‘TheOdd1sOut:’ from Youtube star to being in Netflix’s bad repertoire

“Oddballs” has turned “TheOdd1sOut” into an animator for kids.

[Attention: Suicide mention within article.]

The newest animated Netflix series titled “Oddballs” is made by Robert James Rallison, also known as “TheOdd1sOut” on YouTube, where he is known for his animated short skits full of his odd sense of humor. Although it is made by the same creator in collaboration with Netflix Animations and Atomic Cartoons, the humor that skyrocketed his popularity on YouTube is scarcely found.

Episode one, titled “Raising Toasty,” gives you a sense of what to expect from this series as a whole – short, wacky in nature, completely random and meant for younger audiences. It can go from following the episode’s plot of raising a toaster as a child, to the toaster randomly becoming a threat to humanity. This randomness is one common theme with James’ YouTube channel, but the transitions between the heights of the episode are lackluster. 

Throughout the episodes are simple jokes that everyone should understand. Amongst these jokes are a specialty from “TheOdd1sOut,” which is somewhat hidden dark jokes. If you weren’t able to pick up on these hidden jokes the first time around, then your experience with the show will be completely different than those who did. An example of these hidden dark jokes would be the allusion to suicide by using a toaster in the bathtub.

The appeal of James’ YouTube channel was the low-quality animated shorts depicting his life stories, alongside some of his own quirky details such as purposely misspelled words and drawings of the story appearing out of thin air.

The low-quality production of James’ animated shorts on YouTube made it to where the stories he told had to be attention-grabbing, but that idea was long gone when Netflix came in. With a higher focus on the production quality side of things, the quality of the storytelling became dull compared to his YouTube shorts. Rather than being interesting life stories — “Oddballs” follows the random adventures of James and his best friend Max the talking crocodile.

Besides the drop in storytelling quality, another major thing that makes or breaks the show is your opinion on Max. By the end of the first episode, if you end up liking Max, “Oddballs” will become a worthwhile show. However, if you don’t, then you won’t even be able to finish all 12 episodes. You will find that the inclusion of two dumb characters doesn’t mix as well as one smart character and one dumb.

After all is said and done, “OddBalls” is just another addition to Netflix’s growing repertoire of bad shows. Over the past year, Netflix has been releasing many shows that either try too hard and fail like “He’s Expecting,” or have just been bad productions. “Oddballs” is a step up from James’ YouTube animation, but the excitement of hearing his stories is just not there.

Overall, “Oddballs” is a mediocre animated show. At its core, it is made for younger audiences, so if you came in expecting more of “TheOdd1sOut” shorts that you know and love, you are out of luck as you will not find that in this show.