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.

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.

Behind the landscapes of "Lost Ollie" lies a serious background with various emotions centered around loss, home, betrayal and friendship. The four-part Netflix miniseries at first glance may seem simple but it is done pretty well with depth and you can judge by the prism of WS Merwin's opening quote "Your absence has gone through me Like thread through a needle. Everything I do is stitched with its color." The main plot line revolves around Ollie (bringer of peace) who with the help of Zozo, Rosy and a Map reconstructs his memory and prowls the streets in search of his best friend Billy. The film goes on a quest intertwined with the flashbacks, tragic events, without making them adults only or overtly comical keeping in mind the TV-PG 7+ rating. The first two episodes strongly leans towards relationships and the character introductions and apart from obvious theme of loss, this is first and foremost a story about the process of grief and overcoming it.

My favorite is the 3rd and 4th episode, i Loved the Bali Hai introduction as Zozo dances with Nina against the background of a fair, with inanimate toys as it begins to rain - accompanied by an amazing score, it will definitely put a sincere smile of joy as the sequence is filmed so beautifully. Right after this the tone of the series changes as it moves into a bleak territory, it reveals how the difficult fates of Zozo, Ollie, Rosy are closely connected with each other. On the other hand, Zozo really wants to settle a pending account with the past and it really gets interesting with the connections that are revealed. By the way, bleak doesn't mean it plunges into despondency and depression. It makes no sense to tell further, because there is a mix of emotions and timeline in the good sense of the word.

As for the cons, there aren't many except for a little acting, staging problems in few scenes. Also, it seemed the soundtrack could have been better catering to all ages, but this is a purely subjective opinion.

In closing, this is another pleasant surprise from Netflix after The House (2022), Bogdan Boner: Egzorcysta (2020), Kotaru Lives Alone (2022) and The Summit of the Gods (2021). I know many will draw comparison to The Velveteen Rabbit, Sweet Tooth, Toy Story and Where the Wild Things Are. But trust me, in the balance between loss, tragedy and love of life lies the simplicity of Lost Ollie. For young viewers, this mini-series is full of adventures, enveloped with mystery, friendship that will be fascinating. Adults will draw parallels to the incidents that we have encountered in life as it explores the very structure of the human emotions. This will be a good watch with family, friends or if you have little couch time for yourself, it will be worth the time.

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.