Gravity Falls
Jul. 7th, 2020 09:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrSo I finally watched this show and it's really good for what it is! Which is basically a cross between The Simpsons and The X-files: a kid's cartoon about a twelve year old nerd Dipper and his wacky twin sister Mabel spending their summer holidays with their shyster great-uncle Stan in a weird little Oregon town called Gravity Falls. It's funny and strange and ends up telling a surprisingly coherent and engaging scifi/fantasy story about family bonds and growing up over it's two seasons.
Unfortunately I went in having being told it was like Avatar the Last Airbender: using the medium of a kids cartoon to construct a deep and serious narrative, with three dimensional characters, a diverse ensemble cast, and real effort put into being progressive.
This is not true! I thus spent a lot of time being frustrated and disappointed! It's more diverse, coherent, and three dimensional than average for the genre of humorous kid's cartoon(*), but is ultimately a white dude's coming of age story, and the characters constantly make WILDLY RIDICULOUS decisions because it's funny or makes the plot happen. It makes some effort not to be super sexist or racist, and the female and POC characters get to be people but...it's mostly a story about white dudes. It's also consistently fat-phobic and ableist, and treats anyone too far outside of gender norms as a joke, including a ~Hilariously Manly Tween Girl voiced by a man. There is some background m/m which the creator apparently had to fight really hard for, and I respect that, but it's overall pretty heteronormative.
Message-wise, I prefer when it's good-naturedly amoral and darkly funny instead of trying for a moral, since that moral is often, like, "sacrifice everything for your family no matter what". It does make some nice points here and there, including some attempts to get across that Girls Are People.
The characters and relationships are great, even if all the RIDICULOUS DECISIONS made it hard to fully engage with them. And it really is very funny.
Once I came to terms with the show it actually is I was able to enjoy it, but now I understand why feminists point to all the people who say Gravity Falls is more progressive than Steven Universe as proof of the lower standards straight white cis male creators are held to. Because seriously.
I lost momentum near the end of season 2 but then rewatched it from the start with Cam and had way more fun, since every time the characters did something MASSIVELY DANGEROUS for NO GOOD REASON we could look at each other and say "I'm sure this will end well".
So yeah. I rec it! But it is what it is.
(*)Probably? I only watch kid's cartoons if they come super highly reccd, and compared to ATLA/She-ra/Steven Universe or even, like, Hilda it doesn't do great. Better than the cartoons I grew up with but you'd hope so.
Unfortunately I went in having being told it was like Avatar the Last Airbender: using the medium of a kids cartoon to construct a deep and serious narrative, with three dimensional characters, a diverse ensemble cast, and real effort put into being progressive.
This is not true! I thus spent a lot of time being frustrated and disappointed! It's more diverse, coherent, and three dimensional than average for the genre of humorous kid's cartoon(*), but is ultimately a white dude's coming of age story, and the characters constantly make WILDLY RIDICULOUS decisions because it's funny or makes the plot happen. It makes some effort not to be super sexist or racist, and the female and POC characters get to be people but...it's mostly a story about white dudes. It's also consistently fat-phobic and ableist, and treats anyone too far outside of gender norms as a joke, including a ~Hilariously Manly Tween Girl voiced by a man. There is some background m/m which the creator apparently had to fight really hard for, and I respect that, but it's overall pretty heteronormative.
Message-wise, I prefer when it's good-naturedly amoral and darkly funny instead of trying for a moral, since that moral is often, like, "sacrifice everything for your family no matter what". It does make some nice points here and there, including some attempts to get across that Girls Are People.
The characters and relationships are great, even if all the RIDICULOUS DECISIONS made it hard to fully engage with them. And it really is very funny.
Once I came to terms with the show it actually is I was able to enjoy it, but now I understand why feminists point to all the people who say Gravity Falls is more progressive than Steven Universe as proof of the lower standards straight white cis male creators are held to. Because seriously.
I lost momentum near the end of season 2 but then rewatched it from the start with Cam and had way more fun, since every time the characters did something MASSIVELY DANGEROUS for NO GOOD REASON we could look at each other and say "I'm sure this will end well".
So yeah. I rec it! But it is what it is.
(*)Probably? I only watch kid's cartoons if they come super highly reccd, and compared to ATLA/She-ra/Steven Universe or even, like, Hilda it doesn't do great. Better than the cartoons I grew up with but you'd hope so.
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Date: 2020-07-13 06:45 am (UTC)Yeah, people are weird about Steven Universe. I mean it does very clearly try to impart Important Messages About Serious Topics, and I think that makes people hold it to higher standards.