Oddballs Season 1 Review – A charming kid’s show full of humour and creativity

Episode Guide

Raising Toasty
Breaking and Entering
Wanted Dead or Fly
Line Cutters
Boy With 2 Brains
Emo like the Wolfstank
Behind Frenemy Lines
Pillow Fight Club
Grandma’s Boy
Blood Excuse
Almost Home Alone
Nugget Nonsense

If you’ve never watched the content on TheOdd1sOut’s YouTube channel, you’re missing out. With over 18 million subscribers and tens of millions of views on each video, James Rallison has created an incredibly accessible (and profitable!) channel that’s as entertaining as it is insightful.

With dreams of wanting to be a cartoonist and no formal training in drawing, Rallison is an example of how hard work and passion can help you achieve your dreams – and now he has his very own Netflix series.

Created entirely during lockdown, this animated kids show is amusing, well-animated and full of enjoyable segments that both adults and kids can enjoy. What’s particularly great about this series though is how it still maintains the exact same charm and feel as TheOdd1sOut’s YouTube videos.

For those unaware of what this show is all about, Oddballs centers on a marshmallow-looking boy called James, who’s joined by his crazy crocodile pal Max as they navigate the world and get into different misadventures. Each chapter explores and pokes fun of tropes, puns and social issues, spinning them in a way where there’s both a moral lesson at work and a good dose of creativity to boot.

There is a longer thread running through this, with the finale linking back to earlier episodes, but I’m not about to spoil that here as the reveal is a lovely way of tying everything together. For the most part though, the content here work as standalone episodic romps, so it’s very easy to slip in and out of this one. Although I would recommend watching the lot as there are characters here that tie into the bigger picture.

Oddballs slowly introduces its larger ensemble of characters too, including spunky green-haired girl Echo and Mr McFly among others. They’re a great addition to the series and bounce off Max and James beautifully.

The humour in this is great, and there are actually some pretty profound themes like corruption and manipulation explored around that. In episode 2 for example, James changes his 1 star review for a restaurant to 5 stars so he can get something he needs. Another episode explores morality through the idea of “dual personalities”, disguised in the form of a slimy bully called Stuart that invades James’ body. However, the show maintains a level of slapstick and physical comedy that will keep kids engaged for the long run too.

With each episode running for around 15 minutes, the pacing of this is just right and the hand-drawn animation helps to give this a very expressive feel as well.

Whether you’re aware of TheOdd1Out’s YouTube channel or not, this Netflix series absolutely does that justice, delivering a fun, enjoyable ride that’s amusing, well-written and incredibly moreish.