Oddballs

TV Series Review

James is growing up, and boy, is it tough. Especially since they live in Dirt, a tiny desert town full of strange people and stranger experiences.

It’s hard enough having to grow up in a normal town. But in this town? Dirt is next-level adolescence. For instance, have you ever been turned into a smartphone by your scientist parents just to prove a point about how responsible you need to be to own one? Didn’t think so.

Luckily, the many scientists who dwell within town limits have made a few good things, too—like James’ best friend Max, a sentient talking alligator. Together, the two of them will face any danger together—whether that’s the living ooze-like school bully or their evil sentient toaster.

The Odd 1s In

If the animation style looks familiar, that’s no coincidence. Oddballs is, indeed, the creation of James Rallison, better known as the YouTuber TheOdd1sOut. And in this 12-episode creation, Rallison tells the story of a young, marshmallow-like James as he slowly grows up.

Of course, with all the strange experiments wandering around his town of Dirt, things often quickly spiral way out of control. For instance, is it murder to kill an annoying fly when one of the residents of the town is a sentient human-fly? For another, how do you deal with an ooze bully who can literally crawl inside you and control your body?

If you’ve read our review of TheOdd1sOut or seen the YouTube channel’s videos, the type of content in this show isn’t likely to surprise you: primarily slapstick violence—and the violence sometimes feels a little extreme for a kid’s show. (A character bleeds from being impaled by flying toast, for example, or when a toaster electrocutes a lake, and a scuba diver’s body appears on the surface.)

Additionally, some jokes may go over the line, such as one character’s attempts to perform a “bully exorcism” on the “demon” ooze when it gets into James’ body.

Oddballs feels a bit like a mix between Gravity Falls and Adventure Time. The language remains quite clean (unless “heck” and “gosh darn” raise your hair), and the show will likely be a favorite among children. But like the two aforementioned shows, you may want to consider a couple things before letting your child visit Dirt.