Where's Wally?

In 1986, illustrator Martin Handford, a graduate of the University for the Creative Arts in Kent, was asked by art director David Bennett, at Walker Books in London, to develop a book of detailed crowd scenes. Bennett was inspired by the book series Busy Places by Philippe Dupasquier. While the book was being prepared for Bologna Children's Book Fair, someone at Walker Books suggested Handford hide a distinctive-looking character in crowd scenes for readers to search for. The first ''Where's Wally? book was published on 25 June 1987. First published in the United Kingdom by Walker Books, the series was introduced in the United States under the title Where's Waldo?'' because an executive at the book's initial American publisher, Little, Brown and Company, disliked the name "Wally" because it reminded him of Wallis Simpson. American publishing rights were later taken on by Candlewick Press, the American subsidiary of Walker Books. The books became extremely popular internationally and the character name was localised in a variety of regions, where Wally was known as Walter in Germany, Charlie in France, Van Lang in Vietnam, Jonas in Lithuania, and Ubaldo in Italy, among others. The franchise also spawned other media in a more storyline-based form, including a 1991 television series, ''Where's Wally?, a comic strip Where's Wally? and a series of video games. In the early 1990s, a topless beachgoer in a Where's Waldo'' puzzle caused controversy in the US and caused BJ's Wholesale Club and certain school libraries to pull the book from shelves, leading to its appearance in the American Library Association's list of the 100 most frequently challenged books of the 1990s. Handford continued to publish books in the series, and sometimes it took him up to eight weeks to draw two-page illustrations of the elusive "Wally" and the many characters surrounding him. He made Wally progressively harder to find by reducing his size on the page and surrounding him by more characters. In the first book, Wally was on average big. This was reduced to in the second book, in the third, and between in the fourth through seventh books. He has also been surrounded by more characters, from 225 on the first book's first page to about 850 on the last book's first page. In January 2007, Entertainment Rights purchased the ''Where's Wally?'' franchise. On 1 April 2009, Entertainment Rights went into voluntary administration. On the same day, Boomerang Media acquired all of Entertainment Rights' subsidiaries including Entertainment Rights itself, Big Idea and Classic Media. The following month, Boomerang Media began preparations to unify former British and US subsidiaries of Entertainment Rights under the name "Classic Media", while Big Idea would operate under its own name. The Entertainment Rights PLC company was folded in December 2010. In 2012, Classic Media was acquired by DreamWorks Animation. DreamWorks Animation was then acquired by NBCUniversal in 2016, thus Universal Pictures gaining the rights to most of Entertainment Rights' catalogue of works. ==Characters==

airliner • Wally, whose name was localised for certain international editions, for example Waldo in the North American and Swedish editions. Over time, more characters were added to find in each scene. • Wilma, Wally's girlfriend who first appeared in the Ultimate Fun Book, and was replaced by her identical twin sister Wenda after they appeared together in ''Where's Wally: The Magnificent Poster Book''. • Wenda, a friend of Wally who replaced her twin sister Wilma for In Hollywood (although she previously appeared alongside Wilma in The Magnificent Poster Book). • Odlaw, Wally's arch-enemy, who made his print debut in The Magnificent Poster Book. 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. He also has an English accent in the television series. Although it is told that "his bad deeds are many", he is not depicted in the books doing anything particularly nasty, but in the television series, he is frequently seen to be attempting to steal Wally's magical walking stick. His name "Odlaw" is simply a reversal of "Waldo" from the American editions, although he is still called "Odlaw" in the United Kingdom as well. • 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, and the six activity books released between 1993 and 1995, starting with The Truly Terrific Activity Book'', where Woof shows himself to the reader. In the 2019 TV series, Woof returns in the episode "A Wanderer's Christmas" and the second season. • Arfolomew, a grey dog who could be a miniature schnauzer and also known as Arf for short in the 2019 animated series. • 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. His appearance in The Ultimate Fun Book, however, is in only one scene in "Old Friends" and his presence is unmentioned in the book and acts as one of the background characters. • The Wally Watchers are Wally's devoted fan-club that first appeared in ''Where's Wally?: The Ultimate Fun Book (1990). They turn up wherever Wally goes, dressed in the same red-and-white striped outfit. While 25 appear in most books, there are in comparison, 99 of them in the Ultimate Fun Book''. • In the earlier books, a character appears in every scene, which the reader must look to find out who it is. This is because no information on the characters is given in the books aside from the task to look for them. The characters appeared as background characters and all had something unique to them, like blonde hair or a ginger beard. In some cases, characters from previous scenes would also appear. • Odlulu, Wally and Wenda's arch-nemesis, a villainous pre-teen female Anti-Wanderer who is a genderbend version of Odlaw and despises the Wanderers in the 2019 animated series. She is plotting on obtain the Wanderer keys and take control of the world. She sometimes help out with Wally and Wenda for their quest and turn everything back to normal after causing chaos in a certain location. She sports a yellow baseball cap with black stripes and glasses with angular black frames, and shoulder-length black hair with a yellow streak. She wears a long-sleeved black and yellow top, and a yellow skirt, knee-high black socks with white cuffs and blue shoes. • Fritz, a hungry ferret who is Odlulu's henchman and appeared in the 2019 animated series. He mostly helps Odlulu with her plot, such as obtaining Wanderer keys and defeating the Wanderers. He sometimes distracted by different kinds of foods from around the world. In few episodes, he helps Odlulu steal the Wanderer key from the Wanderers (mostly Wally) so she can use for her own needs. ==Publications==

