50 Fun Facts About Over the Garden Wall

Who voices Beatrice, the brothers' sharp-tongued guide through the Unknown?

Melanie Lynskey took over the part for the series; in the 2013 pilot short the character had been voiced by comedian Natasha Leggero.

Which channel first aired Over the Garden Wall in November 2014?

Cartoon Network had never ordered a miniseries before; creator Patrick McHale said the short run let him make something of higher quality than a regular series would allow.

Over the Garden Wall first aired across five consecutive what?

Nights: two eleven-minute chapters filled a half-hour each evening from November 3 to 7. The creator had first planned eighteen chapters, before budget and time cut them to ten.

What was the forest called in McHale's original 2006 pitch, before it became the Unknown?

The Land of the In-Between was where the pitch's brothers, then called Walter and Gregory, had to hunt down the scattered pages of a storybook after signing a devil's contract.

Who voices Wirt, the anxious older brother, in Over the Garden Wall?

Elijah Wood summed up why the show sounds so old: 'If this show were a record, it would be played on a phonograph', a nod to songs that all draw on music from before the 1950s.

In Over the Garden Wall, what kind of animal is the brothers' irritable companion Beatrice?

A bluebird is what Beatrice was turned into after she threw a rock at one, and her whole family was changed along with her.

Which Back to the Future star voices the Woodsman in Over the Garden Wall?

Christopher Lloyd's Woodsman was first sketched as a friendly helper who was secretly the villain; the finished series flipped him into a frightening figure who means no harm.

Which field made Samuel Ramey, voice of Over the Garden Wall's Beast, a star?

Opera runs through the show's music, and its creator sought out bass Samuel Ramey, long acclaimed for playing stage devils such as Mefistofele, to give the Beast his voice.

In Over the Garden Wall, what do the Beast's victims turn into once they lose hope?

Edelwood trees ooze a black oil, and the Woodsman grinds them down to keep his lantern lit, never knowing where the trees come from.

In Over the Garden Wall, what are Wirt's two secret passions?

Clarinet and poetry are things Wirt hides for fear of being mocked; his creator called the anxious, self-analysing boy a caricature of sides of himself and of a college friend.

In Over the Garden Wall, Greg's spouted metal hat makes him which animal for Halloween?

An elephant is his costume, with the spout as the trunk; early drawings dressed him as a sailor instead, until there was concern that he looked too much like Flapjack.

What name does Greg's frog finally get in the last episode of Over the Garden Wall?

Jason Funderburker is borrowed from the classmate Wirt fears as a rival, though the frog's name is spelled with a 'u' and the boy's with an 'e'.

How do Wirt and Greg end up in the Unknown in Over the Garden Wall?

They fall into a pond after leaping a cemetery's garden wall, the leap the title points to, to escape a policeman and then dodging a train.

What is Wirt trying to get back on Halloween night in Over the Garden Wall?

A cassette tape he made for Sara is what he chases all night, never noticing that she is delighted to see him and has no interest in his supposed rival.

In Over the Garden Wall's first chapter, what is the 'beast' chasing the brothers?

A dog that swallowed a turtle: once it coughs the turtle up it is a gentle pet again, but by then the fight has wrecked the Woodsman's mill.

In Over the Garden Wall's Pottsfield, what are the townsfolk wearing at their harvest festival?

Pumpkins and straw hide the truth: the townsfolk are skeletons, and the holes the brothers dig as punishment let more of them climb out to join the party.

In Over the Garden Wall, which Pottsfield leader sentences the brothers to a few hours of manual labour?

Enoch teases the brothers with a murder charge before handing down a few hours of farm work, and waves them off with a promise that they will join the town one day.

In Over the Garden Wall, what does Greg add to the school's bland mashed potatoes to cheer everyone up?

Molasses turns the meal into the song 'Potatoes and Molasses', which Greg and the animal pupils strike up again once their fundraising concert has saved the school.

In Over the Garden Wall, what is the talking horse that Wirt takes from the tavern called?

Fred admits he loves stealing, yet he ends up going straight: he stays behind at a rich man's mansion to earn an honest living making deliveries.

Why do the brothers pose as Quincy Endicott's nephews in Over the Garden Wall?

To steal two cents for the ferry was the plan, but when Greg is handed two pennies as thanks he throws them both into a fountain.

In Over the Garden Wall, which instrument does Wirt reluctantly play in the ferry band?

Bassoon playing is forced on Wirt when the stowaway brothers hide in the ferry's band; Beatrice talks him into it, Greg's frog bursts into song, and their cover holds.

What reward was Beatrice promised for delivering the brothers as servants in Over the Garden Wall?

Scissors to lift her curse were the price of two child servants; she backs out of the deal, and in the end Wirt takes the scissors himself and hands them to her.

In Over the Garden Wall, how does Auntie Whispers control the girl Lorna?

With a magic bell she keeps Lorna hard at work, to hold down the flesh-eating spirit inside the girl; Wirt later uses the same bell to order the spirit out for good.

What does Greg finally ask the Queen of the Clouds for?

To take Wirt's place with the Beast is his second request: he first asks to go home, but the Queen tells him his despairing brother has already been claimed.

In Over the Garden Wall, what does Wirt realise is really inside the Woodsman's lantern?

The Beast's own soul burns there, so the tale of a trapped daughter was a trick to keep the flame fed; when the Woodsman blows it out, the Beast is finished.

