Based on the short film Not the End of the World by Jack Bennett, Dodo is a 2021 British animated series chronicling the experiences of Joe Connolly in secondary school.
A second season is in development.
This series provides examples of:
- Abuse Discretion Shot: In the first episode's Cold Open when Jamie punches Joe for using his deodorant it cuts to the next scene just before impact.
- Acting Unnatural: In "Disco" Joe recalls Lily Scott sheepishly looking at the ceiling when he caught her staring at him, which he interpreted as her having "a bizarre fascination with classroom ceilings."
- Adaptational Diversity: Pete and Hot Molly went from white to black between the short film and the series. Also, Kayla wasn't a Muslim and Jo didn't have a visible birthmark on her face (though the right side of her face is never shown in the short).
- Adaptation Explanation Extrication:
- In the original short Hot Molly asked Joe out because she hates Lily and wanted to mess with her. In the series there's no explanation for why she was interested in Joe and she isn't shown to have any association with Lily.
- Also, in the short Hot Molly has her nickname to differentiate her from Molly Anderson and Molly Wood, who don't appear in the series.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: In "Pickled Onion" Siobhan tells a ghost story about a girl called Little Lara Longmore.
- Adults Are Useless: The teachers do little to nothing to stop bullying and tend to enforce the rules when it's most inconvenient for the protagonists.
- In "Fight" Joe and Lily get punished along with Lee Jackson for fighting, even though Lily was defending Joe and Joe wasn't fighting at all.
- In "Mickey Page" Frisbo fights with Joe over his bag because he took his sticker and gets sent to the wall.
- Alliterative Family: Both Connolly brothers have names beginning with J.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Throughout "Parents Evening" Joe is dreading his parents running into Lily because he's afraid she will dump him because of how embarrassing they are. It turns out Lily was just as scared of Joe meeting her embarrassing parents.
- Animation Bump: Compared to the short film, which was animated by only one person.
- Asinine Alternate Activity: In "Deux", Joe Connolly accidentally leaves his permission slip for a school trip at home and has to stay behind at school learning French with a bunch of other kids who either didn't bring a permission slip or are banned from school trips because they're prone to causing trouble.
- Betty and Veronica: Lily Scott and Hot Molly respectively. Joe has a very brief relationship with Hot Molly before moving on to Lily.
- Big Brother Bully: Joe's older brother Jamie picks on him often.
- Big Damn Heroes: After a disastrous first day at school Joe almost humiliates himself further by breaking down in tears in music class until Pete Wilson notices what is about to happen and starts playing around with his keyboard, making everyone laugh and cheering Joe up.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: A shared trait of the Connolly family.
- Birthday Episode: Joe turns 12 in "Forever Eleven".
- Bland-Name Product: At one point in "Breaking Up" Joe and his friends can be seen playing some in-universe equivalent of Buckaroo! with an elephant instead of a mule, while Lily and her friends are playing a game based on Hungry Hungry Hippos with hamsters instead of hippos.
- Blatant Lies:
- In "Pickled Onion" at Siobhan's party Joe claims he isn't frightened by her ghost story despite screaming.
- In "Textmas" Jamie claims he can't give up his room to a relative because he has revisions to do, but instead he's actually gaming.
- In "Mickey Page" Joe denies his bitter poem is about Lily and Frisbo despite how obvious it is.
- Bottle Episode: Outside of the Imagine Spots "Textmas" takes place entirely at Joe's house.
- Boyish Short Hair: Mrs. Connolly's hair is only slightly longer than her sons'.
- Brick Joke: In "Forever Eleven" Joe gets out of receiving birthday beats by claiming it's Jo Fitzgerald's birthday, resulting in her getting chased. She's shown still being chased at the end of the episode.
- The Bully: Aside from Joe's brother Jamie there's Aaron Keedwell, Lee Jackson, Steve Malek and to a lesser extent Roxy Brunswick.
- The Cavalry Arrives Late: In "Fight" Lily arrives a moment too late to witness Lee Jackson calling off his fight with Joe and starts beating him up.
- Childhood Friends: Joe and Frisbo have been best mates since nursery school.
- Christmas Episode: "Textmas" takes place during Christmas break.
- Cold Open: Every episode has one.
- Comical Overreacting: Joe treats every problem in his life, no matter how minor, like it's the end of the world.
- Commonality Connection:
- Joe and Jamie both love fried egg sweets.
- Joe and Lily both love dinosaurs.
- Cringe Comedy: Much of the comedy comes from Joe finding himself in awkward and embarrassing situations.
