McHale won a National Cartoonists Society Reuben award as the creator of Over the Garden Wall, in the category for TV Animation. Tome of the Unknown was streamed online in May 2015. The short became the basis for a ten-part miniseries Over the Garden Wall, which premiered over five consecutive nights in November 2014. It received The Bruce Corwin Award for Best Animated Short Film at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Unlike the other pilots, released online on Cartoon Network Video, the film was selected to be showcased during the festival circuit throughout 2013 and early 2014.
In October 2011, he started work on the eight-minute animated short Tome of the Unknown, which was produced as part of Cartoon Network's shorts development program. Tome of the Unknown and Over the Garden Wall This lasted until the middle of season five. He continued to freelance for the show in the capacity of writing some songs and providing input on story outlines.
He then moved to New York City with his wife and fellow filmmaker Jiwook Kim. Once the show got picked up, McHale stayed on board as the show's creative director through the show's second season. The one-shot character Punsie McKale was inspired by and modeled after McHale.Īfter leaving Flapjack, he joined fellow CalArts alum and Flapjack storyboard artist Pendleton Ward to help develop Ward's Adventure Time short into an animated series. He helped Van Orman to create ten episodes in total.
He began his professional career at Cartoon Network Studios in 2007, as writer and storyboard artist on Thurop Van Orman's The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. McHale graduated from the California Institute of the Arts in 2006 with a BFA in Character Animation. 1.2 Tome of the Unknown and Over the Garden Wall.