Gravity Falls

Gravity Falls
Genre	Adventure Dramedy Mystery Fantasy Supernatural
Created by	Alex Hirsch
Directed by	John Aoshima Aaron Springer Joe Pitt
Creative director	Michael Rianda
Voices of	Jason Ritter Kristen Schaal Alex Hirsch Linda Cardellini
Opening theme	"Made Me Realize" by Brad Breeck
Composer	Brad Breeck
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	20 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer	Alex Hirsch
Producers	Tobias Conan Trost Rob Renzetti (supervising producer)
Running time	22 minutes
Production company	Disney Television Animation
Original release
Network	Disney Channel Disney XD
Release	June 15, 2012 – present

Gravity Falls is an American animated television series created by animator Alex Hirsch for the Disney tv network. The series follows the adventures of Dipper Pines (voiced by Jason Ritter) and his demented twin sister Mabel (voiced by Kristen Schaal) in the fictional town of Gravity Falls, Oregon, while on summer vacation. In each episode Dipper and Mabel fall in unexpected situations that involve various paranormal and supernatural creatures. The series officially premiered on the Disney Channel in the United States on June 15, 2012.

Series creator Alex Hirsch first coined the concept for the show in a 11-minute low-budget student film which he made at the California Institute of the Arts. Hirsch was called in to do a pitch for the Disney Channel for a show based on the short pilot. The Disney Channel bought the idea and started airing the series in the summer of 2012. The series was inspired by Hirsch's own childhood experiences with his twin sister spending their summer vacations.

Plot

For their summer vacation, 12 year old twins Dipper and Mabel are dropped off from their home in Piedmont, California to live with their Great Uncle (usually shortened to "Grunkle") Stan in Gravity Falls, Oregon. Things are not what they seem in this small town, and with the help of a mysterious journal Dipper finds in the forest, they realize that their everyday lifestyle has changed. With appearances from Wendy, Dipper's crush; Soos, friend of Dipper and Mabel and handyman to Grunkle Stan; plus an assortment of other characters, Dipper and Mabel always have an intriguing day to look forward to.

