Review: Gravity Falls "Summerween"

You know, just for fun, I'll do my usual post-Goosebumps checklist to see how this episode fares as a Goosebumps episode.

Barking Dogs: No

Boring Best Friend: No
There are very few "boring" people in Gravity Falls.

Child Grabbing: Yes
The Summerween Trickster nabs the kids multiple times.

Foliage POV Cam: Yes

Mad Scientist: No.
But who knows exactly how the Summerween Trickster became sentient in the dump? Perhaps Old Man McGucket was mixin' himself a batch o' toxic chemicals what went bad.

Murder: Yes
Protagonist Murder: 1
Soos ate a man alive.
Total Murder: 1

Red Paint: Possibly.
I'm not sure what Stan's fake blood was made from.

Werewolves: No

The mailman does not appear.

X-Files Shout-Out: No
Yeah, I could see something like this as a Goosebumps episode, especially with one of the protagonists murdering the main monster. Although Soos's method of execution is a bit more brutal than, say, aging an old woman to death.

Plot/Themes
"Trick-or-treat-or-die" is such a brilliantly Halloweeny plot idea that I'm actually surprised I can't think of too many more stories that actually use that idea. The only thing that really comes to mind is "Attack of the Jack O'Lanterns," but I digress.

While you could easily read the moral as "Don't be in such a hurry to grow up; enjoy your childhood while it lasts," and I think that's pretty close to what the writers intended, I think there's a subtler message embedded in the plot.

Just because somebody else doesn't enjoy something, that doesn't mean you aren't allowed to enjoy it.  And that's absolutely fine. You are who you are, and they are who they are. It's entirely possible to disagree on something on a fundamental level and still be friends.

If you have to change who you are to make somebody like you, then they don't like you. They like how you've changed specifically to make them like you. They like the lie.

Just be yourself.

If Dipper had legitimately stopped enjoying trick-or-treating... well, it'd still be a jerky move to lie to his sister and try to ditch her. So as ever, proper, open communication with family members seems to be pretty important. If there were only one lesson that fiction taught me, it would probably be "Don't be afraid to talk to people about things."

Characters
Dipper Pines
Dipper is frustrated with being twelve. Again.

In "The Inconveniencing," he wasn't happy with the idea that some people might treat him like more of an equal if only he were a mere 12 months older.

In "Dipper vs. Manliness," he wasn't happy with his lack of "manliness."

You can probably see a pattern by this point.

Once again, Dipper is worried about how people see him. He's still a 12-year-old kid, so of course he wants to trick-or-treat. But his need to impress Wendy and control how the "cool" kids see him leads him to try and leave his childish ways behind him... when Mabel has no such delusions of "maturity."

In the end, he learns the value of embracing his childhood, to heck with the older kids.

Mabel Pines
This is another rare glimpse into Mabel's heart.

And a glimpse of the Summerween Trickster's heart.

Mabel has always had a close bond with her twin brother. And change is not something she takes well. Surely, a cunning enough villain could use this against the Pines family....
But how many of us with siblings have had a moment like this? Where an activity we both once enjoyed suddenly becomes too "childish" for one of us? And Mabel's aware that they're getting older. Someday, they'll trick-or-treat for the last time. Time is passing, and there's nothing they can do about it.

....Yeah, this is going to be weaponized against her at some point.

Wendy Corduroy
Wendy is oddly bland in this episode. But I can't really imagine there being much room to let her shine, what with the focus on all the other characters and all. There's only so much time in the episode. And she does spend a good chunk of it hanging out elsewhere, so her lack of meaningful screen time and/or good one-liners is justified.

Still, I prefer it when episodes let her demonstrate why Dipper thinks she's all that.

Grunkle Stan
Stan Pines just loves scaring the pants off of people, which probably ties into his love of fooling people. There's not really much in the way of deep insight I can add to that, really. This is pretty consistent with what we've seen of him so far.

Gorney (Grey DeLisle)

Monster of the Week: Summerween Trickster (Jeff Bennett)
I've always liked the scarecrow aesthetic. And the Halloween aesthetic. So the Trickster's design really appeals to me. Both designs, actually. The Scarecrow look and the No Face look.

More like "Summerween-Spirited Away," am I right? ...Don't answer that.

I like how the episode actually justifies the existence of an anthropomorphized holiday spirit for a holiday that's only celebrated in a single small town in Oregon.

I mean, if neither New Year's nor Hanukkah has a door, I don't think there's a Summerween dimension.

Although I could be wrong.

The Trickster was born in Gravity Falls, made from the discarded candy of the very holiday that only Gravity Falls celebrates. It also explains his candy-centric quest more than just "he's the embodiment of Summerween, so his quest involves trick-or-treating," which also would have been acceptable, actually.

Honestly, the Trickster is one of the best monsters-of-the-week that this show ever had. Between its two forms, it's both creepy and fearsome, sympathetic and scary, it moves like a spider even when taking on a humanoid form, its poses an immediate physical threat and displays that it's as intelligent as it is agile....  I could gush for a while.

But yes, out of all the one-shot monsters, for me, this is right up there with the shapeshifter from Season 2.

Animation
This is one of those episodes where things just look off. Every cartoon has them.

I can't really explain it, but occasionally, there's an episode that looks slightly off model, and it's hard to explain why. The animation is good, but something's up with the characters' faces sometimes. Maybe it's just in my head, maybe its the expressions, maybe the size of the eyes are a bit different.

It probably has to do with the idiosyncrasies of individual animators as they work on different episodes. Everybody's got a different touch, you know? Compare a Virgil Ross Bugs Bunny to a Chuck Jones.

A nice touch is the flyer for Tambry's party. Disney Standards and Practices didn't approve of Alex Hirsch's spin-the-bottle joke, so the flyer instead brags that the party isn't S+P approved.

Heh. Inside jokes.

Final Thoughts
A great Halloween episode, and a fine episode of Gravity Falls. Chills, thrills, and Dipper's fake ills. I might even go so far as to call it the best of the show's two Halloween episodes, since there's no doubt that this one is 100% canon.

Next time, Mabel tries to run a business. This can only end well. See you then!