Gravity Falls, The Pacific Northwest, and Exploration

(Banner photo: film photos I took the last time I was in redwoods, 2024)

Gravity falls was a two-season cartoon show that ran on Disney XD when I was in middle and high school. Like most Disney cartoon shows it has a relatively simple setup to being with. Two 12-year-old twins. Dipper and Mabel, are sent to live with their grunkle (grand-uncle) Stan in a tourist trap shack called the mystery shack in Gravity Falls, Oregon: A rural pacific northwestern town.

The first thing you learn is that the town has a variety of supernatural elements. This comes from Dipper discovering a journal written by a mysterious author who studied the “weirdness” (the show’s term for more or less supernatural) for 3 years before disappearing. Mabel gets almost married off to a clan of gnomes and Dipper thinks that a teenager is actually a zombie. Oh, also the gnomes then turn into a giant murderous gnome who tries to eat them while they flee on a golf cart. In episode 1. Episode 2 has them investigating a lock ness monster that is actually a giant robot piloted by the town’s insane redneck. It’s got humor, charm, and a lovable cast of characters, like any other Disney show.

But the very first episode ends with the twins having fun together while Stan puts a code into the vending machine and disappears downstairs. And the mystery only grows. Most of the first season (20 episodes, there are only 40 in the show), is this similar lighthearted plot of the week that you’d see on Phineas and Ferb. But more and more questions get asked. What is in the basement? Where does the weirdness actually come from? Why did the author disappear? 

Then in the final two episodes of season 1. You get introduced to a satanic ritual summoned nightmare demon who invades minds and hopes to destroy the third dimension for fun. His name is Bill. He’s a triangle. And the truest evil villain you’ll ever come across.

So I’ve described to you an incredibly brief plot of a show set in the northwest. Yet I believe in nearly any other setting this kind of plotline wouldn’t work. The Pacific Northwest I’ve found has an appeal like no other in its mystery and wonder coupled with a sheer eldritch feel at times.

We can compare the two main towns in my life to look at this. If you walk around Ann Arbor during the summer through the woods you’ll hear the buzzing of insects all around if not farm animals. The smell is of uncut grass and pollen (so much goddamn pollen). You can see miles, helped by the fact that elevation is banned in the state of Michigan. The trees are the kind you would draw in the first grade next to a white picket fence.

Now move to the Pacific Northwest. There are no insects and animal life is quiet: In general the pacific forests are fairly unpopulated. The smell is of trees centuries old and damp dirt. Assuming you can even see past the trees that tower hundreds of feet above you, either a hill or the distinct lack of sunlight that penetrates the tree cover affects how far you can see. Far worse if it’s a foggy day that reduces your visibility to 15 feet. Even the color scheme is largely dark greens and reddish browns. In the daytime, it can be unnerving. At night it can be downright terrifying.

So with that in mind, back to season 2 of Gravity Falls. Which is absolutely fucking bananas.

We got a secret cult. The author of the journal revealed. An apocalypse. Like several hundred people dying on screen, and a drug deal for unicorn dust with fairies. God, there is so much happening in the second season. And such a good reveal for the overarching plotline of the show.

Now I should say there are biases that show that I have. Alex Hirsch, the show’s creator, went to my middle and high school (and I know the elementary school he went to). Dipper and Mabel even went to that same elementary school and in-show come from my hometown. I love mystery plots and cartoons. Every main character in the show has believable charm and flaws and together the chemistry is flawless.

But god it has a plotline that still so few shows have been able to counter. Even fewer kids ones

But it’s 

The World of gravity falls works for me because it’s set in a place where I could believe it could happen. Hiking along in one of the ancient forests and a few minutes in and you could believe that something weird will happen in front of you. As I said, hike it alone at night, and you will be believing in shamble men and why bigfoot is an actual legend out in that part of the country.

Even more though, the Pacific Northwest has a sense of discovery that no other area can generate. The lack of a field of view only adds to the effect. In terms of unworldliness, only a few places I’ve visited can compare (scuba diving and Petra both come to mind). There is also far less decay for fallen trees here than in other places. Compared to a rainforest where it’d be devoured in days you can find logs to climb and look into and see where fires had burnt them out years ago.

There’s also something distinct when you’re off the path. Yosemite is fantastic. I’ve been there like half a dozen times and could go half a dozen more. But when it’s so traveled you just see people. On the other hand, you walk two miles outside of a trail and it’s just you and all those internal thoughts.

Lastly, the premise of gravity falls works for me because it’s not about controlling the world around them: but just trying to understand it (and all its implications). For the author of the journals, it’s about finding meaningful relationships with others for the first time. For Grunkle Stan it’s about finding forgiveness. For the twins, it’s about growing up. And the different tactics the characters use to try and understand gravity falls (often with handwaved science) is something that I wouldn’t be able to resist trying to do. 

Hm. Maybe I should move to Seattle. I’m just writing a case for myself at this point