The Name’s Oso, Special Agent Oso

Wednesday, April 01, 2009
By: Ramin Zahed

A new animated preschool show on Playhouse Disney pushes the visual envelope while gently spoofing secret agent movies.

James Bond and all the other Cold War-era spies have inspired their share of clever spoofs throughout the years. However, you’ll have to look really hard to find a preschool show that delivers a spot-on homage to the classic genre. This month, viewers will be able to enjoy a very young take on the smooth international globetrotters when Special Agent Oso begins his animated adventures on Playhouse Disney.

Centering on an accident-prone but motivated panda bear plush toy voiced by Sean Astin, Special Agent Oso helps kids accomplish everyday tasks such as mailing a letter, using a library card or brushing their teeth. Maintaining a positive attitude (Oso’s favorite catch-phrase happens to be “It’s all part of the plan!”), our hero gets his assignments at the beginning of each segment by the unseen Mr. Dos. Helping him with his many missions is his computerized sidekick, Paw Pilot, and the robot video-cam bug, known as Shutterbug! Clever, right? That's not all—the 11-minute episodes have tongue-in-cheek James Bondish titles like “Gold Flower,” “Live and Let Ride,” “A View to a Book” and “Carousel Royale” and feature theme songs that may create a bit of nostalgia for older viewers.

The show’s creator and co-exec producer Ford Riley says the inspiration for Oso came one day as he was watching TV with his own kids. “Back then I was working in animation, but not on preschool shows,” recalls Riley, whose credits include Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles, Recess, Teacher’s Pet and Higglytown Heroes). “I saw what my own kids responded to and what they didn’t. I thought to myself, if were to do a preschool show, I was going to have secret agents and spies in it—and I would have stuffed animals help kids with tasks that they could really relate to. For example, I remember how excited my daughter used to get when she got to help out with simple tasks like mailing a letter or putting the milk back in the fridge.”

Another important aspect of the show is that the creators break all of Oso’s missions into three simple steps. Riley says when his son was diagnosed with autism at age three, he learned about the three-step method for his special curriculum. “This teaching method had a big impact on me and my outlook on children’s television,” he notes. “If you’re a parent of a child with autism, you’ll recognize this three-step method in the special therapy your child receives. Our show helps break down everyday tasks to three simple steps—it’s not designed for special kids, but we feel it’s accessible to every kid on our planet.”

Farewell to Interstitial Form!
Riley pitched his idea to the development execs at Disney TV back in 2004, but the studio didn’t actually greenlight the project until three years later. “We developed it as an interstitial, and we teamed up with Korea’s Sunwoo Animation and the design outfit CrazyBird Studio to create the special look of the show,” he notes. “It’s inspired by stop-motion but it isn’t—it’s actually digital cut-outs and Flash, but for some reason, it reminds me of the Rankin-Bass shows.” Disney liked the project so much that it was decided to produce it as a regular preschool series.

One of the challenges faced by Riley and the show’s director and co-executive producer Jamie Mitchell was how to keep the show interesting for the parents without complicating the content for the youngsters. “We were walking a fine line between an action-adventure show and an educational show,” says Riley. “There were things that the network’s Standards and Practices [office] would say no to … like no, Oso can’t be hopping on hot stones in a volcano! Or we’d have an episode with Oso in a library, so we thought it would be fun to have him belly flop on one of the kicks on the stools with a library card, so they said, no, that’s imitable behavior and you can’t do that on a preschool show, so now he flies with a jetpack in the library. I think the challenge is to rein in those ideas and find a creative way for our special agent to solve his dilemma.”

For Mitchell, one of the most important aspects of the show was creating a tangible universe that was full of textures and authentic images from the real world. "We were trying to break the barrier between the audience who's watching and the characters on screen, so viewers feel like they can reach in and pick the characters right up," he says.

Mitchell, a veteran of the TV animation scene who has worked on shows such as Hey Arnold!, DuckTales, The Little Mermaid and House of Mouse, says he was thrilled to work with the Seoul-based design studio CrazyBird to develop the special visuals of the show—which is a nice mix of digital cut-outs, 3D Photoshop and Flash animation. "When we started on the pilot, we were going back and forth about the texture of a sidewalk. It was just like this sidewalk you'd see in New York City and I thought it was cold. I said, 'It needs to be edible,'" says Mitchell. "A couple of days later, we came up with the idea of using a pie crust. We photographed it, digitized it, and now all of the sidewalks and all of the buildings are edible foods."

This quest for authenticity takes Mitchell back to his boyhood, when he used to watch Gumby on TV. “I loved Gumby’s car—it was totally real to me and I wanted to ride in that car,” he recalls. “That’s why Oso gets to drive a real car. We actually got a car designer to work with us—he rendered the car in 3D. In another segment, Oso puts on head gear based on a real World War II mask.” (One other special triva bit: The airplane piloted by Oso’s colleague, Dotty, is based on the jet Chuck Yeager used to break the sound barrier in 1947!)

