Gravity Falls: Don't Color This Book! It's Cursed! is a coloring book released by Disney Press released on July 18, 2017.
In 2022, it was discontinued; however, in September 2024, it was listed again with a re-release date of May 6, 2025.[1]
Description[]
- The Pines twins find themselves on a prismatic adventure when Dipper gets trapped in a magical coloring book. The only way out is for Mabel to color him to freedom with the help of a strange new friend named Chamelius PenDraggin. The more Mabel colors, however, the more things start to go awry. Can coloring be an act of bravery? Can great shading elevate you to heroic heights? Can orange save the day? Find out in this official Gravity Falls coloring book!
Story[]
The book opens with different doodles from Mabel in bright pink colors on both pages. Mabel writes in it like a diary and writes on about how she found the book lying between Dipper's stuff. According to Mabel's writing, all pages of the book are empty. She thinks it was stupid of him to just leave this empty book in her presence and decides to use it as a sketch book.
While she is doodling, Dipper appears out of nowhere in the corner of the page. He is still himself, but without colors and made of blue pen ink. He can communicate with Mabel with speech bubbles that appear around him when he talks. Mabel can only communicate with him by writing in the book so he can read what she says. She asks him how he appeared on the page in the book.
Dipper explains that he found the empty book on one of his daily cemetery checks and brought it home with him. When he opened it, he got grappled by "inky black stuff" that reached out of it and pulled him in. He has been stuck on the pages for the day until he noticed Mabel's doodles. Mabel thinks of ways to get him out. She wants to cut Dipper out of the book with scissors until the corners of the book are suddenly filled up with the inky black stuff.
The ink writes to stop and says it wants to explain itself. A Chameleon creature named Chamelius Pendraggin appears and explains that he is a pigmentologist. He is determined to study all colors in all worlds. The book that Dipper is trapped in and that Mabel holds is a 'Hue-Collecting Tome' and just one of many he has sent out in the universe to collect all the colors from the universe. He wanted to absorb Dipper's colors, but accidentally pulled Dipper into the book while doing so. He says that he is sorry about it and wants to release him at once. While Dipper thanks him for it, Chamelius changes his mind, upsetting Dipper. He asks them to help him document the colors from their world. As a reward, he will show them a color from another world that doesn't exist in their world. Dipper is at first suspicious, but after Mabel shows her enthusiasm and declares that she was born to discover a new color, Dipper admits that he does think it's fascinating and agrees as well.
Mabel asks Chamelius what they have to do and he explains to her that the hue-collecting tome is filled with telepathic ink. This is also the way he communicates with Mabel and Dipper. When someone hold the book in his hand and use their minds to conjure images, the images will appear on the empty pages with the ink. It's up to Mabel to color them in with as many colors the world has to offer. Chamelius can receive and document the colors on his end. He warns Mabel that there is a bit of a learning curve with the telepathic ink and that it takes some practice.
Mabel tries to think about a group photo of people she knows, but it turns out to be a disaster. The figures are all mixed up and dismembered to her and Dipper's horror. She then only thinks about Soos and is getting the hang of it. She then thinks of herself, and eventually grasps fully how to work with the telepathic ink. After the learning, she makes a page of her and Dipper as pineapples. Dipper sighs "Oh boy..." as he is afraid of what Mabel is going to think and make up with her mind. The following pages are of Mabel, Grenda and Candy as mermaids drinking tea underwater, while Dipper in the corner of the page wonders how that's even possible. Her next drawing is of Stan and Ford depicted as two superheroes with bare torsos, much to Dipper's dismay. He then disappears and Mabel makes more pictures with the ink as the Pines family depicted as cats, Toby as an anime character and a humanized drawing of Grunkle Stan holding a baby bag filled with dollar bills. According to Dipper, they are horrifying.
She continues with drawing herself as a princess winning a baseball game against Shmebulock until the corners of the pages are dripping ink again and Chamelius writes to her to stop thinking of princesses and superheroes. Dipper ignores him and encourages Mabel to just continue with what she likes to draw. Mabel wonders if Dipper can use the telepathic ink too and when he tries, they discover that he is also capable of doing so.
They decide to draw together for a while to fill up the pages with ink. Either one makes something, or they both work on something. Many characters appear in their mind and on the pages. Plus, some references to episodes and shorts appear as well as made-up stuff, like Dipper and Mabel dressed like Stan and Ford and vice versa. Dipper gives Mabel advice on how to draw Soos by saying she mustn't forget the gentle blush of his cheeks: Like a angel embarrassed by humanity, while Chamelius is giving his approval and demands more Soos in the book. Dipper also advises Mabel at her drawing of them eating their Summerween candy to color the chocolate with real chocolate smudges. She thinks that's genius. Mabel continues with two pages full of future matchmaking projects. Dipper rejects her idea of making him and Pacifica into a couple. Mabel explains that she is thinking of Pacifica after they cured her rich-kid ails with their friendship, leaving Dipper thinking.
