History Literature / WheresWally

-->'''Wally''': You fellas wouldn't mind if I take the queen home, would you?

* 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 ''Where's Wally'' version, resulting in a rather hilarious NonSequitur. The Narrator [[GotMeDoingIt gets in on it]] by the end, calling out "Where ''is'' Wallab- er, Wally this time?"

* AccidentalMisnaming: A RunningGag in "Forest Women", with Queen Emeralda calling Waldo such names as Walnut, Walrus, Wallpaper, Wallbang and Pizza Dough. The latter is left unchanged in the ''Where's Wally'' version, resulting in a rather hilarious NonSequitur. The Narrator [[GotMeDoingIt gets in on it]] by the end, calling out "Where ''is'' Wallab- er, Wally this time?"

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 TV's 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).

* APirate400YearsTooLate: 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''!

A Google Maps interactive mini-game version of Where's Wally/Waldo? appeared in the app on April 1, 2018.

* SuspisciouslySimilarSubstitute: Wenda, for her twin sister Wilma.

''Where's Wally?'' (titled ''Where's Waldo?'' when exported to North America) is a series of picture books where each page is a complex scene filled with hundreds of tiny people. The goal is to find Wally/Waldo, a man in glasses, a bobble hat and a red-and-white striped shirt, carrying a cane. Each page has a short flavor text where Wally/Waldo describes his adventures, pointing the reader to other, usually humorous, things to look for.

A Google Maps interactive mini-game version of Where's Waldo? appeared in the app on April 1, 2018.

* LostInACrowd: The crowds Waldo would in the middle of are absolutely massive. Moreover, there are a lot of people and object in red and white striped clothes, adding to the challenge of looking for him.

%%* MarketBasedTitle

** Wenda sees him and identifies him by name in "The Living Museum."

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 TV's 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 even worse resolution (Everything was 8-bit)

* {{Catapult}}: In ''Find Waldo Now,'' "The End of the Crusades" has a cat loaded onto the rightmost catapult.

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Waldo and Odlaw.
* DisasterDominoes: Most, if not all, of the sceneries had disasters happening (many of them surrealistic and even hilarious).

* DubNameChange: Wally is called Walter in German, Charlie in French, Willy in Norwegian, Holger in Danish, Valli in Icelandic, Efi in Israel (a PunnyName, since the Hebrew word for "where" is ''eyfo'') and Waldo in America and Canada. Additionally, when the cartoon was aired in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, Waldo was changed back to Wally.

** 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.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Pretty much everything that isn't Wally himself.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Cartoonist Martin Handford hid his titular hero amongst massive (sometimes absurdly so) crowd scenes in which so many unusual events were taking place that you had to look carefully to make out the guy in the striped shirt and ski cap (which was the point of the book). Many of the events depicted were ridiculous or bizarre, and several of them were controversial inclusions for a book aimed at kids ages 6 to 14: a vacuum cleaner sucking a woman's dress off of her body, a man graphically vomiting, and another guy getting accidentally hit in the nuts. One of these sneaky scenes was so subtle that you might not even notice it: a boy at the beach teases a bikini-clad beauty by placing the cold end of his ice cream cone on her back, causing her to bolt up from a prone to a semi-prone position; unless you're looking closely, you might not notice that the girl has loosened her bikini top so as not to get tan lines while sunbathing, and she's about to expose her bare breasts to the world.

* GoodHairEvilHair: Wizard Whitebeard with his long white beard (duh) and Odlaw with his small dark mustache.

%%* LostInACrowd
* LostInTranslation: 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.

* {{Mayincatec}}: in ''Find Waldo Now''.

* NightmareFuelStationAttendant: Waldo seems almost oblivious to many of the chaotic events happening around him, some of which are illegal or downright dangerous.
* 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)]].

** 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. Good luck.]]

* OnlySixFaces: Handford's drawing style isn't particularly imaginative, with almost every character having the same basic face with different colors of hair and skin. Even the women simply look like men with long hair and... uh... [[UnusualEuphemism "equipment."]]

%%* SceneryPorn

* [[TwoDecadesBehind Still The Eighties]]: When Waldo stops by the airport, passengers are shown disembarking from the jets via external movable stairways like they did for most of the twentieth century (and, presumably, during Martin Handford's childhood), rather than by way of the connected tunnels that were common in airports by 1987).

* SdrawkcabName: Odlaw again.

* BigBallOfViolence: In ''A Stone Age Story'', others.
* {{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).

* {{Captain Oblivious}}: Waldo in the cartoon. He 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!

-->'''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.

* 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 sword fish 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.

--> '''Odlaw ''(after a narrator pun)'':''' ''(groan)'' "I thought you already said your three bad puns for this episode."

--> '''Odlaw''': "That walking stick will soon be mine."
--> '''Narrator''': "Yes, because little does Wally know that's he's being wathed. By the mean, Nasty, LOATHSOME.."
--> '''Odlaw''': "Errr..I believe he left out disgusting."
--> '''Narrator''': "(Oh yeah, sorry)....AND DISGUSTING....ODLAW!"
--> '''Odlaw''': (beaming) "Thanks Much."

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

'''''Where's Wally?''''' (titled '''''Where's Waldo?''''' when exported to North America) is a series of picture books where each page is a complex scene filled with hundreds of tiny people. The goal is to find Wally/Waldo, a man in glasses, a bobble hat and a red-and-white striped shirt, carrying a cane. Each page has a short flavor text where Wally/Waldo describes his adventures, pointing the reader to other, usually humorous, things to look for.

[[caption-width-right:169:[[RhetoricalQuestionBlunder HAH! FOUND YA!]]]]

* CosmicPlaything: Odlaw, as noted below.
* DangerouslyGenreSavvy: 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.
--> '''Odlaw:''' "I've learned my lesson on this show. I'll stand over here, out of the way...gaaaahsp!" ''(is smashed by wrecking ball)''

* BarefootSage[=/=]MagicalBarefooter: Wizard Whitebeard tends to go barefoot.

* EyeGlasses
* FlyingCarpet

* LostInACrowd

* MarketBasedTitle

** 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 dimension filled with lots of versions of EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE FIVE MAIN CHARACTERS. Good luck.]]

* OurGiantsAreBigger

* SceneryPorn

* DubNameChange: Wally is called Walter in German, Charlie in French, Willy in Norwegian, Holger in Danish, Valli in Icelandic, and Waldo in America and Canada. Additionally, when the cartoon was aired in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, Waldo was changed back to Wally.

* BarefootSage[=/=]DoesNotLikeShoes: Wizard Whitebeard tends to go barefoot.

* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Odlaw; could possibly [[EvilBrit be British]]?

* ''Where's Wally Now?'' (retitled ''Find Waldo Now'' in North America) (featuring various historical scenes)
* ''Where's Wally?: The Fantastic Journey'' (retitled ''The Great Waldo Search'' in North America, though a updated re-release went back to the former subtitle) (featuring fantasy scenes)

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 TV's 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 even worse resolution (Everything was 8 bit)

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Wizard Whitebeard tends to go barefoot.

->''"...oh, there he is."''

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.
Also had an Nes game which had even worse resolution (Everything was 8 bit)

** Actually, Odlaw's pretty self-defeating...
** Lampshaded in one episode where a man comes up to Odlaw and asks "hey, aren't you that guy who Waldo never sees?"
** 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.
* {{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).

* UnusualEuphemism:
** Bear: "Grr, grr, grr and grr again!"
** Also, Odlaw's tendency to say things like 'gahsp' instead of actually gasping.