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Max have the same problems with ruby rose from RWBY where they take everything good about a character and don't use it so then can make the self-interest character look good.
There is another show another RUclips series that you forgot to mention or maybe you didn't know and that is don't hug me I'm scared which now is officially ATV series and want to know what to do with that
sadly AVGN made movie himself backup with the fans, no executive came to his door said "want a movie?" James took Film in school it was his dream to make movie, to bad he made really bad B movie.
The thing is, a city run by scientists in the middle-of-nowhere desert where all the kids and teens are living experiments is a phenomenal premise for a show. I can see a lot of potential there, both for intrigue and comedy. Like you mentioned, Max the Crocodile is a good example of this; an experiment that his parents see only as an experiment and nothing more would make for great drama and some funny jokes. I would love to watch a show about that, but it's obvious that's not what this show is about. It definitely feels like an afterthought, James thinking "hey I wanna make a show with a ton of clashing characters" first and then the setting second, which makes everything come off as boring and a wasted opportunity.
@@harsh_here5695 well you're partially right, clone high had characters based off of actual people, while this had original (non intriguing) characters. I think clone high being based around historical people is a huge differentiator
If you told someone who has never watched a cartoon before to describe one, this feels like what they would describe. It feels like something someone would make to parody a bad modern cartoon but played straight.
Also to bring up the random character designs, another show that does this very well is the Amazing World of Gumball. Gumball’s premise is that it’s a universe full of rejected cartoon characters, so it makes sense why all the characters look completely different from eachother, but the characters also have their own stories and life that help fit their designs, a character like Tina is supposed to be the school bully, so she’s made into a giant T-Rex. Here in Oddballs, like you said, most of the character designs are made to be eye Candy.
I was wondering why he didn't bring up TAWOG, it's pretty obvious that it's the main influence behind the odd design choices. Shame they didn't do much with them, some of these designs are pretty nice.
I don't remember that being the premise to Gumball tbh so I kinda always assumed it was just for gags in there too or at the very least to have interesting designs
What I love about Smiling friends is that the humor, charm, aesthetic, and even the character designs all feel unique yet still screams Psychicpebbles. It is it’s own thing and it doesn’t try to pander to anyone, yet it somehow gains an audience. This show feels like it’s suffering from an identity crisis.
Fuck the police, literally I'm gonna put my dick in the deputy I put my dick right where she pees She gets on her knees and sucks my cock in the crown v Got the sergeant slobbing all over my knob I fucked the sheriff and then I fucked his mom The warden gave me a blowjob My fat dick in his mouth, like a corncob Like eggnog, bust in his mouth like eggnog Bullfrog, choking on my balls like a bullfrog A cog in my dick, in her face like an a cog Big log, handcuffed while I give her my big log And I fucked the canine too Fucked him in the ass and filled him with my goo Then I ate his poo, while I smoked gas like a jew Who are you? I don't care unless we're gonna screw
James = James but with less personality Max = an actual character with an actual backstory Echo = the most annoying excuse for a plot device this show could've come up with
lemme word it better James: literally James but he’s kind of a dick towards others and doesn’t try to be youtube self Max: An actual character who at least doesn’t sound like an oc of someone Echo: where did i leave my netherite sword at
I think the main problem I have with Oddballs is that it’s just too… kiddie. Usually I don’t mind watching cartoons, but it’s so obvious that this show is only geared towards one demographic, and that’s James’ kid fans. And while there’s nothing wrong with kids liking the show, I just can’t bring myself to watch it because it’s nothing like James’ original content. What I love about James’ content is that it’s relatable to not only younger audiences, but older ones as well. If the show wasn’t linked to James so much or had him as the main character, I probably wouldn’t mind, but it’s just not for me.
It’s kiddie, but not enough to actually be enjoyable/cute/nostalgic for adults. Bluey’s a good example. That show’s clearly for toddlers but there’s plenty of humor, good music, and visuals for parents and siblings to enjoy. Plus it almost brings you back to your own young childhood and look fondly at how simple life was.
@@KlutzyNinjaKitty The only thing I know about that show is that a background artist put in stylised versions of two streamers I watch. And also that it's Australian, I think.
The best way I can describe Oddballs is this: James got asked to make a show, he has no idea, he looks through his old comics and videos, takes a bunch of the character designs from them along with his avatar, he crams them into a default town setting, steals plots from other cartoons, does nothing else, and calls it a day.
My revamped list of the series. Positive things. 1. Max the Crocodile is a somewhat enjoyable. He is the Ed combination with Leatherhead strength. 2. Maz is a stereotypical goth. But, it is refreshing she is actually reasonable and shown to be nice when needed. 3. The animation is good and sound effects is decent. Negative things 1. James doesn't seem very appealing as a character, comes off as egotistical and cowardly. The rants he does is seem very off and the delivery of the rants felt unearned or hypocritical at times. 2. Echo. Kim Brooks should've made a hard pass on this character. Echo has this Tuffy the Munchkin from The Tom & Jerry: Wizard of Oz's "I'm better than you" personality. 3. Most of the characters ranged okay to generic. Even Crash Nebula Origin Special episode has good background character designs than this series. All of seem either misplaced in the wrong series. Also, it is very weird that Max's Sister is not a crocodile or alligator. Max's Sister feel like a "James needs a Love Interest" trope. 4. The Plot seem very out of order, the premise feels very disjointed and really suffer a identity crisis. Weird how Regular Show has miscellaneous characters that are grounded and fantastic events in reality time to time. But, still entertaining and giving actual life lessons for anyone when you don't expected. Oddballs just going through whatever it can think about for random episodes. Conclusion Don't hate the series, just wished it didn't felt so okay response. Hoping the series will get better or simply replace with Odds1Out shorts. The Odds1Out shorts seem like potential opportunity to make into a series, it will keep budget at easy and making characters will be easier for the animators.
James no longer feels like this relatable guy who used to tell stories for fun and talk about how fun life can be just by telling some of his own stories Nowadays he feels like a brand, with new toys, games, plushies etc. It all feels so artificial and Oddballs is a good example of what i mean
Ikr. Even though I’ve never watched James’s content (aside from the clips of his show that I’ve seen from this very video), I personally think it gives off the disappointing aura of boiled chicken. Sure, it’s bland, but it’s FDA approved and safe to eat, right?
It's pretty odd that Odds1out finally moved his mouth when he's fully animated compared to his storytime videos. The _Oddballs_ show is pretty much like a standard 2010s Cartoon Network show but with James' avatar being the star.
@@poweroffriendship2.0 You're probably the minority because I just watched a video of Let Me Explain Studios and it looks like another person is talking while a character on the screen moves around.
Ima stop you right there buddy, 2010s cartoon network shows are amazing, I'm not saying oddballs is bad, but I'm saying oddballs and Adventure time are not a fair comparison.
Echo is probably my biggest complaint in the show. I absoutely have no problem at all with Kim Brooks, her voice actress, she does fine for the role and gives it her all. As a character though, she’s very unlikable in my opinion. She’s the kind of person who will only do something helpful if the main characters basically admit she’s right about whatever argument they’re disputing. That seems to be her character as a whole. The episode where she moves in with James…God, that was hard to sit through without wanting to punch something.
I understand what you're saying echo does have a problem of being too arrogant and selfish I understand the point of the episode was that James should have told echo how he feels but she took things too far it wasn't until she took over his stuff as hers did she finally notice something was wrong with James
i don’t like her character designs either in fact all of them are bad i wish they were all bubble characters like james so it can feel like a real video from the odd1out
I really think James shot himself in the foot by making his persona the main character of the show. It really should have been someone else. It makes no since seeing someone who talks about mundane life stuff go through wacky adventures like it's normal for him. Also WHY IS HE THE ONLY ONE WHO LOOKS LIKE THAT! All the other human characters look completely different than him, it really feels like James only put his persona in because it was recognizable.
@NoName I think the show's art style was trying to be like the Amazing world of gumball like every character looks like a main character if they had their own show
It’s a pretty good show for kids and non fans but if you’re a fan of James’ other works you’ll likely be disappointed. Odd1sout just kinda feels like a brand now that makes content
The storytime animation era peaked when SrPelo roasted every single one of them in a single video. Now only a fraction of them still make videos, and a fraction of those are still relevant enough to consistently get views.
That's legit Pelo's magnum opus it's ridiculously in depth with it's research of the different channels and references and is thoroughly hilarious throughout.
Plus many of them also started doing different stuff too, such as Jaiden and her storytimes focusing more on her let's plays and speed runs. Along with Erold Story running a clothing shop online w/ some other artists. The rest seem to be doing fine, but not as much storytime content as before. TL;DR: Many of them moved on to greener pastures, ig
The clashing styles feels like it's trying to do what Amazing World of Gumball did, but each character in that show had so much personality and it just worked.
