‘Lost Ollie’ Review: An Emotional and Surprisingly Dark Adventure to Find Lost Family
Netflix’s Lost Ollie is a limited miniseries that follows a lost scruffy patchwork bunny finding its way home. The miniseries was created by Shannon Tindle (Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings) and directed by Peter Ramsey (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse), adapted from William Joyce’s children’s book “Ollie’s Odyssey.” This family drama is guaranteed to have a touch of magic and reach the audience’s heart with an emotional punch because of the beautiful and gut-wrenching narrative. Lost Ollie is not just for children but for adults too, and it focuses on the universal experience of feeling lost. With a mix of live-action, puppeteering and 3D animation, the show creates a fantastic world of incredible characters.
Ollie (voiced by Jonathan Groff) wakes up in an unfamiliar place. He finds himself in an antique thrift store with a price tag on his ear. Determined to return to Billy, Ollie meets Zozo (voiced by Tim Blake Nelson), a clown doll, and convinces him to help the scruffy bunny to find Billy (Kesler Talbot), the boy who lost his favourite stuffed toy. Ollie uses the memories from his playtimes with Billy and his parents (Gina Rodriguez and Jake Johnson) and creates a map to find his home. Along the way, Ollie and Zozo meet Rosy (voiced by Mary J. Blige), a fearless teddy bear with an eye patch, and she gets roped into their adventure.
Lost Ollie brings a familiar theme to the centre of this lovely miniseries. It’s a wholesome family drama that focuses on childhood and the obstacles of growing up alone. Billy and Ollie spend their time playing as pirates, building happy memories with each other and his mother. The miniseries paints the picture of Ollie and Billy’s past lives and sees something happening to the mother in a vision. It reveals the details of his mother’s sickness and its gut-wrenching. Billy faces the dilemma of bullies and his father lecturing him that he needs to grow up and let go of his imagination. But his mother advises him to embrace his playful imagination. Occasionally, the miniseries shows them playing together. The doting mother and the gruff father are characters we have already seen in movies and shows before but Lost Ollie shows the strong and supportive emotional connection between them, which makes their dynamic stronger.
However, the series tends to stray away from the family and focuses mainly on Ollie’s journey to reunite with Billy. The impatient and enthusiastic scruffy bunny is desperate to find his family, but his memories are not strong enough. All of the happy memories that he shared with Billy are vague and he struggles to remember them. Regardless of the obstacles, Ollie’s determination to find his family is what drives the majority of the story, with the help of his friends Zozo and Rosy. Their friendship begins with a rocky start. Rosy’s reluctance to understand Ollie’s mission and Zozo’s endless resources make them a great team. All of them are on a personal journey, but one of the characters’ true intentions are revealed later.
Lost Ollie is a heartwarming story of finding community and overcoming fear. The miniseries combines the magic touch of Tindle and Ramsey, and they create breathtaking visuals and a beautiful story. It is filled with genuine and sentimental moments between Ollie and Billy, and the other characters around him, and it will make some viewers shed tears. Even with the smallness of Ollie and his friends, his love for Billy is big, and he never seems to let viewers forget that. Every aspect of Ollie’s journey is a reminder of how there is always a way to find a home, and Lost Ollie executes the themes perfectly. This miniseries will surely melt everyone’s heart and hopefully, bring families together to watch an emotional and gut-wrenching miniseries that teaches viewers that losing people doesn’t mean the end of the world.
