This is a wonderful mini-series, using traditional storytelling tropes to excellent effect; a mix of classical European mythic themes with Depression-era Americana overtones. Anyone who loves the creepy, odd, or strange will love this fantastical adventure of two brothers, along with a talking bluebird they befriend, trying to find their way out of a strange and seemingly never-ending wood filled with curious creatures and people – many of whom are not as they appear. The shadow of the Beast of the woods lays over the tale, to be constantly feared until their inevitable encounter. Unfortunately the DVD doesn't contain the ‘episode 0’ pilot episode of the series (‘Tome of the Unknown’), which I had hoped would be included as an extra on the disc, which is dissapointing. However it's a testament to the series that the only complaint is that there wasn't as much of it as I wanted on the DVD.

Over the Garden Wall is in every single way a charming little masterpiece of mini series. Produced by some of the creators behind Adventure Time with the voices of Christopher Lloyd and Elijah Wood, this series has certainly got some real talent behind it. The series combines with perfect effect the mythical stories of 18th Century Europe with the art and musical styles of the 1920s America.

The series follows two brothers and their companions as they try to find their way home through the mythical forest with the dark gaze of the Beast trailing behind them. On the way the brothers encounter a whole cast worth of characters. Some good and some bad.

The series short running time has allowed the creators to beautifully refined the series in every single way, from the beautiful animation, to the writing, and to the casting. Some parts of the story goes down a initially predictable path but with a sudden unexpected twist. Sort of like what Cyanide and Happiness does with their animated shorts. The series over all give the audience plenty of questions and nearly as many answers at its end, however, some questions are left unanswered. After all, this series is marketed as being a “Mystery”.

The series has an tired song book worth of original music. Some of the songs in the series are based off old 18th Century songs, but is mainly made up of songs/ambient music based on early jazz music from the 1920s, with some of the series musical pieces having a similar style/tune to the piano song the Entertainer. As a lover of musical history I must give praise for this.

However, the series is not entirely perfect. Due to the series short running time, some of the characters the brothers encounter story lines are very short and sometimes seems to be rushed, or there is very little time to actually further develop such characters even more. The series over all feels like it is severely lucking in terms of episode count, but that is only because the series is so good. The DVD itself always resets the subtitles options to on every time you boot it up, this is very annoying. As of writing, the series costs $25 NZD, which in my opinion is a little bit too steep to pay for only 110 minutes worth of content when comparing it to other Tv series DVD releases. That's over 1 and a half hours worth of content. But obviously, I thought that shelling out the cash was different worth it to see this impressive little series.

The Magnum Opus of modern Western Animation