Over the Garden Wall

[RickZarber]

Over the Garden Wall is an animated 10-part (well, five episodes comprised of two chapters each) two hour mini-series that will air on Cartoon Network this coming Monday through Friday (Nov 3rd through 7th). But you can watch the first chapter on YouTube right now. The whole thing is also available on iTunes right now for only ten bucks, and I highly encourage you to get it (they also have the first chapter free for download).

It is amazing. Like, seriously. Amazing. Go buy it or set your DVRs right now. Honestly I think it would be best to go into it knowing as little as possible, so I'm not gonna post a trailer. (The trailer full-on spoils a twist in chapter two, so...) I would also advise avoiding other related YouTube stuff until you've seen the whole thing; it's so richly layered, any piece out of place does it a disservice.

OtGW was created by Pat McHale, who worked as a writer and, for a while, creative director of Adventure Time. It stars Elijah Wood as a young teenager named Wirt who, along with his little brother, gets lost in the woods and enters The Unknown. There they begin to encounter strange things, such as a talking bird and a creepy woodsman (played by Christopher Lloyd!) who warns them of The Beast, which stalks the woods for unwary travelers. And it gets weirder from there. It's basically a perfect Autumn / Halloween story, with roots in American folklore.

Also of note is the music, which is lovely and evocative, styled usually in pre-20th century. Seriously, watch that first chapter (preferably full screen, full-rez):