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In a World… where food and water are harder to find than the garbage left behind, a lone lizard fights for survival against a tenacious gang of vicious desert bandits. Meet Oscar, a tiny reptile surviving in a hostile world. For him, every day is a battle. And every day is in danger of being his last...

Well, OK, maybe that's a mite overdramatic.

Oscar's Oasis is a series of computer-animated shorts centering around the eponymous Oscar and his attempts at scavenging food in a nondescript desert. His main source of antagonism comes from a trio of desert animals who squabble with each other as often as they fight the other characters.

The formula of every episode promises several chase scenes, quirky animation, choppy editing, and absolutely no dialogue. Much of the cartoon itself seems largely inspired by the classic Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner shorts.


Tropes include:

  • Acrophobic Bird: Buck is a vulture that is frequently subjected to Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress despite being a bird. Potentially justified since on the rare occasions that we do see him trying to fly, he doesn’t look like he’s very good at it. Which is even more ironic considering that vultures are among the best fliers in the bird world.
  • All-CGI Cartoon: Oscar's Oasis happens of a toonic world.
  • All Deserts Have Cacti: Justified because the desert seems to be located in North America.
  • Antagonist in Mourning: A downplayed version happens in "Day of the Chicken". Oscar does not die, but he is forced to be hugged by a baby chick for an indefinite amount of time. Harchi, Popy, and Buck are quite touched for his Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Antagonist Title: The show was preceded by a series of seven one-minute shorts called Ooohhh Asis. Among other notable differences, the female fennec character Popy was originally a male named Panic. The first episode of Ooohhh Asis was entitled "Panic Attack".
  • Artistic License – Biology: To start with, fennec foxes like Popy are actually nocturnal (awake at night and sleep during the day) and it's anybody's guess how a fennec, a hyena, and several crocodiles ended up in a North American desert. This has lead to guesses by fans that some of the characters are escapees from a zoo or circus and Popy adjusted her sleeping schedule to match her friends'.
  • Big, Thin, Short Trio: Harchi's big, Buck is thin, and Popy is short.
  • Birthday Episode: "The Great Escape" (Harchi), "Lizard In The Sky" (Popy).
  • Bolivian Army Ending: Quite a few episodes end with the cast about to be eaten by crocodiles.
  • Book Ends: "The Great Escape" starts with Oscar backed up against a cliff by chickens, only for Buck and Popy to scare them off and capture him to give to Harchi as a birthday present. After Oscar escapes the trio land in crocodile gulch, where one of the crocs presents them to another croc for his birthday, then the chickens find Oscar again.
  • Butt-Monkey: Oscar, so very much. Nearly every character could qualify but Oscar stands out.
  • Can't Get Away with Nuthin': In "Bad Seed" the trio has a whole crate of strawberries and when Oscar steals one Popy has Harchi and Buck chase after him to get it back. Subverted in that this is just a distraction so she can have the rest of the strawberries to herself.
  • The Cat Came Back: One episode features Oscar's Determinator side by having him constantly hound the trio and a box they're trying to open.
  • Civilized Animal: The trio, especially compared to Oscar. They walk around on two legs, use improvised technology, live in a trailer, and even play games like tennis.
  • Clip Show: Several episodes reuse animation from previous episodes in an attempt at telling a totally different story.
  • Comic Trio: Popy is the schemer, Harchi is the follower, Buck is powerless.
  • Completely Different Title: The original French title is Oscar & Co.
  • Cut a Slice, Take the Rest: Popy does this several times in "Pronto Express". the first time she only leaves Buck and Harchi one slice of pie, leading to some tension over who gets it, before Popy comes back and sets out a second slice.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: The Trio is very fond of this, expending every available resource to get back at Oscar for even the smallest offense. Not that it ever works out for them, of course.
  • Downer Ending: Some episodes end with Oscar getting the short end of the stick, one example being "Beach Dream", where he never succeeds in getting a drink of water to cool off.
  • Dowsing Device: Oscar tries to use a pair of metal rods in "Finding Water" after watching Manolo and Roco use them, leading to the trio trying to steal them. They don't seem to work that well, with Popy getting a mouthful of dirt after diving into one of Oscar's holes and the trio actually striking oil after finally wresting them from Oscar.
