I recently watched a show called Over The Garden Wall. It aired around Thanksgiving time on Cartoon Network last year. It's a 10 part mini series cartoon. Quite a few friends have urged me for months to watch it and praised it highly, but I just hadn't gotten to it. One day on a whim I found some episodes on Cartoon Network on demand then the rest on YouTube so I watched it.
This is another one of those posts that took me weeks to write. I actually probably worked on this for about a month. I watched this series about 2 1/2 times to try and catch more of the metaphors and references...plus because I loved it so much!! I wanted to be as thorough as I could be when explaining my theories and present as much evidence as I could to support them.
Over The Garden Wall (or OTGW) is about two half brothers named Wirt and Greg who are lost in the woods. They spend the entirety of the series trying to get home. On the way, Greg frees a little talking bluebird named Beatrice when she is stuck in a bush. Beatrice grants Greg and Wirt a favor for their help, in which she agrees to help them get home. They face many obstacles like avoiding the beast in the woods that everyone is afraid of, witches and frog police. Yes...I said frog police.
Wirt is an awkward, self conscious, cynical and worry prone teenager. Greg is a goofy eccentric, free spirited and happy little boy. He is always spouting nonsense and giving the frog he found on their journey countless names (such as Wirt and Kitty), trying to choose the perfect one (He later settles on Jason Funderburker.). Greg's frog is indeed the same one from the very beginning of the first episode. I also believe that the frog is the one telling the story.
Wirt is constantly frustrated by Greg and placing all blame on him as well as Greg's father, Wirt's step father. Beatrice is a bluebird because she threw a rock at a bluebird in annoyance. This bird cursed her and her family. She is rather irritable and very insistent on getting the boys to Adelaide, the supposed good woman of the woods promising that she can help them get home.
Do not assume that this show is purely for children, as I initially did. It really is quite dark for a children's show and it has many hidden meanings throughout the series. It reminded me a lot of the musical/movie Into The Woods. There are some silly, playful and nonsensical moments throughout the series but they offset the dark and creepy moments well. As it goes on, it becomes darker and darker.
Most of it has an old timey early American feel to it. Though some characters feel like they are from various time periods. Episode 3 has a "Little House on the Prairie" era feel to it, especially the school teacher's attire. In episode 7 with Lorna and Auntie Whispers, Lorna has a Puritan look to her. Various characters throughout the series have a Victorian look. I am quite certain I have spotted 1920s era attire.
The animation and feel to it is very unique, I have never seen a show quite like it. The animation is also very well done.
There are many songs all throughout which are very well done. The cute Adelaide song as well as "Potatoes and Molasses" got stuck in my head after watching, I didn't mind. I love the song that the woman in the tavern sings. I'm not sure if it has a specific genre/type of song name but it is one of those "spooky" storytelling jazz songs (like the one from Tim Burton's Corpse Bride).
The music really fits the theme and feel of the show and totally feels in place with each character. Fitting with the characters that seem from different eras the music draws from different eras and genres such as some 1920s jazz, Victorian and early American sounding music. The song that the Pottsfield citizens are singing in the beginning of episode 2 reminds me of some songs in old Disney cartoons, such as the Mickey Mouse Christmas Carol cartoon. They didn't pull an American Horror Story and play modern music in an old timey setting. Everything felt in place and true to each era.
The voice acting is superb and there are some very well known actors in it such as Elija Wood (Wirt), Tim Curry (Auntie Whispers), John Cleese (Quincy Endicott), Christopher Lloyd (The Woodsman) and the boy that plays Greg plays Tiffany in Adventure Time.
Warning: major spoilers ahead! You may not totally understand the rest of this post if you haven't seen the show. But if you want to see the show and/or don't mind please continue to read.
The major antagonist of the show is the beast. From the beginning to the end we see a woodsman warning Greg and Wirt about the beast lurking in the woods.
