Wasteland Wednesday: The Post-Apocalyptic Misadventures of Bluey and Peppa Pig

Okay...so, I don't have kids, so I need to be clear that the following has not been proofread by an expert.  However, I'm pretty sure I have most of the details correct regarding these IPs that have caught my attention over the past several years (and that I'm actually a little surprised I've never mentioned on the blog).

Laura likes to find aggressively pleasant children's programming to throw on the TV every once in a while.  She likes how it can be calming, centering, and oblivious to the shitshow that is the world right now (and maybe has been forever...?), and it usually does its job well.  As I felt with Pokémon Concierge, most of the time these shows are best described simply as delightful.

Two of the programs Laura has found that have really drawn me in are the British show Peppa Pig...

...and its Australian companion show Bluey (all images from their Facebook pages btw)...

I write "companion show" not because it's almost a dog joke, which I just realized, but because -- as far as I can tell -- these two programs are parallel views of a future post-apocalyptic Earth in which anthropomorphic animals have become the dominant species on the planet.

Peppa Pig (the show) is quite a bit older than Bluey (the show) and gave us our first look at a world rebuilt by walking, talking nonhuman (or maybe partially human?) animals.  It seems to take place in what used to be the UK and features a pretty wide variety of species.

There are very few humans.  It definitely looks like a Kamandi type situation.  And of those people that have been shown, I suspect that Father Christmas may actually be a spirit that simply chooses to take human form, and another -- Queen Elizabeth II -- is most likely a clone that was created to raise morale and provide leadership in the post-apocalyptic world.  While it wouldn't be a trivial undertaking by those in power, making copy after copy of one of Earth's more beloved 20th and 21st century leaders would probably be worthwhile to give an extra measure of hope to the survivors, especially when she's commonly seen doing things like having fun in the mud with her subjects.

Bluey, meanwhile, is seemingly set in Australia, and it appears that on this continent, all of the sapient creatures that remain after the global catastrophe are dogs, usually of recognizable breeds.  Bluey, her sister Bingo, and parents Chilli and Bandit, are a family of Australian cattle dogs known as the Heelers (seen three pics up)...clearly a surname given to them in the recent past simply based upon their phenotype.

I think other animals show up only in non-anthropomorphic form, and as far as I know, there are no humans.  It's unclear if these differences between the shows are a matter of geography or focus, or if they might actually reflect that the programs depict different eras of post-apocalyptic Earth.

And really, that's part of what's so intriguing about these shows: the mystery.  We don't even know what caused the fall of humankind!  Was it bombs?  Aliens?  COVID-29?  And is it possible that these are animated documentaries, sent back from a desperate future with the hope that we'll change our ways?  If so, I think they're failing on that front.  Honestly, life in Peppa and Bluey's world seems pretty spectacular.  Families love and accept each other and enjoy spending time together.  There's very little fear and nothing that even resembles hate.  I wouldn't mind falling asleep in a bunker and waking up to that world.

And of course, as a Yank, I wonder what America looks like in that future time.  I believe there's a possibility that what we know as an early animated short, Steamboat Willie, may actually be a similar documentary showing life on the Mississippi River early in Earth's rebuilding stage.  This would be an interesting set of information to add to our knowledge of the post-apocalypse, especially since it appears that some non-anthro animals have undergone other genetic alterations in that timeline.  (A goat whose tail can be cranked to make it sing like a phonograph is probably the best example of this.)

As with Peppa Pig and Bluey, though, specific details are scarce.  It is entirely possible that other "fictional" works we have encountered (including the proto-Kamandi story by Jack Kirby that I wrote about here several years ago) are similarly influenced by actual messages from future sources.  However, it's going to take some real effort to separate truth from myth.  I will be keeping my eyes open for clues toward laying out an accurate future history of Earth.  If you have any insight, I would love to hear from you.