The Mouse Castle Lounge 02-13-2016 - The Cast of 'Gravity Falls'

By Tim Callaway

(l. to r.) Soos, Wendy, Mabel and Dipper face
Weirdmageddon in the Gravity Falls finale.

After 3 ½ years, two full seasons and 40 episodes, Disney XD’s Gravity Falls is about to air its final show—and I’m a little bummed by this. Gravity Falls is my favorite thing on Disney television right now, ranking right up there with Phineas and Ferb, another great Disney animated series that came to an end.

The summer adventures of Dipper and Mabel Pines at their great uncle Stan’s Mystery Shack in the Oregon backwoods has been consistently funny, irreverent, exciting and even a little sweet. There have been mysteries solved, monsters defeated and life lessons learned in a show that is as entertaining for kids as it is for adults.

The show’s final episode, “Weirdmageddon 3: Take Back the Falls,” will air on Disney XD Monday, February 15 at 7:00 p.m. In it, we'll find out the fate of the Gravity Falls townsfolk at the hands of Bill Cipher, the one-eyed, triangle-shaped being from another dimension hell-bent on ruling—and possibly destroying—the entire known universe. It’s going to be fun, really.

This week, I attended a press event in Burbank with some of the cast and creative people of Gravity Falls. On hand was the show’s creator and voice of Grunkle Stan, as well as the lovable handyman Soos, Alex Hirsch. Joining him were the actors who voice Dipper and Mabel Pines, Jason Ritter and Kristen Schaal. And finally, we heard from the composer of Gravity Falls' catchy, mysterious and whimsical music, Brad Breeck.

Drew Taylor with the Disney Insider moderated the panel discussion, which was followed by questions from the press (including me). Alex, Jason, Kristen and Brad shared their favorite moments from the show, how the Gravity Falls characters developed and grew, and why it made sense to end the series when they did.

(l. to r.) Drew Taylor, Alex Hirsch, Jason Ritter and Kristen Schaal.

Adventure Thru Liquid Space

In a move inspired by Garry Apgar, my guest in the Lounge last week, I challenged our resident mixologist Carolyn to devise a cocktail worthy of Mickey Mouse's arch-nemesis Black Pete. I'm happy to report she came through with flying colors (or maybe she was just Plane Crazy).

Black Pete

1 1/2 oz. Scotch

1/2 oz. Cherry Heering

1/2 oz. Ramazzotti Amaro

1 1/2 oz. Coca Cola

In a shaker, combine the Scotch, Cherry Heering, and Ramazzotti, fill with ice, and shake to chill. Strain into an ice filled rocks glass. Top with Coke. Garnish.

Enjoy!

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Annie Awards: 'How to Train Your Dragon 2,' 'Disney Mickey Mouse' and the Walt Disney Family Museum Honored

By Tim Callaway

Dear ASIFA-Hollywood: Please allow Garfunkel and Oates to host the Annie Awards again, preferably the whole show and not just the first portion of it. The comedy-folk music duo of Riki Lindhome (Garfunkel) and Kate Micucci (Oates) were quirky and funny and rescued a show that started 20 minutes late and experienced wonky teleprompters. Garfunkel: "I want to thank God and my parents for the teleprompter."

How to Train Your Dragon 2

Saturday night's awards, presented at UCLA's Royce Hall, honored the best in animation and were dominated by How to Train Your Dragon 2. Dreamworks Animation's successful sequel took home six Annie Awards including Best Animated Feature and Outstanding Directing for Dean DeBlois. DeBlois, noting the recent layoff of 500 employees at Dreamworks Animation, said in his acceptance speech, "We've had kind of a tough week at Dreamworks, but I think it's moments like this where we get to celebrate the incredible work that goes into these projects and makes a lot of us look really good."

On the television side, Disney Mickey Mouse also landed six awards including nods for director Aaron Springer and veteran voice actor Bill Farmer. Disney claimed additional awards for their films Feast (Best Animated Short Subject) and Big Hero 6 (Animated Effects) and for the TV series Wander Over Yonder (Character Animation and Character Design) and Gravity Falls (Best Children's Production). Gravity Falls series creator Alex Hirsch was surprised and admittedly inebriated when he accepted his Annie. Brandishing an alcohol flask, he said, "Nothing sobers you up like looking at hundreds of people at once."

