Blu-Ray Review: Gravity Falls – The Complete Series

(DVD MSRP: $59.97; Blu-Ray MSRP: $99.99)

When it comes to Disney’s animated television series Gravity Falls, I didn’t start watching until it was halfway through it’s second season. This proved to be perfect timing, as each episode quickly made me eager for more, and soon put me on track to watch the final episodes with the rest of the series’ super-fans online.

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For their summer vacation, twin siblings Dipper and Mable Pines are sent to the remote town of Gravity Falls, Oregon. There, they are put in the care of their Great-Uncle (aka “Grunkle”) Stan Pines, who runs a seedy tourist-trap called The Mystery Shack.

L to R: Soos (Alex Hirsch), Dipper Pines, (Jason Ritter), Stan Pines (Alex Hirsch), Mabel Pines (Kristen Schaal), Wendy Corduroy (Linda Cardellini)

Shortly after the twins’ arrival, Dipper finds a hidden journal that details how the little town has a number of secrets. Pretty soon, the Pines family and their friends end up encountering a number of strange and frightening entities, that will make this a summer they will never forget.

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Some say that at 40 episodes long, Gravity Falls ended too soon. I beg to differ, as I find it’s short two-season lifespan gives us one of the most intriguing and entertaining animated series ever made. Plus, the ending was approved by it’s creator Alex Hirsch, allowing the series to conclude on it’s own terms, and not become the victim of another studio-approved cancellation (like a lot of other animated shows out there).

Unlike most animated series that struggle at first to figure out ‘what’ they are supposed to be, Falls seemed to know what it was from the very first episode. The general idea was a show that combined the relatable/emotional character antics of The Simpsons, with the mysterious atmosphere of Twin Peaks. Hirsch had always been big into mysteries and conspiracy theories growing up, and with this show, he managed to make thousands of people just as crazy as him, as they attempted to decipher the clues hidden in each episode.

One of the messages/clues at the end of a Season 2 episode.

The show became one of Disney’s most popular series on their cable channels, and spawned a number of product tie-ins over the years. However, for many of the die-hard fans, there was one thing they wanted above all else: an official release of all of the show’s episodes on DVD.

Unfortunately, even with a massive social media campaign, it seemed there was noone at the Walt Disney Studios who felt putting out such a thing would be worth it. Imagine the surprise of many fans, when it was revealed that there WAS a company who did see it as a worthwhile endeavor. This was Shout Factory, a media company that often puts out a number of music and home video-related products.

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In this era of streaming media, boxsets regarding an animated show’s seasons are pretty rare to find. At most, the studios will just give you the show’s episodes, and that’s it. Fortunately for us, Shout Factory has often been willing to go the extra nine yards with their fan-pleasing products, and they’ve embellished this set with a number of special features!

A highlight for me, is that each of the show’s forty episodes has it’s own audio commentary track. Hirsch is present in all of them, along with an assorted mix of the cast and crew. I’m always up for hearing creators talk about the process of making things, and the behind-the-scenes dialogue was right up my alley. Back when I collected season releases of The Simpson on DVD, the commentary tracks were the big reason I made those purchases, and it was this component that led me to purchase this set.

There are also two interview segments made exclusively for this release.

The biggest one is a multi-part documentary titled, One Crazy Summer. The 105-minute special shows Hirsch and a number of the cast and crew talking about their work on the show, interspersed with video of him going through an old storage locker, where he stored a number of the show’s production materials. We get to see snippets of abandoned story concepts, and plenty of other goodies that will make you want to hit pause over-and-over again.

Concept art for the show’s Mystery Shack location.

What some people don’t realize, is that just like Dipper and Mabel Pines, Alex Hirsch is also a twin. In The Hirsch Twins, Alex and his twin-sister Ariel sit down for a little chat about growing up together. There’s plenty of childhood pictures, and some great stories about how Alex took their personalities and interests, and intertwined them into the show’s main characters.

The set also touts a deleted scenes feature, but I was a little disappointed regarding their format. Instead of almost-finished animation, what we have are season 2 story meetings, with Hirsch narrating over rough storyboards. While it is a nice look into the show’s production process, I think it would have been better if the deleted scenes could have been included with their corresponding episodes. It would give viewers the chance to compare/contrast them with the final scenes the showrunners used.

There’s also the inclusion of a number of animated promotional materials, as well as smaller interview segments that aired on the Disney cable channels.

Shout even goes the extra mile in the packaging for the 3-disc set.

The DVD/Blu-Ray cases resemble the show’s journals (of which there were three!), and when the discs are watched, the main menu shows the opened pages of the journals.

Plus, the fun doesn’t stop there.

Just because the show is over, doesn’t mean the mysteries are too. There are a number of secret codes seen on parts of the special features disc, using the special alphabet the show created. Once deciphered, they will lead the viewer to find ‘easter eggs’ hidden within the menu pages.