- The Cutie: Lily Scott is one of the nicest girls in school, as well as endearingly awkward and shy.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Siobhan is a Creepy Child who takes delight in scaring people, but is otherwise one of the friendlier students. At worst she's Innocently Insensitive at times due to saying everything in the same flat tone.
- Dreaming of a White Christmas: In "Textmas" there's an unrealistic amount of snow outside for December in the UK.
- Dreary Half-Lidded Eyes: Hot Molly, Laura Hubbert and Siobhan Murphy's eyelids are half shut by default, with Siobhan rarely opening her eyes all the way.
- Eagleland Osmosis: O'Malley Secondary School has lockers like at an American school. While some secondary and high schools in the UK have lockers, they're not that big.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Lily Scott makes several small appearances starting from the first episode before getting a proper introduction in "Disco".
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In the original short film Not the End of the World Joe's last name was spelled with one L, Frisbo was Frisbee, Pete and Hot Molly were white, Pete and Laura didn't have names, Joe's favourite sweets were flying saucers instead of fried eggs, and Joe slept in the nude.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Laura Hubbert and Siobhan Murphy have pale skin and black hair.
- Elephant in the Living Room:
- No one ever calls attention to Roxy Brunswick's acne or Jo Fitzgerald's birthmark.
- In "Girlfriend" no one bats an eye at the one gay couple among the couples making out behind the bike sheds.
- Emotionless Girl: Siobhan is described by Joe as having no emotions and most of the time acts like it, speaking in a deadpan tone and rarely changing her expression.
- Eskimos Aren't Real: In "Boyfriend" Pete is dumbfounded to discover that Joe and Frisbo think the Titanic was fictional.
- Everyone Has Standards: In "Disco" everyone at the disco just stares in Stunned Silence as Daisy Adeyemi rejects Joe's request to dance with him, even Aaron Keedwell and Roxy Brunswick, who just moments ago were laughing at Frisbo for doing a knee slide.
- Evil Counterpart: Steve Malek is Joe if he had no friends keeping him in check.
- Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: Roxy Brunswick is one of the bullies and her eyeshadow goes slightly past her eyelids.
- Facial Markings: Lily's friend Jo Fitzgerald has a birthmark around her right eye.
- Faux Horrific: Aaron Keedwell's attempt at a scary story in "Pickled Onion", which ends with all the world's fidget spinners disappearing. No one is impressed.
- Felony Misdemeanor: According to a Cutaway Gag in "Trouble" Kayla was once sent to the head teacher's office for wearing mismatching socks.
- Flashback Fail: In "Trouble" Joe recalls a traumatic event when his father was called in to his primary school because he disrupted history class by making a childish joke, mistaking his feigning anger in front of the teachers for genuine anger. It turns out he actually found it hilarious.
- Freudian Trio: Joe (Id), Frisbo (Ego) and Pete (Superego).
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Steve Malek goes from being a Butt-Monkey like Joe to a bully who plots to take over the school.
- Gaslighting: In "Mickey Page" Steve Malek steals the football sticker Joe wants back from Frisbo and when Frisbo is caught fighting with Joe to get it back Steve sneaks it out of Joe's bag before Frisbo takes it and dumps its contents on the floor, making it look like Frisbo accused Joe falsely.
- Gender-Inverted Trope: Mr. Connolly does the cooking, while Mrs. Connolly is always the one driving the car and is supposedly the breadwinner of the family.
- Girlfriend in Canada: In "Girlfriend" Frisbo makes up a girlfriend named Marianne. He's found out in the end when he forgets her name and calls her Miriam.
- Girl Posse: Hot Molly, Laura Hubbert and their other friends.
- Got Volunteered: In "Bad Sport" Mr. Turner signs Joe up for the 1,500-metre race when Joe was planning on not competing in any event.
- Growing Up Sucks: Joe discovers that some things considered cool in primary school, such as doing knee slides at a disco, are considered embarrassing and laughable in secondary school.
- Half-Arc Season: Episodes are mostly standalone with occasional Call Backs.
- Halloween Episode: "Pickled Onion" has Joe and his schoolmates going to Siobhan's Halloween party.
- Hope Spot: In "Plopper" Lily attempts to help Joe escape the girls' toilets without being seen, but unfortunately texts him about the plan first, unaware that he has a personalised ringtone recorded in his voice that mentions his name.
- Huge Schoolgirl: Relatively, Laura Hubbert is the tallest girl in year 7 at 5'3.
- Imagine Spot: Joe has several each episode.
