Lost Ollie

Lost Ollie is a new mini-series, and already, it made me emotional. A lost stuffed animal named Ollie (voiced by Johnathan Groff) finds himself in a thrift store, and cannot remember where his owner, a boy named Billy, is. However, meeting a clown doll named Zozo (voiced by Tim Blake Nelson) and a tough teddy bear named Rosie (voiced by Mary J. Blige), Ollie escapes the thrift store and goes on to search for his boy.

Based on a chidren's book from 2016, this mini series will hit you right in the feels and never release it. The series switches between the past and present to tell the story, which is full of emotional moments and exciting action, as the voice actors help to bring this heart-warming story to life.

I usually just dole out stars and look around at reviews, but this is on another level. Superb skill from all the actors. Rich music & color. Writing that tugs on your soul. The immersive live action animation is literally seamless. They should all be immensely proud of this. Get a box of tissues ready you'll probably need it. Just breathtaking. To the top of the lightest light down to the pit of darkness. It's a rollercoaster of high quality showmanship put in a neat little package to be enjoyed through the ages.

Ollie (Jonathan Groff) is a stuffed patchwork rabbit who after having been lost by his owner, a young boy named Billy (Kesler Talbot), winds up in a thrift store. At the store Ollie meets a old clown toy Zozo (Tim Blake Nelson) who has largely given up hope after having suffered his own loss with Nina, but with Ollie's arrival Zozo helps Ollie make a map made from Ollie's memories and the two set off along with Zozo's friend Rosy (Mary J. Blige), a pink teddy bear cobbled together from bits and pieces who's skilled in combat. As the trio set off home, Ollie recovers more of his memories revealing a tragedy involving Billy's mother (Gina Rodriguez) while facing various perils along the way.

Lost Ollie is an adaptation of the 2016 children's book Ollie's Odyssey by William Joyce, who many of you may known from his work on projects such as Toy Story, Robots, and Meet the Robinsons just to name a few. The miniseries sees author Joyce reunite with animation director Peter Ramsey who'd previously adapted Joyce's Guardians of Childhood series with the 2012 Dreamwroks film Rise of the Guardians and has since found subsequent success as the director of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Combining CG animation, puppetry, and live-action, Lost Ollie takes us through a harrowing and emotionally draining journey that is worth every moment.

In terms of content, Lost Ollie is basically what happens when you mix bits of Christopher Robin, Toy Story, and A Monster Calls as despite this plot having served as the basis for things ranging from the heights of the Toy Story franchise to more obscure works like Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure, the series makes no secret of its darker harrowing tone from the opening where we see Ollie with a torn seam in a puddle on a rainy night. Make no mistake despite this movie having a similar plot to Toy Story it is by no means a "park your kids in front of the TV" type show but it can be watched as a family show assuming your kids are up for it. The show tackles issues of grief, bitterness, abandonment, and even death and these themes are explored with some truly haunting imagery that sticks with you long after "The End" credits roll. Aesthetically speaking this is a more earthen toned series in comparison to something like Toy Story as the story takes us through abandoned amusements parks, trash strewn vacant lots, or other areas that are rife with loss or neglect fitting tonally within where the story takes us.

The cast are all very good as Jonathan Groff plays our lead and is very endearing with his innocent personality coupled with a sense of driven loyalty to Billy that propels him forward on this journey, and Mary J. Blige and Tim Blake Nelson are both very good as Rosy and Zozo, Ollie's traveling companions and despite the two characters making a radical departure by the halfway point the writing is strong enough to justify it and it does tie in thematically with the film's ending message, even if I'm not personally a fan of how those two characters are resolved by the third act but I do acknowledge it works from a thematic point of view. Jake Johnson and Gina Rodriguez are both very good as Billy's Momma and Daddy (as they're credited since Ollie doesn't their last name) and the two have genuine chemistry in their scenes together and the heartbreak felt at key moments in the plot will ring strong especially if you've lost a family member in an untimely way. Kesler Talbot is also very good as Billy and to my knowledge this is Talbot's first starring role in a series having previously done some TV work such as Nancy Drew and Resident Alien and I was honestly really impressed with his performance.

The mixture of animation and live-action is nicely done and director Peter Ramsey and credited creator Shannon Tindle deserve a lot of praise for creating an immersive mixture of live-action and CG. To my knowledge this is Ramsey's first time doing live-action with his previous work having been in animated features and if Lost Ollie is any indication I can't wait to see what he brings to a larger scale project like Ahsoka. The movie is simply beautiful to look at with a world that feels living and tangible and also taps into the forgotten areas of the United States whose heyday has long passed and have been left to pot.

Lost Ollie takes a familiar story and makes it new again with an unapologetically harrowing tone and no holds barred approach to talking about issues frankly and without sugarcoating. The characters are all unique and interesting, the animation is beautiful, and the performances are great from all. In short: Stop reading this and go watch it!

The show is wonderful on its own. I will say that. But it was based on an absolutely beautiful book called Ollie's Odyssey by William Joyce and they fundamentally changed the entire story for the show. They kept bits and pieces but the framework is very different. I read the book out loud to my son a few years ago and we read it again leading up to the release of the show, excited to see our favorite scenes come alive. They weren't there, none of them. We still enjoyed the show but it's not what we were expecting and we're hoping one day they do it again following the book more exactly. The synopsis listed here on the site is what the storyline of the book is, not the show.

I never read the book and just saw the trailer and thought that it might be something similar to Toy Story franchise. And yeah there's some of it that actually reminds you of Toy Story and a bit of Homeward Bound but Lost Ollie is its own thing. And boy did it hit me like a ton of bricks.

I feel if you have a similar experience this show will punch the gut more. I have an Ollie of my own though I never physically lost it but I went through what Billy experienced... the last episode just made me wish I could have the same moment... I was just bawling my heart out by the end of this show.

Anyway this has some dark moments to it. Not at all light hearted and easy fun if that is what you're looking for. Now I was already predicting what could happen, it's not like there's much to do to make some mind boggling twist which for this type of show I don't think is really necessary. It's predictable but it delivered what it needed.

It's the typical slow-paced show so this might feel boring to some. It cruises you to the stages per episode as you unravel the backstory bit by bit. I quite liked the stories of the other main characters featured here as well. They had some depth to them. Not giving a 10 because there's some glaring awkward scenes and acting that didn't deliver well. Some moments were still too dim even though they gave some lighting to soften it up.

The star of this show is the CG animation. The details and animation on Ollie and the rest is just superb. They're expressive but still bound by how much toys can scrunch their faces and how they move so they feel like actual talking walking toys and not a drawing popped in the scene.

Also Gina Rodriguez. Her scenes really packed a punch.