Gravity Falls

**Gravity Falls** is an American television series created by Alex Hirsch.

It focuses on the adventures of Dipper Pines and his twin sister Mabel who are sent to spend the summer with their great-uncle in Gravity Falls, Oregon, a mysterious town full of paranormal incidents and supernatural creatures.

The series premiered on Disney Channel on June 15, 2012 and aired for two seasons on Disney XD until February 15, 2016.

## Plot

For their summer vacation, 12-year-old twins Dipper and Mabel Pines are dropped off from their home in Piedmont, California, to the fictitious town of Gravity Falls, Roadkill County, Oregon, to spend the summer with their great uncle Stan Pines (often shortened to Grunkle Stan), who runs a tourist trap called the "Mystery Shack". Things are not what they seem in this small town, and with the help of a mysterious journal that Dipper finds in the forest, they begin unravelling the town's mysteries each day. With Wendy Corduroy, Mystery Shack cashier; Soos Ramirez, a friend of Dipper and Mabel and handyman to Grunkle Stan; plus an assortment of other characters, Dipper and Mabel always have an intriguing day to look forward to.

## Cast and Characters

### Main

* Jason Ritter as Dipper Pines
* Kristen Schaal as Mabel Pines
* Alex Hirsch as Stanley "Stan" Pines / Soos Ramirez / Bill Cipher
* Linda Cardellini as Wendy Curduroy
* J. K. Simmons as Stanford Pines

## Episodes

See Also: List of Gravity Falls Episodes

 2 | 20

## Video Game

* Gravity Falls: Legend of the Gnome Gemulets

## Production

### Conception

Prior to working on the series, series creator Alex Hirsch's primary inspiration growing up was the popular animated sitcom The Simpsons, where he observed that "animation could be funnier than live-action. That animation didn't have to just be for kids. That it could be satirical and observational and grounded in a sense of character interaction". Hirsch graduated from the California Institute of the Arts, and was hired to work as writer and storyboard artist for the Cartoon Network series The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, where he was paired up with Pendleton Ward, the creator of Adventure Time. Afterwards, he moved on to co-develop the Disney Channel animated series Fish Hooks; shortly before he pitched Gravity Falls, which was subsequently green-lit.

Hirsch said he was at the California Institute of the Arts when he turned down DreamWorks Animation executive Jeffrey Katzenberg out of a desire to work for Disney. He first coined the concept for the show in an 11-minute low-budget student film that he made at the institute. Hirsch was called in to do a pitch for Disney Channel for a show based on the short pilot. Disney Channel bought the idea and the series premiered on June 15, 2012.

The series was inspired by Hirsch's own childhood experiences and his relationship with his own twin sister growing up during their summer vacations. He placed many of his real-life experiences in the show, like living in Piedmont and trick-or-treating with his sister as kids. Dipper Pines is based on Hirsch's memory of how it felt to be a kid. When Hirsch was around Dipper's age, he "would record [him]self and play it backwards and try to learn to speak backwards". Hirsch described himself as "that neurotic kid who would carry 16 disposable cameras everywhere I went". Mabel Pines was inspired by his twin sister, Ariel Hirsch. According to Hirsch, just like Mabel, his sister "really did wear wacky sweaters and have a different ridiculous crush, every week." In the series Mabel gets a pet pig, just like his sister had always wanted when she was a kid. Grunkle Stan was inspired by Hirsch's grandpa Stan, who according to Hirsch "was a guy that told tall tales and would frequently mess with us to get a rise out of us. So, my family really inspired the characters on the show."

