Over the Garden Wall

Release: 2015 Studio: Madman Region Code: 4 Format: DVD Type: Series

So, apparently, while trying to figure out what year this disc was published, I found out studio madman lost the rights to publishing cartoon network media, so these dvds and blurays are out of print. I can't even find record of this version on blu-ray.com. And I am admitedly a little livid, because apparently the blu ray version (which I have no idea why I got the dvd instead of the blu ray version. It's been a long time) has special features, and this doesn't. So I am a little bummed, but I guess it's sort of cool I have a version that's no longer available? And possibly even the rarer version, since, why would people buy a dvd version when they could have a bluray version with bonus features? Ahahah.. hah...
But, very much kicking myself for not having gotten the blu ray version, or the limited edition one. What kind of secrets did you hold? I mean--technically I could buy it, but for a reasonable price of $200 bucks second hand on ebay... I don't think so! Not unless I strike it rich one of these days. I guess I'll never get to hear the commentary. I will cry for three nights in mourning. But on the plus side, my disc art is better. So... HA. Whatever, let's get on with it.

Cover

Outside Cover

The front cover is a nice and simple image of what I believe is the official poster of the show, which stretches to the spine. I find normally the spine includes the back cover rather than the front cover but it works nicely here. It' kind of gives the tree on the side a little bit of dimentionality, which is kinda cool. Peering past the tree to view the spine title. And the spine works well too--not too cluttered, blends in well with the rest of the cover, and there's some pen flair marks next to the title which is a nice little touch.

The back cover is also quite nice. Again, not too cluttered, but has a good amount of information. There's some screenshots neatly aligned up the top, some fluff text, then enough room to see the beautiful art of Wirt and Greg walking into the woods. Flipping from the front cover to the back cover it's like your changing the direction you're looking in, from looking at the brothers front on to behind them. It's a nice little detail, I quite appreciate it.

The QR code just takes you to madman's current front webpage rather than to the trailer it claims it will take you to. No doubt a result of their loss of rights. Or maybe madman had rebranded their website since then which also would have broken the link. But that was a neat idea. If you're one of those people who buy physical copies before having seen what's on it, that's a nice little way to quickly find a relevant trailer. It's a shame it doesn't work.

Inside Cover

The left hand side of the inside cover has another very neatly put together index with the list of episode names with a mostly black background, which is part of the illustration. On the right hand side is yet another image of the brothers walking away, but this time further in the distance compared to the back cover. I do wonder if that design choise was intentional, having the brothers get further and further away from the viewer the further into the covers you get. Again, I really like it. Only gripe I have is I'm not sure why the cartoon network logo had to be on the inside cover, especially as this isn't designed to be a reverse cover. But it's fine.

Cover Score: 5 / 5

Disc Art

The disc art matches with the inside cover, where it's literally the same image on top of each other, which really stretches the idea that they had a very specific vision in mind. The overall "look" of the inside cover remains the same, whether the disc is in the holder or not. Again, just... really like this. The people putting this together knew what they were doing.

The disc has a matte finish.

Disc Art Score: 3 / 3

Case

This dvd uses a common clear case with a yinyang button. Opening the cover has a good firmness.

Case: 3 / 3

Menu

Main Menu

The entirety of the menu's all consist of static images. They all also share the same border style is has going on. For the main menu specifically, we have the "Into the Unknown (instrumental)" playing, with the same image of the boys and Beatrice fading in the distance, the same image as the inside cover and disc art. The selection button is a light blue line underneath the options. On one hand I would prefer it to keep to the warm colours to match the theme, but then again I guess it is nice and easy to see.

Other menus

The episode selection menu (or "scene select") has preview images that follow the style of the preview images on the back cover of the case. They also include the episode titles underneath. The selection button for the episodes will cover the preview image in a transparent light blue. Again, not a fan of this look, but it's clear at least. They have five episodes on each page, totalling to the complete ten episodes. On one hand they could have easily fit all ten episodes on one page if the border wasn't so thick, but then again five episodes on a page is a nice number. Not too busy with options, and not having so few where it feels like you're wasting pages. There's also a simple illustration of the woods in the background that isn't too noisy and doesn't retract the attention of the selections, while still complimenting it.

The settings menu is nice and basic, opting for a darker background so the lighter text can stand out in front of it.

Overall, I feel like the menu isn't as strong as the physical media we got, but the colours and styling is still in tone with the show: cosy and dark.

Menu Score: 3.5 / 5

Features

Pre-Menu Video

There's about 30 seconds of pre-menu video. A warning, a madman animation logo, and a cartoon network animation logo that looks like it should have sound but doesn't? Skippable past the warning, but you can't use the menu jump buttons during these logos.

Subtitles and Audio

There are [cc] options! Only english is available

Extras

There are none orz
As I mentioned in the opening, there are bonus features in the blu-ray version. The DVD version, unfortunately, does not have them.

Final Thoughts

Physically, I think this release is pretty great and does everything right. I really can't think of how they would improve upon it outside of a special release. But digitally, it's just, good. Passed "passable" for sure. I still think a considerable amount of effort was put into it. And while I'll always be upset I missed out on the bonus features, and I'll have to resort to looking up the pilot episode on youtube rather than just watch it straight from my disc, I'm still pretty damn happy to have this copy. Who knew I had such a rare DVD in my collection?

OVERALL SCORE: 8/10