Which song, sung by Jack Jones, opens Over the Garden Wall as its theme?

Into the Unknown was written by the show's creator and sung by crooner Jack Jones, who also voices Greg's frog, so the frog seems to be singing and narrating his own tale.

Which group composed the soundtrack of Over the Garden Wall?

The Blasting Company was started by two half-brothers, a fitting match for the story, and played the whole score on real instruments rather than synthesisers.

Which Rocky Horror Picture Show star voices Auntie Whispers in Over the Garden Wall?

Tim Curry makes the big-eyed old woman sound like a monster, yet she is the gentle one of the story: she works her ward Lorna hard only to protect her, and weeps when the girl is cured.

Which award did Over the Garden Wall win in 2015?

An Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program went to the ten-part children's serial in 2015, ahead of The Simpsons, South Park, Archer and Bob's Burgers.

Which studio made the stop-motion Over the Garden Wall short released for the show's tenth anniversary in 2024?

Aardman Animations, the studio behind Wallace & Gromit, made the short as an anniversary gift to fans; it went out free online on November 3, ten years to the day after the premiere.

Which vintage Halloween keepsakes inspired Pottsfield's costumed townsfolk in Over the Garden Wall?

Postcards from old Halloweens filled a reference folder the creator shared with his artists, who wanted the show to look as if nobody could tell when it had been made.

Beatrice's first clear appearance in Over the Garden Wall was staged to echo which Wonderland character?

The Cheshire Cat, perched on a bough above Alice in John Tenniel's drawing, was the model for the shot in which Beatrice first looks down on the brothers from a branch.

To which country was the animation of Over the Garden Wall outsourced?

South Korea is home to Digital eMation, the studio that animated the series, right down to drawing every one of the frogs that crowd one episode's ferry.

Which comics publisher released the Over the Garden Wall comic books?

Boom Studios issued them through its imprint KaBoom, starting in the week the show aired with a special built on an episode idea the series never used: sailors on a ship that crosses dry land.

How do the brothers first earn a favour from Beatrice in Over the Garden Wall?

They free her from a bush, so she owes them a favour and offers to guide them to someone who can send them home, keeping quiet about what she herself stands to gain.

In Over the Garden Wall, who is the 'good woman of the woods' that Beatrice leads the brothers towards?

Adelaide is no good woman at all: she wants the boys as servants, and her gentler sister, Auntie Whispers, later warns them against her.

What season has Over the Garden Wall become associated with, prompting annual rewatches?

Autumn was the season its creator went without during eight years in Los Angeles, and he said daydreaming about it was part of how the show began.

In Over the Garden Wall's tavern, which role do the regulars finally pin on Wirt?

The Pilgrim is their final verdict, after the fool and the young lover; the creator wanted a modern boy unsure of himself set among people known only by their roles.

What is the title of the pilot short that led to Over the Garden Wall?

Tome of the Unknown: Harvest Melody sends the brothers off in a car made of vegetables, borrowed from a lonely songwriter named John Crops; it won a festival prize before the series was ordered.

In Over the Garden Wall, what proves fatal to the 'good woman of the woods'?

The night air is poison to her, so she keeps even the chimney flue shut; when she tries to seize the brothers, Beatrice throws open a window and the old woman melts away.

Before Over the Garden Wall, Patrick McHale was creative director on which hit animated series?

Adventure Time's creator, Pendleton Ward, later returned the favour, helping to write and storyboard the tavern episode of his old colleague's own show.

Which Monty Python member is in the voice cast of Over the Garden Wall?

John Cleese plays two parts, one of them an old woman, and his odd vocal tics turned an episode written as a psychodrama about a millionaire's madness into comedy.

Who voices Greg, the carefree younger half-brother, in Over the Garden Wall?

Collin Dean joined the show's creator in heckling his co-star through the tavern recording, shouting 'Sing, lover, sing!' over and over to make the session as awkward for him as possible.

How does Greg defeat the North Wind in Over the Garden Wall?

He traps it in a bottle, and the grateful Queen of the Clouds grants him a wish; the gusty villain's song was written and sung by one of the show's own storyboard artists.

In Over the Garden Wall, who is inside the gorilla terrorising the animal school?

The teacher's missing sweetheart, Jimmy Brown, had joined a circus to pay for a ring and got stuck in the costume, and everyone he ran to for help fled in terror.

In the Over the Garden Wall comics, what is the Woodsman's lost daughter called?

Anna is glimpsed only briefly on screen; the comics show her growing up in the family cabin and introduce her mother, whom the series never shows.

In an unused Over the Garden Wall storyline, Greg, then drawn in a sailor suit, was to become which animal?

A duck was the plan, perhaps a wink at a famous cartoon waterfowl in a sailor suit; Wirt was to become 'either a bear or a dog', a joke about old animal drawings nobody could identify.

In Over the Garden Wall, the pointed cap of Wirt's Halloween costume is made from what?

A Santa hat, worn with an old cape, makes a costume even Wirt can't explain: though he put it together himself, he isn't sure what he is meant to be.

What trade made Quincy Endicott of Over the Garden Wall rich enough for his vast mansion?

Tea made his fortune, though he never touches the stuff himself: he sells it only for the money, and the richer he gets the more lost he feels in his ever-growing house.

Which 2022 animated film did Over the Garden Wall's creator co-write?

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio took on Patrick McHale as co-writer in 2017, then stalled within the year when no studio would fund it, until Netflix revived the film in 2018.