Cast and characters

Main

• Dipper Pines (voiced by Jason Ritter), the 12-year-old twin brother of Mabel Pines. Intelligent, he is armed with the journal marked "3" he found in the woods which helps him with each mystery of the day. An adventurer, Dipper has trouble sitting still and is always looking for the next riddle to solve, leaving him restless in mundane situations. His attention to detail seems to be helpful when solving mysteries, but others question his credibility because of his zeal. He is considered to be wise beyond his years and cannot wait to grow up and become a man. Portrayed as goal-oriented and rooted in the facts, he sometimes over thinks possible scenarios and obsessively makes lists. It is revealed in one of the episodes that Dipper has a crush on Wendy. While he knows in his heart that he will never really be Wendy's boyfriend, that does not stop him from trying to do anything for her. In another episode it is revealed that he likes bubblegum pop music. He got his name from a birthmark on his forehead that is shaped like the Big Dipper. He secretly wishes he had the name "Tyrone." Despite his size, Dipper is actually a proficient fighter, as he was trained by minotaurs in the episode "Dipper vs Manliness". His skill allowed him to beat Rumble Mcskirmish in "Fight Fighters", and Lil' Gideon in "Gideon Rises", both in hand-to-hand combat.
• Mabel Pines (voiced by Kristen Schaal), the 12-year-old twin sister of Dipper Pines. Mabel is an eccentric, buoyant and energetic optimist, who expresses herself through an assortment of extremely colorful knitted sweaters as well as skill at various arts and crafts. Her outgoing, curious personality often helps Dipper solve mysteries, though her silliness is often seen as a burden. Mabel enjoys pre-teen novels and seeks romance (especially in vampires). Despite what she sees as dating obscurity in Gravity Falls, Mabel stays optimistic. She once went out on a date with Lil' Gideon, but this did not continue after Lil' Gideon attempted to kill Dipper. In the episode "Irrational Treasure," she is made an official U.S. congresswoman by the 8 1/2 president, with a political platform of "legalizing everything." She wins a pet pig in the episode "The Time Traveler's Pig" and calls it Waddles. She then used the time traveling to create clones of herself to have a three way with Elvis before his death in 1929. This creates a hole in the space time condom and requires a suprize appearance from Chuck Norris to reset time and restore balance, causing Emma Watson to marry Liam Neeson. Before Waddle's death in 1709 he legalized time travel and lamp marriage. Plus bacon. In the episode "The Deep End," she gets her first kiss from a merman who was unable to escape a community swimming pool. It is shown in "Boss Mabel" that when put under stress, she becomes a tyrannical figure similar to her Grunkle Stan.
• Stanford "Grunkle Stan" Pines (voiced by Alex Hirsch), the great uncle of Dipper and Mabel Pines. He runs and lives in The Mystery Shack, a tourist trap which is billed as "the world's most bizarre museum." Grunkle Stan is a salesman first and foremost, putting most of his effort into showmanship, and is eager to sell the Shack's knickknacks, trinkets and baubles for exorbitant prices. Because of his drive to make money, his methods of obtaining it are not always legal. When he is not making money, he is at home watching television. Stan usually wears a fez (the symbol on which has changed over the episodes) and an eyepatch over his glasses — the latter of which is expressly for personal image. He frequently sends the twins on what they consider to be outrageous and unpredictable errands, but he is protective of them and loves them unconditionally. Behind his vending machine, he has a hidden staircase to an unknown location. In the season 1 finale, this location is revealed to contain a large hidden device which is powered by encrypted information in the three journals. Stan has the first journal, Lil' Gideon had the second, and Dipper had the third. It is unknown what the device is capable of doing.
• Soos (voiced by Alex Hirsch), the handyman at the Mystery Shack. A friend of Dipper and Mabel, Soos is a portly, hamster-like, lovable man-child who desires to be where the action is. He often drives the twins around town when they need. He's rather clumsy, not the brightest in the group, and is often making mistakes. Despite this, he has a wide variety of talents, including DJ-ing and pinball, and enjoys bonding with Dipper by doing "boy stuff" such as heating hot dogs in a microwave until they explode. He says "dude" after almost every sentence.
• Wendy Corduroy (voiced by Linda Cardellini), a mellow, tomboyish, "cool" 15-year-old girl who is a part-time employee at The Mystery Shack. She is Dipper's crush, and several episodes focus on his misguided attempts to impress her. Wendy has stated that she had many boyfriends in the past — so many, in fact, that there is one ex-boyfriend with whom she cannot remember ever breaking up. Wendy is the oldest and tallest child in her family, and her father is Manly Dan, the lumberjack of Gravity Falls. Sociable and non-chalant, she has many friends who are around her age. Her most recent ex-boyfriend is Robbie, whom Dipper despises and sees as a rival. Wendy almost always stands up for Dipper in front of Robbie.
• Waddles (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker), Mabel's pet pig. She won Waddles at the fair, and ever since then the two have been inseparable. It is shown that Waddles enjoys spending time with Mabel just as much as she enjoys spending time with him. In "Summerween", Waddles allows Mabel and her friends Grenda and Candy to dress him up as a businessman and take humorously captioned pictures of him in the style of "lolcat" internet memes.

