Special Agent Oso

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Left to right: Wolfie, Oso and Dotty.

"HE'S OH SO SPECIAL!"

Special Agent Oso (2009-2012) was a children's animated television series that aired on Disney Junior when that programming block was still known as Playhouse Disney. It's about Oso, a "unique stuffed bear" who is a secret agent working with some kind of nondescript agency, along with his training helpers, Wolfie and Dottie, and his trusty talking map Paw Pilot. Other characters include Mr. Dos, a deep-voiced man who only talks through Oso's watch, and Rapide and Whirlybird, a talking train and a talking helicopter, respectively.

Basically, it's James Bond meets Dora the Explorer meets Winnie the Pooh.

The new Disney Junior block includes a short show called Special Agent Oso: Three Healthy Steps in which Oso observes as real-life children take three healthy steps to complete some sort of physical activity, such as jumping rope, swinging on a swing or fixing a salad.

Tropes used in Special Agent Oso include:

• Artistic License Geography: Pay attention to the two different locations on the globe that are shown when the camera zooms out of a shot of a kid in need of help, then zooms in on where Oso is. Then ask yourself, "how did he get from Europe to North America in just a couple of minutes BY CAR?!" Or better yet, how is it that Oso makes it from the moon to help a kid in a matter of minutes?
• Artistic License Physics: Oso is in a rocket when it collides head-on with a huge rock. Instead of the rocket crashing, it shoots halfway through the rock.
• Bilingual Bonus: Oso being Spanish for bear.
• Captain Obvious: Guess what the third step of petting a llama is? Petting a llama.
• Catch Phrase: "It's all part of the plan! More or less."
• Chekhov's Classroom "Your special assignment for today, Oso..."
  • Blatantly toyed with, in that he always forgets the lecture in question when it's actually INTENDED to be used, and only remembers it when something only vaguely related comes up.
• Crossover: "The Manny with the Golden Bear" had Handy Manny and his tools show up to help out when Oso has to help a kid who has a broken bike. Presumably relatively easy to finagle, since not only do both shows air on Disney Junior, but both are produced by Disney Television Animation. They're also both CGI and have reasonably similar looks.
• Disney Acid Sequence: A lot of the songs diverge into this.
• Edited for Syndication: The episode You Only Start Preschool Once and License to Sled are edited when airing on Playhouse Disney in the United Kingdom. Bizarrely, it is never explained why.
• Four-Fingered Hands: A curiosity with this one. The human characters on the series are normally depicted as having the normal number of fingers. In "The Manny With the Golden Bear," (Handy Manny Crossover) however, they sport four-fingered hands. This is presumably because the human characters on Handy Manny have only four fingers and it would have been odd to have to draw Manny with five.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Why is Mr. Moseby helping Samwise Gamgee with training exercises? And why is Uncle Ruckus talking to Oso on a watch?
  • Also, Cam Clarke is Rapide and Whirlybird.
• Idiot Hero: Arguably, Oso. He's supposed to the special agent helping the kids out... only every time it ends up being the opposite way around (because Oso forgets all of his instructions and struggles in the most basic tasks... like turning on a flashlight).
  • Well, he is "Oh so special" after all.
  • He does get a bit better (YMMV on this one) in a few more recent episodes.
• I Meant to Do That: See Oso's Catch Phrase.
• Punny Name: Oso. He's "Oso special."
• Race Against the Clock: EVERY episode, to the point where completion of the given 'task' must be done in less than twenty seconds.
  • Magic Countdown: These scenes tend to take a fair bit longer than expected, even with Paw Pilot counting down throughout. The countdown is in sight, it just seems to work in magical molasses time in order for Oso to finish Just in Time.
• Sentient Vehicle: Rapide the train and Whirly Bird the helicopter.
• Shout-Out: Many, many James Bond references, all the way up to hilariously bad titles (ex: Live and Let Dry, Carousel Royale, Goldenfly, A View to a Kitten, etc.) complete with Ear Worm Homages to the original Bond movies' Title Theme Tunes...
  • There was a bonus one at the end of the double-episode For Your Nice Bunny and For Pancakes With Love. "That's not a bunny, it's a stack of pancakes!"
• Strictly Formula: Oso does a training assignment and fails. He is then called away to help a child by Mr. Dos and Paw Pilot assigns Oso "three special steps" to complete the task. Paw Pilot then starts singing about the mission as a strange music video is shown. When he arrives, Oso follows the steps carefully when helping the child, needing the audience's help for very simple tasks. As the final step is completed in the nick of time, Oso returns to complete his training exercise, using the knowledge he got from his mission to earn his training award. Oso then receives a special assignment digi-medal for helping the child. The episode finishes off with a corny one-liner.
• Talking Animal: And talking trains, and talking planes... Let's just say "it's childrens' television" and leave it at that.
• Title Theme Tune: Combined with an Incredibly Lame Pun
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Oso himself. Both children and parents alike always recognize him for who he is, and know why he's there.
• The Voice: Mr. Dos