Wander Over Yonder is... a weird show to talk about. I think out of everything on the Disney Watch, this is the one show that really stuck with me. I really enjoyed it while it was airing, and I still enjoy it, which is more than I can say for shows I fell off of like Gravity Falls, but the thing about Wander Over Yonder is it's got a huge fanbase. To this day I see people talking about these characters and shipping them. I've even seen a lot of comparison and crossovers with Kid Cosmic. That's to be expected of course. Craig McCracken created both, and there's little hints toward the world of Wander Over Yonder taking place in the same universe, albeit maybe a different galaxy.
But really, at the core of it, Kid Cosmic and Wander Over Yonder have a lot of the same themes, writing style, and humor going for them, which is great. Both were fantastic to sit through. Wander Over Yonder telling a more Looney Tunes esque story while Kid Cosmic goes harder into the superhero comics genre. Wander Over Yonder also has these goofy archetypes it delves into, while Kid Cosmic's characters are very fleshed out from the start, and, you know. Human. But the thing is, they're treated the same way. All of this to say, Kid Cosmic is not the only show that came after Wander Over Yonder that I would say shares those qualities with it.
A lot of the Ducktales 2017 crew came from Wander Over Yonder and it shows. Like Wander Over Yonder, but unlike Kid Cosmic, Ducktales looked a bit more into its goofy characters, particularly Glomgold. When you dealt a whole season (of your life) to Lord Hater's introspection, dissection, subversion, and inversion, it's always fun to see some of that similar energy again. Honestly, the way the Ducktales reboot does characters in general, is pretty similar to how Wander Over Yonder does its characters. Not necessarily overlapping like Hater and Glomgold, but opts for goofy characters and tells you more about them. (Which, to be fair, is pretty easily done with the world of Disney Ducks).
The other show that reminds me a lot of Wander Over Yonder is another reboot, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Laugh all you want, I am aware this is one of those shows on the same level as Voltron, and Steven Universe to some, but personally, I find it better than the other two. But yeah, ND Stevenson was also a writer on Wander Over Yonder, and you can really see it in how he does humor and story. Yeah. That's my hot take. Season 2 of Wander Over Yonder and the entirety of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power have the same sense of humor to me. Both are very goofy and character driven jokes, usually coming from exaggeration of character traits. And I'll be honest, that sort of style comes through in my own writing too!
There's not a lot else to say about Wander Over Yonder that hasn't really been said already. There's a lot of gay subtext in it, to the point where if it came out 10-15 years before it did, I would argue it was actually a gay show with hidden subtext. Hell, "The Big Day" compares Hater destroying Wander to a wedding pretty hard, and depending on how you view it, "The End of the Galaxy" may even have Peepers be revealed as a last episode gay (depending on if you count heart eyes as gay love, and also whether you count literally everything else about Peepers as gay love).
I guess my hottest take (besides the She-Ra thing) is that I prefer season 2 over season 1. Season 1 certainly has a lot of goofy cartoon stuff, but season 2 is where they play with the formula a bunch. Hater becomes the main character rather than Wander, and while I do prefer Wander to Hater, seeing Hater as this almost protagonist is a lot of fun! Episodes like "The Cartoon" and "The New Toy" are absolutely hilarious in how they poke at cartoons and 80s marketing, respectively. Episodes about Wander also start pushing him to his limits, such as "The Heebie Jeebies," where he deals with fear, and "The Flower," where we see him at his lowest point. Of course, I still enjoy season 1. Episodes like "The Gift" and "The Day/The Night" work off each other and show events from different perspectives, and episodes like "The Void" are so creative!
I think of the Craig McCracken shows, Wander Over Yonder is my favorite. It's got goofy, heart wrenching, experimental, and visually appealing all rolled up into a fun package! I'd recommend you watch it, but I feel like this is one you probably already have.
Overall Rating for Wander Over Yonder: S Tier
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