Wooden puppets and miniature sets: Inside the making of the new ‘Over the Garden Wall’ stop-motion short

Since its launch in 2014, the Cartoon Community animated collection Over the Garden Wall has turn into one thing of a cult basic. The ten-episode present follows half-brothers Wirt and Greg on a trek by way of a magical forest realm referred to as “The Unknown.” It has all the components for an annual fall rewatch: Skeleton jack-o-lanterns, genuinely foreboding evil forces, lovely animation, and a thought-provoking story line. And this yr, for the collection’ 10-year anniversary, followers will get new Over the Garden Wall content material for the first time since its debut.

Right this moment, Cartoon Network and the animation studio Aardman are set to launch a three-minute anniversary short in honor of the unique present. The short is written by administrators Dan Ojari and Mikey Please (who beforehand co-created the stop-motion short Robin Robin) alongside the present’s creator Patrick McHale, and it options new voice appearing from unique forged members together with Elijah Wooden (of Lord of the Rings fame) as Wirt. Not like the unique collection, which was made in a 2D digital animation type, the short is solely stop-motion.

To reimagine Over the Garden Wall in a new animation medium, Ojari and Please’s staff relied virtually solely on sensible results. Wirt, Greg, and the relaxation of the forged are hand-carved puppets that stand at a peak of a number of inches (or smaller, in some instances). The units for the short—which took round two months to construct—are ultra-detailed miniaturized scenes, together with a full magic forest made to puppet-scale.

We spoke with Ojari and Please to debate the short’s distinctive manufacturing, the return of the present’s unique actors, and some followers’ concern that the short was made utilizing AI.

[Photo: Courtesy of Aardman/Cartoon Network]

This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.

How did the concept for this anniversary short come about?

Ojari: Patrick McHale acquired involved with us earlier in the yr, round March. He emailed us on a Monday morning, however I assume it got here in actually early, as a result of we each checked our telephones whereas waking up and noticed this e-mail from Pat with this dream proposition. It kind of felt prefer it was a bizarre dream—we each got here into work like, ‘Did you get that email as well? Or am I imagining it?’ From there we began chatting to Pat about it, and it grew to become clear that it was an actual challenge.

What makes this a dream challenge for you?

Please: Firstly, it’s a rare present, and everybody who watches it, I believe, feels this reference to the idiosyncrasies of it—the lovely humanity and the folks horror packaged on this actually accessible, wealthy piece of leisure. Dan and I clearly watched the present when it got here out. I believe it had this large affect on our work and having the ability to see the sort of initiatives that had been doable to push into mainstream animation. Should you take a look at some of our different work, like Robin Robin, which we made for Netflix a pair years in the past, there are actual tones of Over the Garden Wall in there.

Had been there any design challenges in translating the characters to cease movement puppets?

Ojari: The whole lot on this challenge really got here collectively with out a lot friction, which is sort of uncommon. We labored with Josh and Nathan Flynn, who we’ve labored with in the previous—they make character design sculpts. For this challenge, we had been capable of work with them all through the complete course of, from determining how we translate the characters into 3D by way of to making the precise puppets and armatures. They’re mega [Over the Garden Wall] followers; Nathan really despatched [Patrick McHale] little Christmas decorations one yr.

Please: I ought to say as effectively, quite a bit of our cease movement work is constructed on a basis of illustration. We begin with a powerful graphic base. So translating from Over the Garden Wall was very pure. They’re such iconic characters as effectively, primarily these main shapes, so that they lent themselves completely to this wooden look.

[Art: Courtesy of Aardman/Cartoon Network]

How a lot of the animation is bodily versus digital?

Please: The one factor that’s digital is the facial animation. We simply completed filming the ultimate shot, and it’s an enormous, 10-by-10 sq. meter forest. We had mainly 5 totally different rooms with totally different units. We’ve got a bunch of little offshoot mini units as effectively.

There’s a large VFX staff that provides all the ambiance, and all the characters have these little scaffolding bars that we’ve got to take away as a result of they don’t actually get up very effectively [in real life]. So there’s hundreds of VFX in it, however all the units are actual; all the puppets are actual. It’s simply the faces which are CG.

Ojari: We normally construct the world from scratch in a barely extra stylized method, however we needed to make it really feel like this might be an actual miniature world, right down to the undergrowth of these units. The artwork division went out and collected actual items of wooden for it.

Please: There have been just a few feedback on the [announcement] Instagram post pondering it was AI. It was so gutting to see that!

Ojari: The great factor is, we’ve acquired a [behind the scenes video] popping out the place we present the course of. It sort of feels extra vital now to doc the way you make issues, and additionally as a result of I believe the craft behind it does present in the finish outcome.

What do you guys suppose is effective about going again to those key tenets of animation with puppets and stop-motion?

Please: After releasing that also and seeing the commentary about the AI, in a method it was sort of good to see, as a result of it’s like, “Oh, no, we’ve actually done the complete opposite.” We couldn’t have devised a extra convoluted approach for bringing this world to life. And I believe it actually shines by way of.

I believe hopefully while you see it, it’s going to have this sense of being steeped in humanity, which I believe is an more and more uncommon expertise, however it’s going to all the time be a treasured one. Doing actual stuff, for us, is far more enjoyable. Constructing an enormous forest with puppets in it’s the finest solution to spend your day. Should you had been to spend that day crafting your professional immediate…that sounds boring as hell.

What did the voicing course of appear to be? Did you get the unique actors again in the studio?

Please: Yeah, we did. We acquired Elijah Woods [as Wirt] again in the studio, and Melanie Lynskey [as Beatrice], and Frank Fairfield [as the narrator/Toymaker]. Collin Dean, who performed Greg, has now grown up, so we had a really restricted quantity of cuts from the unique collection to construct the construction of the story round.

Ojari: What was very nice was being in the room, and it felt like the present was alive once more; the characters had been alive. And in addition seeing Patrick—he was loving the incontrovertible fact that it rekindled this glorious challenge for a bit second.

Please: After Elijah’s first take, he requested, “How was it?” And Patrick stated, “I have no idea, because all I heard was that Wirt’s alive again.”

Are you able to share any hints on the story?

Please: It’s two issues. Its perform is primarily to rejoice this lovely world that Patrick created, and to offer the followers who’ve stayed loyal and true to the present over the final 10 years a “thank you” for sticking with these youngsters by way of the woods.

But additionally, as a result of Pat has such a deep appreciation for what the world is, and why we’d revisit it, that there’s fairly sturdy overarching themes of misplaced reminiscences, and issues which have moved on however we’re revisiting. If one thing is gone, is it additionally forgotten, though we will’t see it anymore? So there’s these questions raised of, though the collection is gone, is it nonetheless with us? What does it imply to maintain holding onto this world?

So there’s a bit of meta commentary in there.

Please: Yeah, it’s quite a bit of meta.

Ojari: I suppose it’s fairly meta. Nevertheless it additionally seems like a scene that would’ve performed out inside the unique story, and even after it.

Please: Relying on my temper, once I watch it again, it’s made me cry a pair of instances, it’s made me snort continuously. It does heaps of fascinating issues.