Talk:Where's Wally?

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Merging with Waldo...I say NO!

Someone just brought up that the "Wally" and "Waldo" pages should be merged, I think that this is wrong! If the articles were just on the 1987 books "Where's Wally" and "Where's Waldo" than I could understand merging them. Those two books were identical except the "ly" at the end of Wally was changed to a "do". Everything else is the same. Even the 1988 book "Find Wally/Waldo now?" are identical and could share an article. But these pages are about the franchises as a whole.

The 6 "classic" Waldo books illustrated by Martin Handford are identical (except the character name). But as a whole the franchises are very different. The American Waldo franchise did a lot of things that thee UK's Wally did not. The articles talk about the franchise as a whole. Their was Waldo Magazine, Waldo fan-club, Waldo toys, Waldo events, Waldo toys and about 10 Waldo books that never had any kind of "Wally" counterparts. And there are a bunch of "exclusive" Wally products and productions that never become Waldo-ized. There are about 4-5 Wally books were made that never become "Waldo-ized".

Some things do overlap and on the surface the two appear very similar, but each franchise has its own history, its own exclusive characters, its own books, its own products, its own productions, its own honors/awards and they each have different "attitudes", characteristic, and whatnot. They are related, but each are independent. Simply lumping Waldo as "another name for Wally" (or vise-versa) would be a disservice to the huge difference and histories between the two "versions" of something that come from the same original character and idea. There are many more differences between Waldo and Wally than just the name.

It's almost like the difference between The Office (UK TV series) and The Office (US TV series). I hope to spend some time expanding both the Wally and Waldo articles to be more specific to each version and define all the parts (including the differences) of the Waldo & Wally phenomenons. -- WaldoWatcher 03:37, 2 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I suggested the merge because the two articles are 80% duplicated content. If you want to go ahead and turn them in to truly seperate articles, I'll happly withdraw my suggestion. But as it stands these articles are practically identical. I don't see why the differences between versions can't be covered with a few paragraphs, rather than needing a whole new article.

The comparison with the office is flawed. The american office is a remake. Not just a rebranding. Granted, some Wally stuff was not produced as Waldo and vice-visa, but this hardly makes them seperate things.

Regardless, the current situation of two almost identical articles is simply poor form. --JiFish(^Talk/_Contrib) 18:40, 2 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I say yes, but that Wally should be merged into Waldo; not the other way around. I'm sure that's my US bias creeping in, but that's how I feel. -- stubblyhead | ^T/_c 17:10, 11 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Merge Waldo into Wally. Handford is British, the books were published in Britain first, Wally is the original name. And I second everything User:JiFish said. --Bonalaw 17:49, 11 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Unless there is anything else anyone would like to add, I'm going to merge Waldo into Wally within the next week. --JiFish(^Talk/_Contrib) 14:55, 16 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Waldo goes into Wally, the motion is PASSED! Comradeash 18:08, 20 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with the proposed merge of Waldo into Wally. I am reading the articles for the first time, and I see that yes, most of the content is duplicated. The differences can easily be explained within a couple of sections... there's no need to duplicate the main article. And yes - Wally should of course be the main article: it was the original. EuroSong 10:58, 31 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I also support merging Where's Waldo into Where's Wally, for much the same reasons as stated by EuroSong and Bonalaw.--Cini 11:48, 2 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with most of the above and that Where's Waldo should be merged into Where's Wally, and redirects set up as necessary. Born Acorn 13:54, 16 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I also agree: merge Waldo into Wally. Wally's the original. Although Waldo has more spin-offs than I'd realised, a fair amount of the content is essentially the same. --A bit iffy 07:11, 25 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

So... this has been going on for 2 months now, and the consensus is that the articles should merge. Is anyone going to actually do it? :) I'd offer to do it myself, but I am not a major contributor and don't want to step on anyone else's toes. EuroSong ^talk 12:17, 25 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It's not done yet. I also don't want to step on toes, but my Virgo nature needs this merged. --Green-ghost 07:15, 15 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I agree: Wally and Waldo should be merged. They are basically the same thing. There is no point to have two pages for it. RobJ1981 16:13, 30 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

