Wander

"When I see someone who's a-needin', I just gotta help!"

- Wander Wander is the protagonist of the Disney Channel/Disney XD animated series Wander Over Yonder. He is an overly-optimistic intergalactic explorer. He travels across the universe with his trusty steed Sylvia, while helping spread happiness and freedom along the way. His creator, Craig McCracken, described Wander as a nomadic, hippie, peace-loving, muppet man.

Official Description

 * Wander is an optimistic, nomadic, interstellar feller whose sole purpose in life is to be happy, and help others be happy.

Personality
Wander has a very friendly, kind-hearted personality, though some find his boundless energy and optimism to be annoying, notably Lord Hater. He is also somewhat flighty and easily distracted, but always well-meaning, with a very strong moral center. Though he can be naïve, Wander is shown to be very witty and clever when he needs to be, and is capable of problem-solving on the spot and outsmarting his adversaries with little effort. Wander likes everyone he meets and always sees the good in people rather than the bad.

Wander aspires to explore different worlds, try new things, and help people have fun and live free, often clashing against the tyrannical aspirations of Lord Hater and his army of Watchdogs evil reign. Wander likes making people happy and jumps at the chance to help anyone out whenever he can. He and his best friend Sylvia travel leisurely all throughout the galaxy, often getting themselves into many exciting and dangerous situations.

Despite Wander's very easygoing nature, there have been times where he has been pushed to his limits. For instance, he had trouble containing his self-control when his curiosity was peaked by the unknown contents of a box he was not supposed to open in "The Box". Wander is also completely unable to stop himself from helping out whenever he can, even when the help is not really wanted or needed, suggesting his need to help others is being driven by a sense of compulsion. He also gets very defensive over people has has formed attachments to, as shown in "The Toddler" when he snapped at some shoppers who insulted his and Sylvia's parenting skills, and the reckless behavior of the toddler they were looking after. His empathetic, protective nature can also make him susceptible to manipulation, as shown in "The Stray".

Physical appearance
Wander is an orange being of an indiscriminate species, with a furry-like stomach. He has large, expressive eyes with black pupils. He is usually seen with a big floppy light green hat with a black stripe above the brim and a yellow star located on the black stripe. The inside of his hat seems to be black as well. He is always seen with a smile.

Musical Talent
Wander is known to have good musical talent. He has an excellent singing voice and breaks into song on many occasions. He is talented on the banjo, which he is most often seen playing. He can also play the drums, kazoo, and guitar, as shown in "The Greatest", "The Tourist", "The Birthday Boy", and the animatic for "The Prisoner", respectively. The episode "My Fair Hatey" also has him play the piano and saxophone.

Stamina/Speed
Wander has boundless energy and can move very quickly. One example is during his chase with Lord Hater in "The Picnic" in which he ran so fast, he ended up running over him.

Orbble Juice
Wander uses orbble juice to create large bubbles which he and Sylvia use for transportation through outer space and otherwise.

Hat
Wander's hat contains a plethora of useful items, though the only thing known about the hat is to only give the user merely what they need, as opposed to what they actually want.

Season 1
He appears in every episode of Season 1, but does not talk in "The Gift 2: The Giftening".

Season 2
Not known yet

Sylvia
Wander and Sylvia are inseparable friends and traveling companions, roaming across the universe together. They know each other very well and are accepting of each other's strengths and weaknesses, each going out to help the other. Although Wander has ignored Sylvia a few times ("The Troll", "The Tourist"), there isn't a mountain too high, a valley too low, or a river too wide to keep apart a pair of pals like Wander and Sylvia! ("The Lonely Planet").

There is, however, a few times Wander has disagreed or had arguments with Sylvia. One instance was in "The Toddler", when he angrily whispered to Sylvia due to the fact she wasn't caring for him the right way.

It's revealed in "The Waste of Time" that Wander's good influence was what changed Sylvia from a bounty hunter to the do-gooder she is today.

Lord Hater
Wander and Lord Hater first met in "The Greatest". Wander believes Lord Hater to be his friend (despite Lord Hater's clear dislike of him). In "The Buddies", Wander explains that he is aware of Lord Hater's reputation throughout the galaxy as the "ultimate evil", though Wander states he truly believes that Hater still had good in him, deep down. Lord Hater however deeply despises Wander's kind nature. He thinks of Wander as a highly skilled adversary, and has hired various bounty hunters to track him down.

