Boasting supremely high Letterboxd, IMDb, and Rotten Tomatoes Audience scores, Cartoon Network’s Over the Garden Wall is the highest-rated autumnal viewing spectacle that only a dedicated few have seen. Like many works in this beloved catalog, Over the Garden Wall occupies the midpoint between child and adult-oriented entertainment, surreal and spooky for all viewers while technically only rated PG. Whether repeating or newly streaming it this year, there’s no better time to watch this nearly nine-year-old miniseries than this spooky season.
Over the Garden Wall Synopsis
Over the Garden Wall opens right on the action: Wirt and Greg, two young brothers, find themselves lost in a strange forest populated by talking animals and creepy locales. As they try to find their way home, Wirt and Greg meet peculiar characters and face numerous challenges while trying to elude the grasp of a dangerous entity known as the Beast. The illustrious voice cast includes well-known names like Elijah Wood, Melanie Lynskey, and Christopher Lloyd, as well as guest stars John Cleese and Tim Curry.
Heightened Word of Mouth Notoriety in the Digital Age
Cartoon Network aired this miniseries in November 2014 after years of creator Patrick McHale toiling to get the project moving while working on other animated shows. A handful of rave reviews later, Over the Garden Wall wins two Emmys and expands into a limited run of comics. Considering the competitive viewing numbers of popular shows like Bob’s Burgers, Adventure Time, and the debut run of Rick and Morty, its accolades are pretty impressive.
Over the next decade, the show popped up in interesting places as streaming became the dominant consumption of television for Internet users. Over the Garden Wall never appeared on “most popular” lists, but its position near the top of “highest rated” on community-based film and television websites seemed far more significant. For most viewers following the initial airing, Over the Garden Wall came highly recommended by that friend who either frequented the movie forums or had eclectic tastes that suited that particular slightly-unsettling-acid-trip vibe.
‘Over the Garden Wall’
The Staying Power of Creepy Cartoons
With the popularity and critical peak of Disney, Pixar, Studio Ghibli, and countless smaller animation studios, cartoons have never been more popular among adults than in the 21st century. This generation of adults, growing up with Toy Story or Spirited Away being their formative movie experience, discovered the power of books like Maus, Watchmen, and Persepolis using graphics as a legitimate art form just as live-action adaptations of comic books started becoming a serious endeavor. Their blend of a traditionally child-focused medium with universal adult themes generates appreciators in the thousands, paving the niche pathway that continues with recent critically acclaimed features like Wolfwalkers and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.
The specialized appeal of Over the Garden Wall, drawing in fans of animation and spookiness alike, highlights its importance to viewers; this is outsider entertainment in its prime, with the potentially alienating specificities speaking directly to its intended audience. With growing popularity every year as the overload of five-star ratings entices curious viewers, those who love the macabre should know that a high score for Over the Garden Wall is in their future. Ultimately, this is the beautiful type of show where you already know if you will love it based on the description alone; if you like what you are reading, do not hesitate to start this miniseries tonight.
Over the Garden Wall is streaming now on Hulu.