After some more drawing, Dipper complains to Mabel that she should stop coloring him purple. She protests to say that he must be flattered that she uses her favorite color to draw him. This surprises Chamelius that people are prizing some colors above others. Mabel explains to him that everyone has a favorite color and that it says everything about a person's personality. She continues by thinking of sweaters and color combos. When she colors bad combos (colors that don't match well on clothing), the book begins to shake violently, dripping black ink and colors. Chamelius is angered and accuses Mabel of damaging his book. The bad combos of colors are apparently dangerous, and only well matched colors should be added. Mabel apologizes and thinks of Soos, making Chamelius happy again. Meanwhile, Dipper starts to get suspicious.
After more drawing, Mabel notices that the more color she adds to the book, the grayer the world looks. She wonders if something is happening. Chamelius assures her that it's nothing. He says to her that her eyes are just tired from looking at so many colors and asks her to keep coloring. Mabel accepts it and agrees to color more. Dipper appears again and Mabel makes four mazes for him to spend his time. If he does them correct, she even gives him special prizes. Dipper gets excited and starts the mazes. He wins two spray cans of deodorant, a can of breath mints and new clothes. Annoyed about the meaning of his prices, he decides that it's enough for him and makes a 'color by number' drawing for Mabel. It's a picture of Waddles eating a pizza. Mabel eagerly starts to color it in, just to discover that the colors make a whole different picture of her picking her nose. She laughs about it and makes a board game based on the events of "Northwest Mansion Mystery".
Mabel once again notices that everything in the world is now almost completely grey. She realizes that she and Dipper are being tricked by Chamelius, as she discovers that the coloring book is being used to steal color from their world, turning everything black and white. Chamelius tries to deny it, realizing he has been discovered. Mabel puts her hand on the page and quickly retreats after the book hurt her hand badly. Her hand is now grey and her skin color is burned off of her hand. Her skin color colors the page. Dipper, angered by Chamelius' lies and that Mabel got hurt, threatens to hurt Chamelius back for this.
Chamelius tries to pull in Mabel as well, as the ink is starting to reach out of the book again. Dipper warns Mabel that this happened to him as well, and says that she has to rip the page out of the book quickly. The pages fills with ink very fast, but Mabel is able to rip the page.
Dipper is concerned about Mabel when he sees wet stains on the page. He tells her not to cry and that they will figure out what to do together. Mabel apologizes to him and explains that she wasn't crying but actually sneezed on the book and that Dipper just touched her snot.
Dipper remembers that when Mabel made the ugly color combos, the book started to shake and leak color. He suggests to draw the most hideously colored pages in the world, something ugly on purpose. Mabel thinks she can do it and starts working on hideous caricatures of characters and things, all blending in together with each other. It starts working and the book is shaking again. Chamelius mentions he is going to be sick as the book starts leaking ink and colors. Dipper asks Mabel to hit Chamelius with the final blow; a drawing of Toby Determined with a tail, kitten ears and a kitten sweater. This works, and the book blasts out all of the colors it took in and also throws out Dipper, who flies out of the book and back to the normal world.
After the world has its colors back and Dipper has returned, the twins write in the book to have a final laugh at the defeated Chamelius. Mabel writes with a pen with black ink so that he can't have any colors. She explains to him that all the colors have returned to Gravity Falls and Dipper is free, and calls Chamelius a dopey color vampire. Dipper says that he can't pull a fast one on the Pines twins and that he will write a whole page in his journal so that future people will be warned about Chamelius.
Mabel says she is still sad they didn't get to see the promised color from another world. Chamelius is willing to show the color on the promise of the twins to never color the book again, and they both promise. He then shows them 'Shmerulean', a blueish/greyish glitter color. He warns them not to stare at it for too long as it comes from a powerful dimension, and that human eyes weren't designed to take it in. If they stare at it for too long, they will be driven mad.
Mabel just explains that it looks pretty and kind of like blue. Dipper remembers that he has seen a nail polish in the exact same color, and Mabel remembers that it was hers. They decide to take the nail polish with that color to paint Grunkle Stan's toenails while he's asleep. They leave the book and Chamelius alone while Chamelius is whimpering about the color yellow.
Soos Cast[]
Included in the book is a QR code which leads to a video file on http://disneyxd.com/colorcoded. The video is an audio podcast hosted by Soos with Grunkle Stan as a guest star. The link no longer works, but fans did save the full podcast to YouTube and Tumblr.[2][3]
Trivia[]
- In an unfinalized cover of the book revealed in February 2017, it was originally going to be called "Don't Color this book! A Cursed Coloring Book".
- As part of some promotional material for the book, Emmy Cicierega released 3 pieces of Valentine's Day art in 2017 for it.
- Before the announcement of Lost Legends, this was thought to be the final Gravity Falls book.
- This is the second book Emmy Cicierega has illustrated, after Dipper and Mabel and the Curse of the Time Pirates' Treasure! and the first one written by her.
- Chamelius is obsessed with Soos. He calls him a good boy and occasionally asks the twins to make a drawing of Soos.
- Emmy Cicierega's father posed for one of the drawings in the book.[4]
- Sooscast was only available for US readers, and due to changes with the Disney XD website since then, the QR code no longer works.
- Soocast was preserved by some fans and is still viewable on Youtube[3] and Tumblr.[2]
- In 2022, the book appeared to have been discontinued.
- In September 2024, a new listing appeared to show the book is being re-released on May 6, 2025.
See also[]
Gallery
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External links[]
- Amazon
- Disney Publishing (Archived page from Original)