GRAVITY FALLS

GRAVITY FALLS

(Disney Channel, Disney XD, June 15, 2012-February 15, 2016)

Disney Television Animation

            While a student at California Institute of the Arts, Alex Hirsch created an 11-minute low-budget student film which was inspired by his childhood summer vacations with his twin sister. Disney called Hirsch in to pitch a show based on the pilot and greenlit Gravity Falls. The series centered on Dipper Pines (Jason Ritter) and his twin sister Mabel (Kristen Schaal) as they are dropped off to stay with their Great Uncle Stan (shortened to Grunkle Stan, voiced by Hirsch) for the summer in the town of Gravity Falls. There, they helped run Stan’s “Mystery Shack”, along with handyman Soos Ramirez (Hirsch) and Wendy Corduroy (Linda Cardellini). While there, Dipper discovered a mysterious journal in the forest that led to him and Mabel to begin to investigate the strange mysteries and supernatural occurrences in the town.

Dipper, Wendy, Soos and Mabel on the trail of another mystery.

            Gravity Falls initially began airing on Disney Channel in 2012, with animation done by Rough Draft Studios, Digital eMation and Yearim Productions. As each episode took six months to complete, Disney opted to air each completed episode as its own event rather than waiting for a backlog to build up and air it on a regular weekly schedule. As a result, there were often breaks between each new episode. For season two, the show moved to Disney XD where it aired until its completion in 2016 and continued to air in reruns, as well as on the Disney Channel. Despite the show’s high ratings and critical acclaim, Hirsch chose to end the show with “a real conclusion for the characters”, however he was open to doing more episodes or specials. In 2018, Hirsch announced that he would continue the show in a new graphic novel, Gravity Falls: Lost Legends.