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"Good Wilt Hunting" is a double-length made-for-television film starring the cast of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and the first two episodes of the series to be featured in widescreen. It premiered on Thanksgiving Day in the United States at 7PM EST, 6PM CST.

Plot[]


SPOILER: Plot details follow.


When the imaginary friends at Foster's are having a five-year reunion with their creators, Bloo and Mac see that Wilt is not with his creator. They bug and ask him where and what kind of person his creator is, making him run away as they pester him with more questions. Soon, Wilt decides to run away from Foster's and set things right with a mysterious enemy.

The result is a chase in which Bloo, Mac, Eduardo, Coco, Frankie, police officer Nina Valarosa (who created Eduardo), Douglas and Adam (Coco's nerdy caretakers who are madly in love with Frankie) try to bring Wilt home. At every stop, they miss him, because he does some good deed and misses whatever transportation he was going to take cross-country to his creator's old hometown.

Near the climax of the film, Mac and the gang try to figure out who Wilt's creator could be -- Frankie's unable to provide any information, as she doesn't know anything about Wilt's creator, who's never come to any of the reunions that her grandmother has hosted at the house. In fact, even after all the years that Wilt's been living at Foster's (and outside of Frankie, Madame Foster, and Mr. Herriman, he's been living there longer than basically anyone), virtually nothing is known about his creator (not even if said creator is a man or a woman). Eventually, Nina suggests that they try figuring out who Wilt's creator could be by looking at it from a psychological-POV, using herself and Eduardo as an example:

As a kid, Nina had grown up in a really dangerous neighborhood and wanted to create an imaginary friend who would look/act intimidating enough to scare away all the bad people and protect her -- but at the same time, she also wanted someone gentle enough to be nice to her younger brother (who was just a baby at the time) and to play with (like having tea parties). However, Nina eventually realized that she needed someone to help her be able to stand up for herself and others (including Eduardo himself).

After hearing this, the others try figuring out who Wilt's creator is -- after Mac goes on his laptop, he quickly figures out who Wilt's creator is. The gang heads to the airport to catch a flight to Japan, where Wilt's creator is shooting a commercial of some kind and assume that Wilt is there as well.

Pre-accident Wilt

Wilt before his accident.

When Wilt makes it to his creator's hometown, Foul Larry, an imaginary friend with a basketball for a head, beats him at a game of basketball for a second time as we learn that Wilt's creator was a basketball player that had become very skilled at the game after training with Wilt. It is revealed through Wilt's flashbacks/memories and stories that one day, a kid from down the block created a new friend: Foul Larry, who beat the two in a basketball game, because, instead of blocking Larry, Wilt saved his creator from being crushed by him (at about this point, we also meet a scoreboard friend named Stats, who was there at the original match). This resulted in not only the loss of the game, but also caused his own arm to get crushed by Larry and his eye damaged permanently by the bouncing ball.

Jordan Michaels, a top professional basketball player, is revealed to be Wilt's creator -- after finally being reunited, Jordan claims that he's the one who should be sorry, especially after he was told that Wilt had saved his life at the cost of his arm and eye and is grateful of how he made him a better person by helping him learn that winning isn't everything. Eduardo, Coco, Bloo, Mac, and Frankie catch up and are happy to be reunited with Wilt. Jordan calls Wilt a hero, but when Wilt denies it, Jordan reveals that he kept Wilt's armband which he left behind all those years ago, says he's his best friend he ever had and he's got to quit saying he's sorry, as "it's not okay", and they finally come back to good terms. After being reunited, Jordan offers to let Wilt live with him and make him famous -- Wilt's tempted to take the offer, but ultimately declines, explaining that while he's happy to finally be reunited with Jordan, he feels that it would be best if he stayed at Foster's and wait to be adopted by another kid who will need someone like him. Jordan's obviously saddened by this, but he respects Wilt's decision and the two promise to keep in touch (including visiting each other once in a while).

