Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and today, we continue our investigation with an episode of fan favorite series, Gravity Falls from it's second season. Gravity Falls is easily one of the best cartoons to air on a Disney network in recent memory and that's all thanks to the creativity of Alex Hirsch. I knew that I wanted to review an episode of this show for this event but couldn't figure which one would be right and so I went to this one. But yeah, it's more a ghost story than a mystery. There's a little investigating in it but not much. And it's also the best unofficial Haunted Mansion adaption. Now, what's odd is that when this episode originally, it was titled Northwest Mansion Noir but going by the Gravity Falls Wiki entry for this episode, Alex Hirsch never wanted that title for this episode.
According to Alex Hirsch, this episode was never supposed to be named "Northwest Mansion Noir."
Now, let's move onto the plot.
The Plot
We open on the Northwest family having a practice dinner for their party that is to take place the next day but soon, various objects around the house start attacking the Northwest family. They take cover underneath a table and soon Preston Northwest sees a newspaper that has a picture of our main hero, Dipper fighting a giant bat and finds the person that can solve the ghost issue for them.
Later on, we see Dipper preparing for a marathon of a show called Ghost Harassers and get one of my favorite jokes from this episode and I just love the bite of this show.
I miss jokes like this from this show. but Mabel butts in with her friends, Grenda and Candy as they want to see the news broadcast of the Northwest party. I'll mention right now that they have a minor subplot later on in the episode about the three of them trying to impress an Austrian prince. It's not important to the overall episode, so I'll only mention it here but it does pay off in future episodes of the series.
Soon, there's a knock on the door and it is Pacifica Northwest, who up until a prior episode this season was really nothing more than a mean girl and bully to Dipper and especially Mabel but this episode actually delves more into who she is and why she is the way she is as her parents are just the worst. She's there but the Northwest family wants Dipper's help but at first turns her down until Mabel points out that it's Grenda and Candy's dreams and Dipper asks for three tickets to the party.
They all arrive at the Mansion and the girls are taken in by the fanciness of everything whereas Dipper is just there to capture the ghost. Dipper not impressed with everything after Pacifica get him changed into a tuxedo asks her who her family thinks they are impressing. And she says everyone and they soon head to the room with the most activity and things get a little creepy here as the ghost makes his appearance and Dipper at first thinks it's only a one but it soon proves itself to be a category ten on a ten scale. And everything starts getting eerier and eerier as the ghost chases the kids through the hall of Northwest Manor. Dipper discovers that the only thing that can trap the ghost is a silver mirror and they soon come across one but Pacifica is scared to enter the room that it is in as it has her parents' favorite carpet pattern and she's scared to step on it. They are soon knocked into a secret room and Dipper finds a silver mirror and traps the ghost inside of it
Dipper is getting ready to leave and Pacifica is asking why he isn't going to stay at the party. We soon see Dipper outside of the party and from the ghost get the truth of what actually happened from the ghost. I'll let the Gravity Falls Wiki explain it.
When he was alive, the ghost was of one of a group of lumberjacks who were previously promised attendance to the Northwests' yearly parties in exchange for their help with building Northwest Manor. After years of hard work and sacrifice the mansion was finished, but the Northwests broke their promise, locked the townspeople out of their party, and he was subsequently killed in a mudslide that was a result of the construction. Cursing the Northwest family with his dying breath, the lumberjack swore to return in one hundred fifty years and exact vengeance on them unless they keep their promise. A curse that Nathaniel Northwest heard, wrote down, and has since been passed down through the Northwest family until now.
After Dipper hears this, he is furious as he realizes that he had been tricked and blames Pacifica for being just as bad as her parents. Dipper storms off and reading from Journal Number 3. Man, I miss seeing the journals. The Ghost asks Dipper to let him out one last time but once again Dipper had been tricked and The Ghost get his revenge on the Northwest as he starts to turn everyone there into wood. This comes after Preston is about to deliver a speech and all of the glass is shattered. And we also see The Ghost bring all of the taxidermy animals back to life. The Ghost recites that the only way to break the curse is for a Northwest to open the gate. Dipper gets back to the secret room from previous in the episode and finds Pacifica there and realizes that room finds the failures of her family.
Dipper and Pacifica run back to the main room of the mansion and Pacifica goes against her parents' wishes as she opens the gates to let the common folk in. And thus the curse has been lifted. The episode ends with some foreshadowing towards what would be the show's series finale but we may get to that another day.
Overall, this episode was quite enjoyable. Even if it didn't quite fit the theme of this event.
Characters
Main Characters
Dipper voiced by Jason Ritter
Dipper is really good in this episode as you get to see him explore the mansion and more so explore who Pacifica is beyond what he thinks she is.
Pacifica Northwest voiced by Jackie Buscarino
I really liked how this episode delved into Pacifica is and you got to see that she has such cruel parents. Now, I'm only going to talk about her dad but here is no love there from those two for their daughter. They honestly view as just another possession and that is so heartbreaking because I'm of the mindset that all children deserve love and what does this young lady get? A bell to keep in her line as though, she were a dog at an obedience school. Speaking of, let's move on to him.
Supporting Character
Preston Northwest voiced by Nathan Fillon
I did not think it was possible for there to be a Nathan Fillion character more detestable than Captain Hammer but at least Captain Hammer was funny. This guy here, ooh how I hate him with every fiber of my being. He easily takes the cake for the worst Disney father in an animated series. And it comes down to that stupid little bell. Just Google his name and bell and you'll get some rather tragic fan art of Pacifica that lets you know how the Gravity Falls fan base feels about this guy and I can't say that I blame them as he is a major grade A+ jerk. That deserves what Bill Cipher did to him in the finale.
Villain
Archibald Corduroy voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson
Yeah, this guy is sympathetic but he still does some pretty horrible things. But you can see where he's come from with hi back story and Kevin Michael Richardson turns in a rather haunting performance and I appreciate that Gravity Falls wasn't afraid to show you his death. Even if it did cut before we actually saw the end result of it. In many regards, his back story reminds me of a Ghostbusters comic that I reviewed a couple Halloweens ago. In that both of these ghosts, when living were wronged by the residents that currently reside in the mansions. In Sam Hain's case, he happened to be a business partner with the guy living there and with Archibald, he helped to build the mansion and his hard work seemed to be all for naught.
My Final Thoughts
While this episode doesn't exactly fit the theme of the event, it's still a really good episode and I can't recommend that you guys check this show out enough. If you haven't seen this show, you are missing out on one of the best pieces of modern animation, not just from Disney but in general. Join me next time for our second Villains Profile as I take a look at...
Professor Ratigan
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