Gravity Falls (TV series)

Gravity Falls is an American animated television series created by Alex Hirsch, and produced by Disney Television Animation for Disney Channel and Disney XD. The first episode aired as a sneak preview on June 15, 2012 and the series officially premiered on June 29, 2012. On March 12, 2013, the show was renewed for a second season at the annual Disney upfront. The series was officially renewed for a second season on July 29, 2013, just four days before the Season 1 finale "Gideon Rises" premiered. The series will now premiere new episodes on Disney XD as of Spring 2014, along with Wander Over Yonder. However, starting on Season 2, new episodes currently air on Disney Channel as part of the channel's "Disney XD on Disney Channel" block. Despite this, "Scary-oke" and "Little Gift Shop of Horrors" premiered originally on Disney Channel.

On August 2013, during a reddit AMA, Alex Hirsch confirmed that he originally expected the show to be three seasons long (one season for every month of the summer ). However, Hirsch thought that may be too many and is instead considering it to be of only two seasons and a possible movie (though "anything can happen"). Currently, the length of the series is unconfirmed in any way, though Hirsch had previously planned a three-season story arc.

Plot
Twin brother and sister Dipper and Mabel Pines are in for an unexpected adventure when they spend the summer with their great uncle in the mysterious town of Gravity Falls, Oregon, in the Disney Channel animated comedy "Gravity Falls." Upon their arrival, Dipper and Mabel's huckster great uncle, also known as Stan Pines, enlists the siblings' help in running the Mystery Shack, a tourist trap he owns that overcharges unsuspecting customers. Although Dipper and Mabel quickly discover the Mystery Shack itself is a hoax, they sense there is something strange about their new town and together they begin to unlock the secrets of Gravity Falls.

Thrust into their new summer home, the fish-out-of-water twins try to adapt to their weird surroundings, especially Grunkle Stan, whose insatiable appetite for money drives him to spin every opportunity into a financial advantage. While Dipper grumbles about the prospect of the same boring routine of working at Grunkle Stan's hokey shop, his extremely optimistic sister seizes the chance to seek out an epic summer romance.

However, summer becomes much more interesting for the siblings after Dipper inadvertently uncovers a cryptic journal that offers insight into the strange and wondrous mysteries of Gravity Falls. Before long, Dipper begins noticing the town's idiosyncrasies, and with the book in tow and his enthusiastic desire to vanquish evil, he sets out to investigate the town's secrets. Trapped together in the small isolated town, the siblings quickly realize they need each other to battle the imminent mysteries lurking in Gravity Falls. Meanwhile, when he isn't busy trying to make a quick buck from his unsuspecting customers, Grunkle Stan guards his own secret that might hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of Gravity Falls.

Main cast

 * Jason Ritter as Dipper Pines
 * Kristen Schaal as Mabel Pines
 * Alex Hirsch as Grunkle Stan and Soos
 * Linda Cardellini as Wendy

Recurring Cast

 * Thurop Van Orman as Gideon Gleeful
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Waddles
 * Frank Welker as Gompers
 * Niki Yang as Candy Chiu
 * Carl Faruolo as Grenda
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as Sheriff Blubs
 * Keith Ferguson as Deputy Durland
 * Alex Hirsch as Bill Cipher and Old Man McGucket
 * T.J. Miller as Robbie Valentino
 * Jackie Buscarino as Pacifica Northwest
 * Stephen Root as Bud Gleeful
 * Jennifer Coolidge as Lazy Susan
 * John DiMaggio as Manly Dan
 * Will Forte as Tyler
 * Gregg Turkington as Toby Determined

Guest stars

 * Will Friedle as Reginald
 * Grey DeLisle as Rosanna
 * Coolio as Wax Coolio
 * Larry King as Wax Larry King
 * John Oliver as Wax Sherlock Holmes
 * Justin Roiland as Blendin Blandin
 * Ken Jenkins as Pa Ghost
 * April Winchell as Ma Ghost
 * Matt Chapman as Mermando
 * Alfred Molina as Multi-Bear
 * Lance Bass as a Sev'ral Timez member
 * Brian Bloom as Rumble McSkirmish
 * Jeff Bennett as Summerween Trickster
 * Corey Burton as Lawyer
 * Greg Cipes as Craz
 * John Roberts as Xyler
 * Dave Wittenberg as Lolph
 * Diedrich Bader as Dundgren
 * Nick Offerman as Agent Powers
 * Brad Abrell as Agent Trigger
 * Mark Hamill as the Shape Shifter
 * Patton Oswalt as Franz
 * Nathan Fillion as Preston Northwest
 * Frank Caliendo as Sergei
 * John O'Hurley as a Knight Lilliputtian
 * Jim Cummings as the Pirate Lilliputtian
 * Jorma Taccone as Gabe Bensen
 * Jillian Bell as Melody
 * Paul Scheer as Gary
 * Neil deGrasse Tyson as "smart" Waddles
 * Peter Serafinowicz as Blind Ivan

Staff and Credits

 * -|Directors=
 * -|Writers=
 * -|Storyboard artists=

Production
The series, created, directed and executive-produced by 2007 California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) graduate Alex Hirsch (Fish Hooks, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack), is a production of Disney Television Animation. Set in the Pacific Northwest woods, the animated series features supernatural elements of adventure and mystery, inspired by the real-life summer trips shared by Hirsch and his twin sister while visiting relatives as kids.

"Mabel is going to be one of the breakout characters of the show. I really owe it to my sister and her many quirks. When we were growing up, my sister was obsessed with the boy band ’N Sync. She even broke her toe jumping up and down during one of their concerts. So, we did a show about a boy band, and of course, I had to get Lance Bass to do the voice of the singer. I had my sister fly down to meet him. She also always wanted to have a pet pig when we were kids, so I gave Mabel a pet pig on the show and she can live vicariously through her. She owes me big!"

