Yes, it’s still cartoonish, but in the way of Hayao Miyazaki, where a dream can change into a nightmare faster than you can say Mickey Mouse. The woods seem to be at their autumnal peak with the vibrant colors subdued by the aura of passing into a darker season. What’s the best thing about it? The visuals are absolutely stunning. At one point he actually lies down on a couch like he’s about to have another session of analysis. Which characters will you hate? You’re not going to hate Wirt, but he’s a bit of a pill in the Woody Allen sense. The boys also enlist the help of a bird, Beatrice (Melanie Lynskey), who is just bitchy enough to appeal to adults. Which characters will you love? Greg, duh. They’re not going to understand the moodiness, but there is plenty of mystery and whimsy to keep them engaged. Yeah, but will kids like it? They going to love Greg, who is constantly pulling candy out of his pants and trying to find a name for his new pet frog (who, in grand WB tradition, can sing). This back and forth creates a profound uneasiness that is hard to shake.
The same thing happens in the second episode where a race of pumpkin people vacillate between threatening and endearing about a half-dozen times before the episode ends. Just as you think the woodsman is going to kill them, he offers to help them, but the audience is still unsure of his motives as he bottles strange black liquid in his mill. As each story progresses, fear for our simple protagonists grows, but the source of the danger is always shifting. Over the Garden Wall isn’t necessarily scary, but it is creepy. It has that same sort of fetishisation of the past that many who know the meaning of the word hipster do as well. Between its aesthetic and the Americana invoked by the original songs, it’s like this cartoon was made for those who buy artisanal pickles at the Brooklyn flea market. It has a certain darkness to it that is both mellow and twee at the same time, with a fair amount of anxiety creeping around the edges. Over the Garden Wall looks like a million Arcade Fire album covers come to life. Like Adventure Time, there is enough slapstick silliness to keep the kids guffawing and enough subtext to get parents thinking – or in this instance, fretting with existential dread.īut this is different from Adventure Time, which is what a post-apocalyptic future would look like if Pedro Almodóvar imagined it while on magic mushrooms. Over the Garden Wall is more proof that its more general content can be appealing to both children and the adults that either watch it with them or are enjoying it on their own. Is this show any good? Cartoon Network is probably best known to adults for its late-night Adult Swim block of surreal programming, which is perfect for those delirious on being up too late (or intentionally delirious due to something the audience has consumed). Is the beast scary? It sort of looks like the old Honeycomb mascot. While victorious, their triumph comes with its own consequences. While waiting in the house the kids are attacked by a beast they must defeat. What happens in the premiere? Greg and Wirt are looking for their way home when they come upon a gruff woodsman (Christopher Lloyd) who tells them he will help them find their way home if they wait for him to finish his work. What is up the Adventure Time guys and crazy hats? If this is from one of the people behind Adventure Time does that mean people are wearing funny hats? Wirt wears a red dunce cap like David the Gnome and Greg wears a silver teapot on his head. What’s the show’s pedigree? Patrick McHale, a former writer and creative director on Cartoon Network’s critical and popular favorite Adventure Time, created it based on a short film he made. So is this like an animated version of Into the Woods? No, the source material isn’t so obviously cribbed from fairytales, though it does seem to be interested in the stories we tell and how that impacts our understanding of the world. A mysterious place called the Unknown where long forgotten stories are revealed to those who travel through the wood.” As the pilot says, “Somewhere lost in the crowded annals of history lies a place that few have seen. It tells the story of two brothers, the neurotic Wirt (voiced by Elijah Wood) and fun-loving Greg (Collin Dean), as they wander through the woods called the Unknown trying to find their way home. What is this show? This is Cartoon Network’s first mini-series, airing two 15-minute episodes each night for five nights. The first episode is currently on YouTube. When does it premiere? Monday 3 November at 7pm ET, on Cartoon Network. What’s the name of the show? Over the Garden Wall