What's it all about?
Creator
What Parents Should Know
The show is centered around twelve-year-old twin siblings Mabel and Dipper Pines who are sent to live with their Great Uncle Stan in Gravity Falls, Oregon for the summer. Upon their arrival, the Pines twins learn that nothing in Gravity Falls is what it seems.
When Dipper finds an old journal left behind by a mysterious unknown author who explored the paranormal happenings of the town, the two kids are launched into the best summer ever filled with magic and mystery.
But as Dipper and Mabel learn more about the secrets of Gravity Falls they, in turn, learn about the hidden history of their family, and the dangerous future of their reality.
Gravity Falls was made by writer and animator Alex Hirsch. The show was loosely inspired by his childhood with his twin sister Ariel. Hirsch also voices multiple characters within the show.
Parents should know that in Gravity Falls Dipper and Mabel are co-protagonists, equal attention is given to telling both the female and male narrative. Gravity Falls is a show aimed at children of all gender identities.
A fun and important aspect the show is its attention to the untraditional family. At first, the Pines family seems quite nuclear, Mabel and Dipper live with their mom and dad in California. But as the show goes on the new family the twins discover in the town of Gravity Falls gets more and more untraditional. By the final episode Mabel and Dipper's "Mystery Shack Family" consists of two great uncles (one of which was missing for thirty years), a lumber jack savvy teenager, a loveable young adult handy man who considers great uncle stan as an adopted father, and a goat and a pig who are legally married.
While a majority of the main characters are male, the female characters are strong and complexly developed. The show even self-corrects and after a first season that lacked substantial representation female characters (besides the shows main character Mabel) made a great effort to showcases and develop female characters in the second season.
Gravity Falls is also one of the first animated children's shows to have LGBTQ+ characters. The characters Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland were confirmed to be in a relationship in the shows last episode.
Parents should also know that all of the characters in the show, even "the good guys", are morally complex. Mabel and Dipper always end up doing the right thing in the end but they, along with other characters, have flaws which are used to create learning moments. The actions of Mabel and Dipper can be used as a learning tool to teach children how to handle tough social situations. Everything from being bullied, to getting in a fight, to not feeling accepted by one's family, to have to choose whether or not to trust your great uncle who's wanted by the FBI for building dimensional portal machine in your basement.
Parents should also be aware that while Gravity Falls does more good than harm, the show does do some harm. There is a lack of racial diversity in the show, it is common place for characters who are full figured to be coded as either evil or dumb, and while the show has some great feminist moments the first season uses common place sexist sayings such as "like a girl" being a derogatory statement.
