''Wonder Quest'' was an

edutainment Educational entertainment, also referred to by the portmanteau edutainment, is media designed to education, educate through entertainment. The term has been used as early as 1933. Most often it includes content intended to teach but has inciden ...

children’s

web series A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...

from

Disney’s The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

Maker Studios Maker(s) or The Maker(s) may refer to: Film and television * ''The Maker'' (film), a 1997 American drama film * Maker Studios, now part of Disney Digital Network, an American multi-channel TV network *''Makers'', a 2014 British documentary seri ...

. It was created by

Joseph Garrett Joseph Mark Garrett (born 13 December 1990), better known as Stampylonghead, Stampylongnose, Stampy Cat, or simply Stampy, is an English YouTuber, actor, and author best known for his ''Minecraft'' video game commentaries as the character of S ...

, a prominent

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

commentator who posts videos primarily set in the sandbox game ''

Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a 2011 sandbox game developed and published by the Swedish video game developer Mojang Studios. Originally created by Markus Persson, Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java (programming language), Java programming language, the ...

'' as his internet

persona A persona (plural personae or personas) is a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. It is also considered "an intermediary ...

"Stampy Cat". The series was scripted by Patrick Muhlberger, Ryan Burns, and Garrett, and produced by Muhlberger. The ''Minecraft'' educational content was initially developed by Adam Clarke, who stars alongside Garrett as his own persona, "Wizard Keen". Featured on the ''Wonder Quest'' YouTube channel, Maker Studios described the series as a spinoff series of Joseph Garrett’s main YouTube channel, starring the character Stampy Cat. Citing the runaway success of ''Minecraft'' as inspiration for ''Wonder Quest'' at the

MIPTV MIPTV () is an event which takes place annually in Cannes, France, using the facilities and infrastructure which the town has developed over the years to host other important events such as the Cannes Film Festival amongst other events. It is e ...

television industry conference in

Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...

, Garrett states that “if you take their engagement and put it into a more productive space like

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

or the arts, they’re going to be involved in that, they’re going to be engaged”. ''Wonder Quest'' premiered on April 25, 2015. By December 2016, the series had garnered over 101 million views. The first episode of season 2 was released on August 20, 2016. The series ended on a

cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious situation, facing a difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction or bef ...

on November 5, 2016. In October 2024, every video on the Wonder Quest channel was made private for unknown reasons.

Synopsis

''Wonder Quest'' follows the

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

Stampy Cat and sorcerer Wizard Keen, who go on many adventures to stop various forces of evil from destroying a magic gem, called the Wonder Gem.

Series overview

Season 1 (2015)

Set in the town of Wonderberg, Stampy Cat and his newly acquainted friend, Wizard Keen, try to save the town from his evil wizard brother, Heinous. Together, they set off on an adventure to piece back together the 5 wonderments of the wonder gem to bring back wonder in Wonderberg, and they encounter trouble along the way.

Season 2 (2016)

Stampy Cat and Wizard Keen receive a mysterious invitation to the Society of Wonderers. As new members of the society, the Head Wonderer, Priscilla, charges the duo to spread wonder and guard Wonderberg from evil forces. They encounter Rama, a rejected member of the society who changed the past to stop the world's greatest wonderers from wondering. Using a

time machine A time machine is a fictional or hypothetical device that allows time travel. Concept A time machine is a device that makes time travel possible. The ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' distinguishes between two different types of time ma ...

, the team sets off on another adventure to bring back wonder to the present.

Voice cast

as Stampy Cat * Adam Clarke as Wizard Keen * Shay Carl as Heinous * Patrick Muhlberger as Flunky * Ryan Burns as Lackey * Lydia Winters as Priscilla * Rachel Staman as Rama

Production and release

''Wonder Quest'' was first announced by Joseph Garrett at the MIPTV television industry conference in April 2015. The series is a partnership between Joseph Garrett and Maker Studios. YouTube secured rights as the exclusive distributor of the series, as its parent company

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pushed for a wider coverage of children’s content on their video streaming site. The series takes on a different format to Garrett’s normal slate of videos: “It’s different to my normal videos just playing and talking about ''Minecraft''. It’s a completely scripted show, and the production values are much higher: there’s an original score and lots of sound effects and overlays.”. Additionally, the series is pitched as an educational show for children, however Garrett stressed that entertainment is the main priority: "There’s no point having an educational show if nobody’s going to watch it". The original ''Minecraft'' maps were built by The Voxelbox, Blockworks and Johan “Dragnoz” Kruger. The original

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

was composed by Seth Earnest. ''Wonder Quest'' premiered on April 25, 2015. Episodes were released on a weekly schedule with an animated ''I Wonder'' episode. As part of YouTube Gaming's

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

initiative, season 2 of ''Wonder Quest'' includes content uploaded in

360° video 36 may refer to: * 36 (number) * 36 BC * AD 36 * 1936 * 2036 Science * Krypton, a noble gas in the periodic table * 36 Atalante, an asteroid in the asteroid belt Arts and entertainment * ''36'' (TV series), an American sports documentary show ...

. Installments of the virtual reality content immerses fans in interactive games, stories, and rides.

''I Wonder''

Every ''Wonder Quest'' episode is accompanied by an episode of a short

animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

side series called ''I Wonder'', also produced by Maker Studios. The short series, each episode lasting around three minutes in length, features Stampy Cat and Wizard Keen investigating educational topics explored in each corresponding ''Wonder Quest'' episode. The supervising producer is Cella Duffy and the co-directors are Josh Bitzer and TJ Fuller. Original music for ''I Wonder'' is composed by Duke Westlake.

''Side Quest''

''Side Quest'' is a companion series for ''Wonder Quest'' featured on Garrett’s main channel, stampylonghead. Unlike ''Wonder Quest'' and ''I Wonder'', this series uses the Let’s Play format. In this series, Stampy explores the world of Wonderberg with Wizard Keen and other characters.

Awards

References

{{Minecraft Maker Studios channels YouTube channels 2015 web series debuts 2016 web series endings