There have been a few times Wander actually disliked Lord Hater or was against him. One example was when he was crawling away in fear while Lord Hater was ranting. Another was when he was shocked to hear about Westley wanting to take him to Hater instead of have fun. The first time he actually faced against Lord Hater was when he barged into a diner asking for food, and he angrily announced that he won't get what he wants, only to realize he's taking out his lunch ("The Greatest", "The Little Guy", "The Helper").

Commander Peepers
Wander and Peepers met in "The Greatest" like with him and Lord Hater. When Wander saw Peepers and said "Look at you and your little hat. You're so cute I can't stand it! Trade!" Peepers technically wants to capture Wander and make evil spread over the universe because of him. (as revealed in "The Bounty"), Wander thought Peepers was a bad guy, but in "The Bounty", he said he thought Peepers was a good guy all a long, but then Sylvia said it's a trap and they're gonna get taken to Lord Hater, then Wander believes Peepers is bad again, and even mentioned most of his attempts to capture him and Sylvia are a little stinky, he doesn't like Wander and called him a "wandering weirdo" ("The Prisoner", "The Fancy Party").

Hat
In the episode "The Bad Hatter", Wander is revealed to have stole the Hat from the middle of a civil war, where two former allies turned against each other and tortured the Hat into giving them whatever they wanted. Eventually, the hat learned to trust Wander and began helping him by providing him with whatever he needs.

Recurring Characters

Emperor Awesome
Although have seen each other in "The Picnic" and "The Fancy Party", in "The Party Animal", Awesome suddenly has no idea who Wander is, so he challenges Wander to a dance off (long story short), Wander kicks Awesome's butt, he gets mad, so now, Wander is one of Awesome's enemies.

Watchdogs
The Watchdogs generally seem to like Wander despite the fact that they are supposed to be on opposing sides. As seen in "The Gift 2: The Giftening", Wander makes an effort to know each and every Watchdog.

Westley
In "The Little Guy", Westley's goal was to capture Wander and Sylvia to Lord Hater, but in the end, he turned good and befriended Wander and Sylvia.

Sir Brad Starlight
In "The Hero", Wander was Brad's "goofy sidekick" to go save Princess Demurra and was always loyal to him until Brad had proven himself to be a bad guy, so Wander tried to save Demurra along with Sylvia, King Draykor, and his army but Demurra handled it herself. Brad is returning in an upcoming episode entitled "The Enemies".

Trudi Traveler
In "The Tourist", Wander befriends Trudi and is astounded to how many places she's been to. It's unknown how they met, but they did meet each other sometime before the events of the episode started. When Trudi mentions the "flooshy slooshy sloosh", something Wander didn't see. He insisted on visiting it, which stopped his vacation with Sylvia on Ziziks. After going there, Wander became competitive and was determined to visit every place Trudi went to. After visiting several planets, Trudi challenges him to a race to Planet Pharphlung, and he abandons Sylvia to do so. However in the middle of the race, Wander witnesses the birth of a star and is left behind by Trudi, and he realizes what he has been up to. He abandons the race and goes back to Sylvia to apologize, leaving Trudi and several clones of herself to look for him, possibly pointing out that was why she saw that many planets. It's unknown of their relationship as of this point, though it is possible Wander ended his friendship with Trudi.

Planet Janet
Wander and Janet met in "The Lonely Planet", they were off to a good start, but, she hated Sylvia, and tried to separate Wander and Sylvia. So Janet tried to forces Wander to marry her until Sylvia came in and punched her, Wander and Sylvia try to leave but there's an energy force from keeping them from leaving. She suddenly stops and starts crying, Wander and Sylvia come comfort her and she apologizes for what happened and says she wanted a relationship like Wander and Sylvia. Then Maurice the Moon came, made Janet happy, and Wander and Sylvia left in peace. Their relationship is unknown now but it's probably decent.

Queen Entozoa
Wander and Entozoa met each other some time before "The Fancy Party". They had a good relationship, but at the end, it was revealed that a dragon ghost was keeping her alive for all those years, she got transported into a sandwich, and commanded to destroy Wander, Sylvia, Hater, and Peepers, their relationship now is unknown. But like with Trudi, it is possible that he ended her friendship with her too.

Little Bits
Wander found Little Bits in an episode entitled "The Stray", throughout the episode, he was under her spell and did anything she said, including turning himself into Lord Hater, but that was until Sylvia punched him out of it near the end of the episode.

Ryder
Ryder was Sylvia's old partner before she met Wander. When Ryder and Sylvia were reunited in "The Ryder," Wander began to feel left out because of Ryder ans Sylvia's compatible aggressive natures. Ryder brushes off Wander as a nuisance; however, Sylvia comes to learn that Wander is the better partner for her, because his caring nature makes her a better person.

