By Sasha Moedt (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: November 26, 2014
Over the Garden Wall begins with two brothers wandering through a dark and eerie forest called Unknown. The eldest wears a cape and a red, conical gnome-hat. His young brother wears a teapot-hat and carries a large frog. They are lost, searching for their way home. They find a bluebird who talks and the rambling Woodsman, who warns them of “the Beast.”
Over the Garden Wall is a 10-episode miniseries created by Patrick McHale, creative director of Adventure Time. It aired on the Cartoon Network in early November, and you can be sure the Cartoon Network hasn’t seen much of shows like this.
It’s like something out of a British children’s fairytale, mixed with hints of Hayao Miyazaki. We don’t know who these boys are, and where they are going — and we don’t know if they themselves know. Over the Garden Wall is a wander through the forest, where every clearing holds mysterious cottages, creepy villages, or a leisure boat carrying well-to-do frogs. The brothers — Wirt and Greg — navigate the dangers of the forest with only one purpose: finding a way home before they become lost forever.
The gloomy and foreboding Woodsman warns them of this. The forest, or perhaps the Beast that haunts its shadows, has a way of holding onto its lost travellers, but only when all hope is gone.
Wirt, the eldest brother, in his teens, is voiced by the master of trepidation — Elijah Wood. Wirt is a comical character in one sense; he is pessimistic and sometimes hysterical, prone to pausing to recite beautifully angst-ridden poetic soliloquies. His brother, Greg, is no Samwise Gamgee. Greg could only be six or seven; he’s innocent, blithe, and basically the exact opposite of Wirt. There is an unexplained discord between them. Here is an interaction that sums it up: Wirt: “I don’t know. Sometimes I feel like I’m a boat, on a winding river, twisting towards an endless black sea. Farther and farther, drifting away from where I want to be — from who I want to be …”
Greg: “Oh. I didn’t know that. Did you know that if you soak a raisin in grape juice, it turns into a grape?”
Wirt and Greg meet all sorts of creatures and people. Some are dark and evil, while some seem that way but are not. The brothers are stalked by the Beast and the Woodsman, who is — mysteriously — always near when the Beast is. Every episode brings the brothers to a new mystery, meeting new creatures. Most of the plotlines are dark, and there is no buildup or even the slightest hint of who Wirt and Greg are or where they come from. The only unifying element of each episode is the presence of the Beast, and, in later episodes, the dialogue between the Beast and the Woodsman.
It’s in the final episode (I’d say, without giving anything away, that it is for good reason) that we learn about Wirt and Greg’s past. Things fall into place. And then it’s over too quickly.
I watched the entire mini-series in one night. Over the Garden Wall has a very particular mood, and once you get into it, you’ll want to stay in it. It’s a perfect fall/winter show: cold, dark, and foggy. I’d definitely suggest taking a gloomy, rainy evening and watching it all in one go.