I think there’s kinda a core lack of identity. It feels like it was made without a pilot. The first episode also isn’t that good at introducing the show. The second episode would work way better as a first imo. It introduces basically everything the first did but the additional things it also introduces adds a lot more context.
for me the big problem was that it felt like it was trying too hard to be a kids show. it obviously is, but it just seemed too "googoo gaga" if that makes sense. it's almost manic in how many jokes and slapstick they try to cram in a single episode to make people laugh
@@st4rp0p except the chaos is just... boring.. like someone shuffling a deck of cards kind of chaos. Without any stylish shuffling or card-related magic trick.
In all fairness, James Rolfe has always been more of a film enthusiast than a videogame fan. He loves old Horror movies and Kaiju films, and made many short movies when he was younger. I can understand why he would use his most popular character as a platform to make his own feature-lenght film. It honestly makes the fact that the AVGN movie turned out so underwhelming all the more dissappointing.
It has the most passion put into it because of the passion James (AVGN) has in film itself. That alone makes it better than 100% of the other garbage. Yeah I said 100
Plot and story aside. I think it's fine when you consider James probably had a blast working on it. You can tell that from alot of the effects alone, which harken back to the movies he always likes to talk about.
I had NO idea the main character was supposed to be a kid, I thought it was literally just Odd1sOut himself in his mid-20s. Rather odd change to make lmao.
Thank you, it feels like every youtuber talking about this series is being weirdly postive about it, nothing wrong in liking this show, but i feel like people kinda being too... genrous with this show
bc u guys expecct them to bc wonder master peices with deep plots and characters when all cartoons are ment to be is just for entertainment and if it succeeds in tbat then its just fine not every cartoon has to have detailed story telling
Haven't gotten super far into the video yet but the Don't Hug Me I'm Scared TV show that came out recently is another great example of stuff from youtube making the jump to TV and actually being really good.
I wanna say Dick Figures the Movie was another great example of how you up the ante because the people behind the show were actual animators and made the movie more epic and actually character driven
I think what makes me most uncomfortable is how it feels like an adult running around with imaginary friends. Like, maybe it's just a problem as one of his viewers from back in the day, but I completely associate the James character with James the adult due to his storytelling online. And now I'm supposed to believe that the James from the show is a child in school? Idk, it makes me feel weird watching the show.
Yeah. James is a grown man and sounds like one, so I was suprised when he turned out to be a kid with parents in ep.2. First episode kinda suggested they were two dudes living alone doing shenanigans.
@Freesmart how is that a problem bro? I never really had a problem with it, but you can kind of picture why people would find odd1sout's character is so out of place compared to everyone else (it sort of makes sense that the crocodile wouldn't sound that much like a child, but for james it's just so off
That would honestly be a really funny premise or even plot reveal, hell maybe have the town be some weird ass fantasy land James can just jump into, which would better explain the utter chaos of the character designs. Or this entire thing was an experiment to see the unfiltered mind of a man with a child-like imagination. Man now I really want to see that.
I definitely agree with the inconsistent art style. For Season 2, the show should definitely borrow from Drawn Together or The Amazing World of Gumball.
While I know it probably didn't happen. I would believe it, if I was told somebody pitched this show as " Gumball, but with james in it", and then they couldn't really capture why Gumball was great.
I did use to quite like TheOddOnesOut, mostly when I was a child and his videos were less refined. But as the videos become more produced and streamlined they kinda.. lost their flavor, James was never *super* expressive either way
he stopped drawing them at all like... i don't know, 4 years ago? he get's 20+ other people to do them, inclduing Airoah and Rushlight, who are actual animators.
@@DaKingKayden that's what i've been saying for a LONG time now, it feels so soulless and corporate, i feel like im just throwing examples out but jaiden's yt channel feels more human
My conspiracy theory without a lot of basis is that James wanted to brand himself more or with a strong punch he didn't change anything about him so he would be more recognizable within a certain demographic, so it was a decision that'd benefit him rather than the show
It’s a shame that James dumbed down his show to only suit his kid audience. If I were James, I would have made a show that bridged a middle ground between appealing to kids and appealing to adults simultaneously.
I'm surprised you didn't mention how terrible Echo is besides that one line. Like she does whatever she wants and gets almost no consequences for it. Even though I still enjoyed the show for what is some of my least favorite moments in the whole show usually involved her.
I don't wanna be that person, but it really speaks to the character of Netflix executives when a character that acts and looks like her can be found in several kids' shows.
Ive watched James since 2016, and i gotta say i miss his old, under produced animation style. It fit with the "everyday relatable style" that people look for in the stories that he shared.
James' new content, when I first watched him, way before he added animation to his videos, they were actually enjoyable and not so marketed to kids, anyone could enjoy the videos. Now mans is just a corporate identity.
Honestly the best way I could describe watching this was that it's Great Value Amazing world of Gumball Having a setting with a ton of random characters and telling an entirely different thing each episode just without any of the heart gumball had
It's obvious Netflix wanted this to be their Gumball and I agree Max should've been the star, but the show isn't that bad. Let's see what happens in season 2 when the plot picks up.
It’s a shame that due to the chaos at Netflix this show probably won’t get a chance to grow and become an actor that’s better suited to the tv format and be able to diversify from his RUclips self
Oddballs looks like every other cartoon just with Odd1sOut slapped on at the last minute, would’ve intrigued me more if all the other characters shared the same art style.
The only thing I learned about this show thanks to Spilling the Milk watching it so I don't have to is that james has a fascination for giving himself the cake of all time.
I feel like James has gone in that weird area a lot of popular indie games go (bendy and the ink machine, fnaf, ect) where they just take and do every single merchandise or deal possible, plushies, card game, mobile game, board game, figures, toys, shirts, hats, and now a tv show. It’s just overwhelming, it feels like the entire channel has became this strange brand that just exists to profit off an audience, he rarely even makes videos anymore because he doesn’t have to
@Freesmart your so right! That’s such a good comparison, I love FNAF but I just meant like that there’s an over abundance of merch and a lot of it is pretty cheap
@Freesmart yes but it's slowly starting to go there with security breach whether you love or hate it you can't deny it was the point where the franchise started becoming more safe and kiddy.
@Freesmart you could be right not trying to shot down that statement but judging of SB success I wouldn't be surprised if they go down this path of the games being kiddy and safe.
The biggest issue with James overall is that hes just become so corporate, he's basically his own brand now, instead of making one or just posting merch once in a while, he is practically ryans world but for a little more mature audiences
Every single time I see Just Stop’s character in his room, I can’t stop looking at the window. The sun rises every single time and it is super distracting once you notice it. The more I look at it, the more it bothers me. It would be a cool little Easter egg to have the position of the sun indicate how far into the video you are without bothering to tap the mouse or screen to see instead of a repetitive aesthetic choice.
In defense of AVGN Movie: From what I could gather, James of AVGN grew up and was influenced by legacy media, so building his way to a movie always seemed to be a goal of his. It should be noted the Angry Video Game Nerd persona pre dates RUclips itself.
Yeahhhh... My original thought upon seeing the trailer was "Damn, that's cool, I'm happy for James. It looks really bad and I will not be watching it."
maybe this show would have worked better if it was similar to Midnight Golspel, have the people voicing the characters going on rants that would obviously call back to how he's a story time animator, and then have the animation be it's own story, I think this approach could have worked better
it turned out bad because he thought it was is only chance to make a movie and wanted to insert absolutely everything he liked into one movie, creating an incoherent mess.
I used to really enjoy how he took seemingly mundane situations that average unassuming people like me could relate to and made them entertaining. Like his subway videos, grade school class books, PE, or annoying roommates. The show really lacks that relatability and that why I feel so meh.
Something sad is that even if the show was good, I do think people wouldn’t hold out hope for more seasons after the animation purge at Netflix. I think it would've fun if James made the show like his storytime videos but they get more and more ridiculous as they episode goes on like if Mordecai and/or Rigby did Storytime animations about their experiences at the park.
I think the biggest problem is that so many of these guys aren't creatives, they aren't storytellers, they get the chance to create in ahead of people who have something to say or a story to tell just because they're the cash cow of the day.
Smiling Friends and Don't Hug Me I'm Scared are two great recent examples of RUclipsrs jumping to mainstream television. When ecelebs were doing it 10+ years ago it was brand new territory, and they would give in completely to companies to make creative decisions for them, using their name and face to draw in viewers which is why self-inserts were so common.
