over the garden wall analysis:
I've went with high expectations into this, as i've constantly heard good things about it, so I will be even more nit-picky than usual
The story is about two brothers who gets lost in this forest and must find their way home. The aesthetic and ambient of this show is absolutely amazing, with that dark forest halloween creatures setting, this also combines perfectly with the plot of trying to return home, as it adds a sense of danger and mysticism
The structure of this show is very similar to an episodic one, there is still the overarching plot and some characters get introduced midway through it, but the chapters are mostly self-contained stories, and it mostly plays around with the idea of that we maybe fear the wrong things. That we're putting the trust in the wrong people, as in many parts of the show it turns out that the weird creature is actually not trying to kill everyone and destroy the world, but it's the human that's actually more scary
The first 2 chapters are strong, specially chapter 2, the one with all the pumpkin people, I think that it is by far the best episode in the whole thing, however, we mostly start seeing the problems I have with the show in the next few chapters (Will spoiler the next since i'm talking of like every single chapter)
chapter 3 is really dumb, like all of it, the premise on how they get involved into the situation in a way feels kinda forced, and IMO there are a couple of weird jokes like the bear one that turns out to be the ex otf the teacher? like idk really, it feels to go in opposite direction to the dark world and the trust premise
This is more of a personal thing, but I like it when a series has banger dialogue, i'm a sucker for amazingly written, almost poetic dialogue even if it's less realistic and no sane human would ever talk like that. So when in chapter 4, at the start they literally go "let's go to that dark and scary looking place over there to ask for directions!" I died a little bit inside
my problem with this one line of dialogue is not the comedy itself, I think comedy does have a place in a show like this, however it should be the sitaution that turns out to be kinda funny, however if you put a setup for a joke in such a cristal clear way, the characters start feeling less of a character and a real line of dialogue and more just something that had to happen in the script, and it overalls makes me care less of the dialogue of the entire show. If I know that they're willing to just use the dialogue as a perfectly obvious way to try to set up something for later in such an unnatural way, I know that the dialogue isn't that deep, that there isn't really going to be any hidden meaning to the words, that there hasn't been that much brainpower into creating banger dialogue, and I think that's a shame.
And while I have mostly complained about that single line, I think that the characters overall could be heavily improved, I really don't like the existance of gregory in the way that it does now. That sense of danger that the world inherently created, he removes it. The way he just delivers these transparent funny lines, and the plot armour both characters has kina just kill a lot of the more action/tension focused moments
because that's another thing, they clearly have a lot of plot armour, the characters do clearly make the wrong choice at times, but they're never punished for it. There is no consequence for their actions, at the end of the day thigns will probably be alright, and I think that is a shame, I feel with the aesthetic and ideas of this show, actually just having those consequences would make the show 20 times better
If the characters could be damaged in any way, if they didn't feel like they had to deliver those jokes, the actual message and plot would be so much more powerful and memorable, if we could just have a scene of a character actually losing their fucking mind amist the absolutely nightmarish ambient, just because they made a wrong choice that they really didn't have that many chances of actually seeing through it, showcassing the clearly unfair situation they were placed in and being forced to reconciliate and adapt to it, learning from their previous action and pushing forward, that would be so fucking sick you cant even begin to imagine it
but that is what I personally wanted the show to be like, and what it seemed to be pointing at with chapter 2, however we got to actually sit down and realize that this is a cartoon network show, that this in a way, it's still directed at kids. In that context these characters works and the plot armour makes sense.
