All of the characters in Oddballs come in different shapes and sizes.
The Main Trio
Tropes that apply to the main trio:
- Free-Range Children: Max and James do almost everything without adult supervision. And Echo is more or less a runaway from the future.
- Nice Mean And In Between: Max (nice) is friendly and supportive, Echo (mean) is inconsiderate and can be rude and selfish, and James (in-between) is can either be a Nice Guy or a Jerk with a Heart of Gold depending on the episode.
- Two Guys and a Girl: Technically a guy, a girl, and an alligator but this still applies.
James is the main protagonist of Oddballs. He is a marshmallow-like preteen boy.
Tropes that apply to James:
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: After getting a trophy for standing up for Mr. McFly. He lets the moment get to his head.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Hence why he usually walks around naked. Occasionally though his butt is shown.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Nowhere near as bad as Max, or some of the other Dirt residents can be... but when he gets his crazy on...
- Determinator: When he puts his mind to a task, he's virtually unstoppable... no matter how ill-advised they might be at times. However futile they might have been by the end of the episode.
- Hypocrite: Can get stubborn and preachy about beliefs but can flip-flop on certain ones. Basically, think Gumball Watterson.
- Motive Rant: Has at least one of these per episode. Which inevitably leads to hijinks.
- Vague Age: Even he doesn't know how old he is. However, considering he’s implied to be in middle school, he’s presumably 12-14 years old.
Max is an alligator and James’ best friend. He serves as the series’ deuteragonist.
Tropes that apply to Max:
- Animal Testing: Was this when he was younger. Most of which seemed to be electrocution.
- Alien Blood: Fitting his laboratory origins, Max’s vital liquid is lime green and has an odd resemblance to jello.
- Artificial Animal People: Was one of the beings made in a lab.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Whew boy... let's just say that his brain isn't always 'there' at the best of times.
- Raised by Humans: And created by Humans as well. His parents and his sister are Human.
- The Berserker: Normally a peaceful sort, but if he doesn't get a chance to unstress himself, he will grow muscular and go on a rampage.
Echo is a young girl from the future that hangs out with James and Max. As a result of being from the future, she has several gadgets that prove helpful in situations. She is the tritagonist of the series.
Tropes that apply to Echo:
- Big Eater: She comes from a Bad Future where there's no longer any such thing as processed food. The whole reason she came to the present was so that she could eat all of the delicious things that she's only ever heard stories about, and boy, does she ever. It's extremely rare to see her not wolfing something down.
- Freudian Excuse: Echo comes off throughout the show as selfish and inconsiderate, never taking into account other people's feelings as her laziness and sloppiness irritates James and Max at times. However, given that she comes from a dystopian future where good food is antiquated, her selfishness is a byproduct from living in such terrible times where she had to survive on her own.
- Mundane Utility: Echo once swapped bodies with Dr. Squats specifically to use her thighs to crack walnuts.
- Oh, Crap!: Her reaction to learning James created Toasty, who ruined her future.
- The Pig-Pen: Let's put it this way... she once flooded the clubhouse RV so badly, that when James and Max tried to get in, a tidal wave of garbage fell on them, and James spent the rest of the episode passive-aggressively trying to call her out on this.
- Tricked-Out Gloves: Which gives her the ability to swap bodies with people. Among other futuristic technologies.
- Weaponized Headgear: Her bow houses Birdie, an extendable laser weapon with a cartoonish bird head.
Dirt High Students and Teachers
The (substitute) principal for Dirt High.
Tropes that apply to Principal Loudspeaker
- Artificial Intelligence: Literally a loudspeaker/camera combo installed throughout the school.
- Big Brother Is Watching: And not just at the school either. He has a side job of being all the clocks around town.
The half-human, half-fly teacher at Dirt High.
Tropes that apply to Mr. McFly
- Artificial Animal People: We even get to see his baby pictures of when he was in the lab... to the chagrin of his class.
- Eye Glasses: Wears a pair of glasses with emotive human eyes on them, despite the fact that he has massive segmented eyes and the glasses only cover a very small portion of them and thus probably don't help his vision in any plausible manner.
- Sadist Teacher: Ping-Pongs back and forth from supporting his students to pushing them to the breaking point.
Dirt High's exercise-obsessed P.E. teacher.
Tropes that apply to Dr. Squats.
- Body Swap: Echo once swapped bodies with her to use her thighs to crack walnuts.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Well she wouldn't be a fictional P.E. teacher without this attitude in her classes.
- Fitness Nut: Specifically, her legs are RIDICULOUSLY muscular from near-non-stop squatting.
- Meaningful Name: No idea if it's her real name or not. But... well she is OBSESSED with squatting.
- Mundane Utility: Echo once swapped bodies with her specifically to use her thighs to crack walnuts.
Tropes that apply to Stuart
- Always a Bigger Fish: The girl scouts are this to him.
- Blob Monster: A big green slime one that is also a school bully.
- Demonic Possession: He technically possesses James after James unwittingly drank him.
- Running Gag: He randomly consumes classmates who are none the worse, but still disconcerting.
A goth unicorn girl.
Tropes that apply to Maz Scare-Ah
- Artificial Animal People: She is an anthropomorphic unicorn. Her parent even looks like a regular (albeit gothic) horse.
- Everyone Has Standards: Can be a bit of a jerk but she has shown that she refuses to take advantage of both old people and frown upon identity fraud.
- Failed a Spot Check: Somehow forgot that James is typically naked when she asked him if his fly was down.Maz: What am I talking about? James never wears anything.
- Pet the Dog: She has complimented James a few times with even one of the end credits showing a pic of her hugging James.
- Punny Names: Maz Scare-Ah, as in mascara.
- Serious Business: As seen when James and his Grandma try to buy frozen yogurt with a fake ID.Maz: You're not Bob Awman. I know Bob Awman. He's a bench!
- Not So Above It All: Despite her serious and aloof demeanor. She's not above joining in whatever insanity the other Dirt citizens get up to in a given episode.
Dirt Residents
The giant cactus that holds the RV clubhouse.
- Gasshole: Burps any time he eats... literally, his burping is part of the Title Sequence.
- The Trees Have Faces: Typically a smiley face to be specific.
Parents of Box Jenna and Max.
Tropes that apply to Liv and Greg
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Apparently they made Max with Popcorn making arms cause Greg wanted someone to make him popcorn.
- My Greatest Failure: Parodied, as Greg regrets not giving Max donut-making arms.
- Shout-Out: Greg somewhat looks like the 'Kilroy was Here' meme. Specifically, we only see the top half of his head and not his mouth.
James' parents.
Tropes that apply to Patrick and Louise
- Ambiguously Human: Like James, they're also marshmallow/bubble people.
- Fitness Nut: Louise has traits of this as she showed in an exercise outfit, and drank a health-drink.
- Mad Scientist: Louise works in the lab, and she shows she's not above performing an experiment on her son.