Just like the main character, Ollie, I’m lost in how to review this series. It’s a four-episode mini-series from director Peter Ramsey (SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE). At times, it swings for the fences and plays like a cross between the memory fetch quests of the video game UNRAVELED and the talking toys from Pixar’s TOY STORY series. However, it also has a dark side, similar to George Miller’s overlooked classic, BABE: PIG IN THE CITY. As I devoured this buffet of styles, I kept asking myself – who’s this series for? It’s too scary for young kids and too slow for older ones. Then I realized that it’s meant for cinema lovers like myself.
If you can get past E1 and E2 of LOST OLLIE, which I openly admit are overly long and a chore, the closing two chapters are fantastic. In E3, audiences get a nearly twenty-minute silent movie that captures Zozo’s (Tim Blake Nelson) bittersweet backstory. And yes, it’s animated perfection. Then, in E4, we reach the multiple kleenex moment as the story comes full circle with a few additional twists for Ollie (Jonathon Groff) and Billy (Kesler Talbot). It’s beautifully crafted and a love letter to how painful it’s to grow up and deal with loss.
I’m glad I stuck it out and watched all of LOST OLLIE. It’s different enough to have a cult following and dark enough to have patient kids ask questions about trust, loss, and friendship to their parents.
The show sometimes gets lost, but by the end, it figures out what it’s all about – ❤️.
It’s available on Netflix.