For as much as the "Animation is not just for kids" is absolutely true, it's not really the case. The medium of animation isn't really necessarily for kids, however, in western countries, the only companies with the creative directors and the money to make shows happen have rules that forces the shows to be kid-friendly
That really makes me wonder, if this same director were given the opportunity to have made the show with the same resources but without the limitations cartoon network has, what would they have done?. It's just a shame IMO that something with so much potential had to be trimmed down this way, and while it's still a really good western animated show, (one of the better ones i've seen tbh), it could have been so, so much more
it's just, knowing that structure and those limitations, I don't think I need to really tell you how this show ends, you already know how, you already know what happens and what does not happen, so i'm not really going to talk about any more specific chapters
tldr: good show but god I wish we had someone actually pushing for good animated shows not directed at children
----
next: contagion
still haven't really progressed in stellaris
still haven't started Uramiya Honpo
I've went with high expectations into this, as i've constantly heard good things about it, so I will be even more nit-picky than usual
The story is about two brothers who gets lost in this forest and must find their way home. The aesthetic and ambient of this show is absolutely amazing, with that dark forest halloween creatures setting, this also combines perfectly with the plot of trying to return home, as it adds a sense of danger and mysticism
The structure of this show is very similar to an episodic one, there is still the overarching plot and some characters get introduced midway through it, but the chapters are mostly self-contained stories, and it mostly plays around with the idea of that we maybe fear the wrong things. That we're putting the trust in the wrong people, as in many parts of the show it turns out that the weird creature is actually not trying to kill everyone and destroy the world, but it's the human that's actually more scary
The first 2 chapters are strong, specially chapter 2, the one with all the pumpkin people, I think that it is by far the best episode in the whole thing, however, we mostly start seeing the problems I have with the show in the next few chapters (Will spoiler the next since i'm talking of like every single chapter)
chapter 3 is really dumb, like all of it, the premise on how they get involved into the situation in a way feels kinda forced, and IMO there are a couple of weird jokes like the bear one that turns out to be the ex otf the teacher? like idk really, it feels to go in opposite direction to the dark world and the trust premise
This is more of a personal thing, but I like it when a series has banger dialogue, i'm a sucker for amazingly written, almost poetic dialogue even if it's less realistic and no sane human would ever talk like that. So when in chapter 4, at the start they literally go "let's go to that dark and scary looking place over there to ask for directions!" I died a little bit inside
my problem with this one line of dialogue is not the comedy itself, I think comedy does have a place in a show like this, however it should be the sitaution that turns out to be kinda funny, however if you put a setup for a joke in such a cristal clear way, the characters start feeling less of a character and a real line of dialogue and more just something that had to happen in the script, and it overalls makes me care less of the dialogue of the entire show. If I know that they're willing to just use the dialogue as a perfectly obvious way to try to set up something for later in such an unnatural way, I know that the dialogue isn't that deep, that there isn't really going to be any hidden meaning to the words, that there hasn't been that much brainpower into creating banger dialogue, and I think that's a shame.
And while I have mostly complained about that single line, I think that the characters overall could be heavily improved, I really don't like the existance of gregory in the way that it does now. That sense of danger that the world inherently created, he removes it. The way he just delivers these transparent funny lines, and the plot armour both characters has kina just kill a lot of the more action/tension focused moments
because that's another thing, they clearly have a lot of plot armour, the characters do clearly make the wrong choice at times, but they're never punished for it. There is no consequence for their actions, at the end of the day thigns will probably be alright, and I think that is a shame, I feel with the aesthetic and ideas of this show, actually just having those consequences would make the show 20 times better
If the characters could be damaged in any way, if they didn't feel like they had to deliver those jokes, the actual message and plot would be so much more powerful and memorable, if we could just have a scene of a character actually losing their fucking mind amist the absolutely nightmarish ambient, just because they made a wrong choice that they really didn't have that many chances of actually seeing through it, showcassing the clearly unfair situation they were placed in and being forced to reconciliate and adapt to it, learning from their previous action and pushing forward, that would be so fucking sick you cant even begin to imagine it
but that is what I personally wanted the show to be like, and what it seemed to be pointing at with chapter 2, however we got to actually sit down and realize that this is a cartoon network show, that this in a way, it's still directed at kids. In that context these characters works and the plot armour makes sense.
For as much as the "Animation is not just for kids" is absolutely true, it's not really the case. The medium of animation isn't really necessarily for kids, however, in western countries, the only companies with the creative directors and the money to make shows happen have rules that forces the shows to be kid-friendly
That really makes me wonder, if this same director were given the opportunity to have made the show with the same resources but without the limitations cartoon network has, what would they have done?. It's just a shame IMO that something with so much potential had to be trimmed down this way, and while it's still a really good western animated show, (one of the better ones i've seen tbh), it could have been so, so much more
it's just, knowing that structure and those limitations, I don't think I need to really tell you how this show ends, you already know how, you already know what happens and what does not happen, so i'm not really going to talk about any more specific chapters
tldr: good show but god I wish we had someone actually pushing for good animated shows not directed at children
----
next: contagion
still haven't really progressed in stellaris
still haven't started Uramiya Honpo