I will admit that even with all the material mentioned above, I was surprised that the show’s original unaired pilot episode wasn’t included. While it is a little similar to the show’s first official episode, I felt it would have been a nice way to help show the evolution of Gravity Falls (like on the early Simpsons boxsets, where they’d show clips from the character’s first appearances on The Tracy Ullman Show).

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Screenshot from the Season 1 episode, The Time Traveler’s Pig.

Even though it doesn’t give us everything with it’s special features, Gravity Falls: The Complete Series is still one of the most compelling boxsets for an animated series I’ve seen in a long time, and another home run release from the people at Shout Factory!

If you’re a fan of the show, it is highly-recommended that you pick up a copy. If you’re curious as to what the show is about, and got a jones for behind-the-scenes material, you’ll probably find it to be just as entertaining as I did.

Episode Review: Gravity Falls (Season 2, Episode 19) – Weirdmageddon, Part 2

*WARNING: MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD*

Throughout the series Gravity Falls, the main focus has often been on Dipper and Mabel Pines, the 12-year-old twins who are sent to the small Oregon town, to visit their Great Uncle (aka “Grunkle”) Stan Pines.

What they thought was going to be a boring Summer in the Pacific Northwest, soon turned into a strange and wondrous journey, as they met new friends, encountered strange creatures, and uncovered a mystery that would have serious ramifications on our whole world!

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Following the events of Weirdmageddon Part 1, Dipper, Wendy, and Soos have made it to the edge of Gravity Falls, and find a suspended sphere, with Mabel’s ‘shooting star’ sweater image on it! Obtaining a key from Gideon Gleeful, the three make their way inside, and find a perfect world (seemingly) created by Mabel, and like the good-hearted girl she is, she’s eager for them to partake in what Mabel Land has to offer!

Meanwhile, Bill Cypher has grown upset that though he has managed to bring Weirdmageddon to Gravity Falls, he and his minions are for some reason, unable to escape, or spread their chaos beyond the borders of the town!

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With Mabel being relatively absent from the first part of Weirdmageddon, getting to see the alternate world that Bill Cypher created inside her bubble, is definitely a contrast to the fire and chaos on the outside.

Speaking of Bill, he and his henchmaniacs only have a few minutes worth of screen-time this episode, as the majority of the plot takes place inside Mabel’s bubble. Though one hoped that maybe there could be more information about Bill’s plans, it feels like we’ll have to wait until Part 3 to see more about them.

The world that Mabel has created inside her bubble, seems like a combination of the world of Toontown from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, as well as The Other World from Coraline.

That concept of Mabel Land is played up in quite a big way, as Mabel tells Dipper, Wendy, and Soos, “Mabel Land knows just what you want, and always provides!”

One fun little bit, is seeing that Mabel has also created ‘a back-up Dipper,’ to inhabit Mabel Land, who is almost on the same level of over-the-top positivity as her animated dreamboys, Xyler and Craz (who also inhabit the world!). The few moments that “Dippy Fresh” is onscreen, are great for an old-school 90’s laugh (and Dipper’s reactions to his colorfully-positive doppleganger, are the highlight of the episode).

While Dipper does play the role of ‘splash of cold water’ in this episode, it is also feels like the story focuses on a turning point for Mabel.

As we saw in the episode Dipper and Mabel vs The Future, Mabel is afraid to turn 13, and has come to the realization that growing up and going into high school one day, may not be as happy and joyous as movies and television have led her to believe (in some respects, I could relate to this so much).

She also grew even more downtrodden in that episode, hearing that Dipper might stay in Gravity Falls, and become Stanford Pines’ apprentice, in investigating more of the town’s weirdness.

That feeling of being separated from her twin, is a little reminiscent of the relationship shown between Stanley and Stanford Pines, in the episode A Tale of Two Stans, in which Stanley grew downtrodden that his smarter twin brother would leave, and go off to study far away.

That fear of growing up, and life maybe not turning how you wish it could be, is the underlying theme of the episode. It definitely bubbles to the surface during the final third of the episode, when Dipper has to appeal to Mabel, and convince her to break free from Bill’s illusive world.

We do get a few bits leading into moments of the twin’s past, that show how each of the twins saw certain moments in their lives, and the results may remind a few of a scene or two, from PIXAR’s Inside Out.

The biggest feeling in regards to the episode, is that it’s almost like the last chance to get a 300% dose of Mabel’s crazy personality in a bright and sparkly world, to offput us to the dark and horrific machinations outside of the bubble. So much of what we see, feels like a curtain call of cameos and easter eggs, for the sharp-eyed Gravity Falls fans.

Much like part 1 of Weirdmageddon, the episode doesn’t feel super-emotional, but there’s enough going on in it, that it still manages to stand out as entertaining, as well as being informative.

Also, stay for the credits, to show probably one of the ‘deepest’ reflections in the show’s history.

Best line in the episode (said by Dipper Pines): “You stay out of this, Dippy Fresh!”

