The use of folklore and fairytale to tell the tale of the afterlife through Over The Garden Wall

As we welcome each year the month of November by celebrating Halloween in various ways such as costume parties, trick or treating, or visiting our loved ones, for my plans this 2021, I decided to binge on this one animated series (only an hour and 40 minutes all in all) that have made my Halloween a whole lot better despite our situation being locked inside our homes and somehow missing the spooky season feeling.

Over The Garden Wall is a kid-friendly horror animation from Cartoon Network, created by Patrick McHale, the same writer and creative director for Adventure Time, before he created his own Emmy award-winning mini-series in 2014. The 10 episode mini-series that run for 10 minutes each has a wonderful soft worldbuilding story, that also takes inspiration from various works and cultural references. The story revolves around two lost boys, Wirt (Elijah Wood) and Greg (Collin Dean) who wandered over a cemetery wall and found themselves wandering through a forest which they call the unknown.

The story has an unornamented premise making us think that it is not as entertaining as it is deemed to be, but do not let yourselves be fooled by its cute color autumn palette and its 2d animation, because it is filled with adult themes that each episode leaves us thinking over minuscule details from dialogues and even to its characters that seem to be one-dimensional (but there would be a reason why later on!) and insignificant. Its characters also take inspiration from the origins of the founding animations (silent era) where we have two characters with opposite character building. While its supporting characters would have wonderful story arcs and development that unfold as the series comes to an end.

It has a minimalist approach to horror, that it does not overburden its viewers with gore or horrifying animations, but it is through the silence and the sparing use of speech to let your imagination run wild that would fit best with the course of events that play out. The short phrase “to fill their heads with wool.” is already terrifying to imagine, while keeping in mind that OTGW is a kids cartoon. Not only do the creators give us wonderful colors and characters, but each of the episodes feels like we are jumping from one storybook to another. As the devil is in the details (pun-intended as well), each destination Wirt and Greg arrives at, is an ode to works like Dante’s Inferno, The Brothers Grimm, Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and even the debate of having a place in between life and death. There is also a part of a dreamscape that is an appreciation to animations during the 1930s and 1940s. The clothes are worn by the weird and odd creatures also would explain the origins of each of them from the Victorian Era, Regency Era, and towards the Industrial, and even to the modern time, where Greg and Wirt came from.

Taking a scene from episode two, where this is one of the few examples of how the afterlife is perceived, we see Wirt and Greg stumbling through a town called “Pott’s Field” or in its reference better known as Potter’s field which is a mass graveyard for the indigent people or unclaimed bodies. Moments before Wirt and Greg were found out to be humans, one of the pumpkin people asked him that if he was too early to join their party. Which subtlely tells us that our protagonists are brought unintentionally to the afterlife and they were passing through as part of their journey back home. OTGW reintroduces us to view things in a childlike wonder filled with curiosity. As the twist towards Episode 8-10 would keep us in front of the screens for much longer than the episodes run, tempting us to go back and rewatch it again to see what we have missed and see how we can all put the puzzle back together for answers. That even in its musical scoring and soundtrack, the meaning behinds the lyrics are in conjunction with its narrative.

There is a lot to unpack with this underrated series that even after 6 years, it is still being talked about and its audiences generously contribute theories on how the story ended. OTGW is one of the remaining few from the dying practice of 2D animations that wants to preserve the magic of it. It deserves the hype and recognition that I would actually recommend watching it as a tradition for Halloween.