10/30/2019
Deep Cuts Halloween Playlist 2019 - #29: "Pottsfield" (Over the Garden Wall, 2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3T6S-HNts8
"Pumpkins can't move on their own, can they?"
"Over the Garden Wall" is an autumn-themed miniseries first aired on Cartoon Network in early November 2014. The series is comprised of ten roughly ten-minute-long episodes, and so makes for a quick watch. And I do recommend you watch it, as I have done around this time most years since it came out. If nothing else, doing so will save you some spoilers below.
Like Squirrel Nut Zippers, "Over the Garden Wall" takes stylistic cues from an earlier era. Elements borrowed from 1930s Fleischer cartoons are certainly evident, but the show also draws influence from even older media, including early picture postcards and wood engravings by illustrators such as Gustave Dore.
The series follows brothers Wirt and Greg, who find themselves inexplicably wandering through a mysterious forest called the Unknown. They encounter a wide variety of Wonderland-esque inhabitants as they attempt to find their way home.
Today's featured song comes when the brothers arrive in Pottsfield, a vaguely creepy village populated by walking pumpkin-people. The pumpkins are holding a festival of some kind, and seem less than thrilled to be interrupted by the boys' arrival. Like the series as a whole, the soundtrack owes much to various vintage musical styles, and "Pottsfield" is one of the very best examples. The song which accompanies the pumpkins' revels blends the vaguely medieval drone of a hurdy-gurdy with harmonious solfege singing typical of "sacred harp," a style of hymn performance which originated in early New England.
Unlike a hurdy-gurdy, I probably shouldn't drone on and on here. I could talk at length about my appreciation for "Over the Garden Wall," and perhaps the show deserves its own dedicated longer post someday. But I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the most significant reason the series has stuck with me: the dynamic between Wirt and Greg reminds me of my relationship with my own brother, more so than any other sibling pair I've seen depicted in film or television. Greg is considerably younger and has a big head and easy-going disposition, while Wirt is dark and brooding. This is the point where we're treading into some spoilers, but I gotta say, I see a LOT of myself in Wirt. High schooler Wirt (voiced by Elijah Wood) plays clarinet in the marching band and writes poetry, both things I've been known to do. And (ok real SPOILERS now) towards the end of the series it's revealed that Wirt's "dark secret" is that he has a crush on a girl, whom he attempted to woo using said poetry and clarinet before chickening out at the last moment. While running away, the brothers fall down an embankment and are knocked unconscious, which is what caused them to "enter" the Unknown in the first place. The brothers eventually awaken from their comas, but it is left ambiguous whether the Unknown is a real place, as the inhabitants are shown at the end of the series having benefited from Wirt and Greg's actions.
"Over the Garden Wall" is an impressive tribute to American art of a bygone age, while simultaneously addressing timeless themes of brotherhood and teen angst. It merits at least one watch-through, particularly at this time of year.
If you haven't seen it before, I bet you'll thank me.
Oh, flesh removed Our chalk footfall tempers this holy ground When timeless spirits meet 'round the heart of Pottsfield town Oh, hi thee pour your golden mea...