I think oddballs was a show packed full to the brim with potential, however ultimately fell short due to it wanting to market entertainment to the 5-9 year old's that watch James's channel. I think that having James play himself in the show was definitely more than just James thinking it would be cool if he was in a TV show, and I wouldn't be surprised if when creating the concept of oddballs, the team couldn't think of a main character that could work well for the shows dynamic (because it's so chaotic, but not in an "organized chaos" like The Amazing World of Gumball, the earlier seasons of Spongebob Squarepants, or Adventure time), or they were torn between two character concepts, being James and an entertaining character, but the team wanted to do something that was safe for marketing, so they chose to have James be the main character, which from a marketing prospective is smart, since most kids just want to see their favorite RUclipsr bounce around on their TV screen, with a more fluid animation, but isn't conceptually or visually entertaining unfortunately for anyone else. I think that episode 1 alone had some of the best set ups for jokes in kids television I've ever seen, honestly rivaling (though not surpassing) Spongebob, however they completely destroyed execution by making it easy for children to digest and understand, instead of being clever. In my opinion, Oddballs should have made James's (the character) animation more fluid to compensate for his visual staleness, and use captivating animation to intrigue kids, their primary consumer audience, because most kids just watch TV shows for entertaining visuals, and maybe a bit of the story, however used witty, clever, and even a bit crass jokes to captivate older audiences. I know I would have been a lot more entertained if in the first episode when Max got impaled by toast for example, if him and James had a whole panic attack and started acting mildly irrational, while in the background we saw some clever visual comedy that wasn't shoved in our faces, like maybe someone just kicks Toasty over, killing it, and it was just that easy. A lot of their jokes had me rolling my eyes, but there were a few good ones that made watching the episodes mildly worth it, but overall I think the show was very weird and many choices were certainly made for marketing purposes, and kind of ruined the shows integrity. I do think that James (the person) is clever and funny in his RUclips video's, and could definitely produce something better than Oddballs if he actually tried to make a witty show, because I did see (as stated before) great comedic setups, but the execution was poor and designed for children
I found the show to be... meh. It'll probably pass into obscurity. My main complaint is they used the crappy "Annoying House Guest that Won't Leave" trope that most cartoons have.
It kinda feels like they tried to make The Amazing World of Gumball, but didn’t really understand what made that show work. Edit: It’d be cool if the premise was that James and his family (or just James) is considered to be odd, since they themselves are ‘normal’ from our perspective, while the world around them is ‘odd’ since it’s not like ours. It’d allow them to go for crazy ideas; allow a dynamic where his best friend follows the “odd world” culture, while James follows his own culture that’s much like ours. Maybe he could be the conflict for most or some episodes, where his culture clashes with the “odd world” and vice versa. Probably a god awful idea, but it’s better than what looks to be a copy of Gumball.
If remember correctly, FRED had a cameo in iCarly before getting his own movie. Useless facts aside, I knew exactly what to expect as soon as James showed this on his channel.
same. I literally wrote in the comments UNDER THE ANNOUNCMENT TRAILER that this could be bad and we shouldn't let our guards down. nobody listened. and look where we are now.
And if I remember correctly, that iCarly episode was also kind of a head of its time. Because the plot centered around “Internet celebrity drama”, where one gets hate for not liking the other and getting a response video that overdramatized the event, which in the end turned out to have been nothing more than outrage marketing and fake beef for more audience engagement. That wasn’t a thing back in like 2009-2010, or at least not as popular as nowadays. So, it’s kinda fascinating
@@frankwest5388 It was a better time for me. A time before Nickcoms stopped being funny. A time before my memory of those same Nickcoms had become tainted by knowledge of what Dan Shneider was doing behind the scenes. It was glorious!🤣
Thanks for making this video. I remember watching James back when he was pretty niche back in middle school but something about this show seemed so off, but I couldn't bring myself to watch it, so having someone sit down and give commentary while I can do something else in the foreground is pretty helpful.
If he really wanted to portray the fact that he's a kid in this show, he should have added that propeller hat to the design like he does on his channel whenever he talks about himself as a kid.
All I’ll say is it’s not bad for a first attempt, like a 6 out of ten, something to watch once, enjoy it somewhat, and then forget about it for a while
What made me think that Oddballs are weird is the cast and the fact that James is in it. It's very weird to see James, who we associate with an actual artist, with a talking crocodile, giant cactus and an evil toaster. It's like James's dream or self insert fan fiction. It just feels odd. (pun intended)
One thing I've noticed, as an active fan of the Odds1out for a while, is it feels like he's gotten more. . .immature, almost. I don't know fi that's the right word for it, but it feels like he's forcing a lot of his jokes to be wilder and wackier then the situations they're in. I mean, compare one of his original soobway video with one of his newer ones. And I don't think it's necessarily bad for his youtube channel, but I don't think it works really well with the show. Maybe a fun way he could've taken the show to be inline with his channel is voicing all of the characters related to his family (doing the mom and dad voice). Focus more on the science bits, and perhaps have his friendship with Max make him question if he is an experiment or not. There are so many ideas, but hearing about the episodes, it feels like it's meant for a much younger audience then those who grew up watching him.
It just feels random for the sake of random. The character designs don't really feel right. They feel like clip-art and not main characters in a show. You can't tell anything about them based on their designs.
@@nomiibox Different art styles can work in a show (The Amazing World of Gumball, DHMIS, Drawn Together, Code Lyoko, Kappa Mikey), but they should have done different art styles for each character to make them more "oddbally." They have the same clean boring art style with no personality apart from comedic disturbing face. For a show called Oddballs, no one is crazy or odd. It's just generic.
Somehow I felt this was destined to happen. James' style works mainly because his videos are about life experiences narrated in an entertaining way. So while his cartoony character is simple and fun is also normally attached to grounded stories. Watching it unfold with this Spongebob-esque writing feels off.
We lost the Bone and Wings of Fire adaptations for this. Two adaptations that could've been like Arcane in terms of quality while also offering something to tween-teen audiences. But, nah, gotta get that kiddie show money I guess...
On the topic of not having an art style, smiling friends pulls that off way better, mostly because Zach and Mike weren’t afraid to go their own ways for it but you can still tell what was drawn by who. Smiling friends looks like a mish mash of two people’s ideas that works bc their styles are complimentary. Oddballs looks like everyone on the team was told to do whatever they want, and while some compliment each other, most clash.
I'm probably the minority here, because despite Odd1sOut being a major content creator when I was a pre-teen, I never really was that big of a fan. However, there is a clear difference between his old and new content, and I think it corresponds to this show. For those who don't know, Duolingo is a business that posts videos on TikTok to gain relevancy and this has definitely worked in their favour. However, it does not work well as "promotion" for their brand in the long run because a huge part of their identity is now built on being relevant and current. Now people are associating Duolingo with less on what their business is about, and more on what they post online. It's promotion and advertising that completely defeats the purpose of what promotion and advertising is meant for. The reason why Duolingo is referenced is because it feels similar to what TheOdd1sOut is going through. Seeing success for a long time, it is expected that James would make this RUclips content creator thing his own job aka a business. He has a lot more people to help him animate now - hell his older videos couldn't even be counted as animation. And you can feel that James has shifted his content appeal demographic towards the younger audiences, with more hip Internet meme references (for better or worse), exaggerated faces, fluid animation, over-stimulation, and even James' personality has changed from being overall introverted and less animated to...well extroverted. But again, his whole appeal thing isn't sustainable. Him trying to act cool and fit in with those Internet references isn't something a person can do long-term as a career, let alone being pressurized to pump out content on a frequent basis. At one point he will be too fatigued to continue at such a rate, and managing his merchandise, mobile game, board game, and going to RUclips content creator conventions will only tire him further as long as his subscriber count continues to rise. Sorry not sorry to the immature fans, but your idol has sold himself out. What lingers is another Duolingo copycat trying to sustain its appeal by relevancy, but without a well-structured roadmap. Oddballs matches the condition of TheOdd1sOut now, a dangerously unsustainable solution to continue getting that sweet viewership to maintain relevancy. James is trying to act as someone he isn't. He started out as a RUclips content creator telling stories for the sake of entertainment, now he's apparently going on wacky adventures in his new Netflix show. Oddballs in general feel too uninteresting for people who didn't grow up with TheOdd1sOut (it's another one of those "main character goes on wacky adventures per episode" kind of media), and too ingenuine for the people who actively watched his original content.