### Writing

In an interview with Oh My Disney, Hirsch claimed he already had the beginning, middle, and end of the story for Gravity Falls planned out when he first pitched the series. He originally thought the series would "be two or three seasons". However, Hirsch had never created a TV series before and after experiencing how "incredibly draining" it was, he initially wanted to end the series after season one and, ultimately, on a cliff-hanger. After the series premiered and became a huge commercial success, Hirsch began to rethink his decision. Two people convinced him to return and do a second season: Jon Stewart, the former host of The Daily Show (and eventual Gravity Falls guest star), who told Hirsch that his kids loved the show, and Patrick McHale, who created the animated series Over the Garden Wall. McHale had been watching the series and told him: "Look, after that cliff-hanger, you’ve got to finish it." Hirsch decided that he had about ten more episodes left in him, so he went to the network, who said, "We only take seasons in twenties." So he said, "Okay, one more season… Before we started the second season, it said in my contract, before I put pen to paper, that this is my last season." The studio agreed, under the condition that Hirsch could not tell anyone. As a result, Jason Ritter, who voices Dipper, did not know the series was ending until after he read the finale script, claiming that "when I read the finale I thought, this feels like, not just the season finale. It feels like a series finale."

Hirsch explained in an interview with The A.V. Club that during the production of season one, a typical episode was conceived in a room reserved for writers, where a simple synopsis was presented, and from then on dramatic structure was defined, and the plot was modified to include a character-driven subplot, which Hirsch expressed as "the hardest thing... to find a character story that actually uncovers, explores, or pushes tension, on something our characters care about, that is properly explored via the magic or monster or impossibility of the week."

B- and A-stories were created and were given to a writer to produce an outline, which was then subsequently checked-off by Hirsch for feedback. The writer produced a draft from these edits, where more notes may have been given. Hirsch stated that he and creative director Mike Rianda may have personally created a draft for themselves before a final script was produced, in which the dialogue from the draft received from the writer was significantly revised; Hirsch stated that the revising process "is not a discredit to our writers, it's just we have a very particular vision. In particular, I usually rewrite almost all of Dipper's dialogue and most of Mabel's dialogue, just because I have them in my head. Me and Mike will stay up for about 24 hours prior to the delivery of every script. We'll take the weekend, we'll work all night, we'll drink Red Bull, we'll sleep on the couch in shifts like maniacs, we'll slap each other in the face."

### Animation

After a script was delivered, an episode then got translated into a storyboard, where feedback was received from Hirsch to the board artists if a certain element, such as a gag, did not work. Afterwards, a pitch for the episode was given to the network, where they did a read-through, and then the episode was either checked out by the network, or retooled in the small amount of time allocated before an animation studio must receive something to work with. The series was animated by Rough Draft Korea, Digital eMation and Yearim Productions. However, whenever a sequence was deemed too important for the outside animation studios to realize, it was animated in-house by storyboard artist and supervisor Dana Terrace.

## Release

The first twelve episodes of Gravity Falls aired in a regular weekly slot on Disney Channel starting in mid-2012, but subsequent episodes were broadcast without similar regularity; it took until August 2013 to broadcast the remaining eight episodes of the first season. The second season began airing a year later in August 2014, transitioning over to Disney XD, but again without any regularity as to when new episodes would be first broadcast. The first nine episodes aired from August to November 2014, the following two in February and March 2015, the next eight from July to November 2015, and the finale aired on February 15, 2016. According to Disney XD, as each episode took about six months of work to complete, they opted against stockpiling episodes to show weekly but instead take advantage of the serial nature of the show, broadcasting each episode as it was completed and making an event out of it. On April 2, 2018, reruns of the show started airing on Disney Channel, although reruns of the show still air on Disney XD.

The series began airing on Disney Channel Canada on September 1, 2015, following Corus Entertainment's acquisition of Disney Channel rights in Canada. In Canada the show began airing on Disney XD starting on December 1, 2015, following the launch of Disney XD. The show started broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland on July 20, 2012, as a preview and officially premiered on September 7, 2012. In Australia and New Zealand it previewed on August 17, 2012, and premiered on September 24, 2012. It also premiered in Southeast Asia on October 27, 2012. In India, it premiered on September 16, 2013. In the Middle East region, the series was previewed on October 19, 2012, and premiered on November 10, 2012.

