I recently saw Over the Garden Wall. I thought it would be a long, but I watched the whole thing in one work night. It's a mini-series! And appropriately enough, I watched it the week before Halloween (not knowing that's when it took place).
I thought it came out just a year or two ago, but it was four years @_@
It's the kind of show that I appreciate a lot more after I've seen it twice. The first time you see it, it's hard to tell what's going on. But that's the point. You're supposed to feel lost along with Wirt and Greg. When you see the last couple episodes, you go, "Ohhhh, that's what that was all about."
The second time you see it, you can fit everything in place.
There are a lot of little details packed into it.
They wear their costumes the whole series. If one of their hats falls off, they snatch it and put it right back on. Normally it would be odd to be so set on wearing costumes for days on end, but I guess it has to do with them being caught between worlds.
When they're on the frog ferry, Beatrice thinks Wirt will be so bad at bassoon that they'll be kicked off the boat. Poor Wirt.
(Also, I have scissors just like the ones Beatrice needs. I laughed when I saw them in the cartoon because I bought a pair in Italy.)
My main complaint was the pacing. They spent a lot of time on silly random stuff, and very little time explaining important things. Like how the beast operates. It was said a couple passing times that if you lose hope, he'll get you. But it only mentioned very briefly that if you fall ill, he can also take you. Which is what happened to Greg.
Did Greg challenge the beast to a duel? Or did he trade himself for Wirt? That's never explained, though they wasted plenty of time in that episode.
And the character animation is a bit odd.
Moving on.
The stuff I found fascinating: character motivations and choices.
After thinking about it, I like Greg and Wirt for very different reasons. The more they unfold during the series, the better you understand them.
Wirt's confidence is so bad at first. He thinks he's a freak because he has a crush on a girl and plays clarinet. He feels so inferior to Jason Funderberker that he has no idea Sara actually likes him.
And most of his other classmates seem to like him pretty well too.
Beatrice doesn't realize how bad of a person Adelaide was, but she obviously has some idea. She says she though Adelaide only wanted them for yard work, but she must know that's not true.
And while Wirt has awful confidence, Greg is sure that everything will be fine. It makes him amazingly strong. Pretty much nothing ever gets him down. Even when someone is telling him something awful, he doesn't realize it, or he says he'll fix it.
And he is amazingly self-sacrificing, in big ant little ways. Like when he wants to hunt for frogs (and has wanted to for a while) but sees Wirt freaking out and they help him instead
And of course he tries to save Wirt from the beast.
Even when he's coughing up leaves, he doesn't think it's because he's in trouble.
Heck, when Wirt finds Greg wrapped up in the tree, and there's that song playing in the background, it's so powerful.
And the final encounter with the beast.
It's interesting how the final choice about the lantern goes to the Woodsman.
I found out form the internet that the Unknown, where the boys are trapped, is basically a bridge to the afterlife. They're on the verge of choosing life or death.
There are hints dropped through the series. Like some of the graves in the cemetery are named after characters in the Unknown (I think the rich tea-growing guy is there).
And the black train song, when they jump off the train tracks (you only hear the full thing on the soundtrack).
I didn't understand the title "Over the Garden Wall" until I saw the name of the cemetery is "The Eternal Garden." So, "over the garden wall" is basically "over the cemetery wall."
But also it seems to have actually happened, since the bell is still inside the frog at the end.
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