Back in 2020, I thought the first episode of Ollie's Pack was a very bad first impression to a show that needed a little more time to find its footing. Watching a few more episodes on Paramount+, I realize just how stupid I was to give this show the benefit of the doubt! Whatever potential this show had was squashed, flatten and set on fire by its horrendous execution! From the awful writing to the infuriating main character, this is yet another prime example of how NOT to make a cartoon for children!
Created by Pedro Eboli and Graham Peterson, this show follows a young boy who's chosen to protect a sacred backpack, that's actually an interdimensional doorway, from evil monsters with the help of his friends. You'd think this show would dedicate ample time to establishing why Ollie was chosen to be the protector of the pack, who created the pack, and what would happen if it fell into the wrong hands. And does this show do that? OF COURSE NOT!!! Instead it handwaves the origin story in its "tell, don't show" intro and makes the pack nothing more than a regular backpack with the interdimmensional doorway being the only perk! I've said it before and I'll say it again: this is UNACCEPTABLE WRITING! By not taking ample time to build the world and show the origin of the MacGuffen, you immediately rob your audience of getting invested of the story you want to tell! You also rob the sense of urgency in the conflict because besides the interdimensional doorway, there's nothing about the pack that makes it dangerous in the wrong hands. Say what you will about the Transformers movies overuse of the MacGuffen trope, at least that spend time establishing the importance of the MacGuffens and what could happen if the Decepticons get their claws on them. Ollie's Pack is less concerned with its world building and more concerned with being a painfully slow and unfunny cartoon. You've seen the "no rules" plot, you've seen the "enviable new hero" plot, you've seen the "non-human character being cool in school" plot, you've basically seen every plot of each episode in this show. This show doesn't do any of these plots better or even well for that matter. It just goes through the motions playing the expected story beats and as such it makes the 11 minute runtime feel like 11 years! The humor is also beyond unfunny with tired puns, weak slapstick, pointless cutaway gags, and groan worthy gross out. This isn't your every day bad writing: this is INEXCUSABLY bad writing!
There's not a single character here that I wouldn't toss in the empty void if given the chance. Starting with our titular excrement wipe (I refuse to call him a hero -.-), Ollie is yet another infuriating main character that would rank very high in my Top 10 Worst Cartoon Main Characters list on Tumblr! He's such a selfish, spoiled, lazy, whiny, annoying and stupid brat that shouldn't even be the main character, much less the chosen one. He's also such at terrible friend, he makes Rigby from Regular Show look like Tails from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Cleo and Bernie are often gaslighted, guilt-tripped, manipulated and thrown under the bus by Ollie, yet they STILL hangout with him?! I'd feel more sorry for them if they were more interesting characters. Alas, they're just parrots with no interesting personalities of their own. Captain Wowski is such a terrible conscience and mentor, he might as well just not be in the show. Then there's vice principal Magna, who's the typical selfish and arrogant authority figure that makes school feel like a prison with a strict "no fun" policy. How is it that it's 2023 and we're STILL portraying school faculty members as people who hate their jobs and hate fun? None of the monsters they face are anything to write home about either as they're all just generic villains of the week with weak motivations and non-threatening tactics.
The voice acting is just awful, as if the director forbid any of the actors from going anywhere above unenthusiastic. James Harnett sounded very weak as Ollie, making him sound more like a tired teenager than an easy going kid. Corey Doran gave Captain Wowski a generic mid-30s mle voice when he should sounded older and wiser. David Berni sounded very bored as Bernie, ditto Ana Sani as Cleo. Ned Petri just sounded apathetic and unengaging as Magna. I'm sure they were all trying their best with the material they were given, but what they desperately needed was a better voice director.
The animation is yet another casualty of this show's awful quality. This is some of Nelvana's worst animation in recent memory. The characters look very generic looking with simple body shapes, crooked looking noses, and basic clothing attire. The vice principal also somewhat resembles disgraced animator Chris Savino, but with glasses. Intentional or not, someone on the production crew should've spoken up and change this design immediately because it's implying the creators excuse Savino's toxicity enough to base a character off of him. Gross. There's also a severe lack of shadows and shading, which makes the designs lack depth, especially in action scenes. Speaking off, they are some of the worst action scenes I've seen in a cartoon as the characters don't have any mass to them, the cinematography is basic at best and due to the lack of urgency, there's just no rhyme or reason to them. The backgrounds are pretty well detailed with the forest, school and Ollie's house feeling lived in and expansive. The other dimensions we see don't look nearly as interesting though as they have flat colors and not nearly as much detail. It's very unfortunate the best thing I can say about the animation is the backgrounds, for the most part, look alright; and that's barely a compliment, if you can even call it that.
Nick made the right call not picking this show up as a Nicktoon, but shot themselves in the foot by agreeing to distribute it. Ollie's Pack is an infuriatingly terrible cartoon that fails at every aspect! The writing is unacceptably bad, the characters are infuriating, the voice acting is stale, the animation is mediocre and it's not even close to funny. This is on par with my early short stories from when I was a teenager: poorly concocted, rushed, and painfully slow. It most certainly deserves the worst fate to bestow on a piece of entertainment: to be ignored and forgotten! Do NOT watch Ollie's Pack! Don't even bother thinking "well it can't be that bad." I can confirm that it can and it only gets worse the longer you watch! Save yourself the trouble and don't even bother looking into this stupid show -.-
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