We are told that the lantern the woodsman carries holds his daughter's soul and if it goes out she will die. The woodsman is always chopping down trees, the trees which the beast uses to claim children. He also needs to chop them to make oil to keep his lantern lit. Everyone they meet is afraid of the beast. The beast tries to prevent Greg and Wirt from getting home, he tries to lure children and kidnap them.
In the end, we discover how the brothers end up in the woods. We see Wirt in a more modern bedroom on Halloween night...which at first I found quite strange. From this scene, I assumed that the show takes place during the 80s or 90s.
Wirt was making a mix tape for his crush, Sarah. He pulls on a costume and plans to give it to her after the football game of where she is the mascot. Greg shows up after helping a neighbor with her yard. Upon Wirt chickening out of giving the tape to Sarah because he hears that Jason Funderberker (whom the frog is later named after) is going to ask her out, Greg gives it to someone who in turn puts it in Sarah's pocket.
Extremely embarrassed at the possibility of Sarah and Jason listening to the tape together (which contains poetry and clarinet), Wirt tries to follow them to the cemetery to get the tape back. But of course they see Wirt. When Wirt and Greg join them, the police show up and as a Halloween joke tell the teens (and Greg) that they're arrested. Thinking they really will be in trouble, Wirt and Greg run away. As a result, they nearly get hit by a train and tumble into a lake and sink down into it.
The woods, and the unknown in the woods is a metaphor for a sort of limbo. Both brothers are drowning in the cold water. So the woods is the place they are transported to, stuck between life and death trying to get back home. Which really explains why we see characters that are from such old time periods.
Over The Garden Wall seems quote a lot to be a reference to The Divine Comedy which depicts a man named Dante's travels through hell, purgatory and heaven. One of Dante's guides is named Beatrice.
If you pay close attention, there are various hints in the dialogue pointing at the unknown being limbo/death. It would also explain why some characters seem to be from different eras.
When they first arrive in the woods, they truly have no idea how they got there. They are just walking and suddenly Wirt realizes they are lost and insists that they need to get home.
The woodsman calls the boys lost souls at the start of the series. There is another layer to the lost souls element. Wirt is a very awkward and even lost before he arrives into the woods/unknown. He is very unsure of himself and self conscious. This becomes clear in episode 4. He goes into the tavern to ask for directions to Adelaide and he is asked who he is. He is unable to give a clear answer as to who he is, he doesn't truly know who he is so he is lost in life as well as the afterlife. I feel like this journey was not only to get back home/to continue living but also to find himself and figure out who he truly is.
When in Pottsfield, a character (I don't think they had a name) says "Aren't you a little too early? I mean it doesn't seem like you're ready to join us yet". When Wirt says that they're just passing through she replies with "Folks don't tend to pass through Pottsfield." Meaning that Wirt and Greg are too early to join the dead. People don't tend to pass through Pottsfield because they're dead and it becomes their final resting place.
Later on in that same episode after finishing their punishment bestowed upon them by the mayor or leader of Pottsfield for interrupting their celebration, Wirt insists that he and Greg still want to leave. Their leader in turn says that they'll "join us someday". The citizens of Pottsfield are revealed to be skeletons in costumes made of pumpkins. I should also mention that Pottsfield is a reference to a Potter's field which is a grave for unknown persons, many times unmarked. This makes a LOT of sense since in Pottsfield they dig up the skeletons from unmarked graves. The skeletons from these graves rise up and are welcomed as citizens to Pottsfield.
If you watch the cemetery scene, you will notice a tombstone with the name "Quincy Endicott" on it. He is the wealthy tea business owner we see in episode 5 where Wirt and Greg pretend to be his nephews to try to obtain the currency needed to board the river boat they need to travel on to get to Adelaide.
