Over the Garden Wall 10th Anniversary Tribute is a three minute stop motion short produced by the British studio Aardman Animations to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the series. It was directed by Mikey Please and Dan Ojari, and written in collaboration with Patrick McHale.
Synopsis[]
As Wirt and Greg wait for Beatrice to return while standing under the shade of an Edelwood Tree, Wirt's mind begins to wander as he goes into a monologue questioning whether their journey or anyone else's can really end or if they're all just playthings of the hands of fate. This plays over a montage of scenes including the Woodsman traveling through the forest at night, frogs on the shore watching the ferry go down the river, the residents of Pottsfield in the midst of their harvest festival, the Fisher Fish casting his line, and a large group of characters around a campfire near a set of stone ruins. Wirt's monologue is interrupted by Beatrice pecking him on the forehead, having come back from her private bird business. Wirt comments that it feels like he's been waiting for years, even though Beatrice has only been gone for five minutes. As Wirt comments that he doesn't feel as lost as long as they're all together, Beatrice tells him he's being sappy and the trio continue on their journey as the camera pans over to a cabin filled with figures of the show's cast.
Trivia[]
- Elijah Wood and Melanie Lynskey reprise their respective roles as Wirt and Beatrice, with narration performed by Frank Fairfield, who voiced the Toymaker.
- Having been made ten years after the show's end, all of Greg's lines of dialog are recycled from unused Collin Dean voice recordings made during the original show's production.
- Jack Jones was approached to reprise his narrator role but was too ill to do so; he passed away on October 23, 2024, less than two weeks before this short was released.[1]
- Although uncredited, an archival recording of Jack Jones humming the Over the Garden Wall theme is featured during the credits.
- The campfire scene features an assortment of characters from the pilot and comic book including John Crops, Cabbage Gal, the Woodsman's Wife, one of "Papa's" daughters, the General from the Commonwealth Crew, and Pooree.
- Aardman Animation's involvement in the special came about unintentionally: McHale reached out to Please and Ojari from their work on the Netflix short Robin Robin and knowledge that they were fans of Over the Garden Wall, unaware they were working full time at Aardman. McHale called the experience of collaborating with Aardman "pretty magical", as he considers the studio one of his inspirations to even join the animation industry.[1]