But who's going to do it? I'd do it but I don't feel I am experienced enough. Born Acorn 19:29, 8 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Merge —Ragdoll 18:00, 16 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I did the merge, but it wouldn't hurt for someone else to look over it. It would also be really great to have sources for the information. Thanks!Lisamh 00:01, 16 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like someone undid the merge. Where's Waldo? was reverted to pre-merge. Born Acorn 23:18, 22 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Why has it been a year and no one has re-merged the pages? For crying out loud, he's the same person! And as for which page should be merged with which, I vote that the Waldo page should be merged into the Wally page, since Wally is the original name. Why is this even an issue? Just merge the pages. There's really no room for discussion. Chalkieperfect 23:39, 25 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Damn, yet another example of pro-US/anti-UK bias in Wikipedia. You bet if this was a US series which was republished with minor modification in the UK there would be a tiny section on the UK version hidden amongst a couple of pages about the US version, whereas just because there was a minor name change to a UK book series it now somehow becomes a totally different thing deserving a separate page. I rather suspect that this is just because a lot of our American friends couldn't stand to see a character they know as Waldo with a Wiki page labelled Wally, and this is the only way they could prevent that. Someone mentioned the UK/US versions of The Office - but in that case there is a unitary franchise page, and the two series' had no cross-over points, different concepts, different characters, different actors - in fact they shared little except the general over-arching theme. I'm going to re-merge them. FOARP (talk) 10:07, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Done, now no demerging them without first discussing it and taking a vote as was done above. FOARP (talk) 10:19, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with your analysis, FOARP, with most other cases such as this I wouldn't be bothered, but Where's Waldo? was an integral part of American childhood back in the day and I, like many American users, clearly tend to let sentiment obscure logic here. I feel it right that "Where's Wally?" be the article title, but when I first looked this up on wikipedia and found my Waldo being called Wally was like finding that your birth certificate says John Smith when you've known yourself as Jon Smith all your life. Wormwoodpoppies (talk) 15:24, 21 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I hope I didn't come off as too angry in my above comment, it's just that you really do see this kind of thing quite often. FOARP (talk) 17:35, 31 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Broken Link

"this screenshot of the Flash from eBaum's World shows that Odlaw does appear."

Link to the bitmap does not work.

banned?

A certian book was banned on "Long Island"?? That dosent make sense to me, there is no "long island" government to ban such a book, perhaps a suffolk or nassau county ban, or a ban on the new york state level, but not a "long island" ban.

Libraries often ban books regardless of municipal government, this is most likely what the reference was in regards to.

A library banning a book is a far cry from a "long island" wide ban, seeing as they are tens dozens of libraries on Long Island.

If you are speaking of the banning of the Where's Waldo books, it is an official ban on the ALA list. The reason for it's banning is quite ridiculous in my opinion, but this is an encyclopedia, so I won't post any more on opinion. Here is one website that states the reason (4th paragraph down) This link should lead you to the right site. If this info is useful, someone should post this on the main article. Jon Fawkes 04:58, 12 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

american version

Is the american version the exact same books just with a different name? Astrokey44 23:32, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Yep, pretty sure they are. Correct me if I'm wrong. Billy H 23:57, 22 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Parodies

Wondering if we should mention the numer of parodies of wheres wally Eg if anyone could find more examples. Might be an idea to put the NG flash in there as well as any other mick taking links that fit in with the article?

Wally/Waldo

It seems somewhere along the line that someone automatically changed all Wallys to Waldos, meaning you've got bizarre situations where it tells you that the US title of 'Where's Waldo' was 'Where's Waldo'. I've changed them all back to Wally's, except for the US-specific bits. Billy H 21:03, 14 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have never heard of Where's Wally? I heard of Where's Waldo? Waldo not Wally. Someone should work that out. --Yancyfry jr 04:54, 20 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That's because (I guess) you're American, and as usual, the marketing situation over there is as such that they pretend they invented everything and the rest of the world does not exist.. not your fault :) EuroSong ^talk 09:33, 20 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Name

Any idea why the books are called Where's Waldo in the USA? pomegranate 23:55, Aug 4, 2004 (UTC)

Is there a movie scheduled for 2005 as indicated in this article? --The_stuart 21:32, 27 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Prank Flash

There seems to be many different versions of the prank flash. I have not seen the one including the harlequin foetus image but have seen the face from the exorcist. And there is another version where after about 25 seconds a pale white womans face comes up with flashing eyes and a mans scream can be heard. This is probably the more milder version. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Chillie Gal (talk • contribs)

The version with the harlequin fetus doesn't exist anymore. The exorcist replaced the harlequin fetus

YES!