The woodsman warns Wirt to keeps high of body and spirit or the beast would claim them. Meaning he must keep up hope and keep his spirits high or death will claim him. He needs to keep fighting to live. As we get closer to the end of the show, we see it become colder and start to snow like crazy. As Wirt loses hope of returning home, he lays down in the snow to sleep and the beast begins to claim him. The beast and the cold/snow are death. The longer he's in the water/becomes colder the closer he is to death and being claimed by the unknown of death. He stopped fighting to live so he essentially is dying.
Greg lays down to sleep next to him but has a "dream" of a heaven like place. I truly think it was Greg dying and going to heaven. He is allowed a wish, but decides to help his brother get home instead. So he gives himself over to the beast so that Wirt can be free. In a way, he gives his life to the grim reaper to save his brother. The beast is either supposed to be the devil or the grim reaper. He is always enticing and stalking people towards death and the unknown. Using trickery and other means to get what he wants.
Greg begins to die at the hands of the beast. But Wirt out smarts the beast when he discovers that the beast's own soul is the one in the woodsman's lantern not his daughter's. He tricked the woodsman into caring for it. Wirt is able to rescue Greg and the woodsman vanquishes the beast.
We then see Wirt and Greg being pulled from the lake and Wirt wakes up in the hospital. He has returned home. He then sees Greg there too. The beast's defeat is a metaphor for them defeating death in their near death experience.
We see a montage at the end of all of the characters. Beatrice and her family are human again, the woodsman has his daughter back. Once you watch the entire series, I suggest going back and watching the opening of the first episode. It shows foreshadowing of the entire series such as a little girl becoming annoyed by a bluebird (revealed to be Beatrice before she threw the rock at it) and two children playing with a toy boat in the river (a reference to the riverboat with the frogs).
The riverboat can also stand as a metaphor for the boat on the river Styx. The river Styx is a river in Greek mythology between the world of the living and the world of death. The ferryman of Hades, Charon transports the souls of the dead across the river to move on. In mythology, you have to pay the ferryman to get on the boat. Wirt having to have 2 cents to ride the river boat is a reference to this.
I should also point out that Wirt with all of his doubts and worries has a fear of the unknown as most teenagers do. He fears what could happen if Sarah and Jason listen to the tape together. The unknown could also stand as a metaphor for his fears. After all, after the accident he is transported to a strange place with his little brother. He knows absolutely nothing about what happened or where they are. He just tries to seek out what he knows - his home.
Things, especially characters aren't what they seem at first glance.
For example, we first think that Auntie Whispers is evil and eating children. But really Lorna is, Auntie Whispers is trying to protect Lorna from herself as well as others. I also want to mention that Auntie Whispers bears a resemblance to Yubaba from Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away.
Beatrice as well isn't who we thought she was. At first we think she is trustworthy and truly wants to help the boys get home. We discover that she has an ulterior motive. Adelaide is really a wicked witch, she promises Beatrice that if she finds her a boy slave she will give her the scissors to turn her and her family human again. Beatrice does have a good heart though, she only wanted to save her family. She started regretting bringing the boys and does whatever she can to delay them.
We see some character development with Wirt when he awakes, finally realizing how important his little brother is to him and to start taking responsibility for things. Sarah informs him that she does want to listen to the tape with him. Wirt isn't the cynical teen he once was, realizing that he can get the girl of his dreams. We also do see some character development with Greg, Beatrice and even The Woodsman. Greg becomes serious and responsible at the end because he wants to help his older brother. He knows how important it is to him to return home so he stops spouting his nonsense and does everything the beast asks of him to try to return Wirt home. Beatrice realizes her faults and that all of her actions do have consequences.The Woodsman stops letting The Beast control his life and he finally stands up to the beast. By doing so he is able to return home to his daughter.
Overall this is such a wonderful show.This show has so many layers and hidden meanings to it. I may not have even picked up on them all but I tried to discuss as many as I possibly could. I totally recommend watching it no matter how old you are! It's seriously great. The entire series is maybe two hours in duration so it will not take much time. If you have seen it, comment and let me know your thoughts! Until Next time <3
Xoxo
Stay Creepy
