Candy Monster

"" is the first animated short of Gravity Falls to air between Season 1 and Season 2. It premiered on October 14, 2013, along with "Stan's Tattoo."

Overview
Dipper and Mabel must go into full on battle mode against a mysterious creature when it leaps out of the rafters and steals their 'Summerween' candy.

Synopsis
Late at night, as Dipper concludes a section in his video recording of "Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained" on Gravity Falls anomaly #13, the "Mobius Chicken Strip." He is startled by a mysterious creature that starts to cause havoc in his room. He quickly alerts a sleeping Mabel, who in return tries to ignore Dipper until he tells her that the creature is eating their left over Summerween candy. Hearing this frightfully wakes up Mabel then she and her brother try to investigate what could this candy eating monster be. After they are unable to come up with a clear conclusion Dipper then titles this event as a new recording, "Dipper's Guide to the Unexplained #76: That Thing?" Later, Dipper equips himself with golf clubs and a garbage can as weapons in addition to armor made out of stuffed animals found in his room. He and Mabel are convinced to be able to capture the monster for science and candy. Dipper then advances towards the creature in a matter to trap it by luring it with candy, but the monster catches on and flees away. Without hesitation the twins run after the beast. The creature proves to be a problem for the twins to capture as it begins to make a mess of the Shack, wastes their candy and even attacks Dipper. When all seems lost, the monster accidentally steps on the TV remote and opens it to a movie that Dipper likes. The TV has an hypnotic effect on the creature and calms it down. Shortly after, Dipper is also enthralled by the television.

After all is well Dipper, Mabel and the monster watch the movie together. Soos is seen saying hello to the twins and even the monster who he mistakes for Grunkle Stan. Dipper then concludes this recording and says that the next one will probably be about finding a way to get rid of the candy eating monster, but Soos is confused and asks the monster, who he believes to be Stan, what Dipper is talking about.

Cast

 * Jason Ritter as Dipper Pines
 * Kristen Schaal as Mabel Pines
 * Alex Hirsch as Soos

Series continuity

 * The featured monster is similar to Thing 26, a creature that was first seen in the Creature in the Closet promotion.
 * The monster was eating Dipper and Mabel's left over Summerween candy, implying that they had some left after the events of "Summerween."
 * Bill Cipher is seen on the back of the playing card as first seen in "The Time Traveler's Pig."
 * The Overly Sensitive Owl cereal makes an appearance.

Trivia

 * The short was available on iTunes for free before its air date. This version did not include the page section with the cryptogram.
 * This is the first time Soos calls Stan "Grunkle Stan."
 * This is the first Gravity Falls media in which Stan does not appear.

Cryptograms

 * At the end of the short, the first section of the hidden page flashes briefly with a cryptogram at the bottom of the page. It reads, "IURP WKH ILUVW XQWLO WKH ODVW VHDUFK WKH." Once decoded, it reads, "FROM THE FIRST UNTIL THE LAST SEARCH THE."
 * The code made from the red numbers decodes to "THE DAR."