Travel Movie Watch: ‘Where’s Waldo?’

No, seriously. The goofy globetrotter with the striped shirt is getting a movie all his own. And it will be live action. Over at Get the Big Picture, Colin Boyd has a scathing look at the project, suggesting that Universal’s decision to pick it up after Paramount gave up on it “might showcase a fairly pronounced stupidity.” I’m inclined to agree.

Now, it’s not that I have beef with Waldo. I thoroughly enjoyed his books as a kid, and I think he could work on screen in, say, an animated, semi-educational TV series aimed at young children. (Oh, wait—they already did that.) But a live-action, feature-length film? That’s a lot of spotting-hats-in-crowds. As one commenter on Boyd’s post was quick to ask, what kind of plot would a “Where’s Waldo?” movie have?

Another commenter replied with a storyline suggestion: “A plucky 20 something makes his fortune in tech but realizes that his life is devoid of any true meaning, so he gives it all up to travel the world and do his trademarked happy dance in strange locations only to make millions more by putting up videos of said happy dance on a popular internet website!”

Wait. That idea sounds familiar, too. Doesn’t Hollywood create anything original, anymore?

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