Gravity Falls
| Gravity Falls | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | |
| Created by | Alex Hirsch[3] |
| Creative director(s) | Michael Rianda (season 1) |
| Voices of |
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| Composer(s) | Brad Breeck |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 40 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Alex Hirsch |
| Running time | 20–24 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Disney Television Animation |
| Release | |
| Original network | |
| Picture format | 720p/1080i HDTV and 1080p (digital distribution) |
| Audio format | Dolby Digital 5.1 |
| Original release | June 15, 2012 – February 15, 2016 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
| Production website | |
Created by Alex Hirsch, the series follows the adventures of Dipper Pines (voiced by Jason Ritter) and his twin sister Mabel (voiced by Kristen Schaal) who are sent to spend the summer with their great-uncle (or "Grunkle") Stan (voiced by Hirsch) in Gravity Falls, a mysterious town full of paranormal forces and supernatural creatures. The kids help Stan run "The Mystery Shack", the tourist trap that he owns, while also investigating the local mysteries.
On June 14, 2014, it was confirmed that Season 2 would premiere on August 1 and on August 4 of the same year on Disney Channel and Disney XD respectively,[7] with most of the season two episodes airing first on Disney XD, as it is considered the new home for the series.[8] On November 20, 2015, Hirsch announced that the series would finish with its second season, stating that he chose to do it for the show to end with "a real conclusion for the characters". The show culminated with a one-hour finale, "Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back the Falls", that first aired on February 15, 2016.[9][10]
A 68-hour marathon was broadcast on Disney XD from February 12, 2016, up until the finale on February 15, 2016, with the entire series airing in order. Due to only having 39 episodes before its airing, the show was looped four times to fill the 68-hour slot.[11][12]
Hirsch has stated he remains open to continuing the series with additional episodes or specials.[13] In February 2018, on the two-year anniversary of the final episode of the show, Hirsch used a cipher to announce Gravity Falls: Lost Legends,[14] a continuation of the Gravity Falls story in a new graphic novel.[15]
Contents
Plot summary
For their summer vacation, 12-year-old Dipper Pines and his twin sister Mabel 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 unraveling the local mysteries. With appearances from Wendy Corduroy, Mystery Shack cashier; Soos Ramirez, 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.[16]Characters
Main
- Dipper Pines (voiced by Jason Ritter)[16] – The 13-year-old[17] twin brother of Mabel Pines.
- Mabel Pines (voiced by Kristen Schaal)[16] – The 13-year-old[17] twin sister of Dipper Pines.
- Grunkle Stan (voiced by Alex Hirsch)[16] – The great-uncle of Dipper and Mabel Pines.
- Soos Ramirez (voiced by Alex Hirsch)[16] – The 22-year-old[18] handyman at the Mystery Shack.
- Wendy Corduroy (voiced by Linda Cardellini)[16] – A 15-year-old[19] girl who is a part-time employee at The Mystery Shack, on whom Dipper also has a crush.
- Stanford Pines, also known as The Author, Ford and Grunkle Ford (voiced by J. K. Simmons)[20][21] – Grunkle Stan's six-fingered long-lost twin brother. He is introduced in the eleventh episode of season 2, having briefly appeared in a silent capacity in previous episodes.
Recurring
- Waddles (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker; Neil deGrasse Tyson as guest) – Mabel's pet pig.
- Candy Chiu and Grenda (voiced by Niki Yang and Carl Faruolo, respectively) – Mabel's best friends.
- Fiddleford Hadron "Old Man" McGucket (voiced by Alex Hirsch) – The "local kook" of Gravity Falls, and former friend of Stanford.
- Bill Cipher (voiced by Alex Hirsch) – A powerful dream demon from another plane of existence that can influence or control citizens of Gravity Falls through a trans-dimensional mindscape.
- "Li'l" Gideon Gleeful (voiced by Thurop Van Orman) – A young con artist and rival of Grunkle Stan.
- Toby Determined (voiced by Gregg Turkington) – Homely proprietor of and sole editor for the Gravity Falls' Gossiper.
