Getting Animated

One should try to avoid pre-conceived notions about another person, but I just assumed Elijah Wood would be an Adventure Time fan since, in addition to his lengthy list of acting roles, the Lord Of The Rings star is renowned as something of an avid pop-culture geek, and the quirky, inventive animated series just seemed right up his alley.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered he’d only recently joined the show’s legion of admirers, and only after working on Over The Garden Wall, an animated program created by writer Patrick McHale, who’d previously worked on, you guessed it, Adventure Time.

“I kept hearing from my adult friends how brilliant Adventure Time was, and it wasn’t until I finished Over The Garden Wall that I finally started watching it,” laughs Wood. “Then I retroactively realised how brilliant Patrick really is. I mean, I knew already, but seeing Adventure Time put everything into further context. I don’t think I truly appreciated the effort Cartoon Network” – the station behind both shows – “is putting into the world of animation. So many of their shows have that dual appeal, where they work for both adults and kids, and Over The Garden Wall works that way as well.”

Based on McHale’s short film Tome Of The Unknown, Over The Garden Wall is Cartoon Network’s first animated mini-series, an idiosyncratic ten-episode fairytale adventure. Creepy and comical by turns, it follows Wirt (voiced by Wood) and his younger brother Greg (Collin Dean) as they try to navigate their way home through a strange realm called the Unknown, with a little assistance from ill-tempered talking bluebird Beatrice (Melanie Lynskey), but face many adversaries, voiced by the likes of John Cleese, Chris Isaak and Christopher Lloyd.

Interest was piqued the moment Wood received an information package, finding the artwork, character designs and story synopses “incredibly appealing”.

“I love animation, and I hadn’t really seen anything like this in a very long time – the notion of hand-painted backgrounds and an animation style that evoked something from decades ago; a style of storytelling that seemed to be inspired by fairytales.”

The relationship between the endearingly naive Greg and his slightly more jaded brother also appealed. “These two brothers find themselves on a wayward path they don’t understand, and Greg is completely and blissfully unaware because of his youth and his naiveté... But Wirt has passed a certain age and sees the world for all its darkness and danger. If I may get a little deep, Wirt’s journey is an understanding of self. He has to confront his own weaknesses and also understand his own strengths, which has never been tested. He has to confront his own weaknesses as well.”