LOS ANGELES — It can be hard to keep up with pop culture. It’s a peril of modernity that no matter how much a person wants to stay tuned in, there’s just no way to keep up.

So when something such as “The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure” rolls around, it is understandable to start wondering: Did I miss something? Should I know this?

The answer, in every way imaginable, is no. “The Oogieloves” are not an already-beloved set of characters, but a prefab construction meant to appear like a beloved set of characters.

Kenn Viselman, described in publicity materials as “the marketing visionary” of “Teletubbies” and “Thomas the Tank Engine,” has overseen writer Scott Stabile and director Matthew Diamond in presenting three brightly colored, oversize felty young friends along with a talking pillow, fish, window and vacuum cleaner.

While it’s tempting to call the plan cynical, the results are so ineffectual and disengaging that it may be better to call it just plain dumb.

The film, which has a curious 2009 copyright date, should have just stayed on whatever shelf it had been sitting on.