Recurring

• Old Man McGucket (voiced by Alex Hirsch), the "local kook" of Gravity Falls. Despite his apparent insanity and stereotypical hillbilly demeanor, Old Man McGucket is a technical mastermind, capable of creating massive, complex animatronics (such as a robotic sea monster or a homicidal robot dinosaur). His son works at the lake, but the two seem to have a strained relationship, which adds to McGucket's insanity and need for attention. It is revealed in the end credits of "Little Dipper" that his full name is Fiddleford H. McGucket.
• Candy Chiu (voiced by Niki Yang) and Grenda (voiced by Carl Faruolo), Mabel's best friends whom she first met at a party hosted by the Mystery Shack. Candy and Grenda are both considered unpopular by Pacifica Northwest and the more social kids because they have flaws; Candy is shy, insecure and does some strange things, such as taping forks to her fingers as an "improvement of human being," and Grenda is quite large, likes lizards, and has a deep, masculine voice. Mabel sees these qualities as endearing and thus finds two kindred spirits in Gravity Falls. The two are big fans of Waddles, taking pictures of him on Candy's phone in the episode "Summerween." They have many things in common with Mabel, such as their love of paranormal romance novels, pre-teen magazines, and the 1990s style boy band Sev'ral Timez. As shown in the episodes "Carpet Diem" and "Boyz Crazy," Dipper is somewhat jealous of them because Mabel spends more time with them than him.
• Sheriff Blubs (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson), the Gravity Falls sheriff. He is shown to be rather lazy, often choosing to sit around and drink coffee instead of pursuing a case. Despite his apparent lack of police skills, he believes himself superior to all, and often looks down on the twins, which undermines their mystery solving abilities. His lazy personality seems to stem from the extremely low crime rate in Gravity Falls, which is demonstrated when Deputy Durland once comments on how unused their equipment is.
• Deputy Edwin Durland (voiced by Keith Ferguson), a police officer, Sheriff Blubs' partner and right-hand man. He is shown to be unintelligent and childlike — Mabel comments that she does not think he can read. Sheriff Blubs, however, seems to find these qualities endearing, and refers to him as a "diamond in the rough". Instead of "doing their duties," he and Sheriff Blubs like to joke around (trying to solve a maze in an activity book, etc.).
• Gompers the Goat (voiced by Frank Welker), a goat who lives in the forest near the Mystery Shack. Gompers frequently enters the Mystery Shack uninvited and unannounced. He once ate all of the household's tin cans, as well as Grunkle Stan's fez.
• Lazy Susan (voiced by Jennifer Coolidge), the sluggish woman who works as a waitress in the local diner. She is shown to love fixing things, despite not being at all skilled. Her name is a pun on her lazy eye, as well as a kitchen device she was trying to fix. She has several cats, three of which are named Donald, Sandy, and Mr. Cat-Face. Grunkle Stan had a crush on her, and eventually worked up the nerve to win her over, but he later regretted it after she called him repeatedly leaving unusual voice messages. She is shown to be scatterbrained in the episode "Summerween," when she categorically failed to guess what Soos, Mabel, and Mabel's friends were dressed as.
• Toby Determined (voiced by Gregg Turkington), a journalist for the Gravity Falls Gossiper. He is a hard-hitting yet wimpy journalist, shown to be terrible at his job — an example is that in one episode, he tried to use a turkey baster as a microphone. He has an unrequited crush on local TV news reporter Shandra Jimenez which goes to such an extent that he has a cardboard-cutout of her in his closet and flirts with it when alone, as shown in the episode "Headhunters." His name is a pun on "to be determined," said when information in a news story is currently unavailable.
• Manly Dan (voiced by John DiMaggio), the strong lumberjack and father of Wendy and three sons. Manly Dan is unstable and has serious anger issues, often punching or destroying objects when angry, but enjoys family bonding activities such as fishing on the lake. Manly Dan hangs out at Skull Fracture, a local biker joint in downtown Gravity Falls. He is also good friends with Tyler the Cute Biker.
• Tyler the Cute Biker (voiced by Will Forte), a slim, well-groomed biker. He appears to be rather childlike, and he is well known for showing up in crowd scenes saying his catchphrase, "Get 'em! Get 'em!". He tends to be indecisive, and is a frequent visitor of the Mystery Shack.
• Bill Cipher (voiced by Alex Hirsch) is a powerful demon that can be summoned and released into a person's mind. He is a one-eyed, yellow, triangular pyramid with a top hat and a bow tie, superficially similar to the Eye of Providence. Bill first appeared physically in "Dreamscaperers;" however, many references to him had been hidden in previous episodes as images or sentences that flashed across the screen. He has a snappy sense of humor but loses his temper quite easily due to impatience. In "Dreamscaperers," Lil' Gideon summons Bill as an attempt to steal Stan's deed to the Mystery Shack. The two of them make a deal that if Bill goes into Stan's mind and steals the combination to the safe where the deed is hidden, Gideon will eventually have to help Bill with his mysterious plans. He seems to have the abilities to read people's minds and memories, shift forms, decipher codes, and shoot lasers from his eye and fingers. Bill claims he could use Soos, Dipper, and Mabel against the "darkness coming". His name may be either a pun on the Beale ciphers, or a reference to the Eye of Providence that appears on the dollar bill.
• Lil' Gideon (voiced by Thurop Van Orman) is a young boy who owns the "Tent of Telepathy," a successful competitor of the Mystery Shack. He has a deep rivalry with Grunkle Stan that presumably started long before the twins arrived. His unhealthy obsession with Mabel, and his belief that Dipper and Stan are the only things keeping them apart, prevent him from seeing that Mabel doesn't like him at all. He previously owned an amulet that endowed him with telekinesis, but it was destroyed by Mabel after he attempted to use it to kill Dipper. It is shown that he owned the journal marked 2, the previous volume of the journal Dipper owned. He seems to be one of the only residents who is fully aware of the mysteries and secrets of Gravity Falls. Lil' Gideon's mission is to gain possession of the Mystery Shack, saying that it has 'a secret you couldn't possibly begin to imagine.' In the Season 1 finale, Stan successfully reveals to the townspeople that Lil' Gideon's psychic ability is a ruse and that Lil' Gideon is a fraud. Lil' Gideon is arrested shortly thereafter.
• Robbie V. (voiced by T.J. Miller) is a local teenage punk rocker boy who is Dipper's primary rival for Wendy's affections. He has a cynical attitude toward most characters, and despite his neglect to listen to Wendy while playing a video game in the episode "Fight Fighters," he has been shown to genuinely care for Wendy. Robbie and Wendy were dating for a time which annoyed Dipper. However, in the episode "Boyz Crazy," Dipper managed to break them up when he informed Wendy that the song Robbie wrote for her had a backmasked mind-controlling message, although Wendy was most upset that the song wasn't written for her. After the break up, Robbie seemed greatly upset about losing her.
• Pacifica Northwest (voiced by Jackie Buscarino), the most popular girl in Gravity Falls. She comes from a wealthy family, being the great-great-granddaughter of the supposed founder of Gravity Falls, Nathaniel Northwest — the real founder of Gravity Falls being Quentin Trembley (8 1/2th President of the United States). Pacifica is an unfriendly, sarcastic, and spoiled girl and is Mabel's primary rival. Pacifica looks down on Mabel and thinks her eccentric personality is annoying and immature. She uses people's insecurities to manipulate them into doing whatever she wants and despises Mabel for standing up against her. Her name is a pun on Pacific Northwest, given the town of Gravity Falls is located in Oregon.
• Bud Gleeful (voiced by Stephen Root), Lil' Gideon's polite and well-meaning father. Despite having a nervous wife and a manipulative child, Bud seems to always find ways to make money, even to the point of becoming allies with Grunkle Stan—Lil' Gideon's mortal enemy—for a business deal. Besides working at Lil' Gideon's "Tent of Telepathy", Bud also sells used cars.
• The Gnomes (voiced by Alex Hirsch) appear in the first episode, where they capture Mabel Pines to try to make her their queen, saved by Dipper. They appear as garden gnomes with pointed red caps and white beards, although they often run on all fours. The leader, Jeff, has sworn vengeance on the twins, but has yet to wreak it. The twins call on the gnomes later in the series to help take down a common enemy, but failed as Gideon forces them to carry them away.