James fell off man, he used to be genuine and passionate about his work. It always felt like he had a story to tell whenever making a new video. However... Nowadays he just feels like a soulless brand with no real intent to treat his audience with intelligence, but rather with the intention to empty their wallets. There's nothing wrong with wanting to profit from your work, but when that's all you wanna do, people will begin to drive away from it since your work stops feeling like a passion work and instead feels like a corporate product. People who say OddBalls is something James TRULY wanted to do to a point it was a "passion work", from a personal perspective... It doesn't feel like such. When an artist is passionate about a product, it's easy to say it's been something they've wanted to do for the longest, as they do it all to their best intent and efforts. Smiling Friends is such a good example of when an artist produces something out of truthful passion rather than to "just get it done for the audience", which is what OddBalls feels like it's doing sadly.
@@isaywhateveriwantandyougot7421 Or the Channel Awesome people trying to direct and make a movie. Same with DarksydePhill and whatever his old Project 7 thing was.
I honestly found Oddballs harmless fun. Though it is feels very safe. Like the tone and performances feel like another episode of Odd1sOut's RUclips videos. Also the slime guy isnt a literal demon. He is a slime. Thats it
People in the animation community always say that they're "just a guy". But where do you draw the line between person, and a brand? The only real reason people are watching the show is because kids see their favourite RUclipsr on it. Not because it's a good show.
@@augustswater7845 His cartoon character is a representation of himself. My main point is people don't buy his merchandise or watch his show because it's good, but because it has their favourite RUclipsr on it. It's branding. He's using himself as the brand. Don't take things so literally.
Yuh it’s a little Underwhelming, but everything looks adorable and some of the jokes like when it showed a hyper realistic shot of a Max would get me exhaling through my nose
Yeah I've seen clip videos of I think the first episode and the scenes made me genuinely laugh. One with tricking the Gator to attack a mailman by playing the generic ice cream truck song is a mood. That is me when I hear the ice cream man.
Honestly outside of having James himself in the cartoon, this overall feels like a generic show you’d find on Nickelodeon aimed at younger audiences like Sanjay and Craig or Breadwinners. There’s nothing remotely interesting or memorable about it, and it feels like it just feels like it completes an arbitrary checklist of what to include in a kid’s show instead of being a great cartoon in its own right. I’m admittedly not familiar with James’s content, so I’m sure he’s a good guy, but this just goes to show that just because you want to do something doesn’t necessarily mean you should. Since while I can commend him for getting this series greenlit and made in the first place, something many peeps nowadays find it very hard to do (especially with how terrible animation has been treated by the executives at HBO Max and even Netflix as of late), this overall just feels like, as I said, any generic kid’s show instead of an actual passion project.
People really thought this was going to be good? James couldn’t even be bothered to make a good board game or book something that requires infinitely less effort to get right.
I feel like aesthetically, with all these different designs of the characters, this show desperately want to be like Amazing World of Gumball, without understanding what makes that design choice work
watching this review reminds me of back in junior high, when I asked my writing teacher, "if there's such a thing as first person and third person, is there such a thing as second person?" and she told me no. this show would've been interesting if it were from James' perspective, but he were just a sidekick witnessing what happens to Max.
I "enjoyed" his show. But your break down makes me understand why I didn't love it lol. Hopefully he sees this and can use this video to make a better storyline
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Max have the same problems with ruby rose from RWBY where they take everything good about a character and don't use it so then can make the self-interest character look good.
There is another show another RUclips series that you forgot to mention or maybe you didn't know and that is don't hug me I'm scared which now is officially ATV series and want to know what to do with that
sadly AVGN made movie himself backup with the fans, no executive came to his door said "want a movie?" James took Film in school it was his dream to make movie, to bad he made really bad B movie.
@@Tediez_the_honored_one I think I just had a stroke reading this
It’s weird that James didn’t draw himself with a propeller beanie. That’s what he usually does to convey his lil blob sona is a child
YOO THAT WOULDVE BEEN SO AWSOME
yeah but then you wouldn't be immediately able to tell that it's james.
Look it's james, you wanna watch HIS show!
Fr
That would’ve actually been genius
@@nuggetanimation7217 FR
The thing is, a city run by scientists in the middle-of-nowhere desert where all the kids and teens are living experiments is a phenomenal premise for a show. I can see a lot of potential there, both for intrigue and comedy. Like you mentioned, Max the Crocodile is a good example of this; an experiment that his parents see only as an experiment and nothing more would make for great drama and some funny jokes. I would love to watch a show about that, but it's obvious that's not what this show is about. It definitely feels like an afterthought, James thinking "hey I wanna make a show with a ton of clashing characters" first and then the setting second, which makes everything come off as boring and a wasted opportunity.
isn’t that already the premise for some book? masterminds or whatever, hinges on the same one except they’re all kids of gta protagonists lol
if that's the premise didn't clone high did that almost but it's just for a school not whole city i think?
@@harsh_here5695 well you're partially right, clone high had characters based off of actual people, while this had original (non intriguing) characters. I think clone high being based around historical people is a huge differentiator
Yeah i think such a premise would make a great show aimed for adults
Another show that dealt with a town created by scientists that I recall is Eureka.
I think the biggest issue with the show is that James is trying to seem to be hip cool and relatable but in reality it just fails to do that
The show is pretty much like a standard Cartoon Network show.
If you told someone who has never watched a cartoon before to describe one, this feels like what they would describe. It feels like something someone would make to parody a bad modern cartoon but played straight.
Fred all over again
this is more of a personal thing but when he would say things like "choccy milk" I wanted to forget what I just watched
@@Jonathan-us1qu this is one of the few situations where I think the word "cringe" is an appropriate description of how it felt to hear that
Also to bring up the random character designs, another show that does this very well is the Amazing World of Gumball. Gumball’s premise is that it’s a universe full of rejected cartoon characters, so it makes sense why all the characters look completely different from eachother, but the characters also have their own stories and life that help fit their designs, a character like Tina is supposed to be the school bully, so she’s made into a giant T-Rex. Here in Oddballs, like you said, most of the character designs are made to be eye Candy.
This show does look like it's trying to copy Gumball, without understanding why Gumball worked
I was wondering why he didn't bring up TAWOG, it's pretty obvious that it's the main influence behind the odd design choices. Shame they didn't do much with them, some of these designs are pretty nice.
@@flyingpiggles1034 The show feels like a bizarre mashup of Dan vs. and The Amazing World of Gumball that just ends up falling flat.
That premise was actually abandoned. It's more of a regular shenanigans show, which is in fact closer to oddball premise
I don't remember that being the premise to Gumball tbh so I kinda always assumed it was just for gags in there too or at the very least to have interesting designs
What I love about Smiling friends is that the humor, charm, aesthetic, and even the character designs all feel unique yet still screams Psychicpebbles. It is it’s own thing and it doesn’t try to pander to anyone, yet it somehow gains an audience. This show feels like it’s suffering from an identity crisis.
Yup I agree with this. The art style is all over the place
@Freesmart Number 15… could I get the number 15?
oddballs and smiling friends are polar opposites like damn i appreciate smiling friends alot more now that i've seen this boring show
Fuck the police, literally
I'm gonna put my dick in the deputy
I put my dick right where she pees
She gets on her knees and sucks my cock in the crown v
Got the sergeant slobbing all over my knob
I fucked the sheriff and then I fucked his mom
The warden gave me a blowjob
My fat dick in his mouth, like a corncob
Like eggnog, bust in his mouth like eggnog
Bullfrog, choking on my balls like a bullfrog
A cog in my dick, in her face like an a cog
Big log, handcuffed while I give her my big log
And I fucked the canine too
Fucked him in the ass and filled him with my goo
Then I ate his poo, while I smoked gas like a jew
Who are you? I don't care unless we're gonna screw
Yup if you try to appeal to everyone you always end up appealing to no one.
James = James but with less personality
Max = an actual character with an actual backstory
Echo = the most annoying excuse for a plot device this show could've come up with
lemme word it better
James: literally James but he’s kind of a dick towards others and doesn’t try to be youtube self
Max: An actual character who at least doesn’t sound like an oc of someone
Echo: where did i leave my netherite sword at
Echo is annoying af
Satisfying, reading this thread when I thought the exact same thing myself.
Literally Echo is so annoying she’s like that one little kid that acts bratty for no reason
@Sentiental yep. Definitely. Especially in episode seven
I think the main problem I have with Oddballs is that it’s just too… kiddie. Usually I don’t mind watching cartoons, but it’s so obvious that this show is only geared towards one demographic, and that’s James’ kid fans. And while there’s nothing wrong with kids liking the show, I just can’t bring myself to watch it because it’s nothing like James’ original content. What I love about James’ content is that it’s relatable to not only younger audiences, but older ones as well. If the show wasn’t linked to James so much or had him as the main character, I probably wouldn’t mind, but it’s just not for me.
It’s reminds me of early adventure time episodes tbh. I can sit through it it’s fine to me.
