Disney has been making some radical changes in recent years. Back in the day Disney was always known for its films and amusement parks, its original creator driven content always seemed to take a backseat. For years the only decent original Disney channel series were Fillmore! and The Weekenders. However like I said recently Disney has been taking a bold new direction. The addition of Disney XD has led to the creation of some great shows Phineas and Ferb and particularly Chris Prynoski's new show Motor City. Their current original content mirroring the 90's shows that put creator driven series on the map. Their latest play in this new direction the creation of what so far promises to be perhaps their best creator driven series yet Gravity Falls.
Emerging from the ashes of the Marvellous Misadventures of Flapjack (another quality show, however not Disneys) where series creator Alex Hirsch served as writer and storyboard artist, Gravity Falls is perhaps the best instalment in a series of programs crafted by current Cal Arts Alumni since Adventure Time.
From a cartooning and animation standpoint the series feels refreshing. The character designs feel like some superb mixture of The Simpsons, Classic Disney animation with a bit of The Marvellous Misadventures of Flapjack thrown in. The Characters are drawn in a very fun way and they lend themselves to the quality character animation the series has produced. From a character animation standpoint the work is spirited. It is fluid and comedic exemplifying how much the character animation can be integral to the characters themselves.
Cartooning and Animation aside though I feel the true greatness of the show stems from its writing style, approach of comedy and characters. Alex Hirsch and his writing team have made a show that conjures to mind the character driven humour of the classic Simpsons with the weird and often creepy nature of a 90's kid show called Eerie Indiana. The end result is a show with unique and weird story lines and a level of humour that does what many of the 90's shows did best, transcend its target audience. This show produces jokes that will work for both kids and adults. The characters are also very likable. We have seen characters like Dipper, Mabel and Grunkle Stan before but on Gravity Falls they are crafted so believably that we can forgive that. These are not just funny characters, they are characters with defined personas, they are oddly relatable and they have even in these 9 episodes shown some semblance of character development something that is usually left out of many North American animated series.
So far this is a near perfect show its only misstep so far the episode entitled Dipper Vs. Manliness, which I won't spoil it for you, has a great concept but is too much build up and not enough pay off.
For me this is a show that makes the kid in me smile. Watching this now is like tuning into my childhood favourites (Hey Arnold, Ren and Stimpy, Courage the Cowardly Dog) only now I am old enough to appreciate it.