- Informed Attribute: In "Pickled Onion" when Siobhan invites the class to her Halloween party she doesn't give out her address and just tells them they'll know her house when they see it, but what little is shown of her house doesn't really stand out.
- Innocently Insensitive: In the first episode Ashlee notices Joe walking funny (because he split his trousers) and asks him if he has arthritis, keeps bugging him with questions not realising he wants to be left alone and blabs about a friend's gran having arthritis to not only Joe, but also yells to her friend about it so loud the whole class could hear.
- In-Series Nickname: Joe gets the nickname Dodo in the first episode when first day jitters cause him to blurt out his poem about the dodo bird in front of his class unprompted.
- Insistent Terminology: Throughout "Bits" kids refer to private parts as bits.
- Invisible Parents: Most of the kids' parents are never seen. Even in "Parents Evening" the only parents shown other than Joe's are Frisbo's and Lily's.
- Even in "Pickled Onion" Siobhan's parents are never shown, despite it taking place mostly at her house.
- Jerkass Ball: Mr. Turner holds it in "Bad Sport" as he makes Joe take part in the 1,500-metre race, engages in Unsportsmanlike Gloating when any of his students win and becomes a Sore Loser when any of them lose, even when Joe goes back for Frisbo after he injures his leg and helps him walk to the finish line.
- Jerkass Realisation:
- In "Tadpoles" Joe repeatedly bugs Pete to ask Lily out for him, not realising Pete is clearly busy dealing with personal issues until Pete finally snaps and explains that he's distressed over his parents getting divorced.
- In "Mickey Page" Joe becomes friends with Steve Malek, who grooms him into a bully. It takes Steve doing an Evil Laugh for Joe to realise it.
- Jerkass to One: Laura Hubbert dislikes Joe for reasons not made clear. Though she still follows Hot Molly's order to ask him out for her.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: At the start of "Forever Eleven" Jamie gives Joe a big flashy birthday badge that plays the tune of "Happy Birthday to You" so everyone at school will know it's his birthday. It later turns out that Jamie was deliberately setting Joe up to get birthday beats.
- Just in Time: In "Pickled Onion" Joe narrowly avoids humiliating himself in front of his whole class when Aaron does a Jump Scare as Siobhan telling her ghost story because Steve Malek ends up screaming just before he can.
- Karma Houdini: In "Breaking Up" Frisbo faces no consequences for pushing his responsibility of breaking up with Kayla on to Joe. Instead Joe gets all the blame.
- LGBT Representation in Media:
- In "Girlfriend" it's heavily implied that Poppy Atkin is in a romantic relationship with her friend Camilla. The same episode also features two unnamed boys who are unambiguously a couple.
- "Parents Evening" reveals that Frisbo's parents are a lesbian couple.
- Limited Wardrobe: Justified in the case of the students, as they're usually wearing school uniforms, with occasional exceptions such as the costume party in "Pickled Onion" and "Textmas" where Joe's family and Lily are shown wearing Christmas jumpers.
- Locked in a Room: In "Plopper" Joe goes into the girls' toilets by accident and ends up trapped in the one stall as girls crowd outside waiting to use it.
- Loving a Shadow: In "Girlfriend" Joe becomes infatuated with Hot Molly despite knowing nothing about her other than that she's popular and pretty.
- Mad Libs Catchphrase: Laura Hubbert starts many of her sentences with "Hot Molly says".
- Make-Out Point: The students' designated make-out spot is behind the bike sheds.
- Makeup Is Evil: All the kids who wear makeup full-time are mean girls; Roxy Brunswick, Hot Molly and Laura Hubbert.
- Minor Flaw, Major Breakup: In "Girlfriend" Hot Molly dumps Joe after seeing his ugly kissing face.
- Mirror Character: Joe and Lily are both average kids with only two friends and in "Breaking Up" it's revealed Lily has her own Inner Monologue just like Joe.
- Miss Conception: In "Girlfriend" Frisbo says he heard that if a boy doesn't have a girlfriend by the time they're twelve and a half it falls off.Joe: What falls off?Frisbo: It.
- Motor Mouth: Ashlee, who bombards Joe with questions when he sits next to her his first time in class.
- My Nayme Is: Ashlee clarifies that her name is spelled with two E's when introducing herself to Joe.
- Nerves of Steel: At least according to the narrator, Siobhan is scared of nothing.
- New Friend Envy:
- Joe takes an instant dislike to Frisbo's new friend Pete Wilson, fearing that Pete is stealing his best friend. By the end of the episode he gets over it and they're all friends.
