History Literature / WheresWally

* NintendoHard: ''Where's Wally/Waldo 3: The Fantastic Journey'' ends with having to pick Wally out of [[spoiler:a dimension filled almost entirely with other Wallies (the only way to know he's the real one is that he's missing a shoe)]].
** Taken even further in that [[spoiler:you then have to find his shoe on the same page.]]
** It gets worse. [[spoiler:In the books that follow, there are three similar scenes: a dimension filled with others Woofs (ironically, this is the only time you can see all of him as opposed to his tail), a swamp filled with Odlaws, and a movie set filled with actors dressed up as EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE FIVE MAIN CHARACTERS. The hardest one is most likely the real Woof: you need to find the one who has exactly five red stripes on its tail. Good luck.]]

Spawned [[WesternAnimation/WheresWally1991 a short-lived Saturday Morning cartoon show]] that aired on CBS 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 televisions at the time made finding small details (like Waldo) a trying task[[note]]if only they had waited until the HD era of TV...[[/note]]. Also had an NES game which had an even worse resolution (everything was 8-bit).

* NiceHat: His red and white bobble hat. Several sceneries have a lot of copies of it lying around.

* {{Mayincatec}}: In ''Find Waldo Now''.
* {{Meganekko}}: Wenda.

* YouALLLookFamiliar: [[spoiler:The Land of Waldos.]]

Spawned a short-lived Saturday Morning cartoon show that aired on CBS 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 televisions at the time made finding small details (like Waldo) a trying task[[note]]if only they had waited until the HD era of TV...[[/note]]. Also had an NES game which had an even worse resolution (everything was 8-bit).

