"Tome of the Unknown: Harvest Melody", usually shortened to "Tome of the Unknown", is a 2013
animated short film
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...
created by
Patrick McHale
Patrick McHale VC ( ga, Pádraig Mac Céile; 1826 – 26 October 1866) was born in Killala, County Mayo and was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that ca ...
and produced by
Cartoon Network Studios
Cartoon Network Studios is an American animation studio owned by the Warner Bros. Television Studios division of Warner Bros., a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. The studio is the production arm of Cartoon Network, and started operating on ...
. The film serves as the inspiration and
pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...
for the
miniseries
A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...
''
Over the Garden Wall
''Over the Garden Wall'' is an American animated television miniseries created by Patrick McHale for Cartoon Network. The series centers on two half-brothers who travel across a mysterious forest to find their way home, encountering a variet ...
'', which premiered in 2014.
In the filmwhich is narrated by
Warren Burton Wirt (
Elijah Wood
Elijah Jordan Wood (born January 28, 1981) is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Frodo Baggins in the ''Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy (2001–2003) and '' The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'' (2012).
Wood ...
), his brother
Gregory (
Collin Dean
Collin Dean (born January 8, 2005) is an American actor.
Personal life
Collin hails from Gilbert, Arizona, and he has an older sister named Michaela.
Career
Voice acting
Dean was the voice of Lincoln Loud in the Nickelodeon animated series, ' ...
), and
Beatrice (
Natasha Leggero
Natasha Leggero () (born March 26, 1974) is an American comedian, actress and writer. She rose to fame after appearing as the host of the MTV reality television series '' The 70s House'' in 2005, and as a regular roundtable panelist on Chelsea Ha ...
), a bluebird, head to the big city in search of an arcane book of all known things, meeting a vegetable man along the way.
McHale initially pitched the idea to
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...
as a three-season television series, but was asked to develop it into a feature film for Cartoon Network's planned feature film department. He had trouble rewriting the series into a feature, and it was ultimately put on hold when McHale went to work on ''
Adventure Time
''Adventure Time'' is an American fantasy animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn (Jeremy Shada) and ...
''. Several years later, Cartoon Network asked McHale for another pitch. He reworked his pitch for ''Tome of the Unknown'', which was accepted as a pilot and made into a short film. Released in 2013 to multiple
film festival
A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon ...
s, ''Tome of the Unknown'' has received several accolades.
Plot synopsis
In a large forest simply called the "Unknown,"
Wirt and his brother
Gregory walk with
Beatrice (
Natasha Leggero
Natasha Leggero () (born March 26, 1974) is an American comedian, actress and writer. She rose to fame after appearing as the host of the MTV reality television series '' The 70s House'' in 2005, and as a regular roundtable panelist on Chelsea Ha ...
; later voiced by
Melanie Lynskey
Melanie Jayne Lynskey ( ; born 16 May 1977) is a New Zealand actress widely known for her portrayals of complex women in several independent films and television shows and also known for her command of American dialects.
Lynskey is the recipi ...
in the miniseries),
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 suggests they ride a goose, but Wirt doubts they could find one big enough to carry them. Greg wanders off and discovers a car made from vegetables, which fascinates and confuses Wirt. The car's owner, John Crops (
C. W. Stoneking), is likewise a vegetable humanoid. Crops wallows over his loneliness, wishing like the others to go the city. Wirt offers, in exchange for Crops letting them keep the car, to drive Crops to the city, where he can hopefully find a
soulmate
A soulmate is a person with whom one has a feeling of deep or natural affinity. This may involve similarity, love, romance, platonic relationships, comfort, intimacy, sexuality, sexual activity, spirituality, compatibility and trust.
Defini ...
.
A murder of giant crows attacks the vegetable car during the drive, forcing Wirt to veer off into a cornfield and crash into a scarecrow pole, which scares off the crows. Crops reveals that they have arrived at the "big city," which turns out to be an old-fashioned small farm community in the middle of the cornfield.
While Wirt and Beatrice try to repair the car, Greg wanders off with Crops to explore the city's gazebo garden party, where Crops bumps into a woman made of cabbage. An announcement declares that the party's scheduled entertainment has been cancelled, and Greg suggests that Crops should perform instead. The cabbage woman finds herself flattered after learning that Crops is a musician.
Meanwhile, Wirt has trouble fixing the vegetable car until Beatrice tells him what to do. When they start the engine and try to leave, they knock over the scarecrow. This summons the giant crows, as well as giant turkeys, who terrorize the city and its vegetable inhabitants. Wirt and Beatrice pick up Greg, while Crops continues to woo the woman, unaware of the chaos around him.