I think very much so. As the illustrator was British I feel any mention of Waldo to begin with should be stricken from the record. His name is Wally.

dont combine

how is someone from america, that doesn't know or care who wally is going to find the page at all interesting. they are fine how they are

That's what redirects are for. EuroSong ^talk 10:04, 3 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, indeed. Stellmach 22:12, 17 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

'Characters' sections

There are two 'characters' sections, featuring pretty much the same content. Someone who knows more about Wal(ly/do) should remove one/merge the two. Phileas 18:33, 20 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

A Challenged Text?

The American Library Association has ranked the series as the 88th most contested book/series of the last two decades of the 2oth century.

http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/100mostfrequently.htm

Any idea why? I always thought they were widely loved. - Plasticbadge 00:49, 30 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think the first book contained a partly revealed breast. Born Acorn 13:46, 1 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yep, here is the link to confirm that. Jon Fawkes 05:00, 12 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Books Left Out

Sorry if this does not conform with the correct format, but I am new to wikipedia and I thought this should be brought up. I do not know if this was the case in other countries, but in Australia we had (starting in 1996 I believe)a wally book released every week for many years. These books were part of a collection. The first set (which I own all of them, although they are in my cupboard and do not have access to them now) consisted of at least 100 copies, stored in folders that came with the issue everytime it was necessary. These books were called "Wally's world". Later came Wally's History of the World with the same number of issues and folders. Wally's world gave information on various countries throughout the world in an easy to understand format for kids. Often countries were combined, and I think they did cover all the economically developed countries in the world. Wally's History of the World discussed the French Revolution, Settlement of Australia, and alot of other great historical events occuring throughout the middle ages and modern history alike. It is indeed worth a mention.

Get Rid of the "Credits"?

What's the point of that? It seems, um, highly redundant and irrelevant to me. These credits don't even pertain to the books, but to the TV series. (A fact which is not mentioned either, btw.) Binba 05:17, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Statistics

Are there any statistics on how many books were sold under each name, Wally vs. Waldo? Actually, are there any statistics on how many books were sold in general? The comic strip ran in the Toronto Star for a few years in the mid/late 90s. Esn 02:18, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Why Waldo?

Why was the name changed to Waldo in America? Is Waldo even a name? I think it would be interesting to explain, if anyone knows.--Jcvamp 06:23, 26 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Waldo is definitely a name, as the American philosopher Emerson would attest. D. J. Cartwright (talk) 00:03, 18 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It was also the name of Eddie Winslow's slow but good-hearted friend, Waldo Geraldo Faldo, on Family Matters. I believe his dad was a "stewardess" and in the later seasons he proved himself something of a culinary savant. Wormwoodpoppies (talk) 15:31, 21 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Banned - Wally or Waldo?

The section on banning in the U.S. is appearing in this article. Would it be more appropriate in Where's Waldo?? That's what it's called in the U.S., after all. Tualha (Talk) 15:57, 21 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Woody Allen

Did someone already suggest that Wally was inspired by Woody Allen? They look similar somehow, including the name. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.32.73.249 (talk) 08:40, 16 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Name of the Article

Why is the article called "Where‘s Wally?" rather than "Where's Wally?" (the apostrophe is inverted). I noticed that Where's Wally? actually redirects here (to Where‘s Wally?), which is a good thing since I don't have a key on my computer that will make one of these:‘. What's the deal? — DIEGO ^talk 21:01, 21 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

After posting this comment I realized it was very difficult to see the difference, so I'll make it bigger:

Current name of the article:

Where‘s Wally? (with ‘s instead of 's)

Name that would make sense to me (which currently redirects here):

Where's Wally?

