Over the Garden Wall — 1o Years Later
New video out now! 🍂🎃
Over the Garden Wall is obsessed with shadows. The Unknown holds you in night, and shade, and the dark.
What is it about this show? Why are we mesmerized by it? Why do I seem to have no criticism of it, when I can almost always find something to take issue with, even in the art I love?
What is so overwhelmingly lovely about Over the Garden Wall that I can’t help but see it as a fully realized, perfect piece of art? I have a hard time picking apart its pieces and studying how they work. I feel a need to just observe it. It’s not a machine with seams and wiring. It’s obsidian: it’s whole and opaque and dark and beautiful.
On November 3rd, it’ll be 10 years since Over the Garden Wall debuted on Cartoon Network. I’ve thought a lot about this show in that time. I can’t call it perfect. You can’t have a perfect experience with art: something good will always be lacking.
But this show forces me to look beyond that. There’s something about shadows and storm clouds and a canopy of trees that makes life in autumn just a bit richer: a kind of haunting feeling that can only accompany the death, and the cold, and the darkness of autumn. Over the Garden Wall wants you to enjoy the sense of mystery: to face the unknown and brave the change it will create in you.
Today, we’re not going to pluck out the heart of Over the Garden Wall’s mystery. It is where it belongs: it’s doing its job. Instead, we’re just going to admire it.
Like what you see? The full video is up now!
Happy Halloween! 👻