As the reunion ends, Ed says goodbye to his creator and Coco says goodbye to Douglas and Adam. Stats, a reformed Foul Larry, and the other friends from Wilt's old neighborhood move into Foster's. Larry seems unsure he will be adopted after moving into Foster's, but Frankie figures that he'll be adopted in no time. The last scene shows Wilt and Jordan playing a lopsided game of one-on-one basketball at Foster's, with Wilt winning predominantly by shooting the ball through the hoop, having it bounce back into his hands, and shooting it again.

During the credits, Wilt and the Foster's gang are watching Jordan play basketball during one of his professional games, with Wilt getting a little crazy on the commentary as the movie ends.

Running gags[]

  • Frankie getting tickets from Nina Valerosa because of various, and often irrelevant, reasons.

Spoilers end here.


Cast[]

Characters[]

Other than the regular characters that appear in the show on a regular basis, these are characters that were new to the Foster's series and were introduced in "Good Wilt Hunting":

  • Nina Valerosa - A police officer who imagined Eduardo as a little girl. He was mainly created to help scare away the mean people in her neighborhood who would pick on her, but was also imagined so to have someone to help look after her little brother who would be nice to him, have someone to spend time and play with, and also turned out to be imagined in a way to teach her how to stand-up to bullies and people who would try to push her and Eduardo around just to be mean. Her name is a pun on the Spanish term for "valiant little girl".
  • Douglas and Adam - Two nerds that both have a crush on Frankie. Though they met Coco, they truly did not imagine her, but had discovered her on a South Pacific Island while searching the area. They took her in with them to give her a home. The identity of Coco's true creator is still unknown. They also appear to be adult versions of Dexter and Mandark from Dexter's Laboratory. Adam has long red hair, tied back in a ponytail, sports a beard, and sounds like Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons, while Douglas has black hair trimmed in a sort of bowl cut style and no facial hair. Adam seems to be the more confident of the duo. Their names, together, are a reference to Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Adam's shirt has the number 42, referring to the Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything on it. Coco acts very motherly towards them.
  • Foul Larry - A big, strong, tough imaginary friend with a basketball for a head and a basketball patterned body. He was imagined by an unnamed boy that always wanted to beat Wilt and his creator, Jordan Michaels. He never did, so he imagined Foul Larry to help him with basketball and to play as his partner during the game. Once Foul Larry was imagined, Wilt lost to him twice, due to Wilt's attention being side-tracked away from the game. The 1st time he lost to Foul Larry to save Jordan from being crushed by Larry when he almost landed on Jordan. The second time he lost the game due to a switch in roles, where Jordan Michaels pulled Wilt out of the way from being hurt. He later, along with the other friends from his neighborhood, moves into Foster's. His name is a pun on Larry Bird and the basketball term for a player infraction called a "foul", as well as the term for all avians, "fowl".
  • Jordan Michaels - The basketball player that imagined Wilt when he was a young child to help him practice becoming better at the game. The character is based on famous basketball legend Michael Jordan (widely considered to be the greatest professional basketball of all time), of which his name is a spoonerization.
  • Foofy Woogums and Sara - Foofy was lost from her creator for a long time. Wilt found her in the Lost & Found room when he was putting a lost umbrella in there. Wilt took Foofy on a bus back to her creator, Sara, and Sara's mom and dad, who then thanked Wilt and drove him to the train station for the train he needed to take, to get to Foul Larry and face him again.
  • Farmer - When Wilt got dropped off at the train station by Sara's parents, Wilt saw someone across the street from the station who was having trouble getting some hay in a bailing machine, so he decided to help by putting some hay in the machine for him. The man thanked Wilt by giving him a riding mower he could ride so he could go further on his journey to Foul Larry.
  • Stats - An imaginary friend that looks like a walking scoreboard with eyes and a mouth and kept the scores of the games between Wilt and Foul Larry. He later, along with the other imaginary friends in his neighborhood, moves into Foster's.