  • Dramatis Personae: The main characters' names are displayed on screen at the start of every episode, complete with close-up and freeze frame.
    • In "The Hot Dog Way of Life", Popy and Roco take that moment to do a sexy pose or to gasp and smile at the camera, respectively. See No Fourth Wall below.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: In the earlier "Ooohh Asis" shorts Popy was a male fennec fox named Panic. Early episodes also often depict the trio just trying to survive in the desert, competing with Oscar over food and water, while later ones show they have their own home, food and soft drink to spare, and spend most of their time just goofing around when they're not bullying Oscar.
    • In the first couple episodes, Oscar has visible teeth. Barring occasional cases of Sudden Anatomy, he is toothless in the rest of the series.
    • The Lizardess was a lot more receptive to Oscar's affections in her debut episode compared to later episodes featuring her.
  • Enemy Mine: Several episodes feature the trio teaming up with Oscar to achieve mutual goals.
    • Oscar also teamed up with the meerkats twice, against the trio.
  • Expressive Ears: Popy. After all, being a Fennic Fox she's about 36% ears.
  • Flying Saucer: In "Godlizard Returns" Oscar gets a pin tin stuck around his waist and thrown into the air, causing the trio to mistake him for an alien when they spot him drifting lazily to the ground. At the end a real UFO shows up and turns the trio wacky colors, and shrinks them smaller than Oscar.
  • Food Porn: An in-universe example. Popy and her gang have a cookery magazine and can sometimes be seen looking through it.
  • Friendship Moment: Popy, Harchi and Buck have several of these with each other.
  • Groin Attack: In "Busy Day" when Harchi falls onto a branch they were using as a see-saw.
    • In "Lizard in the Sky" the second to last firework to go off goes right into Harchi's crotch.
  • Growling Gut: Happens to Oscar sometimes. Considering the show's about him trying to survive, this is basically a given.
    • Popy's stomach rumbles several times in "Lizard In The Sky" due to experiencing a Potty Emergency.
    • And to the Skunk in "One For All".
  • Hartman Hips: Popy has them.
  • Heavy Sleeper: Manolo is always asleep through the chaos caused by the animal characters.
  • Heinous Hyena: Very downplayed with Harchi; sure, he's an antagonist, but it's fairly obvious that he's not really *that* bad and mostly just goes along with Popy's schemes out of loyalty and friendship.
  • Here We Go Again!: The episode "Amazing Chicken" has Oscar and the others deal with a chicken that becomes gigantic and green after exposure to radioactive waste. After the chicken returns to normal, the episode ends with Oscar sleeping by one of the giant eggs the chicken laid, which then hatches into a giant green chick.
  • Hero Antagonist: Roco. Oscar and the trio are only trying to steal food or water to survive, but Roco still must stop them.
  • Hypercompetent Sidekick: Manolo's dog Roco often has to steer the truck because his owner is always asleep at the wheel.
  • Identity Amnesia: In "Busy Day" after Buck suffers a blow to the head while disguised as a chicken he believes he is a chicken.
  • Love Potion: In "Sweet Smell of Success" Oscar gets sprayed with perfume and finds he's irresistible to members of the opposite sex, regardless of species, including Popy.
  • Magic Music: In "Chicken Charmer" Oscar finds a toy trumpet and finds he can control the chickens with it. Later when Popy and her gang get their hands on it and try to use it after it's been broken they find it now attracts alligators.
  • Mama Bear: The chickens will stop at nothing to prevent Oscar from eating their eggs.
  • Meat-O-Vision: In "Fluff The Magic Lizard", the trio picture the escaping chickens as bouncing cooked drumsticks.
  • Misplaced Wildlife: Harchi is a hyena living in what looks like a North American desert. The alligators as well.
    • A group of meerkats occasionally show up.
  • Mistaken for Aliens: "Godlizard Returns" has Oscar get a fishbowl stuck on his head, resulting in Buck, Harchi, and Popy mistaking him for an alien in Harchi's comic book.
  • Mooning: "The Fly" has a fly land on Oscar's stretched-out tongue and shaking its rump to taunt him. It turns out to be a big mistake when Oscar retracts his tongue to eat the fly in retaliation.
  • The Narrator: In the French version, a man introduces the characters during their name shots. "Enter Oscar...." (Assuming he appears in the story first), and then "Enter (first of the trio to appear), (name of the second to appear), and (last to appear)".
