Where's Wally?

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Martin Handford with Wally/Waldo, Wenda, Odlaw, Wizard Whitebeard and Woof

Where's Wally? (titled Where's Waldo? in North America) is a series of children's books created by British illustrator Martin Handford. The books consist of a series of full-page illustrations of hundreds of people typically depicted during a frenzy of activity; each illustration depicts a unique location, time period, or activity. The intent is for the reader to find a character named Wally hidden in the group. Wally is always dressed in a red and white horizontally striped shirt, blue trousers, and bobble hat, carries a wooden walking stick, and wears glasses. To make the hunt more difficult, several characters and objects in each illustration also wear the familiar red and white stripes to act as red herrings. Subsequent books have added new targets for readers to find in each illustration as well.

The first book in the series, originally titled Where's Wally?, was published in 1987. The books became extremely popular and were translated into many languages. Wally is often given a different name in the translations. The franchise also spawned other media in a more storyline-based form, including a TV series, a comic strip and a series of video games.

Wally has his own website, FindWally.co.uk, where he dispatches messages to fans and invites them to join in on the chase through different social networks.

CEO of Disney, Robert Iger, recently announced he is entering into talks with Handford regarding production of a "Where's Wally" feature length film for release in late 2011.

Contents

[edit] History

As a young adult, Handford illustrated crowds and other comic scenes for clients. In 1986 he was approached to create a book of his artwork. To tie each scene together he came up with the idea to insert a distinctive traveller into each scene for readers to find. For the initial British release of his book in 1987 he titled the character "Wally". The Where's Wally? trademark was adapted for 28 countries. In addition to language translation, each franchise gave a new name and personality to the character. He became Charlie in France, Walter in Germany, Holger in Denmark and Willy in Norway. Wally can also be found in Japan. In Israel, Wally got renamed as Effy, and was a huge success at the time of its release. However, the most successful of the franchises, even surpassing the original "Wally" brand, was the North American adaptation, Where's Waldo?

Whereas the early Waldo books were identical to the simultaneous Wally releases - except for the character's name - merchandising and spin-off productions expanded the Waldo franchise and character. Although Waldo and Wally are identical in appearance, their characters and personalities developed differently - Waldo became a hip and tech-savvy American world traveler, while Wally became intellectual and somewhat goofy.

Waldo became a huge pop culture sensation in the early 1990s. The United States was swept with "Waldo-mania". Aside from the adaptations of Handford's books, the US franchise grew to include licensing of Waldo for video games, spin-off books, magazines, dolls, toys and a Waldo television series. Many of the Waldo products were later reworked and translated for other national markets - including turning "Waldo"-created productions into "Wally".

Although Wally is the name used in Handford's home country, and was the first title used, Handford and his publisher refer to the character and franchise in many press releases and interviews as "Waldo". In the publishing world the "Wally" brand has become inferior, dwarfed by merchandising and huge success of "Waldo". And although the wordplay was lost on audiences outside North America, the name of the intrepid traveller's nemesis was even derived by Handford from spelling "Waldo" backwards to create Odlaw.

On January 22, 2007, the Where's Wally franchise - and thus Where's Waldo as well - was bought by the British children's publishing company Entertainment Rights.

[edit] Characters

In the first two books, Wally wandered alone. However, over time more characters were added to find in each scene:

  • Wilma, Wally's friend first appeared in the Ultimate Fun Book, and was replaced by her identical twin sister Wenda in the Where's Waldo: The Magnificent Poster Book.
  • Odlaw, Wally's arch-nemesis, made his print debut in Where's Waldo: The Magnificent Poster Book. His name, which is "Waldo" spelled backwards, loses its significance in the British version where "Wally" is used. He appears nearly the same as Wally, except that his clothes are yellow and black striped instead of red and white; his glasses have a blue tint to them; and he has a moustache. Although we are told "his bad deeds are many", he is not depicted in the books doing anything particularly nasty.
  • Woof, Wally's dog, first appeared in The Ultimate Fun Book, where he was identified as Wenda's dog. Only his tail can be found with the exception of the final page of Where's Wally: The Wonder Book, which depicts all of Woof.
  • Wizard Whitebeard, first seen in The Fantastic Journey. His signature is his exceptionally long beard, which is often the key to finding him. In his first appearance, he was responsible for sending Wally on a quest to discover the truth about himself, and he has tagged along on Wally's travels ever since.
  • The Wally Watchers are Wally's devoted fan-club. There are lots of them (25 appear in most books, though there are 99 of them in the Ultimate Fun Book), and they turn up wherever Wally goes. They first appeared in The Ultimate Fun Book.

[edit] Media

[edit] Books

[edit] Primary books

There are currently six primary Wally books. The books were released both in hard-cover and (for the original books, subsequently) in paperback. Each contains around a dozen scenes with Wally hidden in them. Each book has additional hidden objects and/or characters hidden in each scene specific to that book. The books usually reserve telling the reader about some item(s) to find until the end of the book so that the reader will have to go through the book again. Each scene is also accompanied by a narration, usually Wally. The books contain checklists for each scene of interesting things or people to find.

