Skip to main content

DVD Review: Over the Garden Wall

Over the Garden Wall
created by Patrick McHale
Cartoon Network Studios. 2014. J DVD.

Wirt and Greg are half-brothers who find themselves lost in a strange wilderness where animals can sing, autumn never seems to end, and their best dreams and worst nightmares come to life. It would be near-sinful to divulge more of this series' secrets.

This 10-part miniseries cannot come with a higher recommendation. In a children's television landscape defined by manic energy and pure volume, Over the Garden Wall is a refreshing diversion that taps into the deep wells of fairy-tales and early 20th-century Americana. Its influences shift in every episode, at times either a musical, a slapstick comedy, or a total dream story -- but it is always a story for children, and one that absolutely understands childlike wonder .

A fair warning: it is at times frightening, but only in a manner similar to The Wizard of Oz and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves' scariest imagery. Older viewers will recognize a style and tone similar to the great early children's cartoons, and this series could be a great jumping-off point for kids interested in animation and its history. Over the Garden Wall is a tremendous experience that should not, cannot be missed.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) by Pamela Espeland & Elizabeth Verdick

If there's one book today's kids need to read, it is Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) . The authors provide a fun format for teaching etiquette to children. They discuss proper behavior at home, at school, at other people's homes and in public places. The information is completely up-to-date with cellphone manners and netiquette included. Fun, cartoony illustrations are on practically every page giving the book great visual appeal. This book is perfect for boys and girls in the fourth grade or older. WARNING: Bodily functions are discussed.

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin Illustrated by Leslie Evans Charlesburg; 2009; unpaged Faces of the Moon is a short nonfiction book that describes the different phases of the moon and why the moon appears like it does on certain nights. This book is short and sweet so even the youngest of moon lovers will enjoy it. The layout is simplistic and easy to follow. I don’t know much about the moon so I found it very interesting.

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...