As Wirt, Greg, and Beatrice attempt to escape without Crops, they are set upon by the giant animals, including an alligator, who start to devour the vegetable car. As Wirt tries to fend them off, Greg jumps out of the car and wanders into the cornfield, where he finds a goose big enough for the group to ride. Wirt and Beatrice find him soon after, guided by his loud, happy screaming. Greg's screams scare off the birds, and Crops returns home with the cabbage woman. Wirt, Gregory, Beatrice, and their new companion Goose, continue to travel onwards, deeper and deeper, into the Unknown.
Production
![Patrick McHale in 2014 at New York Comic Con - Photo By Peter Dzubay](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Patrick_McHale_in_2014_at_New_York_Comic_Con_-_Photo_By_Peter_Dzubay.jpg)
''Tome of the Unknown'' is a short film written and directed by
Patrick McHale
Patrick McHale VC ( ga, Pádraig Mac Céile; 1826 – 26 October 1866) was born in Killala, County Mayo and was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that ca ...
, who also wrote and storyboarded it. Not long after he graduated from college, McHale pitched the idea for the film, among other concepts, to
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...
.
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
A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
.
This proved unsuccessful as he felt it needed to be episodic, laying out plans for a full television series consisting of three seasons.
The project was placed on the backburner when McHale was recruited as creative director for
Pendleton Ward
Ward Taylor Pendleton Johnston (born September 23, 1982), known professionally as Pendleton Ward or simply Pen Ward, is an American animator, screenwriter, producer, director, and voice actor who has worked for Cartoon Network Studios, Freder ...
's ''
Adventure Time
''Adventure Time'' is an American fantasy animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn (Jeremy Shada) and ...
'', also a Cartoon Network production.
Several years later, around 2011, the network asked McHale to pitch an idea.
Although he had made several short student films and had worked in animation for other people, he had never created a professional piece of his own. As a result, McHale did not anticipate the network to have it go further than the short.
The short was positively received and was accepted for production into a miniseries.
Initially conceived as an eighteen-episode miniseries, time constraints forced the series to be cut down to only ten episodes.
Although it reused the main characters from the pilot, with Wood and Dean reprising their roles of Wirt and Greg, the premise of them searching for the Tome of the Unknown was abandoned and changed to a much simpler and flexible story of them getting lost and trying to find their way home, and was retitled ''
Over the Garden Wall
''Over the Garden Wall'' is an American animated television miniseries created by Patrick McHale for Cartoon Network. The series centers on two half-brothers who travel across a mysterious forest to find their way home, encountering a variet ...
''. The series was announced in May 2014 and premiered in November that same year.
Nick Cross, who worked as a background painter with layout designer
Chris Tsirgiotis on ''Tome of the Unknown'',
was hired as the art director for the series.
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
Austin Film Festival (AFF), founded in 1994, is an organization in Austin, Texas, that focuses on writers’ creative contributions to film. Initially, AFF was called the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and functioned to launch the ...
on October 24, 2013,
and the International Children's Film Festival at the
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in May 2014.
At the
Ottawa International Animation Festival
The Ottawa International Animation Festival is an annual animated film and media festival that takes place in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The OIAF was founded in 1975, with the first festival held from August 10 to 15 in 1976. Initially organized by ...
, the film won an honorable mention as one of the best short animations for children on September 21, 2013.
A Bruce Corwin Award for animation was given to the film at the 29th annual
Santa Barbara International Film Festival
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) is an eleven-day film festival held in Santa Barbara, California since 1986.
The festival boasts screenings of over 200 feature films and shorts from different countries and regions. SBIFF al ...
in February 2014,
where it was screened in the previous month.
Regarding its screening in Boston, Ethan Gilsdorf of ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' called the film marked by the presence of connections by celebrities, particularly Wood, while noting McHale for his work on ''Adventure Time''.
The film saw digital distribution as part of the DVD release of the miniseries on September 8, 2015.
The network previously released the film on their official website in May 2015. Róbert Kovács-Cohner of the Hungarian
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
gave it a high recommendation, calling the story beautiful as it occurs over the backgrounds.
For their work on these backgrounds, Cross and Tsirgiotis earned juried
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
s, as part of the
67th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards
The 67th Annual Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony was held on September 12, 2015, at the Microsoft Theater in Downtown Los Angeles. The event was broadcast in the U.S. by FXX on September 19, 2015. The ceremony was in conjunction wit ...
.
References
External links
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{{Good article
2013 short films
2013 films
American animated short films
Cartoon Network Studios pilots and shorts
American television series premieres
2010s American films