SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

tincanfoil The artwork is beautiful, and the story is well written. It's pure joy to watch every single second, and you get this cozy feeling all over you.

kaveetm All in the title but they're making me fill this with more text just so I can submit the review. The illustration and style brings me back to when I was a child and reminds me of "The Tailor of Gloucester" (pronounced glo-ster).

loganp-74929 So I just got done binge watching this and I was pretty darn impressed. The acting, characters, plot, tone, score, animation, everything was just so well done. I'm not too happy with Cartoon Network as a company and how they handle their intellectual property *cough* teen titans go *cough*, but this show made me think that there is still hope for Cartoon Network, it can actually produce some good stuff when it wants to. But now onto the actual show. The acting was amazing, Elijah Wood was fantastic as Wirt and Collin Dean was surprisingly good for only being 9 at the time of the show's release. The two actors played off each other very well and had a very watchable chemistry, although that might also be attributed to the brilliant writers of the show, who somehow manage to spin a whimsical and imaginative story-line while maintaining the innocent tone of the show. The characters were all written beautifully and seemed very natural and real. The tone of the show was very consistent overall and was nicely contrasted to the story. The score was also awesome despite being a little repetitive at times. And the animation was very creative and smooth. Now that I have said the positives, let me explain why I'm only giving this a 9/10 instead of a 10/10. It was pretty much just the ending. I did not enjoy the "it was all a dream" thing, I thought that for a show this awesome and this unpredictable, going with the most clichéd ending honestly upset me a little. Plus, it being a dream wouldn't even make a lot of sense based on what happened. I just did not enjoy the ending and I think that for a show this good, and this clearly well planned out and executed, they should have thought more about the ending rather than making it the most cliché thing in the whole world. Anyway I still enjoyed this show quite a lot and would recommend it to pretty much everyone. And that's why this gets a 9/10.

benjaminburt Over the Garden Wall is a very impressive show. Almost everything is pitch-perfect. It has excellent voice acting, a unique and permeating mood, and it didn't over-stay its welcome. What most impressed me about Over the Garden Wall is both the atmosphere and themes that the show holds. It has a very Kafka-esque feel to it, and the show is excellent at asking existentialist questions. We are purposefully never told Wirt's motivation, aside from 'getting home,' and each episode begins with little-to-no segue from the previous episode, leading us to question if we are going forward or moving backward from our goal. The dreamlike tone matches perfectly, with odd and off-putting parts of the universe just taken at face value, with no explanation. Just for example, there is an episode where a school-teacher runs a school for animals. After class, she instructs the students to go to bed. The animals through a doorway, then there's a cut-away to them entering a doorway wearing nighties. Wirt, too, is there, but the transition is so quick and so dreamlike, yet we take it at face value. Consider another thing: we never see Wirt eat, and Greg eats only once - a spoonful of potatoes. What a small touch, but despite witnessing several shot of food set before them, we only once see any put into their mouths. Eating, surprisingly enough, often grounds a person in reality. Another moment that impressed was when Wirt and Greg entered the tavern with people who identified themselves by an occupation or label. The people identify Wirt as 'the Pilgrim, master of his own destiny,' yet this contradicts what we have seen over and over, that Wirt doesn't take control of situations, and is mostly stumbling along from one place to another and playing it by ear.The only thing I could critique the show on is the animation. It espouses the modern style of having your computer-generated characters walk across mostly still backgrounds. It makes the main characters seem a little rubbery and lifeless at times. But, that's pretty typical for modern animation. I guess I also rolled my eyes at the 'liar-reveal' story of Beatrice, but it didn't take away much from the miniseries as a whole. I don't believe that any piece of art should ever be considered perfect, as there are always ways to improve. Nevertheless, I believe Over the Garden Wall is superb, telling a charming, folksy story with excellent voice acting, mood, setting, direction, and music.