Gravity Falls TV Series Review

by let them eat words

I've seen the first four episodes, and decided to make a review. It's a great series, I've found myself quite entertained. I've had more than a few laughs, that's for sure. I hope this does the show justice! NOTICE- The next review I'll be doing won't be what it says in the review, since it isn't included in the book list. I'll be doing MLP FIM instead!

And the media thought Scooby Doo wasn't cool anymore. It turns out, supernatural tv shows and movies are back in fashion, with trailers for movies like ParaNorman and Hotel Transylvania. Waiting for these movies to enter the theaters may seem agonizing, but there is another option for satisfying your supernatural appetite. Gravity Falls, a new cartoon on Disney Channel has recently aired, leaving quite the reason for interest in ghosts and ghouls.

The first episode begins with twins Dipper and Mabel Pine driving away from certain doom in a golf cart. Dipper narrates the situation from there, introducing the characters and showing where the drama all began as the episode rolls on. The tweens are city folk vacationing with their scammer great uncle Stan (AKA Gruncle Stan) in a small town in Oregon called Gravity Falls. Together, the three of them stay in a little shop called the Mystery Shack, where Gruncle Stan does his work at fooling as many people out of their money as possible.

Happy-go-lucky Mabel has never been more excited and explores everything she can in Gravity Falls, including the people, since she is the "hopeless romantic" in the series. Dipper, however, isn't as big a fan of the town, and quickly looks for something interesting. He finds a strange, ancient book in the ground with a gold embellished hand on the cover and a big number 3. It happens to be a type of grimoire, with the notes of an unknown man inside, describing the supernatural events that have happened in Gravity Falls. Floating eyeballs, vampires, gnomes, you name it, the book has it. Before Dipper shows his sister the book, he sees that the mystery man left a short phrase in bold: "trust no one!" Dipper takes this to heart, eventually leading himself to stay suspicious of his sister Mabel.

Soon after in the episode, the scribbles in the book begin to come true. After they discover the book, Mabel's "boyfriend" arrives at the Mystery Shack. Dipper has his worries, though, when her "boyfriend" is a pale teen in a huge black coat with twigs coming out of his head who constantly falls flat on his face. Dipper is sure that Mabel's mate is a zombie, and warns her, but to no avail. A fellow co-worker at the Mystery Shack, the slightly-dimwitted and misunderstood Zeus, advises him to find real evidence of the zombie. Once the pair go out on a bunch of endeavors, Dipper knows his sister is in danger, because the evidence is overwhelming.

To keep books, shows, and movies interesting, writers add a twist near the climax. In a mystery like Gravity Falls, this is especially important. The first episode proved to have a doozy of a twist. When Mabel and her "boyfriend" are alone, he shares a secret with Mabel. When he opened up his black coat, I was expecting to see a worn-away chest with a heart beating weakly. Instead, like the TV-Y7 show it's supposed to be, inside the coat were 5 gnomes, with 1 extra gnome who had shown his face the entire time. When the gnomes propose to Mabel, she is shocked enough to say no, even though she had been waiting (impatiently) for the perfect match for part of the episode. Unfortunately, a mystery can't end on such an unsavory note, so the gnomes proceeded to kindnapping her. I'll leave you to see the rest.

Okay, I'll give you a hint. Expect some fighting. Actually, in the four episodes aired, I find it justice that Mabel and Dipper are equally badass in their kick-butt skills. In one episode, Dipper says that he couldn't have done it without his sidekick Mabel, while Mabel interrupts and says that HE is the sidekick. I think their partners, at the same value, in my opinion. While Dipper is the one to go head-first into most battles, Mabel always has his back, and takes care of the bad guys just as well as he does. But like the feisty siblings they are, they definitely wouldn't agree to this speech.

Don't get turned off just because of the violence I mentioned here (and it's not that intense anyway). This show also has it's many witty moments. Mabel is hillarious, usually getting herself into the most misadventures out of any other character. Dipper does have his comedy side as well, though he is the more serious twin. The animation itself also has it's quirky quality too. It's a more traditional style compared to the 3-dimensional cartoons we find more and more often. Both dimensions are satisfying, but for the sake of the humor, I think the 2-dimensional animation was a smart decision.

Action, wit, supernatural creatures, you'd think this show has it all. Wrong. There is another element to the mystery hidden within the grimoire which makes this show all the more suspenceful and worthwhile to watch. Remember at the beginning when Dipper found the book, and there was a big 3 on the cover? The author of the notes in the book made another memorable mention, about how he wanted to hide the book away from "HIM". Of course, we have no idea yet who this "him" might be, or who the author of the book itself is (I think Gruncle Stan has some load on his chest...). But clues are starting to unravel. In another episode, I won't say which, another book is revealed with a 2 on the cover. Yes, slowly but surely, a case larger and more dangerous than anything Dipper and Mabel have yet experienced will come to fruition later in the future of this gripping tv series...

The next review to come... The School For Dangerous Girls.