Over the Garden Wall is a show I have mentioned in my inspiration on a few illustrations, and it is a show by Cartoon Network. It tells the story of two half brothers who gets lost in a forest, and have to find their way home through magical and mystical adventures. The story seem quite child friendly at first, but definitely is not meant for younger children. It has an underlying sadness and desperation to it, and after a while the feeling of desperation only increses. The episodes are around 10 minutes long, and there are only 10 episodes, making the series very short.
It inspires me mainly by how it handles the feeling of desperation, and generally how it adds these negative elements to a kids show. As kids, you often feel dumbed down, and having intellectual and creative shows like these can be a different experience.
There are a lof of elements in this show that I can see in my own work, and that I have been inspired by. The style of the background reminds me a lot of Bambi, and how their painted backgrounds helped the scenery breathe. This show blends the style of the characters and the style of the world in an unique way. At first glance of the characters, you would not assume the storyline and the messages of this show would be this dark.
It is clear the creator of the show, Patrick McHale, had a similar love for frogs as I do. I did love frogs before this show, but I had not seen them implimented in a TV-show as much as in this one. The style of the frogs remind me of Teodor Kittelsens charicature "A small man". I cant find any sources on this, but it's not impossible McHain was inspired by the norwegian artist.
A word that sums up this show greatly is "unsettling". There are creatures that you would avoid to interact with, and the older brother does his best to do so, to protect his brother from the unknown. The unknown plays a big part in this series, and is also the name of the forest they are lost in. The whole series aim to explore the unknown, and as I mentioned, adds the feeling of desperation.
What I find so inspiring about this show is the stories, the characters and everything being not as it seems. Someone they introduce as kind will have bad intentions, and someone they introduce as evil will be a misunderstanding. It inspires me to create strong stories and characters that are more than what lies underneath.
This show has an appearance of a goofy cartoon, but develops to become a nightmare for the two boys. It is full of big twists. It inspires me to create something which is not as it seems, and to add twists and turns to my own project.
This character also reminds me of the scarecrow character I created based on an old scarecrow I saw. I will admit mine is a little bit more cute than absolutely horrifying. But it isn't impossible he was inspired by the same type of scarecrow that I was inspred by.
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