Jason Ritter, Kristen Schaal, Kevin Michael Richardson, and Linda Cardellini. You can’t not love “Gravity Falls” with a voice cast like that. Delivering a Halloween treat three months before my favorite holiday, “Gravity Falls” sets down upon two siblings who incidentally happen to be vacationing in Gravity Falls Oregon, a town filled with the supernatural and the paranormal that keeps them on their toes and constantly in peril. Imagine if agents Mulder and Scully were a young boy with an eye for the suspicious and a girl with a few screws loose and you basically have “Gravity Falls.” And is it any wonder that the theme song sounds like a lighter variation of the “X-Files” theme song?
While the formula seems a bit familiar at times (recalling the wackiness of “Billy and Mandy” at times), “Gravity Falls” has a lot going for it. Particularly the over the top humor that can be accessible to both adults and children, and its wonderful voice cast. What helps the series is that stars Jason Ritter and Kristen Schaal are genuinely funny people in reality, so their voice work for the twin siblings Dipper and Mabel Pines makes for a duo who are constantly bouncing clever one-liners and neat improv off of one another throughout the episodes. Schaal is of course a bonafide scene stealer who hits every single line of dialogue like a skilled comedienne. while Ritter is wonderful as the resident straight man with his own quirks and eccentricities.
Alex Hirsch is no slouch either pulling double duty as the hilarious Grunkle Stan, proprietor of the town’s mystery shop The Mystery Shack, and Soos, the even funnier handyman of the shop who guides and aides the Pines twins in their missions against monsters and ghouls throughout the show. Thankfully unlike Disney’s “Fish Hooks” which is just a series of random stories strewn together in episodes, “Gravity Falls” seems to be going somewhere as Dipper happens upon a numbered journal in the first episode that lays out various paranormal monsters lurking in Gravity Falls, as written by a mysterious individual. Who wrote this book? How many of these books are there? What powers do they wield? Is Grunkle Stan as oblivious as he seems?
Much of the irreverent humor from “The Misadventures of Slapjack” creeps in to the series quite often than not, providing an odd and unusual series of sight gags that land hard and with raucous laughter. The animation is just brilliant and masters the eccentric voice performances all too well, especially in the case of Mabel Pines. She’s so inept but charming at the same time. It’s tough to hate any character on “Gravity Falls” because they all serve their purpose and are allowed a chance at giving the audience a tickle with a one-liner.
Even Linda Cardellini, whose character is mainly a straight man and foil, manages to throw out some quick one-liners playing well off of Dipper and Mabel. Her constant back and forth with shop handyman Soos is priceless as well. There seems to be much more to this series than just a random assortment of episodes revolving around Dipper and Mabel’s confrontations with the paranormal, and I look forward to watching the show slowly unravel the mystery of the numbered journals as well as discovering who or whom has been chronicling and battling the paranormal in Gravity Falls, Oregon for such a long time. This show has great potential to be a classic, and I hope Disney realizes it as they did with “Phineas and Ferb.” What can I say? Animation is my weakness, and “Gravity Falls” hits all the right chords with this fanatic of the medium.