Trivia[]

  • This is the only double-length special from the series, as the other two, "House of Bloo's" and "Destination Imagination", are 66-minutes and 64-minutes respectively.
  • This is the only episode to be presented in cropped widescreen format.
  • This special marks the only appearances of Foul Larry and Foofy Woogums.
  • It is revealed that Wilt originally had two normal eyes and two normal arms. It is also revealed how he lost his arm and how his eye became wonky.
    • It is also revealed that Wilt's at least 31 years old, as Foul Larry mentions that "It has been 30 years since I whupped your behind.", and Wilt has mentioned that he and Jordan played basketball for a whole year undefeated before playing Larry.
  • This was the last episode produced in 2006.
  • This episode reveals of a lot of background involving imaginary friends, with the main exception of Duchess, who is completely absent and never mentioned in this episode.
  • Mac joins everyone looking for Wilt, causing him to be gone with them for a long time. However, he is not shown calling his mom nor letting her know where he is, as she could've been worried about where he is and what he's up to.
  • Ads for this movie spoofed the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and their balloons therein. A huge Wilt balloon is making its way through the city in the air. The announcers think Wilt's other hand has been punctured when it's actually the design of the cartoon. After showing the new shorts for Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and the new movie, the camera shows the Wilt balloon entangled in wires. In an ironically odd twist, in the real parade from 2006 through 2008, an actual parade float, which Cartoon Network sponsored, featured puppets of characters from the show.

Cultural references[]

  • The title of the show is a parody of the 1997 film Good Will Hunting.
  • Just before helping the farmer, Wilt is holding a Sports Illuminated magazine (an obvious parody of Sports Illustrated) with Jordan Michaels on the cover.
  • When Wilt's bus takes its first stop, a picture with young Jordan Michaels and Golly Gopher from Re-Animated and subsequent spin-off series Out of Jimmy's Head is seen in the background. The poster advertises a movie titled Astro Slam, based on the Michael Jordan and Looney Tunes movie Space Jam, parodying the movie's poster.
  • One of the items in the lost-and-found closet appears to be an Etch A Sketch drawing toy.
  • The scene with Wilt waiting at the bus stop is a nod to Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West".
  • The idea of Wilt using a lawnmower to travel a significant distance may be a reference to the David Lynch film The Straight Story.
  • The judge refers to Wilt as the "Lawn Ranger," an obvious parody of the Lone Ranger.
  • The basketball that Foul Larry uses is not an NBA ball; it is an ABA ball.
  • Douglas' and Adam's laptops have a pear in the front, a parody of Apple's computer logo.
  • The names of the scientists themselves combined is Douglas Adam, a reference to Douglas Adams, author of, among others, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
  • When Mac, Bloo, and the others fly off to Japan to find Wilt, Bloo mentions Godzilla while shouting "GODZILLA! WILT'S CREATOR IS GODZILLA!"
  • During the one-on-one match between Wilt and Larry; Larry picks up Wilt and performs a similar move to Street Fighter character Balrog (The Stomping Combo; a crouching punch followed by a stomp, the second time he has attacked with his feet).
  • Wilt arrives in his old neighborhood, meets up with Stats, and walks on the basketball court while calling for Larry, but says "Moe! Larry!" referencing two of The Three Stooges.

Goofs[]

  • In the full screen version, the lower black bar that appears when shown in widescreen remains intact for a few scenes in part 2, including the recap and when Foul Larry comes to Foster's.
  • Frankie tells Madame Foster on the phone that she and the others stayed at a motel, when clearly, the sign says "hotel".
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
Characters Main CharactersSecondary Characters
MacBlooFrankieMadame FosterGooWiltCocoEduardoMr. HerrimanCheese Jackie
Media Episodes and DVD releases
Movies/Specials House of Bloo'sA Lost ClausGood Wilt HuntingCheese a Go-Go
Nightmare on Wilson WayRace for Your Life Mac & Bloo
Destination ImaginationGoodbye to Bloo
Games Big Fat Awesome House PartyFoster's Home for Imaginary FriendsImagination InvadersFoster's Home for Imaginary Friends Didj
Creators Craig McCrackenLauren Faust
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