Also posted this on tumblr for some reason.
So, a new cartoon made by Craig McCracken is coming on to
Disney Channel called “Wander over Yonder,” starring a young, aptly named,
wanderer in space and his many adventures. As a fan of McCracken, as soon as I
heard about this new show I’ve been interested in it, and fairly recently did
Disney release the intro sequence on its youtube channel. Now, I thought it’d
be interesting if we would analyze the intro to decipher as much as possible
about the show, as it has not aired yet besides a couple clips. Mind you, I
have already seen some of these clips and therefore may already have knowledge
of some of these things, but other things are pure guess-work on my part based
on the intro sequence. I also have heard there are a couple references in the
intro as well, though I’m talking strictly as to what we can decipher about the
show and how it will work from the intro. This originated as just a fun idea I
had at 3 in the morning while watching the intro sequence for the 20th
time.
So, with that said, the intro starts with a zoom-in from the
galaxy into where we see our titular character strolling happily through many
different worlds. Already, we know that this takes place in multiple creative
settings as is shown throughout the rest of the show’s theme song. Wander, our
protagonist, seems to be overall the happy type and enjoys exploring different
worlds and never really has one place to stick around to.
He is soon taken by a trusty blue horse-like steed, as they
race through the plains. In this shot, we meet what obviously will be Wander’s
sidekick, who also seems to have a mind of her own. Yes, her own; this where I
start really guessing here. I obviously do not know if this is a he or a she,
however I have fair reasoning to believe it is a girl because A) this is a
Craig McCracken/Lauren Faust show and therefore this show must have
well-developed female characters, and B) it seems to have quite female
eyelashes at certain shots that coupled with its mane, gives it a female look.
Again, I may be completely and utterly wrong on this, but I wouldn’t pull it
past them to make this character a girl. I would also however not be surprised
if it was a boy either. Heck, it could be gender-neutral for all I know. With
that said, I’ll call it an “it” for the rest of the post to avoid confusion.
Besides the possible female-gender, it also seems to be much more violent (for
lack of a better term) and quick-witted as it zooms past the different
backgrounds while Wander has more time to admire the amazing sights he passes
by.
Wander soon spots a local citizen of whatever planet they
happen to be on, and immediately makes friends. Wander, his companion and his
new friend, whatever it may be, start to dance and have fun as soon as they
shake hands in the name of peace and friendship. Wander’s new alien-friend then
shows him the magnificent city that he/she is from. This part showcases how
Wander is a friendly soul at heart. He can go anywhere and find a friend quite
quickly. He also manages to explore different cultures along with natural
settings, and shows that the universe is filled with plenty of odd
civilizations. This creates some more basic world-building, as well as set-ups
that he has friends all over and can make new ones quite easily with his optimistic,
curious and friendly demeanor.
While they are introduced to the civilization of the day, a
dark ship immediately invades and begins to terrorize the planet. It seems to
be manned by a dark skulled overlord with electrical powers as well as what
seems to be an army of eyeball minions, which of course one of whom is the
overlord’s right-hand man. The song and demeanor of the sequence takes an
overall downturn as the planet becomes red and covered in terror and fear, as
the overlord comes closer and closer to view. Obviously this is a very serious
and dark villain that makes a small bit of juxtaposition with the rest of the
show’s happy exploratory tone.
This optimistic tone is soon dominant however as the
overlord is confused and slightly frightened by Wander’s complete disregard for
the fear he tries to inflict. Wander merely dances in front of him until he
finally hugs the reluctant overlord in the background of a heart-shaped tree. This
seems like it will be probably the most basic point of the show: a
Dennis-The-Menace style relationship between the dark villain and the
happy-go-lucky hippie. Thus, the villain is reduced from a serious threat to a
Squidward-type-character against the mild nuisance of Wander’s antics and
overall attitude. This also implies that no matter where the villain will go to
invade, Wander will also happen to be there and somehow thwart whatever plans
he has in a probably un-knowing, comical fashion. This is most likely at least
one of the underlying formulas of the show.
After this, we also pan over to Wander’s sidekick beating up
the Villain’s sidekick with ease and satisfaction. This also continues to show
its overall personality and ability, as well as probably that the horse will be
the main actually-doing-stuff-character as Wander just mindlessly goofs off or
creates well-done distraction. This also shows more of the incompetence of the
villain’s minion as well as of his overall agenda, that it can be so easily
stopped in such comical efforts by what amounts to a nomad and his horse.
The next shot re-iterates the whole basic relationship
between the villain and the hero, with him chasing Wander and trying to zap him
as Wander freely jumps with silly poses to easily escape every blow. This once
again points out that Wander is a nuisance and the constant chase that will
most likely ensue in the rest of the show. It then ends with Wander on his
steed riding away from the villain’s forces into the title card, as the theme
ends.
Overall, this is one of the better intro-sequences I’ve seen
in a while, mostly based on its high-usage of show-don’t-tell in its technique.
Instead of just explaining the plot and characters in song, they showcase it
merely by visuals, as the song just gives a catchy tune of only using the show
title as lyrics. The show looks really good in my opinion, and I can’t wait
till it comes out later this month. Also, if you liked this whole
intro-analysis thing, I’d be glad to try this out with other stuff as well. Let
me know if you find anything inaccurate or something either, like I said, this
is almost completely blind and mostly based on my own personal predictions. Let
me know what you thought of this one, and if you’d like to see any more of
these. Thanks for reading and I hope you found it interesting.
Edit: According to further research (aka Wikipedia) I was
pretty on the mark, including the whole steed being female thing. I feel smart.
Anyways yeah hope you enjoyed it.
Space Banjo.
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