"Gravity Falls" I treated at first with suspicion, as well as to any hyped, fashionable thing. Not the last role in this was played by a kind of drawing of the cartoon - recently I watch only anime from animation, and I am used to a more realistic style.
However, my skepticism was not long enough.
The first series convinced me that before me at least a curious work. And now, having looked to the end, I have every right to call it a masterpiece. To be honest, I have a dual attitude towards Western animation. As a child, of course, I liked long series about brutal superheroes more than Soviet cartoons, mostly funky and edifying and focused on toddlers. Now, after years and after getting acquainted with the anime, Western animation, with rare exceptions, looks like a monotonous stamping, adapting to the mass audience the history of comics, which in the original did not always shine with the plot and meaning. On the contrary, Soviet cartoonists, unlike most American cartoonists, at least experimented with form - censorship sometimes interfered with experimentation with content. In the West, everything was led by a commercial format - here's Disney, here's Nickelodeon, here's Marvel, and here's DC. And just Disney, which I considered the most hopelessly formatted studio, unexpectedly surprised.
And it would be worth, in fact, to recall childhood and
"Black Cloak" - an excellent parody of superhero epics. Yes, in fact, Disney multipliers can do interesting things.
By the way, for some reason noticed - the series at Disney come out much more interesting full-length tracks. If in the latter - pathos, sweetness and annoying singing characters, then in the first - interesting plots and excellent humor, understandable, however, for the most part, only to an adult viewer, because it is based on parody of films and books.
But "Gravity Falls" stands out even from a string of the studio's best series. This is a unique, author's project. Producer and screenwriter Alex Hirsch had to fight a lot with Disney management to make the series come out the way it was intended. And he succeeded - before us it is a teenager, not a child, witty, sometimes creepy, sometimes very serious, sometimes to a wild frenzy funny cartoon.
The plot, it seems, is not new at all. Brother and sister, twelve-year-old twins Dipper and Mabel, come to rest for the summer in the small town of Gravity Falls to their uncle Stan. And the town, it turns out, is not at all simple... well, it is just full of paranormal and devilishness! Well, what twelve-year-old does not want to reveal all the secrets of the mystical Gravity Falls?
Yes, fantastic “romances of growing up” dedicated to summer holidays, traditional for American literature, remember at least “Dandelion Wine” Bradbury. Yes, the “strange lost town” is already a stamp of the genre of mystical series, starting with the cult “Twin Peaks”. So what? It is important not only from what, but also how the dish is prepared.
It's perfectly cooked. “Gravity Falls” is called “Twin Peaks for children”, but it is more like “Lost” – the complexity of the world and the complexity of intrigue. And it's not complexity for the sake of complexity - every detail, every detail in the series is important. Hirsch didn't hang a single unloaded gun - even the odd shadows in the background could prove to be a hidden "spoiler" of subsequent events. No wonder I mentioned “Black Cloak” – “Gravity Falls” also has enough parodies and postmodern games with quotes.
By the way, I stopped watching Lost, but I heard that its creators “merged” the last season. So, with “Gravity Falls” this did not happen – the puzzle of Alex Hirsch was perfect. However, this cartoon was originally planned as a complete, integral work.
Praise the creators of the series and the characters. I liked Uncle Stan the most, probably because of his ambiguity. (However, the black-and-white worldview of Gravity Falls does not suffer - in each of the residents of the city, no matter how it may seem, there is always something good.) But in general - great all the heroes, which, by the way, a considerable number. (At first, though, Gideon was very annoying - but probably it was planned?)
What is Gravity Falls? This is the story of one important summer that almost everyone had in childhood - the summer between childhood and adolescence, when you still know so little about life, but you are already beginning to understand much. A tale of friendship, first love, courage. About self-sacrifice, and about the need to appreciate your loved ones. A real magical story about a small town where miracles happen.
Bottom line: it seems that we have witnessed how in our time was created one of the best animated series in history. I recommend Gravity Falls to anyone who is not hopelessly grown up, who still remembers what it is to be twelve and believes in miracles.
10 out of 10 Original