Primary books As of 2024, there are seven primary Wally books. The books were released both in hard-cover (for the original books) and 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. The books contain checklists for each scene of interesting things or people to find. • ''Where's Wally? (North American title: Where's Waldo?'') (1987) • ''Where's Wally Now? (North American title: Find Waldo Now, renamed Where's Waldo Now?'' later) (1988) • ''Where's Wally? The Fantastic Journey (North American title: The Great Waldo Search, renamed Where's Waldo? The Fantastic Journey'' later) (1989) • ''Where's Wally in Hollywood? (North American title: Where's Waldo in Hollywood?'') (1993) • ''Where's Wally? The Wonder Book (North American title: Where's Waldo? The Wonder Book'') (1997) • ''Where's Wally? The Great Picture Hunt! (North American title: Where's Waldo? The Great Picture Hunt!'') (2006) • ''Where's Wally? The Incredible Paper Chase (North American title: Where's Waldo? The Incredible Paper Chase'') (2009) There have been three 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. 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 to look for in every scene, and also moved Wally to different locations from the original versions. These special editions appeared in both standard and "pocket" formats. In 2007, for the 20th anniversary of the first book, the special editions of 1997 (and The Great Picture Hunt) were re-released with a new cover into paperback format. The silver borders on the books were removed and instead, the books were numbered in the top left-hand corner of the cover. Aside from the new numbering system, some of the front covers were also revised otherwise; for example, the "NOW?" on the cover of ''Where's Wally Now?'' was given a 2D effect, but it was originally designed to look like a 3D shape. Other books In addition to the primary books, other books have also been published in the Wally franchise. The first alternate-format Wally book was the Ultimate Fun Book. In addition to standard Wally 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). • ''Where's Wally?: The Ultimate Fun Book'' (1990) • Activity book • ''Where's Wally?: The Magnificent Poster Book!'' (1991) • Larger book containing cut-out posters • ''Where's Wally? The Dazzling Deep-sea Divers Sticker Book'' (1994) • Sticker book and play scene • ''Where's Wally? The Fabulous Flying Carpets Sticker Book'' (1994) • Sticker book and play scene • ''A Where's Wally? Fun Fact Book: Plundering Pirates'' (2000) • Educational Where's Wally? book with new scenes and facts • ''A Where's Wally? Fun Fact Book: Fighting Knights'' (2000) • Educational Where's Wally? book with new scenes and facts • ''Where's Wally?'' (2008) • A £1 World Book Day Book • ''Where's Wally? The Spectacular Poster Book'' (2010) • Larger book containing cut-out posters • ''Where's Wally? The Search for the Lost Things'' (2012) • ''Where's Wally? 25th Anniversary Annual'' (2012) Several other "activity books" have also been published featuring art from the "Where's Wally" comic strip: • ''Where's Wally? The Truly Terrific Activity Book'' (1993) • ''Where's Wally? The Absolutely Amazing Activity Book'' (1993) • ''Where's Wally? The Wildly Wonderful Activity Book'' (1994) • ''Where's Wally? Simply Sensational Activity Book'' (1994) • ''Where's Wally? The Really Remarkable Activity Book'' (1995) • ''Where's Wally? The Completely Crazy Activity Book'' (1995) • ''Where's Wally? Bumper Activity Book'' (1995) – previous four books in one volume. The first six activity books mentioned were reprinted in 2009 in a smaller size with different packaging. Collections Publication details • As of 2022, only the special editions of the original five books are still in print, as well as a paperback 2007 reprint of The Great Picture Hunt and a paperback 2010 reprint of The Incredible Paper Chase. These books now also have "Special extra searches inside", according to the front covers. • 1997's The Wonder Book was the last numbered book in the series to contain exclusively new, original scenes, as The Great Picture Hunt and The Incredible Paper Chase contain both new scenes and older ones from The Ultimate Fun Book and The Magnificent Poster Book, as these books are no longer in print. • The scene originally titled "Among the Pirates" is the most used, as it has appeared in 1991's The Magnificent Poster Book, 2000's Plundering Pirates, 2006's The Great Picture Hunt, and a jigsaw puzzle. Magazine A series of geographical magazines for children was published in the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Portugal, Poland, Brazil, Spain, France, Hungary, Czech Republic, Malta, Bulgaria and Russia, called ''Wally's World. In each issue Wally travelled to a different country or region of the world giving the reader interesting facts. 52 issues were published 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''. Comic strip For several years in the early and mid-1990s, ''Where's Waldo?'' was turned into a North American Sunday newspaper comic/puzzle strip, drawn by Stephan Martinière and distributed by King Features Syndicate. The strip was later translated and reworked for international markets. Several activity books of the comic strip were released in the mid-1990s under both ''Where's Waldo? and Where's Wally?'' branding: • The Completely Crazy Activity Book • The Really Remarkable Activity Book • The Simply Sensational Activity Book • The Wildly Wonderful Activity Book ==Adaptations in other media==

