Gravity Falls

So, once the Vikings were done with and out of the way, we tried the other show we'd been told about.

Oh my word....Below is a genuine line of dialogue from the show. Remember: Disney makes this.

[size=+1]Gravity Falls[/size]
​

Disney seem to have some good writers left. A precious few in the multi-national tower of round ears and the sound of money multiplying exponentially, that seem to have this head space where having fun with the show yourself, helps the audience have fun with the show too. Tangled, Disney's long awaited take on Rapunzel for their Princess Collection, was one of the silliest, slickest written films I've seen from Disney themselves for a long old while. The villain had a neat and understandable twist on her motivations from other Disney films where the explanation for The Evil Queen is "because she is, now shut up and watch the funny mice dance in their funny little clothes". The rest of the movie was able to have fun with the job of entertaining you. Things like the frying pan being a powerful weapon, the horse being the dashing hero and the old classic of massive, burly men in a bar all being interested in ballet or pastry cooking. It was being nuts, which did make the sudden realisation that this is meant to be a Disney Princess film that much more awkward. One minute was gag after gag after gag, the next was all paper lanterns and looking deeply into each others eyes.

Anyhoo, the same sort of nutjob that brought us that have rustled up something else.

Gravity Falls is set in a sleepy little place in Oregon somewhere called Gravity Falls. Dipper and Mabel Pines have been sent to their Grunkle (a shortened version of 'Great Uncle'), Stan Pines who owns an obvious tourist trap called the Mystery Shack that specialises in supernatural exhibits as well as fleecing tourists out of their cash. While wondering around, Dipper discovers a journal of unknown origin and author, detailing discoveries of strange happenings within Gravity Falls. Monsters and items of strange properties are abundant around these forests, surrounded in mystery.

Gravity Falls appears to share a lot of DNA with Courage The Cowardly Dog. Both take American horror and laugh at it. Courage uses the guise of a B-movie 1950's teenagers would be watching as a brush to colour the world to elevate the parody. The old trope of being set in the middle of Nowhere is now literal. The show then places an old house that seems to be regularly attacked by freak-cases, monsters and nut-jobs who are always targeting the little old lady and her grumpy husband. The joke always being that the show is taking the situation of a monster attack to as warped and bizarre an extreme as they can. Then pitting a weedy, cowardly dog against the abomination that's been conjured. The show revels in it's weirdness, using the B-movie aesthetic as an excuse to go one step bigger.

Gravity Falls on the other hand, takes another aspect of that American horror idea and bases everything around that instead: Conspiracy.

The show plays and giggles at the idea of large and ridiculous theories being posed as possible fact. The idea of secrets and mysteries to discover is both it's best gag and it's most brilliant plan. There is a fantastic example of this but I gotta throw this up, hang on...

Spoiler: Not a major spoiler, but I'll put this in here anyway

In the first episode, Mable's new boyfriend - Norman - shows off some strange quirks. He lumbers around, shows no co-ordination at all and had what could be blood on his cheek. Furthermore, his clothes look like he's been dragged through a hedge.

Dipper's Journal suggests that Norman might actually be a zombie. Fearing for his sister's grey matter, he dashes to her rescue just as Norman agrees to reveal something about himself very important indeed to Mable.

So, Norman takes off his hoodie to reveal he's actually a small collection of Gnomes posing as a teenager, looking for a new queen.

On one hand, the show is leading you in with the promise of answers to a huge secret, while poking fun at the whole idea of monsters in the woods and the supernatural. Mock versions of Illuminati symbols as well as tiny details that appear to have no obvious meaning until later episodes are littered through out the show. There's a document detailing the rise of psychic babies in one episode if you look hard enough. It's taking the base ingredients of why Bigfoot is still a prominent figure. Or even Area 51. Because it's fun to be dragged into a world where everything is a puzzle. That's why ARG's work so well, because there's always a part of people that loves to delve below the surface to see what's really going on. Portal was able to hide clues within itself to entice fans back for another play-though in order to look for any more details on the back story of Aperture Science. Gravity Falls attempts a similar plan, looking to hide easter eggs for any eagle eyed viewers watching. The idea of mystery pulls the viewer in to the world of the show, making it a more captivating story as a result. You'll watch, just to see what it's all leading to. It's like Lost with more jokes.

Gravity Falls takes the idea of looking into mysteries and searching for the truth then throwing the audience a curve ball, to make you laugh. The show is all about the comedy and is able to manage such a thing so well. It appears to have a mastery of the stupid, creating punchlines in clever places to make you laugh where you thought you wouldn't. Character's such as Zeus, Mable or Stan are given free-run of the edges of the story to do whatever the hell they like.

On the characters themselves, Zeus might not be the brightest bulb in the box but he's too lovable not to like him, or his strange ideas. It's easy to say that Mable is just Pinkie Pie in a jumper but there is a clear difference. Mable appears to be aware of the actions around her about 99% of the time, while Pinkie Pie falls between about 60 to 30. She's quirky and upbeat almost constantly fuelling great moments of laugh-out loud silliness. Finally, Stan is a greedy crook with paying customers dumber than a glass of water. The mediocre knick-knacks he keeps them easily amused with is fantastic. For example, a bag that makes money disappear.

So, the above character's generally handle most of the jokes. The job of having and completing any story arcs falls to Dipper. He's a bright kid that's fascinated by and frankly relieved that there are so many mysteries to solve in Gravity Falls. Motivations currently tend to revolve around his futile aims at dating the 15-year old Wendy. Episodes will often, but not always, use Dipper's hope of gaining Wendy's admiration as his motives. Usually, to do that, he has to pretend he's more grown up and mature than he might actually be while aged only 12. Generally, the façade is was causes most of the issues of the story, and he must do what he needs to do in order to put everything right. Is usually during his attempts at getting the girl, that the monster arrives.

Weirdness within Gravity Falls has been a joy to be surprised with every episode. Especially at the inventive comedy that results from it. The secret seems to be in the genre savviness the writing shows. It's that much funnier that a fighter character has come to life and agrees to fight for you when he manages to find the Barrel and Crate Factory, throwing them down some collapsed scaffolding. When Dipper finds a photocopier that can copy human beings, him and his clone immediately discuss the possibility of an uprising, like in films, and how it would be a waste of time. They even have their own version of LOL Cats with Mable's Pet Pig. There's little in-jokes and references for anyone of a certain age watching to find and get, enriching the already decent silliness on offer.

I could go on, and on, and on about this. I would like to but there is a word limit on these blogs.

Let me end on this: I do love this show. I'm not going to get into the 'Is it better than MLP?' thing over it because my heart has the capacity to love a multitude of things. Irn Bru, Heroes, Firefly, A particular image of Twilight wielding a Keyblade, Konnie Huq and so on. Gravity Falls is a well made and bonkers show that deserves a look, in my book. If this overly long marriage proposal hasn't swayed you, then only the sight of a Gnome barfing rainbows will.

I mean, experiencing it first hand. Wow...Where did that come from?