- At the end of "Disco" Frisbo looks heartbroken as he sees Joe knee sliding with Lily instead of him.
- No Full Name Given: Frisbo, Ashlee, Hot Molly and Camilla.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Joe considers Pete an expert on getting girls because he's managed to keep a girlfriend longer than any other boy he knows; 3 days at the longest.
- No Smoking: Hot Molly smoked in the short film. In the series she chews bubblegum instead.
- No Social Skills: Siobhan Murphy has shades of this, made most apparent in "Cosmic Frisbo". She assumes Joe has feelings for her despite him showing no such signs and awkwardly asks him out, complimenting his shoes as an icebreaker first (even though they're part of his uniform and all the boys wear the same ones).
- Not Me This Time: In the Cold Open of "Textmas" Joe accuses Jamie of taking the last choc ice after he called dibs on it. Mrs. Connolly admits that she took it because she "really needed it."
- Oireland: Very downplayed with Siobhan Murphy. If it wasn't for her name you wouldn't be able to tell she was Irish.
- Once More, with Clarity: In "Deux" when Joe is asked for his permission slip to go on the school trip he checks his pocket only to find it empty. Cue a rewind to the earlier breakfast scene where he accidentally left it on the kitchen table.
- Only Sane Man: Out of the main trio of friends, Pete is the most level-headed compared to Joe and Frisbo.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Throughout "Tadpoles" the normally cool and laid-back Pete acts cold and evasive, but Joe is too focused on trying to get with Lily to notice something is amiss.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: In "Deux" after being teased by Aaron, Joe not only denies Lily is his girlfriend (which she really wasn't yet) but also that he even likes her at all, which makes her storm off. They make up after he apologises later.
- Passionate Sports Girl: Roxy Brunswick, as shown in "Bad Sport" when she wins the shot put event.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": The passcode for Joe's phone is 1234. He calls Jamie an evil genius for being able to figure that out.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Neither Mr. or Mrs. Connolly are stated to have jobs. It's implied that Mr. Connolly is a Househusband while Mrs. Connolly has some unspecified job. Whatever Mrs. Connolly's job is, she has enough free time to drive Joe to a dentist appointment during school hours in "Bits".
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure:
- In "Squeaker" Joe and Frisbo have a falling out when Frisbo won't stop teasing Joe about his squeaky shoe and Joe snaps back by exposing the secret that Frisbo caught a verruca in the swimming pool. They make up in the end.
- In "Cosmic Frisbo" Frisbo ends his friendship with Joe when Joe gets so preoccupied with his love life he forgets to help Frisbo with his magic act. They don't make up until "Bad Sport".
- Poor Communication Kills: In "Cosmic Frisbo" Joe accidentally accepts Siobhan's proposal to go out when he's already dating Lily because in the moment he's too stunned to say anything other than "Okay." After Lily catches Joe and Siobhan holding hands, Joe does a terrible job at trying to explain the situation, which results in her dumping him.
- Protagonist Title: In a way. The title is Joe's Embarrassing Nickname.
- Proxy Breakup:
- In "Girlfriend" Hot Molly has her friend Laura Hubbert tell Joe he's dumped.
- In "Breaking Up" Frisbo starts dating Kayla Madani, but soon tires of the relationship and asks Joe to break up with her for him. Awkwardness ensues when Joe backs out and doesn't tell either of them.
- Quarter Hour Short: All episodes are 15 minutes long.
- Real Men Cook: Mr. Connolly is the cook of the family.
- Real Women Don't Wear Dresses: A few of the girls, like Kayla and Siobhan, wear trousers as part of their uniform instead of the standard pleated skirt.*
- Relationship Revolving Door: Joe and Lily get together in "Tadpoles", then in "Boyfriend" Lily breaks up with Joe temporarily when he freaks her out trying too hard to be a good boyfriend, then in "Cosmic Frisbo" Lily breaks up with Joe again when she sees him holding hands with Siobhan and they don't get back together until "Breaking Up".
- Shot-for-Shot Remake: "Girlfriend" is a longer version of the short film.
- The scene of Joe imagining his heart breaking when Hot Molly's friend flicks his chest after telling him he's dumped is reused in "Cosmic Frisbo", but with Lily instead.
- The scene of Lily playing Hungry Hungry Hippos with her friends and getting mad when she loses is reused in "Breaking Up", only with a knockoff version of the game and Lily as a sore winner instead.
- The flashback of Lily looking dreamily at Joe before sheepishly looking at the ceiling when he turns toward her is reused in "Disco".