Television series A 13-episode animated series, ''Where's Wally?, with Townsend Coleman as the voice of Wally, was produced by DIC Entertainment for CBS in 1991 for the North American market under the "Waldo" name. 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 alternative Wally'' versions, with the same voice cast of the original American production, in order to market the show in the UK. It was aired on ITV in the UK and the distribution rights to the show are currently held by HIT Entertainment. The second animated series by DreamWorks Animation Television aired on Universal Kids in 2019. The voice cast includes Joshua Rush as the voice of Waldo, Haley Tju as Wenda, Eva Carlton as Odlulu (the female equivalent to Odlaw), Thomas Lennon as Wizard Whitebeard and Piotr Michael as Woof. The series later moved to Peacock. Film A film based on the ''Where's Wally? series has been pursued by various studios. Nickelodeon took interest in the idea, but cancelled its plans due to internal changes at Paramount, its corporate sister. In 2009, Universal Pictures (which later obtained ownership of Where's Wally?'' through its acquisition of Classic Media's owner DreamWorks Animation in 2016) and Illumination acquired the rights to turn ''Where's Wally?'' into a live-action film, but this project was also cancelled. In 2011, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Classic Media announced a live-action film based on the ''Where's Waldo?'' series. Screenwriter Todd Berger has been hired to write the story for the film, which was slated to be released in the summer of 2015. In 2016, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were in talks to produce the film with their producing partner James Weaver and Kyle Hunter and Ariel Shaffir to write the film, under their Point Grey Pictures banner. The 1994 comedy film Naked Gun : The Final Insult, starring Leslie Nielsen and Priscilla Presley, features a cameo appearance by Waldo at the end of the film during a scene that takes place at the Academy Awards. During the 2012 Super Bowl, Waldo was featured in a MetLife commercial. As in the series, Waldo is meant to be hard to find in the commercial. Video games • ''Where's Waldo?'' (1991) (NES) • The Great Waldo Search (1992) (NES, SNES, Mega Drive) • Wally wo Sagase! (1992) (Arcade) (Japan-exclusive title developed and published by Sega) • Wally wo Sagase! Ehon no Kuni no Daibouken (1993) (Super Famicom) (Japan-exclusive title published by Tomy) • ''Where's Waldo at the Circus'' (1995) (PC) • ''Where's Waldo?: Exploring Geography'' (1996) (PC) • ''Where's Waldo?: The Fantastic Journey'' (2009) (PC, Mac, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) • ''Where's Waldo? in Hollywood'' (2010) (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) • Waldo & Friends (2015) (iOS, Android) (published by Ludia in 2015; no longer available for download) Cereal boxes In the early 1990s Quaker Life Cereal in the US carried various ''Where's Waldo?'' scenes on the back of the boxes along with collector's cards, toys and send-away prizes. This was shown in The Simpsons episode "Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder" where Homer shouts "Waldo, where are you?!" after looking at the scene on the cereal box as Waldo walks by the kitchen window. Google Maps On 1 April 2018, Google Maps added a minigame in which one can look for Waldo and his friends around the world – in the Andes (Chile), Surfers Paradise beach (Australia), in the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium (South Korea), at the La Tomatina festival (Spain), in Hollywood and in the Picard crater on the Moon. == Real-life ''Where's Wally?'' phenomena ==

World record attempts In 2009, 1,052 students, alumni, and members of the community at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, captured the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people dressed as Wally. The event raised money for local public schools. In 2011, the previous record was broken when 3,872 people dressed as Wally gathered in Merrion Square, Dublin, Ireland. The record was beaten in 2017 when 4,626 people dressed as Wally gathered in Japan, after three failed attempts. The Waldo Waldo 5K has tried to break the record in a 5-kilometre fun run to raise money for the Waldo Canyon Fire burn area in Colorado Springs, Colorado, US, every year since the fire in July 2012. The first attempt, on 21 October, had just over a thousand. The second attempt, on 27 October 2013, had over 2,700. The third attempt, on 26 October 2014, hosted 3,104 participants. The fourth attempt, on 17 October 2015, increased the count to 3,400 participants. The fifth attempt was made on 22 October 2016, with a final count of 3,524. The next race was held on 21 October 2017. The last race was held on 20 October 2018, with a final count of 3,809. Real-life re-creation On 12 September 2009, a re-creation took place in downtown Chicago. The re-creation featured all of the characters, Waldo, Wenda, Wizard Whitebeard, Odlaw, and Woof, hiding throughout downtown Chicago and invited others to come and find them.{{cite web ==See also==