Yeah I think its enjoyable enough but the marketing seems like it was for kids
It’s kiddie, but not enough to actually be enjoyable/cute/nostalgic for adults. Bluey’s a good example. That show’s clearly for toddlers but there’s plenty of humor, good music, and visuals for parents and siblings to enjoy. Plus it almost brings you back to your own young childhood and look fondly at how simple life was.
@@KlutzyNinjaKitty
The only thing I know about that show is that a background artist put in stylised versions of two streamers I watch.
And also that it's Australian, I think.
I tried watching it but it didn’t catch my interest because as you said above it is directed to his kid audience
The best way I can describe Oddballs is this:
James got asked to make a show, he has no idea, he looks through his old comics and videos, takes a bunch of the character designs from them along with his avatar, he crams them into a default town setting, steals plots from other cartoons, does nothing else, and calls it a day.
This list analysis took while to take depth research what Oddballs ideas seem to be "Inspired" from other schools series.
This series is fine.
Just mediocre at best.
My revamped list of the series.
Positive things.
1. Max the Crocodile is a somewhat enjoyable. He is the Ed combination with Leatherhead strength.
2. Maz is a stereotypical goth. But, it is refreshing she is actually reasonable and shown to be nice when needed.
3. The animation is good and sound effects is decent.
Negative things
1. James doesn't seem very appealing as a character, comes off as egotistical and cowardly. The rants he does is seem very off and the delivery of the rants felt unearned or hypocritical at times.
2. Echo. Kim Brooks should've made a hard pass on this character. Echo has this Tuffy the Munchkin from The Tom & Jerry: Wizard of Oz's "I'm better than you" personality.
3. Most of the characters ranged okay to generic. Even Crash Nebula Origin Special episode has good background character designs than this series. All of seem either misplaced in the wrong series. Also, it is very weird that Max's Sister is not a crocodile or alligator. Max's Sister feel like a "James needs a Love Interest" trope.
4. The Plot seem very out of order, the premise feels very disjointed and
really suffer a identity crisis. Weird how Regular Show has miscellaneous characters that are grounded and fantastic events in reality time to time. But, still entertaining and giving actual life lessons for anyone when you don't expected. Oddballs just going through whatever it can think about for random episodes.
Conclusion
Don't hate the series, just wished it didn't felt so okay response.
Hoping the series will get better or simply replace with Odds1Out shorts.
The Odds1Out shorts seem like potential opportunity to make into a series, it will keep budget at easy and making characters will be easier for the animators.
Yessssssssssss
James wasn’t asked to. He was the one who asked.
OddBall isn't odd enough to stand out, but it's so odd that begins to hurt the show itself.
I disagree I find the show to be pretty amazing
AG
Realmente
@@animezilla4486 unless you're under the age of 10 then no
@@samiam2003 Let them have their opinion
James no longer feels like this relatable guy who used to tell stories for fun and talk about how fun life can be just by telling some of his own stories
Nowadays he feels like a brand, with new toys, games, plushies etc. It all feels so artificial and Oddballs is a good example of what i mean
Ikr. Even though I’ve never watched James’s content (aside from the clips of his show that I’ve seen from this very video), I personally think it gives off the disappointing aura of boiled chicken. Sure, it’s bland, but it’s FDA approved and safe to eat, right?
@@ablancer3582 this is the best analogy ever
@@fuck_around_and_theerios he fell off
@@ablancer3582 Pretty much sums up his content now - "Boiled for safety"
relatable?
It's pretty odd that Odds1out finally moved his mouth when he's fully animated compared to his storytime videos. The _Oddballs_ show is pretty much like a standard 2010s Cartoon Network show but with James' avatar being the star.
I don't know, it seems natural to me. In his storytime videos, I just imagined his mouth moving, and it felt real.
@@christophercampbell6884 I feel the same thing with Let Me Explained Studios except that she has no mouth.
@@poweroffriendship2.0 You're probably the minority because I just watched a video of Let Me Explain Studios and it looks like another person is talking while a character on the screen moves around.
Ima stop you right there buddy, 2010s cartoon network shows are amazing, I'm not saying oddballs is bad, but I'm saying oddballs and Adventure time are not a fair comparison.
not all. ttg for example
Echo is probably my biggest complaint in the show. I absoutely have no problem at all with Kim Brooks, her voice actress, she does fine for the role and gives it her all. As a character though, she’s very unlikable in my opinion. She’s the kind of person who will only do something helpful if the main characters basically admit she’s right about whatever argument they’re disputing. That seems to be her character as a whole. The episode where she moves in with James…God, that was hard to sit through without wanting to punch something.
FINALLY someone is talking about the episode where echo moves in with him
I understand what you're saying echo does have a problem of being too arrogant and selfish I understand the point of the episode was that James should have told echo how he feels but she took things too far it wasn't until she took over his stuff as hers did she finally notice something was wrong with James
i don’t like her character designs either in fact all of them are bad i wish they were all bubble characters like james so it can feel like a real video from the odd1out
@@nuggetanimation7217 I have not watched the show and just from the trailer alone I looked at Max and wonder..
"Who the fuck is this?"
@@whenyououynehw9338 i kinda like that max is an alligator/crocodile cuz if u see in james earlier video his friend group always had a alligator in it
I really think James shot himself in the foot by making his persona the main character of the show. It really should have been someone else. It makes no since seeing someone who talks about mundane life stuff go through wacky adventures like it's normal for him. Also WHY IS HE THE ONLY ONE WHO LOOKS LIKE THAT! All the other human characters look completely different than him, it really feels like James only put his persona in because it was recognizable.
Pretty sure that’s the exact reason and it’s a cartoon dude the other main character is a talking crocodile.
@Freesmart
Cartoons have these things called art styles
and a vision
that this very clearly doesn’t have
@NoName I think the show's art style was trying to be like the Amazing world of gumball like every character looks like a main character if they had their own show
You might say he's the odd one out
@@WinterNix *Amazing World of Gumball
Honestly, to make him actually seem younger, should've added the rainbow propeller hat.
That's actually genius
@@soap_eater4517 Exactly. Don't know if James (irl) proposed the idea and was denied or if he legit just didn't think of it
It’s a pretty good show for kids and non fans but if you’re a fan of James’ other works you’ll likely be disappointed. Odd1sout just kinda feels like a brand now that makes content
@Freesmart I liked the show but it’s just nothing special
@Freesmart Curious. Have you seen Owl house? What is your problem with those shows? Is it because it has a over arching plot?
@@zonebro6205 i think they just tired of the same formula of stort being used and want something more casual like Cuphead Show
@Freesmart Well I can somewhat understand Owl house, but why not Steven Universe? That show is funny
@Freesmart What about Adventure time? That show is funny as fuck.
The storytime animation era peaked when SrPelo roasted every single one of them in a single video. Now only a fraction of them still make videos, and a fraction of those are still relevant enough to consistently get views.
what’s also great of the video is that he has no bias in the video,even making fun of the the critics…
What I heard from this, is that most of their careers where roasted by a screaming mexican
That's legit Pelo's magnum opus it's ridiculously in depth with it's research of the different channels and references and is thoroughly hilarious throughout.
Plus many of them also started doing different stuff too, such as Jaiden and her storytimes focusing more on her let's plays and speed runs. Along with Erold Story running a clothing shop online w/ some other artists. The rest seem to be doing fine, but not as much storytime content as before.
TL;DR: Many of them moved on to greener pastures, ig
Where can I find that video
My main problem with this show is that it plays things too safe.
So, corporatized?
I think that’s the main problem with TheOdds1Out these days. He’s a brand not a person anymore.
Sorry but I haven't watched it but I thought it was suppose to be that cause its for kids?
@@BlazydayZ there are a lot of modern kids shows that aren't this safe🤨
@Freesmart I am curious what kind of risk you think he should be taking
The clashing styles feels like it's trying to do what Amazing World of Gumball did, but each character in that show had so much personality and it just worked.
I think there’s kinda a core lack of identity. It feels like it was made without a pilot. The first episode also isn’t that good at introducing the show. The second episode would work way better as a first imo. It introduces basically everything the first did but the additional things it also introduces adds a lot more context.
I feel like they were expecting the show to be accepted
for me the big problem was that it felt like it was trying too hard to be a kids show. it obviously is, but it just seemed too "googoo gaga" if that makes sense. it's almost manic in how many jokes and slapstick they try to cram in a single episode to make people laugh
It reminds me of Teen Titans Go in just how unstructured, babyish, and over-saturated it is.
And instead of having some sort of good morals to teach to kids, each episode is just a dumpster fire of chaos and random storylines with no meaning.
