Trivia / Rolie Polie Olie

• Acting for Two: Quite a few principal actors played secondary roles in addition to their main ones. For example:
  • Adrian Truss voices Percy Polie, Pappy Star and Uncle Gizmo.
  • Robert Smith voices Spot and Space Dog.
  • Len Carlson plays Pappy, Dr. Callinghouse, Chef Rotundo and Spookie Ookie.
  • Julie Lemieux voices Coochie and Coo.
  • Ron Rubin plays Bot-ler and Lunchbox.
• Adored by the Network: France 5 loved this show when it aired on their Debout les Zouzous block, to the point where Olie, Zowie, and Spot became the mascots of the block and were featured very often during commercial breaks.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: While averted for the series itself, the full-length movie The Great Defender of Fun featured the high-profile American character actor James Woods voicing the main villain, Gloomius Maximus.
• Channel Hop: For the first five seasons, the series was co-produced by Métal Hurlant Productions and SPARX* in France. Afterwards, Sparkling* Animation handled production for the final season.
• Children Voicing Children: All the child characters are voiced by actual kids.
• Cross-Dressing Voices:
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, the titular character was voiced by the female Cristina Hernández.
  • In a similar vein, the Japanese dub features the female Takako Kato as the voice of Rolie Polie Olie.
• Directed by Cast Member: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Mónica Villaseñor was the ADR director and Screwy's voice actress.
• He Also Did: Scott Irvine, who played tuba on the show's soundtrack, was a founding member of the True North Brass quintet.
• International Coproduction: The series was produced by Nelvana in Canada and Sparkling* Animation in France. CBC, France 5 and Disney Channel were also involved.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • A few episodes, as well as the two films, were released by Disney on VHS and DVD in the United States, but are now out of print. However, Disney+ added the first 5 seasons in September 2021. Season 6, which introduced Coochie and Coo, remain absent from the streaming app despite them appearing front and center in the program description, making Coochie and Coo an unintentional example of Wolverine Publicity.
  • In Canada, Nelvana released most of the series on VHS and DVD, but they are also out of print. Fortunately, the series is available digitally on Amazon Prime Video and Treehouse Direct's official YouTube channel.
  • There is a series of shorts with the characters on a white background, some of which add lyrics to background music from the show. These shorts were never released on home video and were only aired in Canada (on CBC and Treehouse TV).
• No Export for You: This happened to the DVD releases of the show because of the different rights owners of the show in the US and Canada, with Nelvana owning the show in its home country of Canada (and almost everywhere outside North America) and Disney having the rights in the United States. While most of the episodes of the show were released in Canada, the US only had a few releases of the show and also released the two movies. On the opposite side of things, Canada never got The Baby Bot Chase on DVD. However, some of the Nelvana releases occasionally turn up at discount stores (but imported) in the United States including Book Warehouse and Oops! Outlet.
• Only So Many Canadian Actors: Many child actors from other Nelvana shows appear in this series, as well as quite a few prominent adult actors, like Adrian Truss, Catherine Disher, Ron Rubin, and the late Len Carlson.
• The Other Darrin:
  • In The Great Defender of Fun movie, Gloomius Maximus was voiced by James Woods. In all other appearances, he was voiced by the late Paul Haddad.
  • Joshua Tucci, Howard Jerome and Tracey Moore respectively voiced Billy Bevel, Klanky Claus and Clock Mouse for the first five seasons. In the final season, they were respectively voiced by Kristopher Clarke, John Neville and Julie Lemieux.
• Out of Order: When the show premiered on Disney+ in the US, the episodes were initially released willy-nilly.
• Screwed by the Network: Like with all other pre-2007 Disney Junior shows (save for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Little Einsteins), the show was pulled from reruns on the 24/7 Disney Junior channel after a short period on the air.
• What Could Have Been:
  • According to this screenshot from SIGGRAPH 1997,◊ the show looked somewhat different.
  • A comment on this Instagram reel reveals that a reboot was pitched to Disney in 2022, but it was rejected for being too identical to the original series.

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