Both Mitchell and Riley point out that although the TV animation landscape is quite different from the world they knew a couple of decades ago, they feel that the toon biz is in a healthy place today. “Back when I started out, the animation scene was very compartmentalized … today, the more versatile you can be, the more successful you become,” says Mitchell. “We are working with a very small crew in L.A.—at the height of production we have about 20 people, but back then, it was normal to have about 90 people working on a show here in the studio. In today’s world, crews are going to be smaller, and you have to do a lot more. So my advice to people who want to get into TV animation is to become a Renaissance person—be more versatile. Overall, you can say that I’m very optimistic about our industry. There’s an insatiable appetite out there in the world for what we do!”

Special Agent Oso premieres on Disney Channel on Saturday, April 4 at 8 a.m.

Reader Comments

• Maureen : Home maker :

  Thursday, April 30, 2009

  I am an at Home Mom, my daughter is three years old, very girly, princess lover, but LOVES special agent Oso from the first episode and can\'t wait to see him each morning!

• karen : hairdresser : house of colour

  Saturday, May 02, 2009

  me son is 6 years old and autistic and loves oso ao much it.s al he talks about al day and night iv looked everywhere to buy one but cant. could you tell me where to buy one please please thank you. karen!!

• Lexy : Oso : Special agent oso

  Saturday, May 09, 2009

  Hi Special agent oso

• JonJon Shell : Shell : Family

  Thursday, September 03, 2009

  Mommy Daddy Megan Shanny Becker Hardley Speical Agnet Wofile Oso Katilyn JonJon Speical Anget Dotty Dance

• brenna : elecchricbils : 3309581228

  Tuesday, September 15, 2009

  iluvyroshow

• Vicky : Stay at Home Mum :

  Sunday, September 20, 2009

  My daughter age 4 has autism and loves Oso and is currently watching him on Playhouse Disney at the moment. I really wish that there was a range of toys out, in time for Christmas would be perfect!!!!

• Constanza : Full time mum :

  Monday, October 05, 2009

  I have a 4 Yr old, and a 2 Yr old, They are both fanatic of spacial agente OSO, 4 yr old pretend to be Oso, and dreams with OSO toys!!

• darla : full time mom :

  Tuesday, October 06, 2009

  my 2 1/2 yr old love\\\'s oso. wear can u buy him from we would love to do. he says he cleaning his teeth like oso. so could u do one and going to the toilet would be great and i think he would go on his potty like oso. Thank you

• Amy : mom :

  Thursday, October 08, 2009

  I have a 4 year old with autism and everytime we\'ve watched the show I\'ve thought someone with a background in therapy created this show. And the other day there was a character that could not eat bread and cheese and I knew someone must have a child with autism. Oso is a great show and I love that you make everyday tasks manageable for every child. Great job!

• Katrina Atkinson : mum :

  Saturday, October 10, 2009

  My 3 and a half year loves Oso too. Throughout the day he will talk about things that relate to the show, and has learnt to count down from 10-0 with Osos help. A Christmas toy would be great.xxx

• Claire Green : Mum :

  Thursday, October 15, 2009

  My 6 month old loves Oso too. He talks to him whenever he sees him. Like most of the other mums I would also like to get him Oso for xmas too. Im sure he would love him as a sleeping buddy!

• richard :

  Sunday, October 18, 2009

  IS IT POSSIBLE TO PURCHASE AN OSO TOY, IF SO WHERE AND HOW MUCH.
  
  MANY THANKS

• Tarrah O. : Stay at Home Mom :

  Wednesday, October 21, 2009

  My nephew asked for an Agent Oso toy for his b-day, where can I get one.

• Mary Larsen : Billing Coordinator : Grandma

  Friday, October 30, 2009

  My granddaughters both love Disney\'s Special Agent Oso and Paw Pilot. Please speed up the process for launching new toys for the show.
  
  Thank so much.

• christie :

  Wednesday, November 11, 2009

  my son loves oso, since he was born valentines day he only wants it to calm him down, when he was teething it was the only thing, ok he has 6 teeth and is almost 9 months, so he also has a severe crush on palm pilot, he says give her more air time, since day one he has watched the show with me and his face always changes a little more for her. I hope like others that there are toys and plush dolls for christmas, granny made him an oso but just didn\'t stand up to the real thing. Look forward to a new season, i have the shows memorized so new would be great!!
  Love everything about the show.
  OSO Addicts! wallets ready

• maria : parent : agent oso

  Saturday, November 14, 2009

  my 3 year old is just mad about oso he even spells his name have been searching everywhere in the line of oso 4 christmas would love a oso watch and a paw poilet please he would say 2 me can u help me thats all he is looking for can you help me!!!!!