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| Conspicuous, yet hard to find. |
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| An example of the heavily detailed world of Martin Hanford. |
British illustrator Martin
Hanford always had an interest in crowds. Growing up, he would delve into
Hollywood movies that featured a heavy amount of extras in their scenes and had
exciting battle sequences. Hanford constantly drew crowd scenes, blending in
elements of everything he enjoyed as much as possible including history and
swashbuckling epics. Eventually graduating art college, Hanford drew his
elaborate pictures for editorial and advertising clients until David Bennett, art
director for Walker Books, asked to see
Hanford’s work for a children’s publication and suggested a unique character to
serve as a focal point for his illustrations.
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| The first Where's Waldo? book. |
And so, Wally was born. Wally,
British slang for someone who is absent-minded, is a world and time traveler
who sports a red and white striped shirt with matching bobbled hat and large,
round glasses. Coming from the Land of
Wallies where everyone looks the same (with some minor differences, such as
different stripes, missing accessories, etc.), he wanders around to new lands
and encountering its strange inhabitants, amongst which the reader is charged
with finding him. In 1987, after two years of development and up to 8 weeks
spent on each two-page drawing, the first book in the series, Where’s Wally?,
was published and became a sensation.
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| Where's Waldo? abroad. |
The book reached international markets, resulting in Wally’s name being
changed to reflect where the book was printed, which is why Americans better
know him as Waldo (he’s known as Charlie in France, Hetti in India and Sri
Lanka, Walter in Germany, Effy in Israel, Willy in Norway, Valli in Iceland,
Holger in Denmark and Hugo in Sweden). In his first appearance, Waldo was
loaded down with gear that he’d lose piece by piece in each successive scene,
giving the readers something else to look for besides just him. The back also
featured checklists of various other things to find. Each scene would be
introduced to the reader via a “postcard” from Waldo with text edited by David Lloyd.
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| Odlaw, Wizard Whitebeard, Wilma/Wenda, Waldo and Woof. |
To heighten the challenge with each successive book, additional items
were placed around the illustrations to be found, including an equally elusive
supporting cast: Wizard Whitebeard (The Great Waldo
Search, 1989), the one responsible for sending Waldo on his quests and
who constantly loses his magic scrolls; his dog Woof, who was only seen as a
tail at first as he’d be often scared and go into hiding; his original girlfriend
Wilma, who dresses like Waldo with a skirt instead of pants, triangular glasses
and carries a striped umbrella (both appeared in Where’s
Waldo: the Ultimate Fun Book, 1990); Wenda, Wilma’s twin sister who would
replace Wilma in the books as both a featured character and Waldo’s girlfriend;
and Odlaw, an evil version of Waldo with a brown and yellow color scheme and a
mustache (both from Where’s
Waldo: The Magnificent Poster Book!, 1991). Waldo Watchers (also from Ultimate Fun), a group of loyal Waldo
fans, were included dressed like Waldo and Wilma/Wenda to add extra confusion
for the reader. Originally, there were 99 of them, but later books kept the
number to 25. Waldo’s appearance would also be altered slightly by Hanford,
going from a chubbier face in his first appearance to having a slimmer face.
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| Waldo with an Underground Hunter. |
At the height of the series’ popularity, it was decided to adapt Waldo
into animated form. Developed by Rowby
Goren, the cartoon was a joint venture between Sei Young Animation,
The
Waldo Film Company, and DiC Entertainment. The
show followed happy-go-lucky Waldo (Townsend Coleman) and his dog, Woof (Dave
Workman) as they were sent by his friend, Wizard Whitebeard (Brad Garrett), to the
far-off lands featured in the books to help solve problems and puzzles for
their inhabitants, while also picking up items to add to his collection. They
traveled via Waldo’s magic walking stick, which allowed him to open
teleportation portals by drawing a circle in the air. However, Waldo’s evil
double, Odlaw (Julian Holloway), would always be lurking around trying to steal
it. Twice an episode, there would be an homage to the books in the “Waldo
Minute,” where an image would be frozen on screen giving the audience a minute
to find Waldo. Much like the books, the names of the characters were changed
depending on what market the show was broadcast, while the same actors were
retained to record both the American and United Kingdom audio tracks.
Where’s Waldo? debuted on CBS on
September 14, 1991. It was written by Goren with Evelyn A.R. Gabai, Bill
Matheny, David Schwartz, Julianne Klemm and George Atkins. The theme was
composed by Jeff Barry whose lyrics were
also altered depending on the region. The rest of the music was composed by
Michael Tavera. Unfortunately, the series only lasted a single season of 13
episodes as it was pitted against NBC’s
wildly popular Saved by the Bell and suffered from poor ratings as a
result. It was nominated for the 1992 Young Artist Award for “Outstanding
New Animation Series”, but ended up losing to fellow CBS program Back
to the Future.
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| Where's Waldo?: The Birthday Blowout VHS cover. |
During the run of the show, Waldo was featured on boxes of Quaker
Life Cereal, accompanying box prizes, send away item offers, and also
featured adapted Waldo scenes on the back. Waldo returned to the boxes in 1997
for the release of The Wonder Book. Little Brown & Co. released two
books based on the show after its cancellation called Fun With Waldo
and More Fun With Waldo,
which featured print versions of the “Waldo Minute” scenes as well as new
images and puzzles. Various episodes were released to VHS in the United States
by 20th
Century Fox Home Entertainment, FOX Kids
Video, and CBS Video
and by Abbey Home Entertainment in
the United Kingdom. There were also four 30-minute direct-to-video
specials released between 1992 and 1997 utilizing elements of the show. In 2009,
the DVD Where’s Wall? Vol. 1 – My Left Fang was released in Australia;
the only DVD release of the series to date.
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| The Where's Waldo? Sunday strip. |
While the cartoon may have been short-lived, the Waldo franchise was not.
It’s comprised of 28 books from both its main series and its activity book spin-off,
merchandising including figurines
and dolls, video games for
home consoles and mobile devices, and even a comic
strip. In 2019, NBCUniversal
acquired the rights to the character and began airing a new animated series
produced by DreamWorks Animation
Television.
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