Unpacking Over the Garden Wall

Come with me Over the Garden Wall and explore one of the most creative cartoons from the last decade. I really appreciate everyone's patience with me as I worked to get this video out.
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Music:

Meromorphic: Into the Unknown (Electric Piano Cover)

Stephan Siebert: Final Joy, Stella Changes Revisited, Emily, Lilli, Physonics, wheel, The Old Country, The Unknown, Oh Lord Revisited, green, About Life, Brotherhood, Brotherhood Revisited

Kevin Macleod: Night on the Docks, Danse Morialta, Meditation Impromptu 03, Off to Osaka

Podington Bear: Alphabet Soup, Relinquish, Den

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Intro: (0:00)
Overview: (3:02)
Tome of the Unknown: (13:33)
Ep. 1 - The Old Grist Mill: (17:47)
Ep. 2 - Hard Times at the Huskin' Bee: (22:02)
Ep. 3 - Schooltown Follies: (26:50)
Ep. 4 - Songs of the Dark Lantern: (31:35)
Ep. 5 - Mad Love: (37:58)
Ep. 6 - Lullaby in Frogland: (42:24)
Ep. 7 - The Ringing of the Bell: (46:12)
Ep. 8 - Babes in the Wood: (51:30)
Ep. 9 - Into the Unknown: (55:47)
Ep. 10 - The Unknown: (59:42)
Conclusion: (1:04:36)

[teddytheterriblegamer]

I don't quite understand the Vincent Adultman comparison? They are 2 kids and a frog hiding in a trenchcoat, Vincent is a successful businessman?

[spambaconeggspamspam]

Over the Garden Wall is both about the boys journeying through death and growing up. To leave childhood behind and grow into adulthood is after all a form of death and rebirth.

[clown-cult]

I watched Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio recently and I knew before the credits even rolled that Patrick McHale was involved. His influence is so subtle yet unmistakable.

[BraylonSchroeder]

My favorite details are definitely how Adelaide's theme is played only with strings given her whole deal, and how her theme turns into Come Wayward Souls when she starts talking about how she does what the beast commands. Not to mention when she is melting the theme sounds like all of the strings are snapping. The music fully makes this show

[AdamDGoff]

I normally wouldn’t say anything, but the reason the cemetery wall is the “garden wall” is because of Pottsfield in episode 2. The “Harvest” the townsfolk do is digging up skeletons from the graves. The cemetery IS the garden.

[ShaggySummers]

So... we're going to pretend it's normal, that the frog in the end was still around and had the glowing bell in his belly?
We're going to pretend, that everything went well in the end and he got to bring that from limbo?
We're going to believe in... the loveliest lies of all?

Great video full of appreciation for a great piece of art.

[whitneybaxter]

I’ve heard of the phenomenon of “nostalgia for something we’ve never experienced” and the best example would be over the garden wall. Ive never experienced late 1800s in new england but yet when I watch this show or hear the music its transportative in that way for me.

[Not-important-]

I remember watching the final episode, one of the few shows that made me cry as a kid.

[andrewcabrera]

I think we gloss over Ms. Langtree’s Lament as just catchy, but it’s also super clever. The letters are seamlessly factored into the lyrics, and not just in a boring acrostic way, they’re factored in in all manners of different ways. It’s all some really clever wordplay and the game of it all makes it a really fun song to listen to again and again

[davidking]

To hopefully answer the question "why was this made for children" its because children LIKE horror, especially qhwn its presented to them in a way they can not only understand but enjoy, and a lot of kods really prefer it. Children can understand and grasp hard and even scary subjects really well as long as its presented in a way meant for them! As a bookseller i have seen so many kids into dark and even horror novels, the thing is it was made for kids, at their reading level with stuff that is scary but not too scary for them, and this show is also there, its made for kids because children CAN understand and enjoy this, it acares you because its supposed to, and for a show with the type of message ita supposed to send, i think having fear is important, having your audience be genuinely scared of auntie whispers only makes the message hit harder! Kids can and do enjoy horror and thriller content, its the delivery of content thats more important (: (this is an opinion based off the onservations ove made working at a bookstore for 3+ years im not professional)

[wavylavender]

I think the "unknown is purgatory" theory actually fits really well with this. when you're a dramatic teen coming to terms with the adult world, growing up might kind of feel like a death sentence

[str]

Every year since it came out, I've made it a tradition to watch this show around my birthday, which happens to fall in October.

[HorseFlyKing]

I'm sure someone else has said this, but the graveyard in ep9 is called "Eternal Garden." So hopping over the wall is them going "over the garden wall." Great work; this was a thoughtful presentation.

[larsg.]

25:45 I always thought that it was a very charming adaptation of Dante's Divine Comedy, down to the red hat and encapsulating it perfectly in ten episodes, mirroring limbo and the nine circles of hell.

[SaiScribbles]

My first impression on hearing the final song end on "the loveliest lies of all" made me think it was a purgatory, or a death dream they had. But listening to the song a few more times made me realize that "the loveliest lies of all" are stories.

[wyattpendleton]

I was 11 years old when over the garden wall came out. I lived in east Tennessee where the leaves get so vibrant and orange during the fall. I remember watching this show in November where everything outside was either red and orange or starting to become brown. The mornings were always misty and foggy with a colder essence in the air. When I was watching it at the time it reminded me so much of where I was. I loved the show and couldn't wait to see the next episode. After the series finished I remember being even more focused on how beautiful the fall was. My friends and I would always go play in the woods behind our houses and it reminded me so much of the show. Years go by of me loving the fall season and being so happy when it was fall, looking for all the colors and beauty's it carries. One day I remembered the show that all started my love for fall but I couldn't remember the name, after a little research I had found it. I watched the show again and had all these feelings of nostalgia from being a kid playing in those woods and putting on hoodies and pants. We would always play football in the field next to where the woods started and then go venture off exploring. I just wanted to say thank you for again bringing this to my feed to watch and listen to. I still listen to the soundtrack, but only in the fall as it hits home in a very deep sense. Thank you for this video. Alot of people surprisingly don't know of the show so it's hard to talk to anyone about it and the nostalgia of it. The occasional person that does know about the show always seems to share the same nostalgia and it's good to hear about your story.

[шешең]

unpopular opinion: over the garden wall is the best thing cartoon network ever created

[dogloversstudios]

In the ending montage of the show we see Lorna is reading the Tome of the Unknown. It’s probably not important to the show, but its a fun callback.

[sgimrtj]

I can’t help but notice that Over The Garden Wall starts exactly like the Divine Comedy: being lost in the woods, which mirrors a moment of uncertainty and depression in one’s life.
Also, it’s called “garden wall” and not something like “graveyard wall” because the graveyard opens with a sign that reads “eternal garden” :D

[kmaldo]

I thought the angel helping Greg was the beast in disguise tricking Greg