Fear The Unknown | Wirt's Journey in Over the Garden Wall

Over the Garden Wall is one of my favorite pieces of animation of all-time. A gothic, folksy, nightmarish fairy tale filled with bubbly, expressive characters, immaculate backgrounds and a perfectly paced, well rounded story. But beyond its surface level beauty, the miniseries also has an incredible character journey for its main character, Wirt, that ties perfectly into the show's themes.

And that character journey and these themes are perfectly framed by the name of story’s location: The Unknown

00:00 - Fear the Unknown
07:30 - Embrace the Unknown
12:12 - Know the Unknown

Edited by @ToonrificTariq and Joe Murphy (and me)
Thumbnail illustrations by Ravioli

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Music:
Johnny 2 Cellos Theme Music - Norman Marston
Golden Cage- Jimena Contreras
Tragic Story- Myuu
A Fool's Theme- Brian Bolger
Baym Rebin in Palestina - E's Jammy Jams
Underworld- Myuu
Alone- Aakash Ghandi
Sinister - Anno Domini Beats
Olmsted Pond - Jesse Gallagher
Portal Trip - Asher Fulero
Pixelated Autumn Leaves - Jeremy Blake
Angelic Forest - Doug Maxwell Media Right Productions
Human Heart - Text Me Records Jordan Blackmon

Video Used:
Over the Garden Wall (2014)

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted.

[JohnnyCellos]

Truly SO SO mad at myself for going the extra mile to make those title cards and then misspelling “Unknown” on all of them. Gonna delete my channel now.

[michaelhegwood]

Wirt being overly cautious and questioning fantasy logic being the reason he defeats The Beast is such a fun twist for the finale

[QuilltheWriter]

I think one of my favourite parts of Wirt’s character is that he isn’t a loser. In the flashbacks to the normal world, you can see that he’s generally liked by all, no one is generally bad to him, and the girls that first find his tape are all just teasing and get worried about him. Wirt’s not a loser, he’s just a background character given a story

[franciscopetrucci]

My favorite part is how Greg's optimism directly saves him from the Beast:
In an attempt to make Greg despair, the Beast keeps giving him impossible tasks (Thread of gold, spool of silver, putting the sun in the cup). But Greg, through his imagination and childlike wonder keeps completing the tasks anyway, which keeps his hopes up and buys him enough time for Wirt to come save him.

[Suujisushi]

13:33 If you look at Beatrice's reaction when Wirt said "That will get us kicked out of the boat for sure" you can see that maybe that was her plan, for them to be kicked out so they would take longer to go to Adeleide's.
She even says at the end "Yeah, you're actually... good" almost disappointed.

[rjmartinez]

I usually rewatch this masterpiece around the spooky season and I am glad it is talked about so positively years later cuz it is underrated

[Thetom]

Whats interesting is that one of the original concepts for the series was that Wirt and Greg get on a train on Halloween night, and realize it’s going to “Death” and so they jump off half-way and end up somewhere between life/death/dreams/reality. And in the last episode it's revealed that the beast is actually not a bad guy… he’s just trying to get them on the train, because that’s where they belong. Wirt and Greg realize they can either accept their fate and get on the train… or they can wander the woods and become old and crazy like the woodsman. they decide to accept their fate, and they get on the train and head off into the darkness…. We think they died. But then reveal that the train was never going to “Death” at all…. the scary place the train was going to was actually “Life”! All along Wirt was subconsciously fighting the will to survive. because… confronting your problems in life, for him, was more frightening than death.

[justinehercthehuman]

I just love how the Beast is in the form of a shadow and not actual darkness. This makes sense cause darkness exists when there is no light BUT without light, SHADOWS cannot exist. Shadows aren't true darkness, thus Wirt's response scaring the Beast. He is the one who actually fears true darkness, cause in true darkness, there are no shadows.

[HeyItsNovalee]

Greg’s childlike innocence reminds me of a post I saw on tumblr once that said something along the lines of “kids are less afraid of the unknown and unfamiliar because to them everything is unknown and unfamiliar.” They’re still learning all these new things about the world on a daily basis so of course they’re more open to things they’ve never seen.
At the same time though, On my most recent rewatch of otgw I realized that Greg’s determination to stay positive could suggest a bit of a rough childhood. With the way he immediately jumps to reassuring wirt, his older brother, when things get rough, and takes responsibility for things that really aren’t his fault at all, I feel like whatever situation the two brothers have at home has resulted in Greg having to mature faster than his age, and has given wirt anxiety and depression (although a lot of his personality is typical for a 14 yr old, he seems moderately more anxious and melancholy than his peers when we see their lives before they got to the unknown)

As an older sibling that had to bear a lot of the weight of having parents that constantly fought before getting divorced, and ended up with a lot of anxiety and depression in my teen years, as well as having a younger sister that prefers to stay quiet about her own problems in order to support others, I definitely see a lot of myself and my sister in wirt and Greg. Another reason this show is so close to my heart

[TheCommenterDragon]

I love Over The Garden Wall! it's the absolutely most perfect series to watch especially during Halloween and Thanksgiving, it's literally the only and the best miniseries that Cartoon Network had ever created! the performances of the voice cast is awesome Elijah Wood as Wirt and Christopher Lloyd as the Woodsman was just marvelous!!!

[Grayalloy]

Cartoon Network has a lot of great shows, both old and new, but this show was truly a lightning in a bottle. The Atmosphere, the writing, the influences and symbolism, the fact they got Elijah Wood, Christopher Lloyd and John Clease in the same show, and having one of the best villains in any animated show. It deserves all the praise it gets.

[misstmiche]

The Beast represented to me our fears of the darkness which casts in the night. I know the light of the lantern held his soul. However, the light could also be represented as showing that what may be horrifying in the dark isn’t always so scary when presented in light.

[zacerax]

Watching Over the Garden Wall on Halloween is a tradition of mine that I've done for years. Today is my first time celebrating alone, for I and many others are deeply lost in the dark woods of the last few years. All I need today is two boys picking up the pieces, and finding their way out of the dark so that soon I may do the same.

[firebat]

This show has become a tradition to watch every year around fall. It’s the perfect mini series and is one of my favorite shows of all time.

[BarelyFunctioningHuman]

Man Over The Garden Wall is my favourite autumn show. It’s so cosy, I remember watching the entire thing with my friends on Halloween.

[Frevr.Bred]

So glad I'm not the only one that rewatches this series because it feels like it's leaves me and I get to enjoy it again

[moxxiedemongamer]

I'd usually re-watch Over The Garden Wall before Halloween and it's a Great mini-series to re-watch around the spooky season and truly it's an underrated gem of a mini-series

[tiddlez]

Man, I remember finally watching this series a few months back and the ending hit me so hard I had to stare at a wall for a half hour and contemplate everything

[livtimetravels]

You don’t understand how happy I am that you’re talking about this show. My favorite commentary YouTuber with my favorite tv show!!!

[limelantern]

Of all the reveals of characters true natures "hey sarah, ready to go?" Has to be my favorite.