Review: 'Positively Ozitively'

As an adult, it's always a bit tricky to review shows that seem to be targeted at preschool kids, since it's been a long time since I was in the demographic. But I'm a father who's watched a lot of children's programming with his son, so I have a small amount of perspective about what it takes to create an entertaining children's program.

"Positively Ozitively" is one of the pilots just released by the public by Amazon Studios and it begins with a disclaimer that the artwork is still in a pre-production state. That's putting it mildly, since about 90% of the 24-minute project includes some version of unfinished animation. The front half of the pilot uses a series of what are essentially simple colored images, complete with directions for the missing animation. The second half of the pilot is generally a series of pencil drawings, containing only the sparsest sense of what the finale version would look like.

That having been said, the unfinished animation isn't a big issue. There is enough there to give a good feel for what the show would ultimately look like and that's all you really need in this situation.

The series is very loosely based on the characters from Frank Baum's classic book, "The Wizard of Oz." The show features Dot, Dorothy's daughter, who regularly travels by balloon to visit her friends in Oz. Those friends turn out to be the children of the other major Oz characters, including The Scarecrow's son Little Boo, Tin Girl TJ and the Cowardly Cub.

The main problem with the show is the Oz setting. Rebooting the story into modern day and focusing on the children of the familiar Oz characters makes some commercial sense. Producers learned long ago that kids relate easier to characters closer to their own age. But the result of the reboot is that there isn't any real center to the show. Yes, the characters are in Oz and if your kid is familiar with the book that might drawn them in. But there isn't anything especially compelling about the characters, other then the fact that Dot seems to be a bit of a know-it-all.

There is a lot of existing programming kids that is just okay and there's nothing wrong with that. But while syndicators such as Qubo have made a business out of packaging together mediocre shows, programs that are just average won't help Amazon build their streaming service.

Based on the pilot I've seen, "Positively Ozitively" is a well-meaning but ultimately boring failure.

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'Posivitely Ozitively': Photo Gallery - Show Guide