Former Disney animator, 101-year old Don Lusk, was a recipient of the Winsor McCay Award. This lifetime achievement award is presented to noteworthy artists for their "career contributions to the art of animation." Lusk spent nearly 30 years at Disney, working on such notable animated films as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. In the 1960s, he left Disney to work for other studios including Hanna-Barbera.

Ron Miller accepts a special Annie Award
for the Walt Disney Family Museum.

Among the highlights of the evening was a Special Achievement Award presented to the Walt Disney Family Museum in recognition of their "unique and significant impact on the art and industry of animation." Disney Legend Richard Sherman and filmmaker Leslie Iwerks presented the award to Ron Miller, husband of the museum's late founder, Diane Disney Miller, and himself the former president and CEO of Walt Disney Productions. Of Diane, Ron Miller said, "She was on a mission: to tell the fascinating and inspiring story of her father, Walt Disney. Through this, she hoped the museum would be a center for inspiration and creativity for present and future generations of animators, artists and innovators. Receiving this special achievement accolade here at the Annie Awards pays testament to the determination, hard work and talent of Diane and our team at the Walt Disney Family Museum."

For the complete list of this year's Annie Award winners and nominees, visit http://annieawards.org/nominees.

'Gravity Falls' Returns to Disney Channel August 1st

Dipper and Mabel Pines will be back in the Mystery Shack and I couldn't be happier.

The gleefully offbeat Gravity Falls finally returns for its second season on Disney Channel August 1st at 9 p.m., ET/PT, followed by its debut on Disney XD August 4th.

In season two, insecure, neurotic Dipper (Jason Ritter) and fearless, free-spirited Mabel (Kristen Schaal) delve deeper into the mystery of Journal #3 while their shifty Great Uncle Stan (Alex Hirsch) cooks up some secrets of his own in the basement of the Mystery Shack.

Gravity Falls is promising more more monsters, more magic and some pretty cool guest stars in season two. Both Mark Hamill (Star Wars) and Patton Oswalt (Ratatouille) will make voice appearances.

To get you primed for the new episodes, Disney XD is holding a Gravity Falls marathon July 26-27 from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., ET/PT, featuring every first season show and short. Yes, I will be tuning in.

I'd call Gravity Falls a guilty pleasure, but that suggests there's something wrong with it. It's Disney Channel/XD's best animated series (sorry, Phineas and Ferb) and it'll be great to welcome it back.

Related:
'Gravity Falls' Onto DVD
May the Ferb Be With You; 'Phineas and Ferb' to Take On 'Star Wars'

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'Gravity Falls' Onto DVD

I won't lie. As much as I liked Gravity Falls when it debuted on the Disney Channel in 2012, I began to love it immensely when I met Kristen Schaal (voice of GF's Mabel Pines) at the D23 Expo and she gave me drink recipes.

Hey, my loyalties can be bought for the price of a cocktail. I am not ashamed.

But seriously, this is really fun show.

Gravity Falls finally comes to DVD on Tuesday with Six Strange Tales (the first six episodes of the series actually) and it's a great introduction to the odd folk and creatures of Gravity Falls, the mysterious backwoods Oregon town where 12-year old twins Dipper (Jason Ritter) and Mabel Pines spend the summer with their grumpy charlatan of a great uncle, "Grunkle" Stan (series creator Alex Hirsch).

There are bizarre things to investigate at every turn as ever-curious Dipper and ever-optimistic Mabel unlock the secrets of angry gnomes, giant lake monsters and wax figures come-to-life with the aid of a mysterious journal that may hold the key to even bigger secrets. It's all in good fun with irreverent humor and oddball characters that make Gravity Falls one of the most original animated shows on TV.

The following episodes are included on the DVD:

1 - “Tourist Trapped”
2 - “The Legend of the Gobblewonker”
3 - “Headhunters”
4 - “The Hand That Rocks the Mabel”
5 - “The Inconveniencing”
6 - “Dipper vs. Manliness”

The package also includes a "Mystery Journal 3" booklet containing sketches and clues to the secrets of Gravity Falls, but mostly it's just a lot of illegible scribbles. Hey, they can't give everything away--it's only season one. Just, remember...TRUST NO ONE!

And....COCKTAILS FOREVER! (Thanks, Kristen).

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