  • No Fourth Wall: In her character introduction in "Hot Dog Way of Life", Popy seems to notice the "camera" and puts on a sultry pose. In that same episode, Roco gasp and smile at the camera.
  • Non-Indicative Name: Despite being called "Oscar's Oasis", the show takes place in a desert, with few oases around.
  • Papa Wolf: In "Food Chain" Buck's parental instincts kick in when he finds a lost baby vulture and has to protect it from Popy and Harchi, who want to eat it.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: In "Blueberry", Harchi, Popy, and Buck attempt to infiltrate a chicken farm by wearing red gloves on their heads and flapping their arms while clucking.
  • Pet the Dog: In "Lost", Buck and Popy are both very upset when they believe Harchi is dead.
  • Playing Sick: In "Bad Seed" after Popy is caught eating the strawberries she gets Harchi and Buck's sympathy by pretending the strawberries were bad and made her sick.
  • Popcorn on the Cob: Averted. In this show, when corn is exposed to heat it just bursts into flames, because if it did turn into popcorn they would still have something to eat.
    • Played straight at the end of the episode "For a Fistful of Corn".
  • Potty Emergency: In "Lizard in the Sky" Harchi and Buck hide the toilet paper on Popy while she frantically runs about trying to find a substitute. Why? To keep her distracted while they prepare her birthday party.
    • "Firefly Flash" has a scene where Roco stops for a pee break.
  • Predator Turned Protector: In “Mom in Spit of Himself” the latest egg Oscar steals hatches a chick that instantly imprints on him. Though the chick winds up protecting him almost as much as he does it.
  • Remembered I Could Fly: Sometimes Oscar fails to escape because he is grabbed by his tail and forgets that he could detach it at will.
    • Buck often crashes along with the others when their conveyance goes over a cliff.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: Even with Popy's mile-long mean streak, it's hard for a fennec not to be adorable.
  • Scavengers Are Scum: Buck the vulture and Harchi the hyena are part of a villainous trio that regularly antagonize Oscar and make his life more difficult.
  • Shout-Out: One of the episodes is entitled "Road Runners" as a possible homage to the series' inspiration.
    • In the episode "Amazing Chicken", when the huge, mutated green hen pursues Manolo's truck and reaches it kicks the vehicle with the head as in the Jurassic Park scene where the T.Rex is chasing the SUV of the protagonists.
  • Slasher Smile: The trio give some rather impressive ones in the treasure hunt episode when they sneak up on Oscar while he's reading the map.
  • Sleep Cute: At the start of "Walking on the Moon" Popy is licking and sucking on Harchi's foot as she's sleeping.
  • Smurfette Principle: Popy, but only as far as the main characters are considered. The hens show up often, and a female lizard and vulture the same species as Oscar and Buck appear occasionally.
  • Super-Persistent Predator: Multiple episodes focus on Oscar's pursuit of a particularly annoying fly or trying to steal the chickens' eggs despite all the pecking. Others have him running from the trio or crocodiles.
  • "Take That!" Kiss: Oscar does this to the skunk in "Forbidden Zone".
    • Later, Oscar is on the receiving end when Harchi gives one in "Get Out of It".
  • Team Rocket Wins: The trio, on very rare occasion, receive no karmic backlash at all. Most notably Home Sweet Home, where they keep Oscar up all night partying.
  • Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: All female animals other than the chickens have big long eyelashes.
  • Through a Face Full of Fur: When he gets kissed by the female lizard, Oscar visibly reddens.
  • Tiny Tyrannical Girl: Popy to Harchi and Buck. No matter how feisty she gets, those two seem to enjoy indulging her crazy whims. That doesn't mean they won't bite back occasionally, though.
  • Too Dumb to Live: In "Leader of the Pack" when fireworks land in front of the trio they waste time trying to blow out the fuses and Harchi is the only one who thinks of running... and he runs right back after getting a bucket to cover Popy's head.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: While Oscar will eat almost anything he can find, especially flies, he seems to really like eggs.
  • Vague Age: Only Popy's age has been shown, though it's possible she was lying. She takes a bunch of candles off her birthday cake (Buck wasn't sure how old she was, so he just put them all on) leaving six.
  • Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Nobody's really sure which desert this cartoon takes place in, but it borrows pretty heavily from North American deserts.

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