One Of The Best Animated Shows Ever Has Finally Achieved Its Creator's Biggest Dream

Television Cartoon Shows

"Over the Garden Wall" creator Patrick McHale always considered Aardman to be the pinnacle of animation, and he was always interested in the art of stop-motion. Though he's worked in some highly influential shows like "The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack" and "Adventure Time," and he did co-write the script to "Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio," it wasn't until this year that he fulfilled his dream of working in stop-motion — and with Aardman, no less. 

Just in time for its 10th anniversary, Cartoon Network released an "Over the Garden Wall" short film from Aardman and McHale, and it's a full circle moment for the animator in more ways than one. As McHale told Inverse, "In some ways, it seems like 'Over the Garden Wall' probably should have been realized in stop-motion all along — it just feels kind of right for that world," and he is absolutely right.

Dan Ojari and Mikey Please ("Robin Robin") directed this short and also co-wrote it with McHale, who created the original show using 2D digital animation. The short reunites the main cast, bringing back Elijah Wood as Wirt and Melanie Lynskey as Beatrice. Collin Dean, who voiced Greg when he was 9, returns in the form of unused takes from the original series. The Blasting Company, who did the exquisite music for the 10-year-old miniseries, also returned to score the short film. 

The original "Over the Garden Wall" follows Wirt and Greg, half-brothers lost in a magical forest realm known as "The Unknown," where they encounter all sorts of quirky characters and fantastical creatures, while they also run away from a menacing monster known as The Beast. From its colorful art direction, to its spooky vibes, the miniseries is considered a fan-favorite fall re-watch. Now in stop motion, it feels as if "Over the Garden Wall" has become what it was always meant to be.

Over the Garden Wall is tailor-made for stop motion

The "Over the Garden Wall" 10th anniversary short is not a follow-up, or a remake. Instead, it feels like a missing scene from the original that happened when you weren't looking. It follows Greg and Wirt as they wait for Beatrice before continuing on their journey. While Wirt ponders unnecessarily melancholically on the meaning of time, we get glimpses at some of the characters we met throughout the original, from the pumpkin people, to the Woodsman, the butcher, the baker, the toymaker, and many more. 

It's a big meta speech by Wirt — one that asks whether the characters are forever trapped in the story being told, whether they can ever move on, and whether they are simply playthings for some unseen hands to move them and tell new stories. In other words, a perfect "Over the Garden Wall" story in terms of tone and theme. But what really makes the whole thing sing is the stop-motion animation. The original "Over the Garden Wall" miniseries evokes a particular feeling and a specific image in the way few movies or shows (regardless of medium) do. It does for creepy yet charming enchanting forests what Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy does for the English (or New Zealand) countryside, capturing the spirit of the fall season, its alluring mystery and wonder, its dangers and horrors, and its coziness. 

As gorgeous as the animation and art direction of the original "Over the Garden Wall" is, having the characters be hand-carved wooden puppets, and the backgrounds be real, miniature sets, does give the series an added layer of creepiness, and also of comfort. It's both new and familiar. In other words, it's the perfect way to bring this cartoon back.

The Over the Garden Wall anniversary short is a lesson in bringing back older shows

As Patrick McHale said on Cartoon Network's social accounts, part of the decision to do the anniversary short as stop-motion animation was "because it seemed like a nice way to reimagine Wirt and Greg's story without disrupting the delicate ecosystem of the series itself." That's the lesson studios should take when it comes to revisiting old properties. It's easy to think that they should just do a sequel, or a remake, or a spin-off, but McHale is right in that no matter how good the follow-up is, it always takes away from the original and disrupts the story that was. 

But the approach in this new "Over the Garden Wall" short does something different. It tells a (very) short story that could be set at any point in the original series run, using a brand new medium that separates the new version as not a replacement, not an upgrade, but simply something new, a way of experimenting with the source material without tarnishing what came before. Rather than, say, bring back "Rugrats" but in CGI (and now live-action) and tell the same stories, to do a side-story in an entirely new medium makes the new version feel special and justified.