Netflix launches The WONDERfools, a South Korean series that blends the chaos of The Boys with the lightness of The Incredibles. Directed by Yoo In-sik and starring Park Eun-bin, the plot places a group of ordinary people in 1999, during the Y2K hysteria. After an accident, they acquire powers they don't know how to handle, generating comedic conflicts and questions about what it means to be a hero without having a clue how to be one.
A production that bets on practical effects and digital nostalgia 🎬
The series uses a visual palette that evokes the late 90s, with fluorescent lighting and CRT screens. Special effects prioritize practical over CGI, using models and animatronics for the most absurd powers, such as a character who can only levitate 30 centimeters. The soundtrack mixes techno from the era with modern synthesizers. The script incorporates the fear of the millennium change as a catalyst, but without falling into complex scientific explanations: the accident is a MacGuffin that justifies the disorder.
The group of heroes who couldn't even save a cat from a tree 🐱
Eun Chae-ni and her friends are so useless that their first mission consists of retrieving a lost dog, and they end up setting a convenience store on fire. Their powers are ridiculous: one can make objects sticky, another is only invisible when no one is looking. The series laughs at the idea of the classic hero, showing that if you happen to be Superman but you're a lazy hypochondriac, the world is doomed. Luckily, the villain isn't very smart either.