 | |
| Odlaw | |
| Character Information | |
| Debut: | The Magnificent Poster Book! (1990) |
| Species: | Human |
| Gender: | Male |
| Items: | Binoculars |
| Family: | Odlaw's Mother (mother) |
| Home: | The Odlaw Swamp |
| Aliases: | {{{alias}}} |
| Birthday: | {{{birthday}}} |
Odlaw aka Yllaw is the main antagonist of the "Where's Waldo?" series. He is "mean, nasty, loathsome, and disgusting." His number of good deeds are few and all he cares about is getting his hands on Waldo's magic walking stick. His wardrobe includes a black and yellow striped shirt, black jeans, spats, dark glasses, yellow and black bobbled hat, and a slick moustache. Odlaw seems to be something of an evil twin/bad counterpart to Waldo.
In The Wonder Book, it is revealed that he comes from Odlaw's Swamp, where hundreds of other Odlaws live, which is a parallel to the Land of Waldos. Odlaw can be really clumsy, so he always ends up getting hurt. His friends also tell him to frequently "Shut Up" and stop writing "Odlaw wuz here" on everything with which he comes in contact with.
He is reportedly based on a young boy that illustrator Martin Handford met in Portland, Maine during a hunting trip.
Odlaw's name comes from "Waldo" spelled backwards. He first appeared in 1991 in the book Where's Waldo: The Magnificent Poster Book! where his role was like an "Anti-Waldo".
Names in other languages[]
- French: Pouah
- Italian: Manolesta / Wlady / Wigor
- Portuguese: Al Capote
- Norwegian: Skurk
- Chinese: 奥特
- Japanese: オドロー (Odorō)
- Polish: Lewus
- Dutch: G. Spuis
Trivia[]
- In the 1991 TV series, despite appearing in all of the episodes and meeting Woof and Wenda, Waldo never saw him, and they never actually met each other.
- In the same TV series, he jokes about wanting to be a dentist and not a cartoon villain. However, in the second issue of the Waldo magazine, it's revealed that he's a used car salesman. Talk about a career path-
- In the PC game Waldo at the Circus, there's an easter egg in the beginning of the game in the ringmaster's bathroom. If you click the mirror's reflection, it shows a miscolored Odlaw in a Ringmaster's suit. This can either be interpreted as either a red herring to the actual villain of the game, the monkey that stole the Ringmaster's Whistle, or another job that he wanted to be similar to his dentist dream job.
- In the 2019 series, his character was replaced by another similarly fashioned and looking antagonist Odlulu, accidently implying he's transmasc. And that the reason Waldo only knows Odlaw by name and not anything else is because he assumed Odlulu moved on after the events of the 2019 series
Quotes[]
Odlaw: It's a good thing we cartoon villains heal quickly.
(from "The Unfriendly Giants")