Minor

• Sir Lord Quentin Trembley III Esquire (voiced by Alex Hirsch), The 8 1/2th President of the United States. He appears in the episode "Irrational Treasure," frozen in peanut brittle since he was kicked out of office after being marked as the silliest President the US had ever seen. Being freed by the twins, he gave Dipper his President's Key (which can open any lock in America) and made Mabel a US congressman. The twins learn that Trembley was the official founder of Gravity Falls after searching in a cave for proof that Pacifica Northwest's great great grandfather, Nathaniel Northwest, wasn't the real founder of Gravity Falls. He was last seen riding a horse backwards off a cliff, which is the method by which he originally discovered Gravity Falls in the 19th century.
• Lee (voiced by Michael Rianda) and Nate (voiced by Scott Menville), Wendy's friends. The two of them are usually seen together. Lee has blonde hair and wears a red shirt, while Nate wears a cap and a black shirt. They both act like stereotypical, sarcastic, care-free teenagers.
• Tambry (voiced by Jessica DiCicco) is one of Wendy's friends. She has dyed hair and rarely looks up from her phone, either texting or updating her status.
• Thompson (voiced by Michael Rianda) is one of Wendy's friends. He is usually seen participating in the games the guys play, such as putting ice in his pants and trying to shoot a jelly bean into his navel.
• The Corduroy boys are the three sons of Manly Dan and the younger brothers of Wendy. Their names have not yet been revealed. The three are often seen with their father, destroying things.
• Reginald (voiced by Will Friedle) and Rosanna (voiced by Grey DeLisle), a proposed couple who are commonly seen background characters in the show. They appear to be currently going out, as they are often seen together.
• The Free Pizza Guy (aka That Fat Guy) is a background character in Gravity Falls. He is usually seen eating pizza and is disappointed when Stan breaks his promise of free pizza in "Head Hunters", recognizable by his red 'free pizza' shirt.
• Shandra Jimenez (voiced by Kari Wahlgren) is a news reporter in Gravity Falls, Oregon and Toby Determined's secret crush. It appears she takes her job seriously when she refers to herself as "a real reporter."
• Lake Gravity Falls Ranger McGucket (voiced by Alex Hirsch) is a stoic worker at Lake Gravity Falls, and is the son of Old Man McGucket. His eyes are always hidden under his hat.
• Mr. and Mrs. Northwest are Pacifica Northwest's wealthy and apparently snobby parents.
• Mrs. Gleeful (voiced by Grey DeLisle) is the mother of Gideon Gleeful and wife of Bud Gleeful. She is first seen in "Little Dipper" and then in "Gideon Rises." She appears to be traumatized and stressed out.
• Pacifica's friends (voiced by Ariel Hirsch, the magenta-haired one) are the cronies of Pacifica Northwest, who are usually seen following their dominant counterpart around and obliging to her every whim.
• Blendin Blandin (voiced by Justin Roiland) is a time traveler from the year 207̃012 (pronounced twenty-sñeventy-twelve) who was sent back in time to Gravity Falls to remove a set of time anomalies that Mabel and Dipper assume they started. He makes a full appearance in 'Time Traveler's Pig', but has made cameo appearances in episodes 1, 2, 3, and 20, cleaning up the time anomalies.
• Mr. Poolcheck (voiced by Michael Rianda) is the head lifeguard at the Gravity Falls Pool, although he acts more like a drill instructor. He was Wendy's boss at the Gravity Falls Pool and later agrees to hire Dipper. At first he takes a liking to Dipper, but comes to realize both Wendy and Dipper do not take the job of lifeguard seriously enough. Near the conclusion of the episode, he fires both Wendy and Dipper.
• Donald, Sandy, and Mr. Cat Face are the pet cats of Lazy Susan.
• Shmipper and Smabble are two very young characters (one male and one female) who are sometimes used as complete opposites of Mabel and Dipper. They have a grandpa who shows his loving affection towards them, in contrast towards Grunkle Stan.
• The Old Lady is a non-speaking background character who has grey hair, a pink-orange shirt, and blue jeans. She is sometimes seen with Lazy Susan or The Free Pizza Guy, and is also a frequent visitor of the Mystery Shack.
• Hank (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) is a background character who appears in various background scenes. He is the first character to appear on the show, where he is seen grilling hamburgers at a barbecue for his friends and wife. He is good friends with Lazy Susan.