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Final episode grade: B+ (Final Thoughts: Much like “The Empire Strikes Back,” Part 2 of Weirdmageddon focuses on some of the deeper storytelling of the trilogy of stories being told. The episode gives Mabel the chance to have a happy world the likes of which she could probably only dream of, but gives Dipper the chance to finally have a heart-to-heart with his sister, that it feels the series desperately needed before its big finale. The episode acts as a fun overly-bright contrast to the nightmarish colorations of the outside world, and helps to also act as a way to try and convince the audience that sometimes, you may need to move on, even if you have no idea what the future may bring )

   

Episode Review: Gravity Falls (Season 2, Episode 18) – Weirdmageddon, Part 1

*WARNING: MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD*

As the series Gravity Falls continued to chronicle the story of Dipper and Mabel Pines’ weird and wild summer in a strange Oregon town, a number of symbols began to boggle the minds of the viewers.

In the Season 1 episode Dreamscaperers, Gideon Glee officially let loose onto the series: Bill Cypher. A triangular-shaped, top-hat wearing being from another dimension, Bill was found making life difficult for the Pines family, and it soon seemed he had a connection to them from some years before!

Throughout each of his appearances, Bill could often be heard telling how he “couldn’t be stopped,” and that “big things were coming.”

At the end of Episode 17 of the second season (Dipper and Mabel vs The Future), Bill managed to find a way to trick Mabel Pines into making a deal. In exchange for giving into her wish that the summer wouldn’t end, Mabel handed over a key item, that opened the dimensional rift Bill needed, to finally cross over from his two-dimensional world, into our three-dimensional world!

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As this episode begins, Bill takes over Gravity Falls, letting loose his friends from the other dimension, and plunging the entire town into chaos, calling his reign: Weirdmageddon!

Stanford Pines claims to know a way to stop Bill, but his and Dipper’s attempts to stop him are foiled, when he’s captured by Bill, and the journals are taken away!

With his Great Uncle and the journals gone, Dipper soon ends up teaming up with Wendy and Soos, in an attempt to find Mabel, and try to somehow defeat Bill…of course, nothing ever comes easy in a world gone topsy-turvy.

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Given the symbolism the show has had, and Bill’s talk of “big plans,” it seemed a given that we would eventually get him back in a big way.

Plunging the town into Weirdmageddon, the results are a visual array of creatures, fire, and things that definitely don’t make one think of ‘pure Disney fun.’

One image that is hard to get out of my head, is Bill growing musculature and sinew across his body, as he takes on three-dimensional form. Yes, the image below is definitely not something one would expect from a Y7-rated show (but then again, Falls has pushed the envelope many times).

Much like in the Season 1 finale (Gideon Rises), Dipper is thrust into a situation where many of his support items are taken. Stanford isn’t there, the journals are gone, Mabel is cut off from him. In that sense, he becomes the focal point of the episode, as he has to press on, and find a way to survive.

Things really take a turn for the interesting, when Dipper finds Wendy, who shows she has what it takes to survive in an end-of-the-world situation. I think if anyone comes away remembering certain character moments, Wendy’s may stand out moreso than Dipper’s.

A notable scene, is when they are discussing where they were, “when it happened.” This may go over some of the younger viewer’s heads, but it adds a certain, real-world gravitas to the show. This kind of discussion has been had by many people over the years (myself included), relating to certain life-altering events in our own world, and to see it used here, was quite a shock!

Teaming up with Wendy, also leads to a brief-yet-exciting vehicle chase, involving some fun easter eggs, and some nice camera-work and 3D modeling (then again, I’d expect nothing less from the animation studio Rough Draft Korea, who also worked on Futurama!).

Like most first-parters, this episode also has the thankless task of laying out the ‘ground rules.’ This can often be a precarious tight-rope to walk, but the show manages to inform, while not getting too dry.

Even though it gives us plenty of areas to focus on, Part 1 also feels like a few subplots it introduces, are glossed over pretty quickly.

One subplot involving Gideon Glee, is shoehorned in a little too quickly, and another showing the little-used Time Police squad from the future, goes by so fast, I almost didn’t comprehend what their presence meant the first time!

Maybe if the shows had an extra 5-10 minutes, these bits wouldn’t have felt so brief, but then again, the show also has to move us forward, to keep the main focus on Dipper.

What does help the episode at times, is how the writers have managed to work in little jokes here and there (even having Bill and his minions, take over the opening credits to the show!), that manage to lighten up the dark areas of the story. It’s often hard to balance light and dark like in what is going on here, but surprisingly, the episode manages to keep itself together, as we charge on into Part 2.

Best line from the episode (said by Wendy Corduroy): “End of the world. Man…those death metal album covers got it shockingly right!”

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Final episode grade: B+ (Final Thoughts: The beginnings of Weirdmageddon, bring forth one of the darkest visions to ever come to the series. Bill Cypher’s reign over the small Oregon town, has started us down a path that makes one wonder just how our main characters will prevail. While focusing moreso on Dipper Pines, it also brings several of the friends he has encountered in the town to light, and gives them a chance to shine . The episode falters with a few minor subplots, and some characters we are left to wonder about, as we make our way into the next part of the Season 2 Finale)