Patrick Hale produced his short animated film, Tome of the Unknown, in 2013. This episode inspired his next creation, a mini-series TV show known as Over the Garden Wall, which aired on Cartoon Network in November of 2014 over the course of a week. This show, often shortened to simply OTGW, is incredibly well executed in its storytelling, animation, and characters, and it is a must-see for any who are fans of cartoons and spooky tales.
The storyline of the show follows two half brothers, Wirt and Greg, who are lost in the mysterious forest in a place called the Unknown. They are trying to find their way home and meet all kinds of strange people and creatures on their way, while being cautious of the mysterious Beast the whole time. The relationship between these two characters develops and shapes the story. The storyline is made to be compelling through the complete lack of information about the situation that the show opens on. As the episodes progress, the viewer learns new information that ends up with a complete understanding of how the events of the show came to be by the end.

What is admirable is how much story the writers are able to put into episodes of just ten minutes each, and how each small event could happen and be resolved and still contribute back to the overarching plot at the end.
The characters of Wirt and Greg are delightful in their contrasts. Wirt is a dramatic, sarcastic teenager who worries too much and tries to think everything through. This is a major problem for him because the Unknown is a land where nothing really follows any rules; animals and plants alike can speak, people burst into song at any time, and trees can grow from people. His young brother, Greg, flourishes in this environment; as an imaginative and excitable child of around six or so, he is optimistic and accepts these strange occurrences as they come. His innocence and naivete is charming and not overly annoying, and therefore would greatly entertain a young audience while simultaneously delighting an older crowd. At the same time, Wirt’s exasperation and dramatics is equally entertaining, and their characters develop and change in the way they act with each other throughout the show. Their relationship is an important part to the plot line and how everything is resolved.

The animation of this series is nothing like Disney’s 3D full length features, but it is fitting and charming in its own way. The scenic backgrounds are mostly fall forest scenes, and are wonderfully painted, while the characters are animated with 2D animation, which helps them stand out. Though simple, 2D animation is close to a perfected art, as it has been used to make full length films since the 1930’s, and it does it’s job in this show very well. Because while OTGW may seem like a simple children’s show just because it is a cartoon show, the animation of the characters and animals themselves is gorgeous and perfectly fitting with the storyline. In the present day and age, the 2D animation form that the show was created in almost makes it seem older, almost like a vintage series, which adds charm and mystery to the show as a whole, because it fits with many of the themes that the show uses.

Overall, I would give this series 5 stars. It is not perfect in everything it does, but that can be put down to outside circumstances; maybe the overarching plot lines and twists revealed at the end could have been better and more fully explained, but the writers were operating within a ten minute time frame to fit everything into. Overall, it is a show that would delight most audiences with it’s charming fall aesthetic and it’s eerie yet compelling plot. Autumn and Halloween time is the most fitting time to watch Over the Garden Wall, since it incorporates mostly fall scenes, and even a year later, the show has lost none of its strange loveliness.