Over the Garden Wall

Over the Garden Wall is an American animated television miniseries created by Patrick McHale for Cartoon Network. The series centers on two half-brothers who travel across a strange forest in order to find their way home, encountering odd and wonderful things on their journey. The show is based on McHale's animated short film Tome of the Unknown, which was produced as part of Cartoon Network Studios' shorts development program. The show features Elijah Wood and Collin Dean as the protagonists Wirt and Greg, and Melanie Lynskey as a bluebird named Beatrice. Over the Garden Wall was broadcast throughout the week of November 3, 2014 to November 7, 2014. The show marked the first miniseries on the network, which commenced its production in March 2014. McHale first envisioned the show in 2004, and pitched it to the network in 2006. After working on other Cartoon Network shows including The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack and Adventure Time, the network expressed interest in McHale pitching a pilot. That pilot became the catalyst for Over the Garden Wall. Production of the show was largely handled in Burbank, California, but many of the show's storyboard artists worked from other U.S. cities, while the program's animation was outsourced to South Korea. The series' environment evokes 19th- and 20th-century Americana, while its digital backgrounds are designed to resemble grisaille paintings. Upon its debut, the series received critical acclaim from television critics, with praise focusing on its mood and characters. In 2015, the series won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program. Outside of the series, a one-shot comic book adaptation penned by McHale has been produced, with four further issues commissioned. This was eventually expanded into an ongoing series.