Ollie & Scoops
Ollie & Scoops is an American independent comedy animated web series created by animator Nico Colaleo. The series follows Ollie and Scoops as they go on misadventures brought upon by Ollie's ability to communicate with cats.
The pilot premiered on June 10, 2019. The series was received positively by reviewers.
Synopsis
The series stars 9-year-old Ollie Purkleworth, who can communicate with and understand cats. So naturally, Ollie and her family pet cat Scoops are inseparable best friends. The show follows Ollie and Scoops as they go on amazing, bizarre, and unique misadventures brought upon by Ollie's gift of being able to communicate with cats; whether at her home, school, in their neighborhood, or down in the secret underground cat society, the vast city of Catlifornia.Characters
Main characters
- Ollie — A 9-year-old girl and the series' main protagonist. She looks out for Scoops, her family pet cat and also best friend, but sometimes can't help but causing trouble herself. Her heart is always in the right place though, and by the end of every episode she will always set things right if she has steered things too far off course.
- Scoopleton P. "Scoops" Scoopsworth — The family's pet cat, and best friend of Ollie. Scoops was a gift to Ollie from her parents for her 6th birthday. While Scoops can frequently cause trouble due to clumsiness, ego, selfishness, or being a bit of a showoff, he would do anything to help Ollie and correct whatever mischief he's caused the two of them.
Supporting characters
- Julia Goldburger - A classmate of Ollie's. Julia is an ego-centric, school-obsessed perfectionist who needs to be the best at everything, the stress of which has caused her hairloss. She is considered the main antagonist of the series, but is more of a comedic annoyance than an evil / negative villain.
- Carl - A classmate of Ollie's. A mild-mannered, shy Jewish boy, with an angsty teenaged older sister named Stacy. Also, Carl may have a secret crush on Ollie...
- Stacy - Ollie's teenaged babysitter, and older sister of Carl. She is surly, rude and has plenty of that classic teen angst, but deep down she really does love her little brother Carl.
- Binnie Bivvins - Ollie's 29 year old, neurotic, but sweet and caring 4th grade teacher at Davis County Elementary. She loves her students and to teach kids, but at the same time she's still sort of figuring herself out.
- Wendy Whippleworth - Ollie's science teacher at Davis County Elementary. She is in a relationship with Ollie's primary teacher, Miss Bivvins.
- Principal J. Liquids - The principal of Davis County Elementary, Ollie's school. An homage/parody of film director John Waters.
- Milky - Another of Ollie's classmates.
- Ollie's Mom and Dad - Ollie's parents. They gifted Scoops as a baby kitten to Ollie for her 6th birthday. While we have seen them in multiple episodes, as of this writing, so far we don't know their names or have heard them speak.
- Biscuits - A tough alley cat that Scoops has a huge crush on.
- Merle - A thin, sleazy, conniving alley cat who frequently causes Ollie and Scoops all kinds of trouble. Brunk is his main associate/lackey.
- Brunk - A big orange-furred lummox of an alley cat who frequently causes Ollie and Scoops all kinds of trouble. He is Merle's right-hand man.
- Mayor Scrumpy - The Mayor of Catlifornia. A cat with sky blue fur who is always wearing a Mayoral sash.
- Poopsie St. Pierre - A flirty, rich and spoiled little lady cat who most of the boy cats have crushes on.
- Dan Dipple - If Top Cat was crossed with a used car salesman.
- Hoagie - A clumsy cat with dark blue fur who might be the unluckiest guy on the planet.
- Rudy - A little guy with red fur who loves to act cool and suave. Has relationship with Poopsie St. Pierre.
- Cuddles - A little cat with pink fur and a very cutesy personality.
- Macaroni and Cheese - A very cute fluffy white cat who turns big, scary and demonic when annoyed or angered.
- Dr. Toodles - A local mad scientist who lives in a big laboratory deep within the shores of Catlifornia Harbor.
- Old Crumplecranks - A spooky legend that all cats know about and treat as folklore, Old Crumplecranks is a giant evil cat that is said to live high up in the hills of Mount Cattywampus, in the outskirts of Catlifornia.
- Brother Whiskers - A cat who appears in the episode "Warm Cream", and who may or may not be a member of Terry Bumble's kitty cult.
- Brother Puddles - A cat who, like Whiskers, appears in the episode "Warm Cream", and who may or may not be a member of Terry Bumble's kitty cult.
- Claudia Grimson - A stoic goth girl and new friend that Ollie meets at the video store.
- Edgar & Eleanore Grimson - Claudia's equally creepy parents, both crazed scientists and morticians who are deeply in love, with some inspiration from Morticia and Gomez Addams.
- Dougie the Lab Cat - A cat who has recently escaped from laboratory testing, leaving him with some short fuses and major paranoia. He has silver fur and a collar with a pink heart on it.
- Terry Bumble - A geeky man-child with a dangerous obsession with all things cats. He has pale skin, orange hair, braces, and blue green eyes.
- The Bad Tempered Cinema Geek - A chair-bound film geek and critic who loves making video reviews complaining about movies on the internet.
Production and release
In June 2019, the series began airing on YouTube. Natasha Weir works as a character designer, while Nicole Hardy did animation work on the series, using Adobe Animate CC. Ashley Nichols, an animator for the Hazbin Hotel pilot and Colaleo's Too Loud series, worked as an animator for the series. Colaleo created, directs and produces the series. Rachael Lillis also voiced a character on the series, a math teacher, in one episode, her last voice role before her death from cancer in August 2024. Natasha Kline, creator of the Primos animated series, was a storyboarder for the series' third episode, "Gimme a Hand".In February 2021, Colaleo shared with Terry Ibele, on his Animation Industry Podcast, about his job, how he started Ollie & Scoops, and the resources it takes to create each episode. In the interview, he revealed that he did the initial designs for the characters then gave them to Natasha Weir, the character designer, said he created originally for pitching it to animation studios, but that Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon turned it down and told him to come back in a few years. He further noted that Netflix rejected it because they had Hilda, said that each episode costs $10,000 to $15,000, that at least 20 people work on each episode, and hopes the show could get bigger until they get studio funding.
In January 2022, Toon Boom interviewed Colaleo who noted and explained many different and interesting points about creating your own animated series: He has said that being a showrunner involves making sure your crew is happy, checking in with them to gather their work, giving notes and tweaks, and has mentioned that he is, as showrunner, "involved with and in charge of every single part of the show." He has said that it's important to always be open to hearing ideas from your show's crew of artists. He also revealed that he works with at least 30 people per episode, including the storyboard artists, animators, clean-up artists, and voice actors, nearly doubling in growth from the first year of the show when only 10 to 15 people worked on each episode. He further noted that he originally pitched Ollie & Scoops "all over Burbank" and started producing and working on Ollie & Scoops on his own when Too Loud ended, adding that he wanted to choose an all ages route rather than an adult route for the show.