!!The cartoon contains examples of:
* AccidentalMisnaming: A RunningGag in "Forest Women", with Queen Emeralda calling Waldo such names as Walnut, Walrus, Wallpaper, Wallbang and Pizza Dough. That last one is left unchanged in the British English dub, resulting in a rather hilarious NonSequitur:
-->'''Wally''': You fellas wouldn't mind if I take the queen home, would you?\\
'''Emeralda''': Pizza Dough!\\
'''Wally''': That's ''Wal''ly!
** The Narrator [[GotMeDoingIt gets in on it]] by the end, calling out "Where ''is'' Wallab- er, Wally this time?"
* AdaptationDistillation: Wenda is pointedly missing from the show, except for one episode, while even the scrolls and cane made it in.
* BigBallOfViolence: In "A Stone Age Story", others.
* BrickJoke: The things the narrator challenges the viewer to find don't normally count as these, of course... except for the time he snuck in a mention of his stolen car. It shows up anyway.
* {{Calvinball}}: The eponymous "Great Ball Game" which sees four teams playing two matches on the same pitch, doesn't appear to have any rules other than you get points to getting it across (or over) the goal-line and you lose points by having your ball thrown into a pit. Throughout the episode, we get glimpses of the other games in the kingdom that make just about as much sense (throwing darts blindfolded in an attempt to hit bowling balls while another player uses a baseball bat to knock them away springs to mind).
* CaptainColorbeard: Pegbeard the pirate. Son of Pegface, and grandson of Pegspleen.
* CaptainOblivious: Waldo is always blissfully unaware of Odlaw's attempts to destroy him, and in fact, seems to have no idea that Odlaw even ''exists''. He always beats Odlaw through sheer dumb luck, all while never actually seeing him.
* ChekhovsGun: 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: Waldo.
-->'''Witch''': All I want is someone to turn into a frog (proffers open palm)... and a tip.\\
'''Waldo''': Okay, here's a great tip: never hold your nose and sneeze with your mouth closed.\\
'''Witch''': (looks at the camera surprised) Gee, never heard THAT one before.
* CosmicPlaything: Odlaw.
* DastardlyWhiplash: Odlaw, Waldo's evil counterpart.
* DeadpanSnarker: Odlaw, usually.
* DissonantSerenity: "Oh boy Woof! Isn't this exciting?" Wally says while falling without a parachute, about to be squashed by a bolder, in the middle of a cave-in, being charged by a singing swordfish and while a village is being pillaged by Vikings (to name a few).
* GreenAesop: The episode "Forest Women", in which Wally saves a forest from evil tree-cutting knights.
* HumanPincushion: One episode opens with Wally and Woof returning from the Land of the Porcupine People. Cue Odlaw following them through the portal, and he's evidently taken after the natives.
--> '''Odlaw''': I ''hate'' the Land of the Porcupine People.
* HurricaneOfPuns: Constantly by The Narrator, and occasionally by Wally or Wizard Whitebeard.
--> '''Odlaw ''(after a narrator pun)'':''' ''(groan)'' I thought you already said your three bad puns for this episode.
* IdenticalGrandson: Wally meets his "Great, Great, Great, Great, you get the idea" grandfather when he travels back to the stone-age. Looks exactly like him but wears a stripy loincloth and his hat has horns. Woof also has a prehistoric shaggy dog counterpart.
* IneffectualSympatheticVillain: Odlaw. The poor guy gets beat up almost constantly, and Wally doesn't even know he exists.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: In one episode Wally makes friends with a robot but he gets disassembled leaving our hapless hero to rebuild him. Once finished the robot doesn't remember anything but is promptly hit on the head, which apparently jogged the old memory circuits.
* LemonyNarrator: The narrator (courtesy of Creator/JimCummings) makes a lot of snarky remarks throughout the series as well as the occasional fourth-wall break.
* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: Odlaw, while you will often hear him screaming, nine times out of ten you'll see him stoically swaddle off after being flattened or twisted into knots with only a deadpan castrating word to the gleeful narrator.
* MediumAwareness: Odlaw - he directly interacts with the narrator (once poking him with a sharp object), 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 CosmicPlaything.
--> '''Odlaw''': That walking stick will soon be mine.
--> '''Narrator''': Yes, because little does Wally know that's he's being watched. By the mean, nasty, loathsome-
--> '''Odlaw''': Errr... I believe he left out disgusting.
--> '''Narrator''': Oh yeah, sorry. AND DISGUSTING... ODLAW!"
--> '''Odlaw''': (beaming) Thanks much.
** Wally himself gets in on this sometimes; in one episode, the narrator was saying a lot of gibberish, and Wally tells him he may be holding the script upside down.
* NightmareFetishist: 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?
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Creator/BradGarrett puts on his best Creator/RodneyDangerfield impression for Wizard Whitebeard.
* OnceAnEpisode:
** Shortly after the scene is set, the narrator will tell the audience to look for three unusual objects during the show.
** At some point Wally will disappear, leading everybody to ask [[TitleDrop "Where's Wally?"]]. The audience will then get a still shot and about a minute to find him, before the narrator will tell you where he is.
* PerpetualSmiler: Wally; can stray into [[StepfordSmiler Stepford Smiler]] territory at times...
* SecretHandshake: Wally's family greeting he does with his cave ancestor. Also counts as [[MirrorMatch Mirror Matching]].
* SidekickCreatureNuisance: Woof; he's pretty useless. He's just there for Wally to talk to so he doesn't look crazy, although he does chase off Odlaw from time to time.
* SelfDisposingVillain: Odlaw's pretty self-defeating...as stated above Wally doesn't even know he exists.
** In one episode, Odlaw briefly entertained the idea of not following Waldo since he'd bring back the magical cane anyway but had a change of mind when he heard about a magical fruit.
* TeamPet: Woof again.
* TheVoice: The narrator.
* UnknownRival: Odlaw is never even noticed by Wally or Wizard Whitebeard. Lampshaded once: "Hey aren't you the guy Wally never sees?"
** Wizard Whitebeard did see Odlaw once, but he mistook him for Wally.
** Wenda sees him and identifies him by name in "The Living Exhibits."
* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: In "The Unfriendly Giants", Wally shuts the Narrator (and the audience) out of a meeting where plans to deal with the titular Giants are being discussed. The Narrator asks Wally if he thinks he'd tell the Giants what they're up to. Only for Wally to [[MediumAwareness tell him they might be watching the show.]]
* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Odlaw; could possibly be [[EvilBrit British?]]