There's more than meets the eye with 'Lost Ollie'. What is at its core an adventure show about family and coming of age holds an unexpected amount of darkness, grief and sorrow. Much in the footsteps of 'Toy Story', the show presents a much shorter but nonetheless equally charismatic ensemble of toys to embark on a classic adventure on the search of Ollie's former owner. The leading trio is surprisingly well designed, written, animated, and, even more impresive, blended on a live action setting. And as goofy as it is to watch three kids' toys traversing a human world without anyone paying attention, we all can agree that if we can -and joyfully do so- cope with dragons breathing fire on ice zombies or grimmy creatures threatening teenagers from an upside-down world, we can condone a small cinematographic sleight of hand that is essential to the show's plot. What matters is that 'Lost Ollie' manages to tell a heartbreaking story for each of the toys, with Zozo's backstory in the third episode probably stealing the show. With its dark twists and turns rushed at times due to the show's limited runtime, 'Lost Ollie' still finds the time to make the whole leading trio shine.
Unfortunately, Ollie's quest means there's a kid, a home, and a human world to return to. A human world filled with plastic characters, fake dialog and overly trite drama. And as much as the actors give their best to make the most out of a poorly written script, they can stop the human segments of the film from dragging the whole experience down and feel even more fictional than a dual wielding pink plushie bear jumping from a train. There's more personality and charisma to be found on any of the three toys than on the whole cast of human characters, and while that may seem a good sign in a production where the sooner are the stars of the show there's so big a gap it feels like an open chasm between the two worlds, turning an old-time, deep adventure story with a satisfaying bittersweet end into a disjointed puzzle of good ideas and exhausting, overused drama with a weak and repetitive soundtrack that doesn't help its case.
Unfortunately, Ollie's quest means there's a kid, a home, and a human world to return to. A human world filled with plastic characters, fake dialog and overly trite drama. And as much as the actors give their best to make the most out of a poorly written script, they can stop the human segments of the film from dragging the whole experience down and feel even more fictional than a dual wielding pink plushie bear jumping from a train. There's more personality and charisma to be found on any of the three toys than on the whole cast of human characters, and while that may seem a good sign in a production where the sooner are the stars of the show there's so big a gap it feels like an open chasm between the two worlds, turning an old-time, deep adventure story with a satisfaying bittersweet end into a disjointed puzzle of good ideas and exhausting, overused drama with a weak and repetitive soundtrack that doesn't help its case.