Where's Wally?: Difference between revisions

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[[File:WheresWaldo_6691.jpg|frame|It's never this easy.]]

 

{{quote|''"...oh, there he is."''|Last line from the cartoon show's [[Theme Song]].}}

 

 

 

* ''Where's Wally/Waldo?''

* ''Where's Wally Now?'' (retitled ''Find Waldo Now'' in North America) (featuring various historical scenes)

 

Spawned a short-lived Saturday Morning cartoon show which justified its connection to the books by having a "find Waldo" puzzle before each act break. These were often much harder than the ones in the books, not because they were particularly complex, but because the low resolution on TV's at the time made finding small details (like Waldo) a trying task.

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* [[Adaptation Expansion]]: the animated series. Among other things, it gave Odlaw a reason to antagonize Waldo (he wanted to steal his [[MacGuffin|magical cane]]).

* [[A Pirate 400 Years Too Late]]: A crew of stereotypical pirates, led by a Blackbeard clone, are shown boarding a cruise ship at the marina. One of the pirates is chasing a woman in a bikini, while another is pursuing ''men wearing nothing but swim trunks''!

* [[The Artifact]]: Odlaw was invented for the American animated adaptation and was given a [[Sdrawkcab Name]] as Waldo's opposite. This name is still kept when the cartoon was redubbed back into British English for a British audience and 'Waldo' is Wally again, so the reference is lost. Admittedly 'Yllaw' would be unpronounceable unless you're Welsh.

* [[Celebrity Paradox]]: Similarly, Tarzan, Paul Bunyan, and Count Dracula make cameo appearances in the "realistic" first book.

* [[Clothes Make the Legend]]: That red and white striped shirt, hat and glasses.

* [[Disaster Dominoes]]

* [[Distaff Counterpart]] (Wenda to Waldo)

* [[Early Installment Weirdness]]: The first book is entirely mundane contemporary scenes. Quite the contrast to its successors, which use time travel historical settings, completely fantastic settings, and some combination of the two respectively.

** The scenes also have less people in them, compared to the later books. While the first book has plenty of people in the pictures, there's still a fair amount of space between them. The others are ''packed'' with people.

* [[Limited Wardrobe]]: Apparently, his entire wardrobe is brown shoes, blue jeans, a red-and-white striped long-sleeve shirt, glasses, and a red and white toque. {{spoiler|And his red-and-white striped socks.}}

** Wenda has a similar wardrobe (although swapping a blue dress for the pants), as does Odlaw (though he wears brown and yellow eclusively).

* [[Lost in Translation]]: Odlaw's name obviously comes from the reverse of Waldo. In countries where Waldo is named Wally, Odlaw is still Odlaw, somewhat ruining the joke.

* [[Market-Based Title]]

* [[Meganekko]]: Wenda.

* [[Mayincatec]] (Find Waldo Now)

* [[Monochrome Casting]]: Thankfully averted, although creator Martin Handford only went so far as to make every tenth person in the crowds black, with occasional "exotic" Asians, Native Americans, and Middle Easterners for [[Costume Porn]].

* [[Nerd Glasses]]: Waldo seems to be the "smart guy" type.

* [[Nice Hat]]: His red and white bobble hat. Several sceneries have a lot of copies of it lying around.

* [[Wizard Beard]] (Wizard Whitebeard)

* [[You All Look Familiar]] (The Great Waldo Search)

* [[Adaptation Distillation]]: Wenda is pointedly missing from the show, except for one episode, while even the scrolls and cane made it in.

* [[Big Ball of Violence]]: In ''A Stone Age Story'', and I'm sure others.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: The corn Wizard Whitebeard gives Wally in ''A Stone Age Story''. Turns out it was needed to complete the first movie theater...by being used for popcorn!

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Sooo Wally.

'''Waldo''': Never sneeze with your mouth closed. }}

* [[Cosmic Plaything]]: Odlaw, as noted below.

* [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]]: Odlaw knows he's in a cartoon and is the villain, tells off the cameraman and the narrator (tries to beat him up once, too), and even tries to learn from previous episodes; unfortunately, the whole universe is against him and even the scenery beats him up.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Odlaw, usually.

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: In one episode, Wizard Whitebeard invites Wally to his house, where he is blatantly having a "party" with several young women [[Casanova|much younger than he is]]. Wally's more interested in cave paintings though.

* [[Green Aesop]]: The episode ''Forest Women'', in which Wally saves a forest from evil tree-cutting knights.

** Not to mention [[Jeff Bennett]], [[Tiny Toons|Joe Alaskey]], [[Aaahh Real Monsters|Greg Berger]], [[Pinky and The Brain|Rob Paulsen, Maurice LaMarche]], [[Clifford the Big Red Dog|Cam Clarke]] and [[Frank Welker]] were all also cast members.

* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]: Constantly by The Narrator, and occasionally by Wally or Wizard Whitebeard.

* [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]]: Odlaw. The poor guy gets beat up almost constantly, and Wally doesn't even know he exists.

* [[Medium Awareness]]: Odlaw - he directly interacts with the narrator, and he even tries to learn from what happens to him on the show. His only problem is that he doesn't seem to learn that he's the [[Cosmic Plaything]].

* [[Nightmare Fetishist]]: Wally smiles constantly while watching others get pummeled or is in danger of a pummeling himself (said eagerly: "Who's the menacing fellow who looks as if he'd like to twist me into a knot and throw me off a cliff?"), is excited to be standing in front of an angry stampede, be attacked by monsters, be tied up in chains, be taken prisoner ("Wow, Woof, didjya hear that? We're official prisoners!"), hop into a dangerous pit of doom (shaking bag and smiling: "Well, Woof, apparently I didn't bring my parachute."), and is nothing short of thrilled to be in a cave-in. ("Wow, Woof! It's a real cave-in! And we've only been here just a few minutes! (elated sigh) How lucky can you get?") Seriously, how did Woof survive being around this guy?

* [[Perpetual Smiler]]: Wally; can stray into [[Stepford Smiler]] territory at times...

* [[Small Annoying Creature]]: Woof; he's pretty useless. He's just there for Wally to talk to so he doesn't look crazy.

** Not sure, he chases off Odlaw from time to time.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Films of the 2010s]]