On Saturday, Sept. 20, the Hamilton Film Club hosted a screening of the beloved cartoon miniseries

Over the Garden Wall

in Kirner Johnson 127 to celebrate the arrival of autumn. Like many other Film Club screenings, the E-board chose a theme for the screening and allowed students to select various films and shows to watch through a poll. Since last week’s theme was autumn-centric media, most of the options on the poll showed films and shows that focused on the beauty of fall in their storylines. After a week of waiting, Film Club found that students overwhelmingly chose

Garden Wall

for their autumnal screening, over arthouse film

Autumn Sonata

and cult-classic favorites like

The Village

and

Miller’s Crossing.

Garden Wall

is the first miniseries that premiered on Cartoon Network in 2014, featuring the story of two young boys, Wirt and Greg, trying to find their way home through a mysterious forest called “the Unknown.” Along their journey, they encounter multiple intriguing characters — a paranoid Woodsman, a Pumpkin-wearing cult, and a talking bluebird named Beatrice, who later turns into one of the boys’ traveling companions. Though the show has a simple premise, it delves into themes of finding identity, coping with grief, and most importantly, valuing family no matter what said family might look like. This show emphasizes the brotherhood between Wirt and Greg, but also focuses on the families of many others in “the Unknown.” From the Pumpkin-wearing farmers in their strong rural community, to Beatrice’s single mother taking care of her many children, the show allows audiences to understand that family can look different than just the nuclear family unit.

The autumnal theme of

Garden Wall

reveals itself in every frame of the show. The forest of “the Unknown” does not have greenery; instead, it has trees brimming with golden and orange leaves, or barren branches waiting to entrap those who walk past them, capturing the color palette of fall perfectly. It simultaneously incorporates some of the many familiar aspects of autumn that people know and love. In various episodes,

Garden Wall

features pumpkin head carvings, monstrous beasts and ghosts that lurk at night, and people surrounding warm fires telling ghost stories — all images associated with Halloween and the coming of fall.

While the art and colors of

Garden Wall

match the theme of autumn well, the score of

Garden Wall

is


also aptly fitting to the season of fall. The Blasting Company primarily created all the music of the show, and occasionally featured singers in their work, including Audrey Wasilewski and Mark Bodnar. The instrumentals of

Garden Wall

involves haunting piano and brass melodies to reflect the colder and more chilling atmospheres that autumn brings, while the songs consist of eerie lyrics, including warnings against the Old North Wind and some ominous verses of a formless Beast turning wandering travelers into trees.

When it was first released in 2014, the show received critical acclaim from

The A.V. Club

,

The Los Angeles Times

, and many other well-known publications. However, public love for

Garden Wall

appears to have grown exponentially over the years, especially with people constantly rediscovering the show through social media circles.

Currently,

Garden Wall

not only has the reputation of a critically acclaimed miniseries, but also as a classic media staple to herald the beginning of fall. Though the show premiered nearly seven years ago, both critics and watchers alike continue to heap praise upon it and often consider it as the epitome of what autumn represents, which explains why Hamilton students chose it for this autumnal Film Club screening.

For those interested in watching this miniseries that feels like the perfect ode to autumn,

Over the Garden Wall

is currently streaming on HBO Max and Hulu.