An Elephant Never Forgets

November 3, 2024 10:15 AM

Over the Garden Wall Tenth Anniversary stop-motion short

Series Creator - Patrick McHale
Stop Motion Animation - Aardman Animations
Directors - Mikey Please and Dan Ojari
Writers - Patrick McHale, Dan Ojari, and Mikey Please
Producer - Alan Thorpe
Executive Producer - Helen Argo, Sarah Cox, Patrick McHale
Wirt - Elijah Wood
Beatrice - Melanie Lynskey
Greg - Collin Dean
Narrator/Toymaker - Frank Fairfield

posted by 1970s Antihero (18 comments total)

OH MY.

This is beautiful and wonderful.

Thank you so much for posting this, 1970s Antihero!
posted by kristi at 10:22 AM on November 3 [3 favorites]

OMG OMG OMG

I am a huge OTGW fan. I've got prints, a Tarot deck, a real Rock Fact rock commissioned for me by Shepherd, a Rock Fact mug that I just received from my best friend (she's a potter), and soon a wrapround half sleeve tattoo as a gift to myself for my five year sobriety milestone (I reached it in February, but booking a tattoo artist in Toronto from another city has been tricky.) For one recent birthday, Shepherd rented out one of the rooms at our local indie cinema to show OGTW and invited all our friends. There were potato chip cookies and molasses cookies.

We're here to burgle your turts!!
posted by Kitteh at 10:32 AM on November 3 [15 favorites]

Damn, it's been ten years already?

This was beautiful and touching, thank you for posting it.
posted by brook horse at 10:43 AM on November 3 [5 favorites]

Damn, it's been ten years already?

[previously]
posted by 1970s Antihero at 11:01 AM on November 3 [2 favorites]

It's been ten years!

You know how I remember? My wife and I met around the time this show came out, and bonded over watching it together. We've re-watched Over the Garden Wall every year around this time, and this year was the first time we shared it with our daughter. I'm happy to report she loved it!
posted by june_dodecahedron at 11:35 AM on November 3 [3 favorites]

My wife and I met around the time this show came out, and bonded over watching it together.

US TOO! * waves *

I had no idea about Tome Of The Unknown until reading that previous MeFi post from back when.
posted by german_bight at 11:53 AM on November 3 [2 favorites]

FYI, Cartoon Network has been streaming the show on Youtube!
posted by yasaman at 11:59 AM on November 3 [3 favorites]

To add context, Over the Garden Wall is a ten episode animated series.
posted by zardoz at 12:04 PM on November 3 [2 favorites]

Thanks, zardoz and yasaman, because this is something I know nothing about so I'm curious about why people are so excited!
posted by gentlyepigrams at 12:20 PM on November 3 [1 favorite]

Over the garden wall has supplanted all comers in the last few years to be the required spooky season watch in my family.
posted by q*ben at 12:30 PM on November 3 [2 favorites]

If anyone wants to watch OTGW as an edited together movie that stitches together all the episodes and clips out the credit sequences, hit me up... that's what I set up for Kitteh's birthday a few years ago. It runs 1h57 and starts with Tome of the Unknown before running through the main series.
posted by Shepherd at 1:28 PM on November 3 [8 favorites]

I know nothing about so I'm curious about why people are so excited!

I was curious too about 20 years ago, I knew what stop motion was but metafilter introduced me to a lot more. It touches on my youth and existing technology, generally conveying different...things within a short period but this one is extremely wonderful. I like the frog it's my favorite character, I know it's odd, but I like the frog. I'm a minimalist by artistic preference. When I first saw Mr. Bill it was funny, then, I suppose it was like a cheap claymation production with squishing the end result to most situations. Mr. Bill. 'L.A.'SNL. 1981.
posted by clavdivs at 2:12 PM on November 3 [1 favorite]

What a touching tribute. Break out the potatoes and molasses!
posted by myopicman at 3:51 PM on November 3 [3 favorites]

[previously]

Hmm, let me just click this link...

over at the series’ official Tumblr page.

Ah. Yep. Definitely ten years ago.
posted by brook horse at 7:14 PM on November 3

It seems that every so often Cartoon Network remembers that they can serve as a haven for good cartoons. Over The Garden Wall is one of the best artifacts of a period at Cartoon Network that roughly began with The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, stretched through Chowder, Clarence, Adventure Time, Gumball, Regular Show, and (especially) Steven Universe and Infinity Train, and possibly ended with the cancellation of OK KO, although Craig of the Creek is part of it and still hasn't entirely concluded, and has a spinoff in the cards I hear.
posted by JHarris at 12:27 AM on November 4 [1 favorite]

Over the Garden Wall is just a perfect, complete cartoon. I try to watch the DVD with friends every fall. Anyone who enjoys animation owes it to themself to check it out.
posted by jy4m at 5:22 AM on November 4 [3 favorites]

MOAR
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 9:28 AM on November 4

Behind the Scenes
posted by 1970s Antihero at 4:21 PM on November 4