The town of Gravity Falls was inspired by various towns and national parks Alex Hirsch in which has spent time, particularly Boring, Oregon. As Hirsch has commented, "We passed a sign for Boring, Oregon. We never went there, but I was positively enchanted with the idea that there was a town called Boring, Gravity Falls is partially from what I imagine Boring might be like. Or maybe the opposite of Boring, Oregon, would be Gravity Falls."

Merchandise
During the 2014 New York Toys Fair, Jazwares revealed that they were getting ready to release an entire line of Gravity Falls toys beginning in Fall 2014. Including: plush toys, figures, a radio controlled Mystery Cart, and a Mystery Book Investigation Kit Book. Also revealed at the fair were Halloween costumes by the manufacturer, Disguise.

A set of books were released on July 22nd and October 7th, 2014.

On June 10, 2014 at the E3 2014 press conference, it was confirmed that a Gravity Falls-themed power discs will launch with Disney Infinity 2.0 at launch.

References in other media

 * Gravity Falls was seen on MAD, a series from Cartoon Network. Dipper, Mabel, Wendy, Stan, and Soos appeared as photos, and the words 'Gravity Falls' on a bulletin board in the background of the 10th episode, of Season 3 of MAD.  One of the characters also says that he knows every line from every episode of Gravity Falls, with the other character not knowing what it is.
 * In "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" Comic Issue #5, a pony named "Maybelle" appears in Rarity's nightmares. Alex Hirsch joked about suing Lauren Faust, (an old friend) on Twitter.
 * On AwesomenessTv in the song "I'm Pinterested" sung by Audrey Whitby and Gracie Dzienny, Audrey is wearing a Dipper Pines hat. She wears it through the whole song.
 * In an episode of the popular animated web series Eddsworld titled 'Fun Dead", a girl resembling Mabel Pines appears in a few frames for a television advertisement for the fictional theme park Asdfland. In the subsequent episode, "PowerEdd"; Edd flies into a child's recently cleaned bedroom, thus wrecking it. A trucker hat resembling Dipper's can be seen in the background. The animator of the episode, Kried is also subscribed to The Mystery of Gravity Falls' official YouTube channel.
 * During the television series, Rick and Morty, the episode "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind", when Rick opens up several transdimensional portals to escape alternate versions of Ricks, a souvenir mug from the Mystery Shack and notepad float out of a portal. In "Society of the Blind Eye," Stan's mug and notepad are sucked into the universe portal.
 * When one of the reviewers of the comedic Animorphs review blog Cinnamon Bunzuh! review for the second "Alternamorphs" book wonders how Cassie dies, she inserts a screenshot from Tourist Trapped of Dipper twitching his eye. The other reviewer responds "I think that may be the only sane reaction."
 * During Jon Stewart's interview with Elisabeth Moss, Moss asks Stewart if he watches cartoons. Stewart, mocking embarrassed, denies, "even though they're totally interesting, and Gravity Falls has all these incredible plotlines."
 * During a Nostalgia Critic review of the 1987 film The Monster Squad, the Critic pulls out Journal 3 in order to defeat "the face of reality", a monster made up of overdue bills and payments.
 * Dipper and Mabel make a cameo appearance in Comic Issue #41 of Batman Eternal. Interestingly, Mabel has six fingers on her left hand.
 * On the cover of issue #4 of Howard the Duck, the magic book in the foreground has the gold six fingered hand and Bill Cipher. It was drawn by the same artist, Joe Quinones, who inserted Dipper and Mabel in Batman Eternal.

Critical reception
The series has received universal acclaim. It currently holds a 8.5 rating on TV.com, and 8.9 rating from over 7,774 users on IMDb.com. From critics, the show has received generally positive reviews. 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." While the Los Angeles Times Robert Lloyd 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, favorably compared the show to Cartoon Network's animated program Regular Show and Disney Channel's animated program Phineas and Ferb, hailing Gravity Falls as "clever, strange, and somewhat poignant".

Trivia

 * Unlike recent Disney Channel and Disney XD cartoons, such as Phineas and Ferb, Fish Hooks, Star vs. the Forces of Evil and Wander Over Yonder, Gravity Falls does not have two episodes in one 30 minute time slot, but uses the entire 30 minute time slot for one episode.
 * Additionally, rather than starting with an opening theme, Gravity Falls starts with a cold open, similar to Disney Channel's live action shows and older Disney Channel cartoons.
 * Dipper and Mabel are based on the show's creator, Alex Hirsch, and his twin sister, Ariel Hirsch.
 * The first episode was available as a free HD/SD download off the US iTunes Store for a limited time.
 * Gravity Falls is animated in Korea by Digital eMation, Inc. and Rough Draft Studios Korea Co., Ltd.
 * The reason why some characters have four fingers and others have five was an aesthetic choice. In the character designing phase it was decided some characters simply looked better with five fingers over four. Michael Rianda has stated that for various reasons they should have kept it consistent, so the audience should just pretend everyone has five fingers.
 * In the early promotional material of Dipper's postcard home has a few strands of Joe Pitt's real hair.
 * Disney had originally planned for an eight month long hiatus in between "Summerween" and "Boss Mabel", instead of the four month long one it had.
 * The backgrounds are all painted in Adobe Photoshop.
 * According to Alex Hirsch, Dipper and Mabel will be returning home at the end of the series.
 * A typical Gravity Falls script is 45 pages with action single-spaced, and dialogue double-spaced, which is about 15 pages per act. A typical half-hour show is usually three acts.