- Shout-Out:
- Siobhan dresses up like Wednesday Addams (minus the pigtails) in "Pickled Onion" and "Disco".
- In "Boyfriend" Joe includes Ross and Rachel among the famous historical couples in his presentation on the history of romance.
- Shy Bladder: As shown in "Plopper", Joe has problems going to the toilet at school and would usually wait until he gets home. At the end of the episode he's finally able to go in the boys' room after blocking out the sound with headphones, blindfolding himself with his tie and spraying some air freshener around.
- Significant Name Overlap: In "Forever Eleven" after everyone finds out it's Joe's birthday at one point he weasels out of getting birthday beats from a girl by claiming it's actually Jo Fitzgerald's birthday.
- Smash Cut: A semi-recurring gag has Joe getting suddenly cut off by the next scene as he's talking.
- Special Guest: Jodie Whittaker as Lily's narrator in the first season finale.
- Splitting Pants: Joe tears the back of his trousers on the first day of school, is caught in his underwear trying to repair them and is given shorts from lost property to wear.
- Standing in the Hall: In "Mickey Page" Frisbo gets the facing-the-wall equivalent for fighting in class. After Joe confesses to his part in starting the fight he's sent to join him.
- A Tale Told by an Idiot: "Parents Evening" starts with Joe telling Jamie about a robot on Mars and Jamie not believing him. He's actually referring to the Mars rover (a remote-controlled vehicle), but is under the impression that there's an actual robot.
- The Talk: In "Bits" Joe misses a sex education assembly due to a dentist appointment. Feeling left out, he claims to already know everything about it and gives the other kids false information about biology. After he's found out, Mr. Turner makes him watch a sex education film.
- This Is My Side: In "Textmas" Joe is forced to sleep in Jamie's room while their aunt is staying over. Jamie puts tape around Joe's bed and tells him he has to stay in that part of the room.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Even with Dreary Half-Lidded Eyes, Siobhan manages this as her default expression.
- Tragic Dream: Joe has recurring daydreams about becoming an astronaut, despite his poor grades and Britain not having a space program. In "Parents Evening" Miss Green breaks the news to him that it's very unlikely to happen.
- Training Montage: Joe has one in "Bad Sport" as he trains for the 1,500-metre race, alternating between him running to the bus stop that's only a few yards from his house, drinking kale and egg smoothies and playing a racing video game against Jamie.
- Tranquil Fury: In "Textmas" Mrs. Connolly is woken up in the middle of the night by Joe and Jamie fighting and calmly tells them Christmas is cancelled if she hears another sound.
- Unnamed Parent: As of the end of the first season, Mr. and Mrs. Connolly haven't been given first names.
- The same goes for Lily's parents. The only named parents are Frisbo's mothers Theresa and Janet.
- Unreliable Narrator: The narrator is Joe's Inner Monologue and often misreads situations because it only knows as much as Joe does.
- Unreliable Voiceover: In "Parents Evening" after Joe's parents say they want to meet Lily, the narrator explains that Jamie unintentionally told them about her a week earlier. Then it shows a flashback where Jamie blatantly tells them on purpose."Joe has a girlfriend. Her name is Lily Scott."
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Joe is a selfish egotist and a lot of his misfortune comes from his own actions.
- Useless Bystander Parent: Mum and Dad do nothing about Jamie bullying Joe. Mum does intervene once in "Textmas", but only because their fighting woke her up.
- Viewers Are Goldfish: In "Girlfriend" after Hot Molly dumps Joe he flashes back to all the time they were together, but since it was only that afternoon all the flashbacks are from just moments ago.
- Villain Reveals the Secret: In "Parents Evening" Jamie tells Mum and Dad about the girlfriend Joe was trying to hide from them.
- The Voiceless: Hot Molly has no onscreen dialogue. Her friend Laura speaks for her.
- Wham Line: In "Disco", when the girl sitting next to Joe outside reveals herself to be the girl who left a love note in his bag in "Girlfriend"."I'm Lily."
- What You Are in the Dark: In "Breaking Up" Lily gets back together with Joe after he confesses his true feelings for her to Frisbo and Pete, unaware that she was standing behind him listening.
- Women Are Wiser: The female characters generally have more sense than the male characters, with a few exceptions such as Ashlee.
- World of Jerkass: Most of the characters are jerks to varying degrees, with just a few exceptions like Pete and Lily.
- Writing Around Trademarks: In "Boyfriend", among the images of famous historical couples in Joe's presentation Ross and Rachel are depicted as crudely drawn stick figures, rather than using the likenesses of their actors.
