'Toon Reviews 2: Over the Garden Wall Episode 3

Schooltown Follies

 

 

 

 

This part of the series features our heroes coming across a school where all the students are animals wearing clothes, meaning that they are real animals who  behave like real animals and can’t talk , yet they just happen to go to a school taught by a human teacher.  That’s just about as creative as the premise gets.  What goes on there involving the school needing money to stay open, the teacher constantly lamenting about her lost love in front of her students, and a wild gorilla on the loose are fine and good, but simply not as engaging as what we got in the last two episodes.  However, what makes this episode worth sitting through is how Wirt, Greg, and Beatrice observe the situation.  Wirt and Beatrice spend much of the episode having an amusing banter about how Wirt is such a pushover who’s always afraid of breaking the rules, signaling some potential character development for Wirt as well as a growth in his friendship with Beatrice.  Greg, on the other hand is easily the standout character of the three.  His happy, childlike demeanor manages to liven up the dull situation he and the others come across.  This is especially apparent when he strikes up a catchy musical number during the students’ mealtime before the teacher’s father, who’s the owner of the school, arrives and calls everyone out for their tomfoolery.  In the end, Greg manages to do his part in making the world a better place by stealing back the students’ instruments from the father and successfully raises enough money to save the school by having the students put on a benefit concert.  While the main story of this part may not be very interesting and not offer much bearing on the main story (though the gorilla part of the story does have a cool twist to it), what our heroes get up to at least helps make this part enjoyable.  8/10

Ranking

1)      Hard Times at the Huskin’ Bee

2)      The Old Grist Mill

3)      Schooltown Follies

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode of the series, "Songs of the Dark Lantern."