A few years ago we lived through a true golden age of animation series thanks to cartoon Network, which left us with a long list of already legendary titles such as ‘Adventure Time’, ‘Current Stories’ and ‘Steven Universe’. In the midst of all these much more striking series, with several seasons and full of action, adventure and humor, came a miniseries that has been crowned an unforgettable gem despite its short duration.
‘Beyond the garden’ is a series of 10 episodes that barely last 11 chapters that can be seen on HBO Max, but that catches you from the beginning with an atmosphere of mystery and classic story and that in less than two hours manages to tell us a round story.
Adventures on the other side of the wall
Patrick McHale’s animated series follows Wirt Y gregogy, two brothers who travel through a strange forest while trying to return home. Along the way, they meet all kinds of extraordinary creatures, from a town full of walking pumpkins to a ship that only carries frogs.
Not all beings the brothers meet are of much help, and soon the shadow of the beasta terrible creature that tries to trap souls in the forest until they lose all hope and turn into trees.
‘Beyond the garden’ is a fascinating series and that eight years after its broadcast continues to raise theories about its iconography and history. It’s right on the line between creepy with certain soft horror tones and cute with its animation style.
Yes, it is a series aimed at a children’s audience, but it is not far from moments that can be scarier or show terrible and threatening creatures. Even so It is a tender series that also hooks you thanks to how the relationship of its protagonists evolves and of all the colorful characters that they meet during their adventure.
Also has well-measured hits of humor and musical numbers that end up giving ‘Beyond the garden’ such a special and characteristic tone that differentiates it from other series of the time.
Although it may seem simple at first, the animation of ‘Beyond the garden’ is a real beauty. The character design is relatively simple, although it is full of details that, together with the watercolor backgrounds, manage to give the series this characteristic tone inspired by the tales of the late nineteenth century and the first classic cartoons.
It is a series that is worth not only watching, but also revisiting from time to time and that gets more juice out of it with each new viewing, appreciating more details of all its characters and how the seeds of its mysterious plot are planted from the first moment. Precisely because of how short it is, it can be seen in one go as if it were a movie, although each episode has its own plot that is connected in a certain way with the thread that unites the entire series.
In its original version, ‘Beyond the garden’ has Elijah Wood Y Colin Dean like the voices of Wirt and Gregory but it also has an amazing cast that includes Christopher Lloyd, Tim CurryBebe Neuwirth, Chris Isaak and John Cleese, among others.
Yes indeed, on HBO Max it is also available with the Spanish dub with which the series was broadcast at the time on Boing and that is also wonderful. Not only the voices are very well searched, but also the translation is very careful and songs from the series have also been translated. And notice… they are too catchy and stay in your head for the rest of the afternoon.