- The Northwests (voiced by Jackie Buscarino [Pacifica], Nathan Fillion [Preston], and Kari Wahlgren [Priscilla]) – The most popular and wealthy family in Gravity Falls. The family consists of Preston, his wife Priscilla, and their daughter Pacifica.
- Robert "Robbie" Stacy Valentino (voiced by T.J. Miller) – A local teenage Emo boy who is Dipper's primary rival for Wendy's affections.
- Tambry, (voiced by Jessica DiCicco), Thompson (voiced by Michael Rianda), Nate (voiced by Scott Menville in season 1 and by Alex Hirsch in season 2), and Lee (voiced by Michael Rianda) – Wendy's four friends.
- Manly Dan (voiced by John DiMaggio) – A lumberjack, Wendy's father.
- Lazy Susan (voiced by Jennifer Coolidge) – The owner of Greasy's Diner who always has one eye closed, and is Stan's crush.
- Tyler Cutebiker (voiced by Will Forte) – "Local Enthusiasm Enthusiast", the current mayor of the town.
- Shandra Jimenez (voiced by Kari Wahlgren) – The reporter of Gravity Falls.
- Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson and Keith Ferguson) – The two police officers of Gravity Falls.
- Bud Gleeful (voiced by Stephen Root) – Stan's rival, Gideon's father, and a car dealer.
- Abuelita (voiced by Matt Chapman) – Soos's grandma, who lives with Soos.
- Gnomes (voiced by Alex Hirsch) – Living garden gnomes that wanted Mabel to be their queen.
- Gompers (voiced by Frank Welker) – A goat who lives on the Mystery Shacks's property.
- Blendin Blenjamin Blandin (voiced by Justin Roiland) – a worker at the Time Anomaly Correction Unit who has frequent encounters with Dipper and Mabel.
- Agent Powers and Agent Trigger (voiced by Nick Offerman and Brad Abrell) – Two government agents that investigated Stan's portal and the town itself.
- Ghost-Eyes (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) – An inmate at the Gravity Falls Prison who is friends with Gideon.
- Xyler and Craz (voiced by John Roberts and Gregory Michael Cipes) – The two main characters of Mabel's favorite movie, "Dream Boy High", who often appear in her daydreams.
- Time Baby (voiced by Dave Wittenberg) – A time giant and the last of his kind, Time Baby serves as leader of the Time Anomaly Correction Unit until he is vaporized by Bill Cipher. According to a cryptogram, it will take Time Baby 1,000 years to re-assemble his molecules, and when he is back, he is going to be very cranky.
Development
Concept
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 (and was subsequently green-lit) Gravity Falls.[22]Hirsch says he was at the California Institute of the Arts when he turned down a DreamWorks executive out of a desire to work for Disney.[23] He first coined the concept for the show in an 11-minute low-budget student film which he made at the Institute.[24] Hirsch was called in to do a pitch for Disney Channel for a show based on the short pilot.[24] Disney Channel bought the idea and started airing the series in the summer of 2012. The series was inspired by Hirsch's own childhood experiences with his twin sister during their summer vacations, while Stan was based on his own grandfather of the same name.[25]
Production
Gravity Falls's main production offices are located at Disney Television Animation in Glendale, California.
B- and A-stories are created, and are given to a writer to produce an outline, which is then subsequently checked-off by Hirsch for feedback. The writer produces a draft from these edits, where more notes may be given. Hirsch states that he and creative director Mike Rianda may personally create a draft for themselves before a final script is produced, in which the dialogue from the draft received from the writer is majorly revised; Hirsch states 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."[22]
A script is delivered, which then gets translated into a storyboard, where feedback is received from Hirsch to the board artists if a certain element, such as a gag, doesn't work. Afterwards, a pitch for the episode is given to the network, where they do a read-through, and then the episode is 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.[22]
Initial broadcast
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 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 in February 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.[26] On April 2, 2018, the show moved back to Disney Channel for reruns.[27]Episodes
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | Network | ||||
| 1 | 20 | June 15, 2012[note 1] | August 2, 2013 | Disney Channel | ||
| 2 | 20 | August 1, 2014[note 2] | February 15, 2016 | Disney XD | ||
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