There have been two rounds of revised editions. In 1993, to coincide with the publication of In Hollywood, the first three books were reprinted with Wenda, Woof and the Wally Watchers added to the original illustrations, and the books were numbered on the cover. A "pocket edition" of the first book was also published, in a tiny A6 format. Wally is even harder to spot when shrunk to this degree, and later printings included a free magnifying lens. Then, in 1997, to coincide with the publication of The Wonder Book, special "Tenth Anniversary Editions" of the first four books were published with a distinct silver border on their front covers, and added later-introduced characters and objects things to look for in every scene, and also moved Wally moved to a different location than the original versions. These special editions appeared in both standard and "pocket" formats.

[edit] Other books

In addition to the primary books, additional books have also been published in the Wally/Waldo franchise. The first alternate-format Waldo book was the Ultimate Fun Book. In addition to standard Waldo scenes, this paperback activity book featured other types of games and activities, as well as cardboard punch-outs and stickers. The Magnificent Poster Book, which was a large-format book of posters including five scenes from past books and six new scenes (later included in The Great Picture Hunt).

Several other "activity books" have also been published featuring art from the US based "Where's Waldo" comic strip:

  • Where's Waldo? The Truly Terrific Activity Book (1993)
  • Where's Waldo? The Absolutely Amazing Activity Book (1993)
  • Where's Waldo? The Dazzling Deep-sea Divers Sticker Book (1994)
  • Where's Waldo? The Fabulous Flying Carpets Sticker Book (1994)
  • Where's Waldo? The Wildly Wonderful Activity Book (1994)
  • Where's Waldo? Simply Sensational Activity Book (1994)
  • Where's Waldo? The Really Remarkable Activity Book (1995)
  • Where's Waldo? The Completely Crazy Activity Book (1995)
  • Where's Waldo? Bumper Activity Book (1995) - previous four books in one volume.

There was also a very popular series of geographical magazines made available for children in Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, South Africa, and Malta, called Wally's World, each issue Wally would travel to a different country or region of the world telling the reader interesting facts. This was published for 52 issues from January 1997 to January 1998, when Wally's History of the World began, focusing more on history than geography. The first issue was given away free with the last issue of Wally's World.

[edit] Collections

  • Boxed set: Where's Wally, Where's Wally Now, The Ultimate Fun Book, The Truly Terrific Activity Book and The Absolutely Amazing Activity Book (2000)
  • The Completely Cool Collection: Where's Wally?, Where's Wally Now?, The Fantastic Journey and In Hollywood Special Editions (Autumn 2004)
  • The Solid Gold Collection: Where's Wally?, Where's Wally Now?, The Fantastic Journey, In Hollywood, The Wonder Book Special Editions and The Fabulous Flying Carpets Sticker Book (2007)
  • The Ultimate Travel Collection: Where's Wally?, Where's Wally Now?, The Fantastic Journey, In Hollywood and The Wonder Book Special Editions in one travel-sized book (2009)

[edit] Television show

Main article: Where's Waldo? (TV series)

A 13-episode animated series, with Townsend Coleman as the voice of Waldo, was produced by DiC and CBS in 1991 for the North American market. The show was later translated for international markets - usually renaming the character to match the books of that country. The dialogue and theme song were recorded in alternate "Wally" versions, with the same voice cast of the original US production, in order to market the show in the UK. The distribution rights to the show are currently held by HIT Entertainment.[citation needed]

[edit] Film

A film based on the "Where's Waldo?" series of books has been pursued by various studios. Nickelodeon was the most recent studio to take an interest in the idea but when the regime at Paramount (Nickelodeon's parent company) changed, the project was canceled.

In June, 2009, it was announced that Universal Studios and Illumination Entertainment had acquired the rights to turn Where's Waldo? into a live-action film.[1]

[edit] Video games

A number of American video games were developed using the Waldo version.

[edit] Comic strip

For several years in the early and mid 1990s, "Where's Waldo" was turned into a Sunday newspaper comic/puzzle, distributed by King Features Syndicate. The comics were also released in book form in the US.

[edit] Cereal boxes

In the early 1990s Quaker Life Cereal carried various "Where's Waldo" scenes on the back of the boxes along with collector's cards, toys and send-away prizes.

[edit] References and homages

[edit] Real life recreation

On Saturday, September 12, 2009 a recreation took place in downtown Chicago. The recreation featured all of the characters, Wally, Wanda, Wizard Whitebeard, Odlaw, & Woof, hiding throughout downtown Chicago and invited others to come and find them. [2] [3]

[edit] World record attempt

On Thursday, April 2, 2009 1,052 students, alumni, and members of the community at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA, captured the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people dressed as Wally. The event raised money for New Brunswick public schools.[citation needed]

[edit] References

  1. ^ By. "'Waldo' finds his way to the bigscreen - Entertainment News, Film News, Media". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118004377.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&nid=2562. Retrieved 2009-06-01. 
  2. ^ Where's Wally? In Chicago! - on NBC Chicago
  3. ^ Play real-life Where's Waldo? downtown this Saturday - on A.V. Chicago Decider

[edit] External links

  • FindWally.co.uk - The Official "Where's Wally?" website with links to social network profiles
  • Waldo Wiki - A Where's Waldo? wiki project
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