The Fresh Nostalgia of Over the Garden Wall
Winter takes over the fall. You miss the warm hues of orange and red already. That’s okay. We got just the show for you. Join us over the garden wall, into the unknown.
At the start of reading week, I was on the hunt for a show to help me unwind. I had a specific list of requirements for the series I would watch: it had to be short, cute, and low stakes because I did not need anything stressful. I also wanted it to be animated. I’d seen pictures of the characters around social media every fall and thought they looked cute. They had the characteristic roundness and cartoonish simplicity of (American) 2D characters. In fact, they reminded me of the Gravity Falls characters and even the Adventure Times characters, a little bit. Surely, the show would be as cute as it seemed, right?
The rest of this article will discuss the events of Over the Garden Wall, but I will give a spoiler warning before discussing a big revelation that happens at the end of the show. Consider yourself warned.
Image via IMDB
Released almost a decade ago on Cartoon Network, the series quickly became a staple of the fall season. The whole show takes place over ten short, ten-minute episodes. Two brothers—Wirt and Greg—start off lost in the woods. They encounter an enigmatic (and intimidating) Woodsman along with a talking blue bird called Beatrice, both of whom become recurring characters. The main antagonist, referred to as the “Beast,” is constantly looming as a menace in the background for most of the series. It’s one of those shows that can be rewatched over and over without losing its charm. In fact, enough details are compressed into the ten-minute episodes to warrant rewatches: every rewatch reveals a little detail that may have been missed previously. Most episodes deal with our protagonists meeting a new group of people in this strange, unsettling place called “The Unknown.” From skeletons wearing pumpkin disguises to a school for animals tormented by a gorilla, to old haunted castles and boat-steering frogs, the inhabitants of The Unknown are unfailingly full of surprises. With such a wistful cast, the story takes on a fairytale-esque feel, inviting the viewer to reminisce their childlike wonder at stories of children lost in the woods. The diversity of The Unknown makes the environment feel vast, yet self-contained. Events are unpredictable and shrouded in surrealism, but they make sense in the logic of this bizarre world.
The heart of the show, however, is always the two brothers. They’re the reason I watched the whole series in one night. Wirt is the older brother: anxious, poetic, and a bit of a pushover—normal attributes of a standard teenage character. Greg, on the other hand, is the carefree little sibling who kickstarts a lot of their adventures by wandering off and being naïve, immediately trusting everyone. He is small and round, but his innocence also makes him the most social character. His interactions with the residents of The Unknown are equal parts hilarious and puzzling. He carries candy in his pockets and a frog in his arms. Annoying? Yes, sometimes. Endearing? Absolutely. He’s also quirky, changing his frog’s name every episode: Kitty, Wirt, Wirt Jr., George Washington, Mr. President, Benjamin Franklin, Dr. Cucumber, Greg Jr., Skipper, Ronald, and finally Jason Funderberker.
Greg and Kitty/Wirt/Wirt Jr./George Washington/Mr. President/Benjamin Franklin/Dr. Cucumber/Greg Jr./Skipper/Ronald/Jason Funderberker // Image via Pinterest
The most memorable part of the show, to me, is the soundtrack. Every episode opens on the “Prelude,” with soulful instrumentals that conjure a sense of wonder and melancholy. Several episodes feature musical numbers, providing a fun relief from the gloomy undertones of some of their adventures. Songs like “Potatoes and Molasses” and “The Highwayman” encapsulate the charm of the show pretty well, with their ridiculous and otherworldly lyrics relayed over fun yet occasionally sinister tunes. (SPOILER) Even the more modern music featured in the Halloween episode, where it is revealed that the brothers are from the modern world, retains the spooky yet fun quality of the storyline. (END OF SPOILER)
The show is the epitome of ambivalence, and this is exactly what gives it its charm. Ambivalence happens when one has conflicting feelings about something. Old yet innovative. Quirky yet mystical. Nostalgic yet original. We all know that nostalgia is inherently linked to the past. Rationally, it makes no sense for me to describe the nostalgic feel of Over the Garden Wall as “fresh,” but that is how I felt after completing it. The colour palette of grey and muted colours, paired with the typical warmer colour combo of the fall (yellow, orange, and red), combines the dark atmosphere of old violent fairy tales and the coziness of the fall. It feels like an old dusty storybook with overexcited gel pen scribbles in the margins from a modern reader.
After watching the first episode, I remember thinking the show would bet everything on its deceitfully cute animation style to turn into a dramatic horror story. However, The Unknown doesn’t quite go that far. Every time a situation got me thinking about the worst-case scenario, it turned itself around in another masterful twist. A monster that attacks the boys turns out to be a dog that swallowed a (presumably) magical turtle. The gorilla attacking the school of animals is just a man stuck in a costume asking for help. The skeletons make the boys dig holes, not to bury anyone, but to unearth their fellow skeleton friends. The ghost in the castle is the neighbour and both their castles are physically joined. I found myself relieved, yet fascinated at the end of each adventure.
The whole story takes place during the end of the fall, culminating into the transition to wintertime in the last episode. I’m from a tropical country, so there’s no fall there, but I found myself easily transported into the world of Over the Garden Wall. I could feel how crisp the forest air was. I could sense the ominous silence of the trees and hear the persistent cacophony of animal sounds. There is no better time than the fall to watch the show as it’s a transitory season that is comforting like a decade-old sweater but full of dread for the near future. Wholesome. Horrifying. Comforting. I don’t know a lot about the fall, but I do know that Over the Garden Wall deserves its spot as a fall classic.