The series preview debuted in Canada on June 15, 2012, and premiered on July 6, 2012, on Family Channel, until January 2016 when it moved to the local Disney XD channel following Corus Entertainment's acquisition of Disney Channel rights in Canada from Family's owner DHX Media. In Australia, the show airs on Disney XD and 7mate while in Chile, the show was broadcast on Canal 13 on November 24, 2013, under its programming block CuBox. In the Philippines, the show was shown on TV5 beginning on May 4, 2014, while in Brazil, the show also began airing on Rede Globo on May 10, 2014. In Indonesia, the show premiered on RCTI on August 17, 2014.

## Reception

### Critical Response

Both seasons of Gravity Falls hold a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. On Rotten Tomatoes, season one has an average critic score of 7.40 out of 10 based on 12 reviews. Season two has an average critic score of 8.80 out of 10 based on 8 reviews. The website's critical consensus for season one reads: "Gravity Falls' warm humor and bright performances elevate this children's cartoon to a show for all ages", while the website's critical consensus for season two reads: "Gravity Falls continues to blend old fashioned storytelling with a modern sense of humor to create a uniquely enjoyable viewing experience."

Brian Lowry of Variety stated: "The show has a breezy quality that should play to kids, and tickle some twinges of nostalgia among their parents." Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times referred to the program as "...gently twisted, with some Disneyfied action and heart-warming folded in". In his review, David Hinckley of New York Daily News called Gravity Falls "quirky and endearing", and offered praise for the character of Mabel Pines. Matt Blum, writing for Wired, favourably compared the show to Cartoon Network's Regular Show and Disney Channel's Phineas and Ferb, hailing Gravity Falls as "clever, strange, and somewhat poignant". Erik Kain of Forbes called Gravity Falls "the best thing on TV at the moment," saying "I don't care how old you are, if you're not watching Gravity Falls you're missing out on some of the cleverest, most enjoyable television you can find". Kayla Cobb of Decider called Gravity Falls "one of the most structurally smart shows ever created". Matt Fowler from IGN called Gravity Falls "a quirky and gently twisted heart-warmer for all ages. Smart, satirical, and sweet. Gravity Falls was a one-of-a-kind gem."

Michelle Jaworski writing for The Daily Dot described Gravity Falls as "[A] classic summer story woven into a smart and addictive show tackling the paranormal, the supernatural, and the pains of growing up." IndieWire's Michael Schneider said "Gravity Falls is a kids' show so dense with mythology, pop culture jokes, Easter eggs, and mystery that grown-ups were often more invested." Joey Keogh from Den of Geek wrote "Gravity Falls, is a spooky-cute must-watch for adults who never grew out of Halloween." Donna Dickens from Uproxx said "Not only does Gravity Falls deal with the inexplicable supernatural occurrences in the town, the whole thing is just one big puzzle of secrets waiting for fans to uncover and solve." Myles McNutt from The A.V. Club said "With a complex mythology and a deep lexicon of cultural references, there's sophistication to the show's epic storytelling that immediately drew the attention of a wider audience." Liz Baessler writing for Film School Rejects said "Gravity Falls is an exceptional kids' show — brilliant, hilarious, and carefully crafted." Kevin Tash from Collider called Gravity Falls "one of the greatest things that Disney has ever produced in general."

In 2015, Uproxx ranked Gravity Falls as the third Current Kids Cartoon That Adults Need to be Watching. In 2018, IndieWire ranked Gravity Falls at number 12 on their list of The 50 Best Animated Series Of All Time. In 2019, Yardbarker ranked Gravity Falls at number 21 on their list of The 25 Greatest Animated Shows of All Time. Also in 2019, IGN placed Gravity Falls at Number 19 on their list titled The 25 Best Adult Cartoon TV Series and The A.V. Club placed Gravity Falls at number 48 on their list of The 100 Best TV Shows of the 2010s.