The Art of WandaVision Titles (1 of 2)
When sitcom fandom goes too far!
Marvel recently wrapped up Agatha All Along, a sequel to its best overall TV series, WandaVision. And it’s Halloween now, the season of witches, so I figured it was as good a time as any to take a look at the art of the old WandaVision titles.
ICYMI, WandaVision revolved around Wanda Maximoff suffering the loss of her android boyfriend Vision and making that literally everyone else’s problem. She did this by altering reality so she could live out her life as if it were a classic sitcom with Vision and herself as the married stars. That wouldn’t necessarily be so bad—live your dreams, right?—except that the spell took over an existing town to serve as the setting…
As the reality of Wanda’s situation starts pressing in on her, the sitcom style progresses, through the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. The resulting episodes are “marked” with TV-style introductory titles. Although the show took inspiration from a large number of sitcoms, its intros often nod to one or two shows in particular.
The 1950s intro, however, does cheat a little bit. While it uses a boxy 4:3 format and an old-timey musical number…
…it shares more information about the series than 1950s intro sequences often did. I Love Lucy’s intro is as minimalist as anything you’d see today…
However, the first installment did borrow a lot from The Dick Van Dyke Show, a 1960s creation, albeit a bit old-fashioned even for its time. The physical comedy in WandaVision’s first intro—where the lead characters stumble on their way into their beloved home but aren’t really upset about it—owes something to Dick Van Dyke’s pratfall over an ottoman in one of that show’s opening sequences (he sometimes got to avoid it, depending on the episode):
The second intro, however, is a much clearer nod to Bewitched:
The bi-trochaic musical theme (“WAN-da-VI-sion”) is most obvious in the 1960s sequence, but it shows up in all the themes. That sequence’s music might owe a little more to the other 1960s magical-gal show, I Dream of Jeanie.
Like the 1950s sequence, the 1960s sequence shares more information about the show than its inspiration. Bewitched is about a witch trying to live without magic, but you wouldn’t know it from the titles, which show Samantha zooming around and enjoying her powers without worry. WandaVision shows both Wanda and Vision taking steps to hide their true nature—at least until the final, fourth-wall-breaking ten seconds, where the whole cast gathers for no real reason, a bit like the lead-in to the “couch gag” on The Simpsons.
It’s a little sad and kind of revealing that even in her idealized fantasy, Wanda and Vision still have to hide their natures, even if their hiding is now a funny game. A reflection of Wanda’s traumatic history or the common themes of that era of TV? Could be both. This show had more layers than most MCU projects.
Here’s the 1970s version, channeling The Brady Bunch and a hint of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Wanda and Vision seem less concerned about blending in as they prepare to welcome their children into their world.
Concluded tomorrow!