Tome of the Unknown

Tome of the Unknown, the full title of which is Tome of the Unknown: Harvest Melody, is a 2013 animated short film directed by Patrick McHale. In the film, Wirt (Elijah Wood), his brother Gregory (Collin Dean), and Beatrice, a bluebird, head to the big city in search of an arcane book of all known things, meeting a vegetable man along the way.

Originally imagined as a three-season television show, Cartoon Network asked for it to be a feature film. During production, the miniseries format that eventually became that for Over the Garden Wall was decided on. The film serves as the inspiration and pilot for the aforementioned miniseries, which premiered in 2014.^[1] The network, whose animation studio produced the film, also served as distributor. Released in 2013 to multiple film festivals, Tome of the Unknown has received several accolades.

Plot synopsis

In the woods, Wirt (Elijah Wood) and his brother Gregory (Collin Dean) walk with Beatrice (Natasha Leggero; later voiced by Melanie Lynskey in the miniseries^[1]), a bluebird who has gained the ability to speak. The three are on their way to the big city, in search of a book titled The Tome of the Unknown, which – according to legend – contains every forgotten thing. When their legs tire, Greg discovers a car that is made from vegetables. Its owner, John Crops (C. W. Stoneking), is likewise a vegetable humanoid. Crops wallows over his loneliness, wishing like the others to go the metropolitan area. Wirt promises in exchange for his car that he will find Crops a soulmate in the city.

A murder of crows compromises the vegetable car as they arrive. While Wirt and Beatrice try to repair the car, Greg wanders off with Crops. The latter of whom bumps into a woman made of cabbage. Crops apologizes, and the woman finds herself flattered after Greg reveals that Crops is a musician. Back at the car, Wirt and Beatrice knock over a scarecrow as they leave with the car working. This summons more crows, who terrorize the city and its vegetable inhabitants. Nowhere to be found, Wirt and Beatrice hear Greg shout. When they find him, Greg unscathed reveals a goose, which the trio happily ride on, heading toward the Unknown. Meanwhile, the shout scares off the crows, and Crops and his lover move back to the country.

Production

Patrick McHale, the film's director

Tome of the Unknown is a short film directed by Patrick McHale, who also wrote and storyboarded it. Not long after he graduated college, McHale pitched the idea for the film, among other concepts, to Cartoon Network.^[2] At the time, the network was considering the creation of a department for feature films, though this never came to fruition. McHale was asked if it was possible to adapt the idea for Tome of the Unknown to feature length.^[3] This proved unsuccessful as he felt it needed to be episodic, laying out plans for a full television series consisting of three seasons.^[2]

After working as a creative director and a writer for Adventure Time – another Cartoon Network production – on top of a new house and the birth of his child, the network again gave McHale an opportunity to pitch an idea.^[2] Having worked in animation for other people as well as on the short animated works of his own, but with nothing for him to call a "professional" piece, McHale did not anticipate the network to have it go further than the short. During production, reformatting the film to a miniseries and not as a traditional television adaptation was proposed by McHale and the network, tongue-in-cheek. Following its release, they both found the format more than suitable.^[3] Retitled as Over the Garden Wall, the miniseries was announced in May 2014.^[4] Nick Cross, who worked as a background painter with layout designer Chris Tsirgiotis on Tome of the Unknown,^[5] was hired as the art director for the series.^[3]

Release and reception

Cartoon Network released Tome of the Unknown to several film festivals starting in 2013, including the 20th anniversary of the Austin Film Festival on October 24, 2013,^[6] and the International Children's Film Festival at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in May 2014.^[7] At the Ottawa International Animation Festival, the film won an honorable mention as one of the best short animations for children on September 21, 2013.^[8] A Bruce Corwin Award for animation was given to the film at the 29th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival in February 2014,^[9] where it was screened in the previous month.^[10] Regarding its screening in Boston, Ethan Gilsdorf of The Boston Globe called the film marked by the presence of connections by celebrities, particularly Wood, while noting McHale for his work on Adventure Time.^[7]

The film saw digital distribution as part of the DVD release of the miniseries on September 8, 2015.^[11] The network previously released the film on their official website in May 2015. Róbert Kovács-Cohner of the Hungarian IGN gave it a high recommendation, calling the story beautiful as it occurs over the backgrounds.^[12] For their work on these backgrounds, Cross and Tsirgiotis earned juried Emmy Awards, as part of the 67th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.^[5]

References

External films

• Official website
• Tome of the Unknown at the Internet Movie Database