Welcome to the Wayne
Welcome to the Wayne is an animated television series created by Billy Lopez that premiered on Nickelodeon on July 24, 2017. "Welcome to the Wayne" originated as an online web series, that was originally released on Nick.com from November 14 to December 26, 2014. The series was nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards: one in 2018 for Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program and another in 2019 for Outstanding Children's Animated Program. The final episode aired on Nicktoons on May 31, 2019. Plot. Ansi Molina moves into the Wayne, a high-rise apartment building filled  with strange and unusual things labeled as "Wayne Phenomena". Being one of the few people to see Wayne Phenomena without suffering psychological repercussions, he befriends siblings Olly and Saraline Timbers as they learn the mysteries of the Wayne and protects the outside world while contending with a spy cell seeking to exploit the apartment's supernatural aspects for their own nefarious ends. Production. For the web series, Matt Longoria, Bobb Barito, and others who were part of Beatstreet Productions worked as sound designers for each episode and coordinating it with dialogue, even adding in sound jokes from time to time . Some of these individuals worked on the TV series. In April 2015, Nickelodeon ordered 20 episodes with an original premiere date of 2016, becoming the first Nick series to be based on a digital series. Ego Plum was the show's music composer, while Billy Lopez worked with Michael Pecoriello as executive producers. Pecoriello said that he thought the show was a "perfect fit for the Nick brand because it really does see the world through the eyes of kids." Lopez also did the theme song for the series. Release. In August 2014, the web series debuted on Nick.com, with  new episodes being released weekly. The six-episode web series followed the adventures of Olly Timbers and Ansi Molina. On July 24, 2017, the series premiered on Nickelodeon. Since October 15, 2018, new episodes moved to Nicktoons. On August 25, 2021, the series was added to Paramount+. Reception. Jennifer Walden of "Post Magazine" reviewed the web series as having "rapid-fire jokes, action, and plot-points" that cover as much ground as an episode that is 30 minutes long. The TV series was also well-received. Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media gave the series 3 out of 5 stars ; saying that, "Nonsensical, imaginative fun rules the day in this unpredictable animated series." But added that, ""Welcome to the Wayne" is best treated as a sugary-treat kind of addition to kids' media diets since the content is more about garnering laughs than it is about anything outright educational." Damon Cap of BSC Kids compared the series to "Gravity Falls", adding that, after viewing the first episode, is "a lot of potential and excitement on who this is going to turn out." Cap added that once Ansi came across the library, they knew the show would be "good" and "great  to watch." Television Business International said that the series kept the "hand-drawn art style" used in the web series, while "using innovative animation techniques to create a unique visual aesthetic." Peter Jurado of ComicsVerse said that the show takes you "back to the city" like "Hey Arnold!", highlights the value of knowledge, and is unique in its own way, even though it has some similarities with "Gravity Falls", as a "new mystery with a lot of heart." Jurado also praised the return to the 22-minute format and the fact that the characters are young enough that they do n't "automatically judge somebody." Librarian Burkely Hermann argued that in this series, a "special and magnificent library" is central, going beyond positive depictions in recent years, with the chief librarian as a Black woman named Clara Rhone, voiced by Harriett D. Foy. This included episodes, he wrote, where "the issues of underfunded libraries and the value of knowledge," were central, as was the focus on librarians as gatekeepers, and others which made clear the value of librarians, and libraries, as "places of knowledge and diversity."