Episodes

Main article: List of Gravity Falls episodes

Season	Episodes		Originally aired
			First aired	Last aired	Network
Pilot			December 9, 2010 (2010-12-09)		—
1	20		June 15, 2012 (2012-06-15)	August 2, 2013 (2013-08-02)	Disney Channel
2	20		August 1, 2014 (2014-08-01)	February 15, 2016 (2016-02-15)	Disney XD

Ciphers

At the end of every episode there is a ciphered text in one of three substitution ciphers:

• Caesar cipher which is hinted at by a voice in the opening sequence, which played backwards says "three letters back".
• Atbash cipher.
• A substitution cipher where each letter is substituted with an integer that corresponds to the letter's place in the alphabet from 1 to 26.

The season 1 finale encodes a message with all three of these ciphers.

Reception

Ratings

A special preview of the series following the Disney Channel Original Movie Let It Shine was watched by 3.4 million viewers. The series garnered high views on its fifth episode, which aired on July 13, 2012, and attracted 3.6 million viewers. On March 15, 2013, the episode "The Deep End" was watched by 4.5 million viewers after the premiere of Wizards of Waverly Place's The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex, becoming the highest rated episode of the series so far.

Critical reaction

The series has received positive reviews from critics. 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".

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominee	Result
2012	Annie Award	Production Design in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production	Ian Worrel	Nominated
		Voice Acting in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production	Kristen Schaal	Won
2013	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV: Animated Show	Gravity Falls	Nominated
2013	Annie Award	Best Animated TV/Broadcast Production For Children's Audience	Gravity Falls	Nominated
		Directing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production	John Aoshima	Nominated
		Storyboarding in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production	Alonso Ramos-Ramirez	Nominated
2013	Golden Reel Award	Best Sound Editing in Television: Animation	Gravity Falls	Nominated
2014	Kids' Choice Awards	Favoite Animated Animal Sidekick	Waddles	Nominated

Broadcast

Disney Channel

The series preview in Canada on June 15, 2012 and premiered on July 6, 2012. The show started broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland on July 20, 2012 as a preview and officially premiered on September 7, 2012. In Australia and New Zealand it previewed on August 17, 2012 and premiered on September 24, 2012. It also premiered in Southeast Asia on October 27, 2012. In India it premiered on September 16, 2013.

Disney

In the United Kingdom it previewed on July 19, 2012 and premiered on September 7, 2012.

Other

In Australia, the show is also aired on 7mate while in Chile, the show is aired on Canal 13 on November 15, 2013 under its programming block CuBox. In the Philippines, the show is broadcast on TV5 beginning on May 4, 2014 while in Brazil, the show began airing on Rede Globo on May 10, 2014.

External links

• Official US website
• Gravity Falls at IMDb