“Once upon another time,
Before I knew which life was mine,
Before I left the child behind…”
Sara Bareilles’ song Once Upon Another Time, the title track from her fifth EP released back in 2012, is one of a pair of tunes that forms something of an emotional, musical throughline pervading Lost Ollie, Netflix’s just-released gem of a limited series and a Pixar-like ode to toys and growing up that will take your heart and break it into a million pieces.
The other song heard even more often throughout this series about a toy (the titular Ollie) searching high and low for the young owner who lost him is the Everly Brothers classic All I Have to Do is Dream. We hear the song, for example, when an effervescent Gina Rodriguez — who plays young Billy’s angel of a mother — is wearing a hospital gown, leaning down to comfort Billy in front of an MRI machine.
Lost Ollie Netflix series
When I want you in my arms
When I want you and all your charms
That same scene morphs into Ollie, a young toy bunny with floppy ears brought to life by the wizards at Industrial Light & Magic. He sings, not knowing what else to do as he desperately searches for the owner he can’t find.
I need you so, that I could die
I love you so, and that is why
There’s a Pixar and Toy Story-like comparison to be made here, but only on the surface. If the animators and storytellers at Pixar weren’t afraid of darkness and loss, this is the kind of story they’d produce.
Inspired by the book Ollie’s Odyssey by author and illustrator William Joyce, Netflix describes Lost Ollie thus. It’s, basically, “an epic adventure about a lost toy who braves the many dangers of childhood as he searches the countryside to reunite with the boy who lost him.”
It’s also “the story of the boy who lost more than a best friend. It’s a heartwarming tale for the child in us all, remembering those special souls that we’ve lost but who forever changed our lives.”
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A note to parents: Don’t let this series’ trailer fool you. Lost Ollie is probably not appropriate for the youngest viewers out there. It’s as much about loss and the danger of letting grief overwhelm you as it is the magic and wonder of childhood.
Indeed, one of the toys