International Emmy Kids Award and a British Academy Children’s Award.