@@st4rp0p except the chaos is just... boring.. like someone shuffling a deck of cards kind of chaos.
Without any stylish shuffling or card-related magic trick.
In all fairness, James Rolfe has always been more of a film enthusiast than a videogame fan. He loves old Horror movies and Kaiju films, and made many short movies when he was younger. I can understand why he would use his most popular character as a platform to make his own feature-lenght film. It honestly makes the fact that the AVGN movie turned out so underwhelming all the more dissappointing.
Most of the special effects in his AVGN videos screams 90s/80s green screen and I actually love it.
It has the most passion put into it because of the passion James (AVGN) has in film itself. That alone makes it better than 100% of the other garbage. Yeah I said 100
I especially love the theme they chose for one of their trailers.
Maverick Regeneration
Plot and story aside. I think it's fine when you consider James probably had a blast working on it. You can tell that from alot of the effects alone, which harken back to the movies he always likes to talk about.
The AVGN movie was crowdfunded by James Rolfe as well - it wasn't like some coroporate exec saw that he was popular and threw money at him.
I had NO idea the main character was supposed to be a kid, I thought it was literally just Odd1sOut himself in his mid-20s. Rather odd change to make lmao.
Same
Same it was just weird :/
Thank you, it feels like every youtuber talking about this series is being weirdly postive about it, nothing wrong in liking this show, but i feel like people kinda being too... genrous with this show
I think it's mostly because people like James as person a lot and so treat the show as if one of their friends made it
Edit: wow that's a lot of likes
Maybe they want “ft the odd1sout” in one of their titles in their videos…just sayin.
@Freesmart Same. Or how mediocre it is.
bc u guys expecct them to bc wonder master peices with deep plots and characters when all cartoons are ment to be is just for entertainment and if it succeeds in tbat then its just fine not every cartoon has to have detailed story telling
@@mikoartz5006 The amazing world of gumball didnt have detailed story telling and people actually liked it
Haven't gotten super far into the video yet but the Don't Hug Me I'm Scared TV show that came out recently is another great example of stuff from youtube making the jump to TV and actually being really good.
None of the characters in OddBalls could ever live up to Warren The Eagle.
Omg yes, that show was amazing! Can't wait for a second season.
I like how the tv show has more Comedy but is still disturbing. Also the music BOPS.
@@triphat5929 RAT EYES !
I wanna say Dick Figures the Movie was another great example of how you up the ante because the people behind the show were actual animators and made the movie more epic and actually character driven
@Freesmart hell no
@Freesmart BFB FAN!!!
dick figures and the movie is underrated
FINALLY, SOMEONE REMEMBERS DICK FIGURES!
It's still pretty bad.
I think what makes me most uncomfortable is how it feels like an adult running around with imaginary friends.
Like, maybe it's just a problem as one of his viewers from back in the day, but I completely associate the James character with James the adult due to his storytelling online. And now I'm supposed to believe that the James from the show is a child in school?
Idk, it makes me feel weird watching the show.
Yeah. James is a grown man and sounds like one, so I was suprised when he turned out to be a kid with parents in ep.2. First episode kinda suggested they were two dudes living alone doing shenanigans.
@Freesmart how is that a problem bro? I never really had a problem with it, but you can kind of picture why people would find odd1sout's character is so out of place compared to everyone else (it sort of makes sense that the crocodile wouldn't sound that much like a child, but for james it's just so off
@@tzarg you asked “how is that a problem?” And then immediately went on to say that you get why people have a problem with it.
That would honestly be a really funny premise or even plot reveal, hell maybe have the town be some weird ass fantasy land James can just jump into, which would better explain the utter chaos of the character designs. Or this entire thing was an experiment to see the unfiltered mind of a man with a child-like imagination. Man now I really want to see that.
yeah its so awkward for me
I definitely agree with the inconsistent art style. For Season 2, the show should definitely borrow from Drawn Together or The Amazing World of Gumball.
Another good example on how to mix varying art styles is the Amazing World of Gumball.
While I know it probably didn't happen. I would believe it, if I was told somebody pitched this show as " Gumball, but with james in it", and then they couldn't really capture why Gumball was great.
I did use to quite like TheOddOnesOut, mostly when I was a child and his videos were less refined. But as the videos become more produced and streamlined they kinda.. lost their flavor, James was never *super* expressive either way
he stopped drawing them at all like... i don't know, 4 years ago?
he get's 20+ other people to do them, inclduing Airoah and Rushlight, who are actual animators.
@@absolutezerochill2700 they do amazing work, the animation is really good but it feels soulless. I miss old james
@@DaKingKayden that's what i've been saying for a LONG time now, it feels so soulless and corporate, i feel like im just throwing examples out but jaiden's yt channel feels more human
“Too old to order of the kids menu” was the best part of the series
Chazington fan?
@@starfGD of course
My conspiracy theory without a lot of basis is that James wanted to brand himself more or with a strong punch he didn't change anything about him so he would be more recognizable within a certain demographic, so it was a decision that'd benefit him rather than the show
It’s a shame that James dumbed down his show to only suit his kid audience. If I were James, I would have made a show that bridged a middle ground between appealing to kids and appealing to adults simultaneously.
yeah :D
I'm surprised you didn't mention how terrible Echo is besides that one line. Like she does whatever she wants and gets almost no consequences for it. Even though I still enjoyed the show for what is some of my least favorite moments in the whole show usually involved her.
True like I kinda would of liked the show better if she was never in it
I don't wanna be that person, but it really speaks to the character of Netflix executives when a character that acts and looks like her can be found in several kids' shows.
Yeah! People are stanning her and only god knows why?!
Ive watched James since 2016, and i gotta say i miss his old, under produced animation style. It fit with the "everyday relatable style" that people look for in the stories that he shared.
I feel like this show kinda encapsulates James' content as a whole: safe, bland, and marketable.
James' new content, when I first watched him, way before he added animation to his videos, they were actually enjoyable and not so marketed to kids, anyone could enjoy the videos.
Now mans is just a corporate identity.
He is less of a person and more of a brand
All RUclipsrs are soulless brands, the hobby becomes a job and the job isn’t fun
@@TheGrandRevo not all bro but some do loss there creative spark just for playing it safe eg:Odd1sOut ninja etc
@@TheGrandRevosome don't. Like tanna mojo.
Honestly the best way I could describe watching this was that it's Great Value Amazing world of Gumball
Having a setting with a ton of random characters and telling an entirely different thing each episode just without any of the heart gumball had
Its one show that it's so average that it's bad, like you wouldnt watch this over Avatar the Last airbender or any other series
🤣 nothing from Great Value is actually of great value
@@justcallmelucky what do you mean?
@@bigseven8227 Great Value is a brand that sells food. The stuff is always low quality. They have a lot of knock-off items.
@@justcallmelucky I haven't heard of Great Value before. Thanks for informing me :)
Honestly this was most OK/Harmless Show that it can be
Definitely one of the shows of all time
@@ItsMeLarky Yep
@@ItsMeLarky Definitely
As harmless as Max bleeding out gallons of green blood can be
@@poweroffriendship2.0 MR FRIENDSHIP!!!
It's obvious Netflix wanted this to be their Gumball and I agree Max should've been the star, but the show isn't that bad. Let's see what happens in season 2 when the plot picks up.
ima be honest chief
if season 2 happens,
it's not gonna "pick up"
@@absolutezerochill2700 nah bro wdym clearly this episodic show with absolutely no actual planning is gonna pick up
@@hunbi1875 Well, that's mostly up to Netflix.
It’s a shame that due to the chaos at Netflix this show probably won’t get a chance to grow and become an actor that’s better suited to the tv format and be able to diversify from his RUclips self
I doubt it.
Oddballs looks like every other cartoon just with Odd1sOut slapped on at the last minute, would’ve intrigued me more if all the other characters shared the same art style.
The only thing I learned about this show thanks to Spilling the Milk watching it so I don't have to is that james has a fascination for giving himself the cake of all time.
hello, fellow milker!
I’ve found my kin in the wild
I feel like James has gone in that weird area a lot of popular indie games go (bendy and the ink machine, fnaf, ect) where they just take and do every single merchandise or deal possible, plushies, card game, mobile game, board game, figures, toys, shirts, hats, and now a tv show. It’s just overwhelming, it feels like the entire channel has became this strange brand that just exists to profit off an audience, he rarely even makes videos anymore because he doesn’t have to
@Freesmart your so right! That’s such a good comparison, I love FNAF but I just meant like that there’s an over abundance of merch and a lot of it is pretty cheap
@MaiChickenButt lolololol exactly
@Freesmart yes but it's slowly starting to go there with security breach whether you love or hate it you can't deny it was the point where the franchise started becoming more safe and kiddy.
