The Box (Wander Over Yonder)

The Box is the first half of the sixth episode of Wander Over Yonder, it originally premiered on November 15, 2013 on Disney Channel and then aired on December 14, 2013 on Disney XD.

Synopsis
When Wander and Sylvia are entrusted to deliver a sealed box, Wander can’t stop obsessing about what could be inside and struggles not to open it.

Summary
Wander is holding a closed box and is anxious to know what's in it, but Sylvia doesn't want him to because they promised Snailman the mailman they would deliver it to someone named Glen, and they are not gonna open it, like what they promised him. She tells Wander he can do this, but Wander only partially agrees with her and begins pondering over what would be in the box throughout the trip.

Later that night when camping out, Wander is still pondering. Sylvia gives Wander his banjo in an attempt to get his mind off the box, which he happily accepts as singing songs always soothes his sorrows. However, he ends up singing a song about what's in the box, leading Sylvia to crush his banjo. She suggests they should go to sleep, and Wander agrees as going to sleep always makes his worries go away. But then he instantly wakes up just after Sylvia says good night, crazilly calling her "Boxia" in the process, and ends up staring at the box all night long, leaving him in a worn out state by morning. Sylvia sees this and states they need to get to Glen's fast.

At the space train station, which Sylvia remarks is faster than an orbble transporter, Sylvia begins to get train tickets for herself and Wander, but Wander doesn't think it's a good idea. Sylvia tells Wander there might be nothing in the box but a pair of socks, and asks him to, whenever he gets tempeted, say the phrase "pair of socks". He agrees, and Sylvia walks off to get the tickets.

Just after Sylvia leaves, Wander begins to repeat the phrase, but while doing so, he hallucinates and sees a man in the distance, who suddenly comes closer every time someone passes by. He insists Wander give him the box. In addition, another man blocks Wander and asks for the box as well. Wander terrifyingly escapes, only to also run into three passengers, who scream, laugh and cry respectively. The men then sneak up on him and grab him, but it was really Sylvia who grabbed him, who already bought their tickets and was trying to find him. Wander tells her about the things he saw, which she'll be glad to take down, but when he points out where they are, only normal passengers are seen. Sylvia assumes Wander needs a rest and takes him on the train with her.

On the train, Sylvia is already asleep, but Wander cannot sleep and since Sylvia is not looking, he decides to look in the box. But while doing so, he has another hallucination where he sees a recursive effect of himself in the box and repeating, and winds up being chased by what he thinks is inside it. When he finally awakens, he and Sylvia are already at Glen's house.

Wander is glad they got to Glen's so he can find out what's in the box, but then he realizes the house is on top of an increasingly long hill, which horrifies him. Sylvia says this is the final stretch, and he can do it. Wander doesn't listen though, and hallucinates once more, this time smelling a sudden aroma from the box, and the box glowing in various colors with every sudden movement.

They finally reach the top, and Wander is glad he didn't open the box, but this is cut short when he realizes a notice on Glen's door, stating he's gone fishing, which makes him desperate to open the box now. After a fight over the box with Sylvia, he steals it and hides in a tree. Sylvia eventually lets Wander get away with it since she knows he can overcome this, but it doesn't matter if he doesn't believe in himself. After she walks away sadly to sit on the doorstep, Wander realizes what he did and sits with her, hoping Glen would catch some fish soon.

Suddenly, the door opens behind them, and Glen appears. Excited, Wander gives him the box, which he remarks it's a good deed Wander did. Glen then unzips a zipper on his head and reveals himself to be a Lord of Illumination, and Snailman, his mail truck, and the two men from Wander's first hallucination were revealed to be lords as well. The lead lord states the box was a test and Wander passed, and a symbol and he earned strength of character because he didn't open it.

Wander is still wanting to know what's in the box and begins pondering again, and Sylvia gets angry, and learns that the delivery was just a setup and there's nothing in the box at all, and that Wander doesn't want this, but he does want to see what's in it. She pesters the lords to put something in the box, and they do. When Wander looks in the box, he sees the things the lords put in it: a piece of string, a piece of hard candy, an old penny, and a World's Greatest Grandpa keychain, believing them to be what was in it. He becomes clean and happy again, and he and Sylvia leave.

The lead lord says their intent was to teach Wander, but before he could say anymore, Sylvia, miles away, hears this and tells them to stop. Then another lord shows the keychain to the leader stating he didn't know he was a grandpa, and the leader says, "You never ask me about my personal life."

End Credits
An extended version of Wander looking inside the box to see 1000 Wanders opening the box.

Songs

 * "What's In The Box?"