Is this intentional? Is this symbol (‘) (which doesn't have a key on my keyboard) used instead of an apostrophe in Britain to indicate a contraction? If not, I think this article should be moved to Where's Wally?— DIEGO ^talk 21:09, 21 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. Didn't we have this issue with the War of Jenkins' Ear page? --Ye Olde Luke 13:25, 22 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've made the move. But can you guys take care of the bunch of double redirects? They're listed here. Thanks. Pascal.Tesson 15:56, 23 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Still not answered: why the name change?

Several people have asked on this Talk page why the name was changed from Wally to Waldo for North America, but there's still no explanation either here or (much more importantly) in the article. Was there any real reason for changing from Wally other than the seemingly insatiable desire of American editors to tinker with titles? 86.132.141.139 (talk) 21:47, 22 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'd guess Wally is a totally unknown name in America (but Waldo somehow isn't)?--Him and a dog 15:46, 27 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I dunno, I'm British and the only guy I've ever met who's called Wally is from Hawaii! Although the word "Wally" is used over here as a term given to someone who's a bit of a prat, I don't know if it's the same in the US? Jeh506 (talk) 13:57, 5 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Image copyright problem with Image:Whereswaldologo.jpg

The image Image:Whereswaldologo.jpg is used in this article under a claim of fair use, but it does not have an adequate explanation for why it meets the requirements for such images when used here. In particular, for each page the image is used on, it must have an explanation linking to that page which explains why it needs to be used on that page. Please check

That there is a non-free use rationale on the image's description page for the use in this article.
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This is an automated notice by FairuseBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. --03:56, 5 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Why only a hebrew translation in the first part?

Title says it clearly: Nothing's translated except the hebrew one. How comes?

Where's Waldo? - clear.

Onde está o Wally? - understandable. or at least you know which is the name.

Où est Charlie? - same here.

Find Holger - dito.

Hvar er Valli? - dito.

Look for Wally. - dito.

ウォーリーを探せ。 - di- what? I can read some basic japanese, but no kanji. sorry. And I guess I'm not the only one.

Gdzie jest Wally? - clear.

Wo ist Walter? - Dunno, is it clear? It's my mother tongue, so you have to say. But I guess it is.

월리를 찾아라! - same as the Japanese one.

¿Dónde está Wally? - clear.

Dov'è Wally? - easy.

Где Уолли? - huh? gimme a break! Any russians here?

Eyfo Efi? (Where's Efi) - why is this one translated?

See? Either the hard ones are all translated or none at all. 92.104.141.124 (talk) 20:03, 16 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Book titles - Waldo/Wally?

Which of the books were originally printed in the UK and then re-printed in the US? It would seem reasonable for the pages to have the name of the original book. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.101.252.188 (talk) 09:05, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Again: Why Waldo?

It's all very well saying that the US name is "Where's Waldo?" but surely if you're going to say that then at least say why. Was it because Americans can't spell so they chose a name that was a little easier to spell? Was it because Americans would find it offensive to find someone whose name means 'stupid' or 'idiotic'? --217.203.146.209 (talk) 19:07, 8 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Go away. 128.211.198.168 (talk) 18:00, 16 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

WTF?

In one section of the article is written: "Where's Waldo is listed by the American Library Association on the List of most commonly challenged books in the U.S. The most common reason for banning is that, in one picture, located on a beach, a topless female sunbather is seen with a partially exposed breast.[4]". So what? What's the point of this? Is it just to show that Americans are prudes or something? Seriously, take any kid to any beach anywhere and they're going to see exposed breasts or maybe topless sunbathing isn't normal in the USA? What a fucked up country! Guns, deaths, blood, more guns, comments about gun possession being a "right", more deaths, etc. are all fine on American TV and books but a little bit of a breast - no way! What a fucking crazy country.--217.203.146.209 (talk) 19:12, 8 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Is that really necessary?

And no, topless sunbathing isn't normal in the US. It obviously doesn't affect you, relax. --67.242.120.197 (talk) 04:46, 4 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Double TV Entry

The "Television Show" section appears twice. Which place is better? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.70.113.210 (talk) 12:05, 4 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Things

Does anyone think it's worth mentioning the books that sort of copy/parody Where's Wally's format-type thing? They don't have articles elsewhere (as far as I know). For example, there's Where's Stig and Where's Bin Laden?. Hmmm? Lord Spongefrog, (I am Czar of all Russias!) 21:33, 18 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]