@Freesmart you could be right not trying to shot down that statement but judging of SB success I wouldn't be surprised if they go down this path of the games being kiddy and safe.
@Freesmart LMAO
The biggest issue with James overall is that hes just become so corporate, he's basically his own brand now, instead of making one or just posting merch once in a while, he is practically ryans world but for a little more mature audiences
Every single time I see Just Stop’s character in his room, I can’t stop looking at the window. The sun rises every single time and it is super distracting once you notice it. The more I look at it, the more it bothers me. It would be a cool little Easter egg to have the position of the sun indicate how far into the video you are without bothering to tap the mouse or screen to see instead of a repetitive aesthetic choice.
In defense of AVGN Movie:
From what I could gather, James of AVGN grew up and was influenced by legacy media, so building his way to a movie always seemed to be a goal of his.
It should be noted the Angry Video Game Nerd persona pre dates RUclips itself.
Yeahhhh... My original thought upon seeing the trailer was "Damn, that's cool, I'm happy for James. It looks really bad and I will not be watching it."
c:
maybe this show would have worked better if it was similar to Midnight Golspel, have the people voicing the characters going on rants that would obviously call back to how he's a story time animator, and then have the animation be it's own story, I think this approach could have worked better
Ooh that would have been amazing!
Midnight gospel is literally so good
my biggest issue is that this cartoon is just..a series of stereotypes and events from other cartoons. it offers me nothing new at all.
That's the best description, it's better watching adventure time, Regular show, avatar and etc instead of James series
In defense of the Angry Video Game Nerd Movie, James is an actual enthusiast of cinema and, even if not amazingly good, it actually had a vision.
it turned out bad because he thought it was is only chance to make a movie and wanted to insert absolutely everything he liked into one movie, creating an incoherent mess.
I used to really enjoy how he took seemingly mundane situations that average unassuming people like me could relate to and made them entertaining. Like his subway videos, grade school class books, PE, or annoying roommates. The show really lacks that relatability and that why I feel so meh.
“Definitely one of the netflix shows of all time” type energy
Something sad is that even if the show was good, I do think people wouldn’t hold out hope for more seasons after the animation purge at Netflix.
I think it would've fun if James made the show like his storytime videos but they get more and more ridiculous as they episode goes on like if Mordecai and/or Rigby did Storytime animations about their experiences at the park.
I think the biggest problem is that so many of these guys aren't creatives, they aren't storytellers, they get the chance to create in ahead of people who have something to say or a story to tell just because they're the cash cow of the day.
Smiling Friends and Don't Hug Me I'm Scared are two great recent examples of RUclipsrs jumping to mainstream television. When ecelebs were doing it 10+ years ago it was brand new territory, and they would give in completely to companies to make creative decisions for them, using their name and face to draw in viewers which is why self-inserts were so common.
This seemed like he was trying to be like Amazing World of Gumball but wasn’t able to accomplish that
I think oddballs was a show packed full to the brim with potential, however ultimately fell short due to it wanting to market entertainment to the 5-9 year old's that watch James's channel. I think that having James play himself in the show was definitely more than just James thinking it would be cool if he was in a TV show, and I wouldn't be surprised if when creating the concept of oddballs, the team couldn't think of a main character that could work well for the shows dynamic (because it's so chaotic, but not in an "organized chaos" like The Amazing World of Gumball, the earlier seasons of Spongebob Squarepants, or Adventure time), or they were torn between two character concepts, being James and an entertaining character, but the team wanted to do something that was safe for marketing, so they chose to have James be the main character, which from a marketing prospective is smart, since most kids just want to see their favorite RUclipsr bounce around on their TV screen, with a more fluid animation, but isn't conceptually or visually entertaining unfortunately for anyone else. I think that episode 1 alone had some of the best set ups for jokes in kids television I've ever seen, honestly rivaling (though not surpassing) Spongebob, however they completely destroyed execution by making it easy for children to digest and understand, instead of being clever. In my opinion, Oddballs should have made James's (the character) animation more fluid to compensate for his visual staleness, and use captivating animation to intrigue kids, their primary consumer audience, because most kids just watch TV shows for entertaining visuals, and maybe a bit of the story, however used witty, clever, and even a bit crass jokes to captivate older audiences. I know I would have been a lot more entertained if in the first episode when Max got impaled by toast for example, if him and James had a whole panic attack and started acting mildly irrational, while in the background we saw some clever visual comedy that wasn't shoved in our faces, like maybe someone just kicks Toasty over, killing it, and it was just that easy. A lot of their jokes had me rolling my eyes, but there were a few good ones that made watching the episodes mildly worth it, but overall I think the show was very weird and many choices were certainly made for marketing purposes, and kind of ruined the shows integrity. I do think that James (the person) is clever and funny in his RUclips video's, and could definitely produce something better than Oddballs if he actually tried to make a witty show, because I did see (as stated before) great comedic setups, but the execution was poor and designed for children
Odd1sout truly stood out with this show
How Ironic I mean he is the odd1sout so he was gonna stand out from the rest
Let's just face it. TheOdd1Out was never that entertaining. Relatablity can take you far, but not enough for a standalone TV show.
I found the show to be... meh.
It'll probably pass into obscurity.
My main complaint is they used the crappy "Annoying House Guest that Won't Leave" trope that most cartoons have.
Go home goober
You know, it’d actually be pretty funny if LS mark’s cartoon turn out better the Jame’s show.
I hope especially since it doesn't need to worry about being super kid friendly like James show and can do what it wants.
I hope james watches this and takes the constructive criticism to improve season 2
It kinda feels like they tried to make The Amazing World of Gumball, but didn’t really understand what made that show work.
Edit: It’d be cool if the premise was that James and his family (or just James) is considered to be odd, since they themselves are ‘normal’ from our perspective, while the world around them is ‘odd’ since it’s not like ours. It’d allow them to go for crazy ideas; allow a dynamic where his best friend follows the “odd world” culture, while James follows his own culture that’s much like ours. Maybe he could be the conflict for most or some episodes, where his culture clashes with the “odd world” and vice versa.
Probably a god awful idea, but it’s better than what looks to be a copy of Gumball.
If remember correctly, FRED had a cameo in iCarly before getting his own movie. Useless facts aside, I knew exactly what to expect as soon as James showed this on his channel.
same. I literally wrote in the comments UNDER THE ANNOUNCMENT TRAILER that this could be bad and we shouldn't let our guards down. nobody listened. and look where we are now.
And if I remember correctly, that iCarly episode was also kind of a head of its time. Because the plot centered around “Internet celebrity drama”, where one gets hate for not liking the other and getting a response video that overdramatized the event, which in the end turned out to have been nothing more than outrage marketing and fake beef for more audience engagement.
That wasn’t a thing back in like 2009-2010, or at least not as popular as nowadays. So, it’s kinda fascinating
@@frankwest5388 It was a better time for me. A time before Nickcoms stopped being funny. A time before my memory of those same Nickcoms had become tainted by knowledge of what Dan Shneider was doing behind the scenes. It was glorious!🤣
Thanks for making this video. I remember watching James back when he was pretty niche back in middle school but something about this show seemed so off, but I couldn't bring myself to watch it, so having someone sit down and give commentary while I can do something else in the foreground is pretty helpful.
If he really wanted to portray the fact that he's a kid in this show, he should have added that propeller hat to the design like he does on his channel whenever he talks about himself as a kid.
That would've been GENIUS
I think Don't Hug Me I'm Scared is a solid example of a youtube thing getting its own show. Shits good.
THANK YOU DONT HUG ME IM SCARED IS AMAZING AND I THOUGHT I WAS WEIRD LOL
TBH i would have preferred James having the little propeller hat that he usually wears in his videos when talking about childhood stories
“And when everyone is the odd 1 out……no one will be.”
All I’ll say is it’s not bad for a first attempt, like a 6 out of ten, something to watch once, enjoy it somewhat, and then forget about it for a while
What made me think that Oddballs are weird is the cast and the fact that James is in it. It's very weird to see James, who we associate with an actual artist, with a talking crocodile, giant cactus and an evil toaster. It's like James's dream or self insert fan fiction. It just feels odd. (pun intended)
One thing I've noticed, as an active fan of the Odds1out for a while, is it feels like he's gotten more. . .immature, almost. I don't know fi that's the right word for it, but it feels like he's forcing a lot of his jokes to be wilder and wackier then the situations they're in. I mean, compare one of his original soobway video with one of his newer ones. And I don't think it's necessarily bad for his youtube channel, but I don't think it works really well with the show.
