It's the annual Five-year Reunion at Foster's, where the imaginary friends get to see their creators again once every five years. While Mac and Bloo meet many of the creators of the friends, they wonder who Wilt's creator was. After asking Wilt a number of questions about his creator, he gets nervous and runs inside. The night of the reunion, Wilt decides to leave the house, and explains to Bloo (who followed him downstairs) that he did something terrible and needs to fix things up. Bloo (who thought that by "something terrible" meant that Wilt was a criminal) ended up telling everyone in the house the next morning, with Frankie deciding to try to find him. Coming with Frankie are Mac, Bloo, Eduardo, Officer Nina Valerosa (Eduardo's creator), Coco, and Douglas and Adam (Coco's...discoverers).
Along the way, Wilt ends up helping other people with their issues, while finding out more about himself. In this movie, we find out about his backstory. Wilt was once the imaginary friend of all-star basketball player Jordan Micheals, but after losing an important game to him, he ran away. The game also caused his injuries, with a basketball bouncing onto his eye and his arm being crushed (and most likely amputated).
It's pretty much what happens if Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends met Follow that Bird. The movie was a success, and was nominated for an Emmy (however, it lost to Where's Lazlo?)
Not to be confused with Good Will Hunting
Provides examples of:
- Apologizes a Lot: Wilt again, but it's explained why this time.
- As You Know: The Previously on… of Part 2 in the two-episode stripped version is Bloo and Mac retelling the events of Part 1 to each other.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Mac is able to figure out the identity of Wilt’s creator by looking at photos of Wilt playing basketball and noticing that he always sticks his tongue out when shooting baskets, and as Mac and the rest of the group explain later, only one pro basketball player does that; Jordan Michaels.
- Backstory: Eduardo and Wilt have one. Coco's isn't really much.
- Break the Cutie: Poor Wilt. (In a rare example where this is not happening to Mac or Eduardo)
- Creator Cameo: CN executive Khaki Jhones appears briefly at the reunion with Jackie Khones
- Crush Filter: The two nerds, Douglas and Adam, see Frankie as a lot more shapely and styled-up than she usually is.
- Darker and Edgier: Decades of regret, permanent injury, exploring feelings of abandonment, just to name a few examples.
- Directionless Driver: Gender-flipped; when Frankie gets lost, Mac complains about how she won't ask for directions.
- Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help: On his way to find his creator, Wilt stops to return a lost imaginary friend to her owner, help a farmer bale his hay, mow the lawns of the people in the neighborhood he passes by, and help some movers load furniture into a moving truck (the last of which gets him arrested, as unknown to him, those movers were criminals and the furniture was stolen). This results in his friends from Foster's losing track of him when they follow him.
- Expy:
- Jordan Michaels, to Michael Jordan.
- Douglas and Adam are basically grown-up versions of Mandark and Dexter with Adam also having traits of Comic Book Guy.
- Evil Is Bigger: Foul Larry towers over Wilt.Larry: Scared, shorty?
- Fantastic Science: The nerds that discovered Coco are trying to kick start a new field of study around imaginary friends, which they call "figmentology".
- Heroic Sacrifice: The reason why Wilt has only one arm and a messed up eye? He pushed Jordan out of the way before Foul Larry crushed him. In the process, his eye was smashed and his arm broken so badly that it needed to be amputated.
- His Story Repeats Itself: The one-on-one basketball game between Wilt and Larry leads to a near repeat of their game in Wilt's backstory. Only this time the final rescue at the end is reversed.
- Horny Scientist: The two nerds that found Coco really have the hots for Frankie.
- Hypocrite: Foul Larry mocks Wilt for his creator leaving him & considering him a loser, when his own creator has seemingly done exactly the same to him.
- It's All My Fault: Wilt and Jordan felt this way after losing the game all those years ago. Wilt thought Jordan was mad at him for losing and left in shame, while Jordan thought Wilt blamed him for being so focused on winning that Wilt was permanently injured.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Foul Larry, but not in an immediately visible way. He cost Wilt an arm and eye and caused him to abandon Jordan in shame. By the movie's end, there's no apology- Larry just suddenly adopts a disgustingly sweet puppy dog-ish behavior and ends up at Foster's. However, Larry's own creator is nowhere to be seen in the present, having seemingly abandoned him; implying that while Larry won the basketball game, he was left all alone & lived with nobody to appreciate him.
- My Greatest Second Chance: The final game at the end provides 2 examples.
- Wilt challenges Foul Larry to a rematch to prove that he can beat him. Subverted in that he ultimately still loses.
- At the end of the game from 30 years ago, Jordan was almost hurt by Larry because he was too focused on the game, and Wilt was injured as a result. This time Wilt gets too focused on the game and unknowingly endangers himself to getting crushed by Foul Larry's slam. Jordan pulls him to safety at the last moment.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Jordan, after he realized that his obsession with winning caused Wilt to runaway.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Subverted. While Wilt can't stop himself from stopping to help others, which makes him very late for his meet-up, each person he helps returns the favor. The problem is that he stops again to help someone else, hampering his progress.
- Only Sane Man: Mac and Frankie take this role in the film.
- Out of Focus: Madame Foster and Mr. Herriman have sparse appearances, as they don't go along for the search for Wilt.
- Punny Name: Foul Larry, being a not-quite Expy for Larry Bird and having a playing style that leans heavily into committing personal fouls.
- Reconstruction: Wilt’s kindness and need to help others is reconstructed in the film. While Wilt gets constantly gets sidetracked and leads him off course to get to his destination, it also pays off for him, as the people who he helps reward and help him get back on course.
- Road Trip Plot: Most of the film is about Wilt trying to get back to his hometown, while the Foster's crew tries to look for him.
- Running Gag:
- Eduardo's creator constantly giving Frankie driving tickets.
- Bloo is convinced that Wilt is a Diabolical Mastermind on the run after robbing a bank.
- Shout-Out:
- The two nerds who found Coco and brought her to Fosters' are named Douglas and Adam, after Douglas Adams. Additionally, Adam and Douglas appear to be grown-up versions of Dexter and Mandark, respectively, from Dexter's Laboratory, with Douglas' voice being evocative of Mandark's distinctive nasal tone, while Adam's more pretentious voice is a parody of Comic Book Guy's.
- Astro Slam (which was a shoehorned in Early-Bird Cameo promo for the then upcoming Re-Animated, which lead to Out of Jimmy's Head).
- And, you know, Good Will Hunting.
- Wilt riding a lawnmower might be one to The Straight Story.
- Silence Is Golden: Wilt's flashbacks are silent up until the last couple seconds.
- Slasher Smile: Larry when he uses his signature 'slam' move to score.
- The Stinger: 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.
- Switching P.O.V.: We briefly get to see Frankie from Douglas and Adam's POV, and she is smokin' hot.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We never see Foul Larry's creator as an adult, since he's apparently gone separate ways with Larry. Also leaves unanswered questions about his rivalry with Wilt and Jordan.
