During the last few weeks I have decided to watch the critically acclaimed TV show of Gravity Falls created by Alex Hirsch; I´ll admit that at first I didn´t knew what to expect... I went in knowing nothing about the show, literally, I didn´t had any positive nor negative expectations and has someone who enjoys animation in general I gotta say I really loved this show.
I have never limited myself to any kind of demography, genera or style despite many reprises by family and friends... many around me have argued that I should´t be watching cartoons like Gravity Falls because is for kids... indeed is for kids but that dozen´t stop me and many adults to enjoy a smart series. I have many reasons why I adore Gravity Falls and why is a great show.
The premise goes like this: Twin siblings Dipper and Mable Pines travel for summer to a town called Gravity Falls with their Granduncle Stan, a con-artist; while at first it does seem like a standard and somewhat boring hometown, Gravity Falls ends up having more secrets than it less out so eventually Dipper comes across a diary that holds the secrets of magical and interdimentional creatures out in the open... and so the kids have the summer vacation of their lifetime.
Alex Hirsch has stated that the promise itself was somewhat inspired by his own experiences on vacation with his twin sister, witch helps to give this series an air of genuine love and it shows on screen. There is plenty of good stuff in this show that I am literally having a hard time while writing thinking of where to start: well how about the comedy? I have seen many cartoon shows trying to be funny and mature at the same time and all they do is just fall flat on their faces by doing really idiotic stuff like telling jokes of all kinds that just goes over the head of many children and adults would most likely find revolting... Gravity Falls proves that comedy doesn´t have to be a complicated science or be too much of one thing; jokes can be simple with a circumstance in the story that drives it and have one character suffer a certain concequesce (weather it be slapstick or a play on words).
This generation of cartoons have not only been funny and extremely well animated but it has also been smart with it´s presentation, characters and stories in Gravity Falls is just the current example of that quality level in animated shows: I love the aesthetics, if you look carefully, the backgrounds matches the style of the characters, painting backgrounds is a nightmare for me so I am fascinated by seeing the team having such ease to work with blending the background with the characters so seemingly, the character models are very akin to something out of "The Simpsons" and for animation this is very good since it facilitates the work load for the animation, and with less complicated models there is more time to make plenty of wacky and interesting movements, the characters in this show are very well stretched and squashed. Even with their simplistic design the way these characters look is memorable, of course much of it comes from the personalities and characterisation but looking at them is easy to appreciate them: Mable is one of the most adorable characters I´ve ever seen on an animated show.
The stories are simple for kids to fallow yet intriguing for adults to watch, it´s smart on that regard by not only showing creative imagery but challenging their core audience by sometimes incorporating scary elements without going way too far with it, I can think of a couple of times I was startled by some of the creatures the team came up with... some people might think that this kind of things are too much for little children but I doubt it would scar kids or anything; if anything it challenges them to face scary imagery.
Like most cartoon shows now days (and some even back when), it has a core story it fallows yet every episode can be watched on it´s own and that helps any common viewer to jump in at anytime... however, thanks to the power of the internet people can access the episodes in sequence, I feel however that having this kind of story format helps to tell some new stories has well has helping viewers who are jumping for the first time in that very episode. The overarching story that is being fallowed does take many twists and turns about the direction the series is taking... I don´t wanna give anything away but it is very cleverly incorporated and it does know how to build good drama while at the same time keeping focus on the on the comedy aspects and the fact that it´s a cartoon.
Gravity Falls only has 2 seasons under it´s belt unlike most other cartoons that lasts for about 4 seasons or more, the creator knew that the magic would be lost if he forced the continuation of the show so he decided to finish it out with a bang by lunching the final season and wrap up pretty much every loose end has the summer is ending... again i don´t want to give anything away but let´s just say that everything from the message is trying to convey to the comedy, the action, the drama and of course the well incorporated animation is all excellent making what seems like an epic finale for a simple animated show something somewhat glorious to watch.
What else can I say; Gravity Falls is a great show and has an animator myself i can appreciate the work put into making this what it is, the characters are memorable, the stories are fun, the comedy is smart, the animation is great... is just an overall great cartoon, one I am glad I watched and I want to revisit in the future when it feels fresh again.
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After the bad taste that playing EA´s Star Wars: Battlefront left me I am glad I got to see something very fun and clever, I hope I got the interest of some people to check it out because I am not kidding when I say it´s a really smart animated show... If you are a fan of animation then I am sure you are gonna appreciate what it has to offer.
I don´t know what is to come on next but I have been busy with life stuff recently and I don´t know when is the next post going to be let alone the topic... it will come to me but in the mean time check out my tumblr page here. Since I know I haven´t been putting up anything related to my project I felt like I could get someplace to share it.
Thank you again and stay tuned.
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