Maybe a fun way he could've taken the show to be inline with his channel is voicing all of the characters related to his family (doing the mom and dad voice). Focus more on the science bits, and perhaps have his friendship with Max make him question if he is an experiment or not. There are so many ideas, but hearing about the episodes, it feels like it's meant for a much younger audience then those who grew up watching him.
2017: I can meet james at subway
2023: I can meet james at a 2000 dollar fee at a event!
It just feels random for the sake of random. The character designs don't really feel right. They feel like clip-art and not main characters in a show. You can't tell anything about them based on their designs.
The art style is all over the place
@@nomiibox Different art styles can work in a show (The Amazing World of Gumball, DHMIS, Drawn Together, Code Lyoko, Kappa Mikey), but they should have done different art styles for each character to make them more "oddbally." They have the same clean boring art style with no personality apart from comedic disturbing face. For a show called Oddballs, no one is crazy or odd. It's just generic.
@@snorpington5910 I agree. Very Very generic
@Freesmart Actually I don't, is he bad about it?
@Freesmart I mean, they’re poorly made.
It felt like James was trying to make The Amazing World of Gumball but missing everything that makes Gumball great
Somehow I felt this was destined to happen. James' style works mainly because his videos are about life experiences narrated in an entertaining way. So while his cartoony character is simple and fun is also normally attached to grounded stories. Watching it unfold with this Spongebob-esque writing feels off.
We lost the Bone and Wings of Fire adaptations for this. Two adaptations that could've been like Arcane in terms of quality while also offering something to tween-teen audiences. But, nah, gotta get that kiddie show money I guess...
Knowing that we could've gotten a WoF TV show still pains me 😭
We could of gotten bone? Ok now I'm mad
aw :c
On the topic of not having an art style, smiling friends pulls that off way better, mostly because Zach and Mike weren’t afraid to go their own ways for it but you can still tell what was drawn by who. Smiling friends looks like a mish mash of two people’s ideas that works bc their styles are complimentary. Oddballs looks like everyone on the team was told to do whatever they want, and while some compliment each other, most clash.
I'm probably the minority here, because despite Odd1sOut being a major content creator when I was a pre-teen, I never really was that big of a fan. However, there is a clear difference between his old and new content, and I think it corresponds to this show.
For those who don't know, Duolingo is a business that posts videos on TikTok to gain relevancy and this has definitely worked in their favour. However, it does not work well as "promotion" for their brand in the long run because a huge part of their identity is now built on being relevant and current. Now people are associating Duolingo with less on what their business is about, and more on what they post online. It's promotion and advertising that completely defeats the purpose of what promotion and advertising is meant for.
The reason why Duolingo is referenced is because it feels similar to what TheOdd1sOut is going through. Seeing success for a long time, it is expected that James would make this RUclips content creator thing his own job aka a business. He has a lot more people to help him animate now - hell his older videos couldn't even be counted as animation. And you can feel that James has shifted his content appeal demographic towards the younger audiences, with more hip Internet meme references (for better or worse), exaggerated faces, fluid animation, over-stimulation, and even James' personality has changed from being overall introverted and less animated to...well extroverted.
But again, his whole appeal thing isn't sustainable. Him trying to act cool and fit in with those Internet references isn't something a person can do long-term as a career, let alone being pressurized to pump out content on a frequent basis. At one point he will be too fatigued to continue at such a rate, and managing his merchandise, mobile game, board game, and going to RUclips content creator conventions will only tire him further as long as his subscriber count continues to rise. Sorry not sorry to the immature fans, but your idol has sold himself out. What lingers is another Duolingo copycat trying to sustain its appeal by relevancy, but without a well-structured roadmap.
Oddballs matches the condition of TheOdd1sOut now, a dangerously unsustainable solution to continue getting that sweet viewership to maintain relevancy. James is trying to act as someone he isn't. He started out as a RUclips content creator telling stories for the sake of entertainment, now he's apparently going on wacky adventures in his new Netflix show. Oddballs in general feel too uninteresting for people who didn't grow up with TheOdd1sOut (it's another one of those "main character goes on wacky adventures per episode" kind of media), and too ingenuine for the people who actively watched his original content.
James fell off man, he used to be genuine and passionate about his work. It always felt like he had a story to tell whenever making a new video.
However... Nowadays he just feels like a soulless brand with no real intent to treat his audience with intelligence, but rather with the intention to empty their wallets.
There's nothing wrong with wanting to profit from your work, but when that's all you wanna do, people will begin to drive away from it since your work stops feeling like a passion work and instead feels like a corporate product.
People who say OddBalls is something James TRULY wanted to do to a point it was a "passion work", from a personal perspective... It doesn't feel like such.
When an artist is passionate about a product, it's easy to say it's been something they've wanted to do for the longest, as they do it all to their best intent and efforts.
Smiling Friends is such a good example of when an artist produces something out of truthful passion rather than to "just get it done for the audience", which is what OddBalls feels like it's doing sadly.
Expanding your internet brand to TV is usually a sign of desperation and has ALWAYS led to a decline in quality. Look at Fred and The Annoying Orange
@@isaywhateveriwantandyougot7421 Or the Channel Awesome people trying to direct and make a movie. Same with DarksydePhill and whatever his old Project 7 thing was.
I honestly found Oddballs harmless fun. Though it is feels very safe. Like the tone and performances feel like another episode of Odd1sOut's RUclips videos.
Also the slime guy isnt a literal demon. He is a slime. Thats it
TheOdd1sOut show was very Odd.
👋
Hi jar
Eyyy how's it hanging jar?
what a great pun
He's an *oddball* for sure
People in the animation community always say that they're "just a guy". But where do you draw the line between person, and a brand? The only real reason people are watching the show is because kids see their favourite RUclipsr on it. Not because it's a good show.
He turned from a person into a brand.
@@augustswater7845 His cartoon character is a representation of himself. My main point is people don't buy his merchandise or watch his show because it's good, but because it has their favourite RUclipsr on it. It's branding. He's using himself as the brand. Don't take things so literally.
18:51
Ah yes, my favorite oddballs character
LS Mark
The worst part about this video is the comments saying "oh james netflix show is pretty… *odd* HAHAHA get it.. ge- guys you get it?"
Yuh it’s a little Underwhelming, but everything looks adorable and some of the jokes like when it showed a hyper realistic shot of a Max would get me exhaling through my nose
Yeah I've seen clip videos of I think the first episode and the scenes made me genuinely laugh. One with tricking the Gator to attack a mailman by playing the generic ice cream truck song is a mood. That is me when I hear the ice cream man.
I maintain that the best RUclips to TV show is DHMIS
Honestly outside of having James himself in the cartoon, this overall feels like a generic show you’d find on Nickelodeon aimed at younger audiences like Sanjay and Craig or Breadwinners. There’s nothing remotely interesting or memorable about it, and it feels like it just feels like it completes an arbitrary checklist of what to include in a kid’s show instead of being a great cartoon in its own right. I’m admittedly not familiar with James’s content, so I’m sure he’s a good guy, but this just goes to show that just because you want to do something doesn’t necessarily mean you should. Since while I can commend him for getting this series greenlit and made in the first place, something many peeps nowadays find it very hard to do (especially with how terrible animation has been treated by the executives at HBO Max and even Netflix as of late), this overall just feels like, as I said, any generic kid’s show instead of an actual passion project.
People really thought this was going to be good? James couldn’t even be bothered to make a good board game or book something that requires infinitely less effort to get right.
I feel like aesthetically, with all these different designs of the characters, this show desperately want to be like Amazing World of Gumball, without understanding what makes that design choice work
watching this review reminds me of back in junior high, when I asked my writing teacher, "if there's such a thing as first person and third person, is there such a thing as second person?" and she told me no.
this show would've been interesting if it were from James' perspective, but he were just a sidekick witnessing what happens to Max.
Lol
Easily the best example of RUclips to TV is one of my new favourite shows: Don’t hug me I’m scared. The production value and writing is amazing!
This is like if the amazing world of gumball had zero talented people working on it
As soon as I heard the bread song, I fell out of it
It was truly painful
I didn't make it very far after it.
There's a difference between a "youtuber" and someone who uses youtube as a platform for their art, y'know?
someone who makes youtube videos is literally a youtuber
why didnt they just... give James' character the propeller hat that he usually adds to represent his younger/child self?
Every episode felt like an hour rather than 20 minutes, especially season 2
From what I'm gathering the show is trying to be like Gumball without any of the effort.
ive seen a lot of people in the comment section compare it to gumball!
The show looks like someone hit the "make cartoon" button on a computer
I "enjoyed" his show. But your break down makes me understand why I didn't love it lol.
Hopefully he sees this and can use this video to make a better storyline