Dr. Screwball Jones
Dr. Screwball Jones is an enemy from Wander's past, whom Wander considers to be his arch nemesis. Like Wander, Screwball aspires to spread happiness wherever he goes, though he does it in a forceful, tyrannical manner that Wander opposes.

Solos

 * "The Bronco's Buck" ("The Egg")
 * "Do You Know the Button Song" ("The Prisoner")
 * "Lord Hater's Skeleton Face Metal" ("The Prisoner")
 * "What's In The Box?" (first part, "The Box")
 * "Wander Over Yonder End Title Theme" ("The Little Guy")
 * "The Tale of Brad Starlight" ("The Hero")
 * "The Best Buds Shake" ("The Buddies")
 * "Positive Song" ("The Liar")
 * "Brahms' Lullaby" ("The Stray")

Solos (In A Duet)

 * "Inside Your Mind" (Sylvia) ("The Void")
 * "Best Friends Forever" (Lord Hater) ("The Buddies")

Solos (In A Group Number)

 * "Your Happy Birthday Song" (with Sylvia and the Watchdogs) ("The Birthday Boy")

Solos (In A Group Number)

 * "Later Hater" (with Lord Hater and Sylvia)
 * "Disney XD 2014 Summer Anthem" (with Sylvia, Lord Hater, Steve the Llama, and other Disney Channel/Disney XD characters)

Trivia

 * Craig McCracken's first sketch of Wander was drawn in the year of 2007. In this sketch, he had more fur on his body and a different looking hat.
 * Wander is based off of a character from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, one of McCracken's former shows.
 * Wander's trademark hat closely resembles the Disney character Goofy's hat.
 * Wander is similar to Cheese from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
 * Wander play games as Cheese from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
 * Wander is ambidextrous as shown in "The Egg" when he played the banjo with both hands.
 * Wander is the third Disney character to be voiced by Jack McBrayer, with the first being Irving, and the second being Fix-It Felix, Jr., though he is the second to be voiced by him in a Disney TV series, after Irving.
 * Wander shares some similarities with Fix-It Felix, Jr., not only because the two share the same voice actor but also in personality and speech.
 * In "The Fugitives", it's said that Wander doesn't know what a uvula is and refers to it as "the dangly thing in my mouth".
 * He uses his hat as a sleeping bag as shown in "The Prisoner", "The Box", "The Lonely Planet", and "The Night".
 * In "The Bad Guy", he wore a fake mustache and pretended to be a villain, whom he calls himself "Wild Wooly Wander".
 * The episode "The Egg" shows he is really good with caring for children.
 * "The Fugitives" states that helping others gives Wander a feeling that goes like this:
 * Starts down in his left toe.
 * Rises up through his "guttyworks" (guts).
 * Makes his heart all warm and toasty.
 * Floats up past his uvula (or, as he puts it, "the dangly thing in his mouth").
 * Ends at the top of his head.
 * He can knit sweaters, as shown in "The Pet".
 * He doesn't like jellyfish pie, as revealed in "The Hat".
 * Wander can be easily be compared to Banjo from the Banjo-Kazooie series: they both play the banjo, help anyone in need, and though they mean well, they are occasionally naïve.
 * Wander speaks in a heavy Southern accent, and uses a lot of Southern vocabulary (eg: "Howdy, fellas!", "Hungry, little feller?", etc.).
 * Wander has his own background music whenever he is seen, consisting of mainly Country, Vaudeville or Bluegrass.
 * Wander is afraid of poisonous bugs, as shown in "The Night".
 * "The Lonely Planet" also revealed that Wander likes pancakes, waffles, and blueberry pie.
 * Wander can balance a spoon in the middle of his face where his nose should be.
 * Wander likes to dance, as shown in "The Fancy Party".
 * Wander has, on at least one occasion, ripped a door right out of a wall. This shows that he may be stronger than he looks.
 * Wander knows how to perform the Heimlich maneuver and CPR.
 * "The Gift 2: The Giftening" is the only episode so far where Wander does not speak.
 * He shares traits with Riley Matthews from Girl Meets World:
 * They both are kind to everyone they meet.
 * They both try to help everyone.
 * Both have more tough partners (who are both feminine) (Sylvia for Wander, and Maya for Riley)
 * Even though they both try to help everyone, they both have been told by their partners you can't solve everyone's problems (Maya said that to Riley once, and Sylvia recently said it to Wander recently in an recent episode entitled "The Helper".
 * He is the first Disney alien to wear a hat.
 * He is the first Disney alien not to be short-tempered and argue others.