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polarbearjosh
Reviews
Over the Garden Wall (2014)
My favorite show from 2014 and one of my all time favorite shows
Back when my Dish cable provider blocked all the the Turner based channels around before Halloween, Over the Garden Wall came out on TV. It was the one show I was looking forward to since it was announced earlier last year. Lucky enough, thanks to the modern world, I was able to buy the entire mini series digitally and it was absolutely worth every buck of it.
Created by former Adventure Time writer Patrick McHale, the show involves around 2 step brothers Wirt & Greg who are lost in the Unknown. Aided by a talking bluebird named Beatrice, they encounter many places and folks including dancing pumpkins, a schoolhouse teaching animals, and a steamboat full of frogs while finding their way home. However, it's not all peaches and cream as danger lurks when a Woodsman of the Unknown is working for a mysterious beast who turns children into oil and the brothers themselves get caught onto the problem on the way.
The animation and music is some of the best I've seen for an American cartoon and it definitely borrows from late 19th and early 20th century folk art and music as well as some Studio Ghibli influences too. The dark tone the show takes a lot and the many unexpected twists the stories give will definitely give you suspense, surprises and more, in which will be enough for you'll keep you interested to watch up until the very end.
So in conclusion, Over the Garden Wall is overall amazing. It's beautifully written and crafted altogether and it may as well be my vote for my favorite show of last year and one of my all time favorite shows. If I had any more suggestions, I recommend watching this in the dark and during the Fall to get a better feel watching it.
Tome of the Unknown: Harvest Melody (2013)
Nice pilot to a great mini-series
After 2 years of being only seen in private film festivals, Cartoon Network recently released the pilot to its acclaimed mini-series Over the Garden Wall on its website for the general public and I have to admit it wasn't half bad.
The premise was basically simple: it's about our main characters (Wirt, Greg, and Beatrice), who get tired of walking, meet up with a vegetable man named Johnny Crops who join him to the big city. It sets up some atmosphere of what Over the Garden Wall would have. The animation and designs are also slightly different from that of the later series (not in a bad way) but that's expected from a pilot.
Overall, if you're a fan of Over the Garden Wall who wants to check out what the pilot is like or just want a sample of what the mini series would be like before watching the actual show for the first time, it's worth checking out Tome of the Unknown.
Gravity Falls: Blendin's Game (2014)
A funny but sad episode of Gravity Falls
I always expect an episode of Gravity Falls that will make me laugh at least once but I never expected one to make me feel bad for a character. This is where this episode comes to give both those things. Blendin's Game is quite an experience for any Gravity Falls viewer and it's certainly one of my favorite episodes of the show.
While it certainly doesn't link to anything related to the author or the journals, it does give us more about what the residents of Gravity Falls were like in the past (10 years ago actually) such as revealing Toby Determined wanted to be a Broadway star and how Soos decided to become a Mystery Shack employee (if you watch the end credits). In speaking of Soos, much of the episode is focused on him hating his birthday (apparently, his father left him at a young age and was supposed to have came to his 12th birthday but never showed up). Never I felt such sympathy for a character on this show and I'm glad the writers did such a thing for that to happen well. The ending where he decides to forget about his Dad leaving and to accept his grandma and the Pines as his family was quite heartwarming too.
The other focus is on Blandin Blendin wanting to get revenge on Dipper and Mabel from what they did in the Time Traveler's Pig. He apparently wants to battle them in Globnar (which is a game show like challenge that's similar to Tron meets American Gladiator) so he can have them killed but only to be defeated by the twins once again. Luckily, both Dipper and Mabel were able to save him from death from Blandin's ruler the Time Baby after remembering on how much they have done to him and Blandin himself becomes a new ally to the Pines twins. Much of the comedy comes from this plot such as some crazy one liners from Mabel as well as people being zapped to death in a comedic way.
Overall, you can pretty much say based on from what I wrote, this a highly recommended episode of Gravity Falls episode to watch. It has both comedy and drama that really work well in their own plots.