Background Information

 * Lord Hater and Peepers don't appear in this episode.
 * When Wander's fur becomes very wrinkled and his hat becomes patched and smooshed, he closely resembles his original sketch from 2007.
 * The title refers to the box Wander is not supposed to open and trying to resist opening it.
 * When Sylvia is talking to Wander about him overcoming his obsession, a soft piano version of Wander Over Yonder End Title Theme can be heard.

Trivia

 * In one of Wander's hallucinations about wanting to open the box, we see him inside the box while holding the same box. In addition, the same animation is used. This is an example of a recursive image, one that is repeated infinitely within itself.
 * This scene's animatic is played in a loop for the credits.
 * It's revealed Wander sings songs and takes naps to cheer himself up and stop worrying respectively.
 * It's also revealed that Wander has a nana.
 * This marks the first mention of someone's family member(s) in the series.
 * This episode shows that Wander is not homeless (as he mentions his nana, one of his family members).
 * This is the first time Sylvia ultimately agrees with Wander.
 * This episode has Wander's most angry temper in the series so far.
 * It is unknown if the candy is hard or not. It might be round fudge.
 * This is the first time Wander throws a tantrum.
 * Second time Wander sings a song while going crazy, first was Do You Know the Button Song in "The Prisoner".
 * Second time Sylvia imitates Wander. ("The Pet")
 * Second time Wander becomes obsessed with something. ("The Egg")

Continuity

 * The episode is similar to "The Fugitives" in many ways:
 * Wander trying to resist something and going crazy while doing so.
 * Sylvia annoyed with Wander not being serious at task.

Errors

 * When Wander takes his hat off when he's going to sleep, his head shadow doesn't disappear until he crawls inside it.
 * While Wander is repeatedly plucking his fur off his head, you can see a portion of his head bald, but when Sylvia picks him up, the bald portion is fully fur grown again.
 * When Sylvia walks through the front gate to Glen's house, Wander is seen in his normal, clean state, but when we see them from the front, Wander is worn out again.
 * When Wander slides up to Glen's doorstep, the "gone fishing" sign cannot be seen. When Wander knocks on the door, the sign appears. Later when Wander sadly approaches Sylvia on the doorstep, the sign disappears.
 * Wander's goatee is frazzled and wrinkly when in his crazy state. However, there are some shots where his goatee is perfectly straightened out, then later on it's wrinkled again.
 * When Wander hallucinates about a recursive effect of multiple Wanders holding boxes, they turn their heads to an impossible position.
 * At the beginning of the episode when Wander tries to open the box the first time, he had bags under his eyes; when the scene was shown in the promo, he did not.
 * Snailman the mailman was credited despite not having a speaking role in the episode, but towards the end, a second Lord of Illumination tells the lead lord he didn't know he was a grandpa. This may indicate the second lord was disguised as Snailman.
 * While Wander is yelling at Sylvia from the tree, the detailing in his left shoe becomes mirrored for a single frame.
 * Throughout the episode, though hard to notice, the bags under Wander's eyes constantly disappear and reappear.
 * Wander only plucks a small amount of fur off, but there is much more fur than that in the pile around him.
 * The patch on Wander's hat changes position several times, and when Wander and Sylvia are beholding the Lord of Illumination, the patch is gone.
 * After Wander reads the "gone fishing" note, his hat becomes bunched up, however at some points, his hat is smooth again.
 * When Sylvia cramps up the lead lord and the others watch, one lord looks happy.

Production Information

 * The episode was first announced in an interview by TV equals. The episode's synopsis was later confirmed here.

International premieres

 * February 25nd, 2014 (Disney Channel Japan)
 * March 1st, 2014 (Disney XD Brazil and Latin America)
 * March 15th, 2014 (Disney XD Poland)
 * June 14th, 2014 (Disney Channel Hungary)
 * August 18th, 2014 (Disney XD Germany)
 * September 7th, 2014 (Disney XD Canada)

Allusions

 * SpongeBob Squarepants - The plot might be a resemblance of the episode "The Secret Box". Also, one of the things the lords put in a box was a piece of string, which was in the box in said episode.
 * Greek Mythology - The plot is also slightly similar to the story of Pandora, a beautiful woman(and the first woman in Greek Mythology) who was given a box by Zeus and was told not to open it, but curiousity gets the best of her.

Disney Allusions

 * Fantasia 2000 - The scene where Wander is running accross the boxes and they're opening to reveal colored butterfly-like masses is similar to the opening scene in Fantasia 2000 where the evil butterflies come out of the volcanoes one by one when the camera pans over them.

Cast

 * Jack McBrayer as Wander
 * April Winchell as Sylvia, Additional Voices
 * John Hodgman as Lord of Illumination
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as Glen, Six-Fingered Men, Additional Voices
 * Fred Tatasciore as Snailman the Mailman, Additional Voices