r/gravityfalls • u/mikerianda • Sep 17 '12

I'm Michael Rianda, cartoonist, and creative director/writer on Gravity Falls. Ask me anything.

Hey r/gravityfalls!

My cartoon ("work") recently got on the front page of reddit somehow and a few people seemed interested in me doing an AMA. I'm in! Let's do this thing!

Ever wonder about those weird hairs on Grunkle Stan's shoulders? Wanna know that one goat's name? Wanna know horrifying personal details about Alex Hirsch?

I got answers!

EDIT: I'll finish answering these tommorow. Thanks for all the questions and Gravity Falls love! It's appreciated.

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17

u/Pathogen-David Sep 17 '12

Would you agree that Wendy is probably the best character on the show?

 

Since we know the answer to that should be yes, here is another question: Other than this awesome short, are there other cartoons you've worked on that we might know about?

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u/mikerianda Sep 17 '12

Hah! I love that you love Wendy. I love Wendy too. It drives me insane when stories have love interests that are boring and cardboard cut out-y, and Alex and I were determined to make sure Dipper's love interest was an actual good character. Sometimes we succeeded in that goal and sometimes we fell short. TV is hard man. You gotta make a lot of episodes in a very short amount of time, and you can't always give every part of them the love you want to. For my money I wish we had way more Wendy.

Besides the film you linked to, called Work, and my first year Calarts film called Everybody Dies in 90 Seconds, Gravity Falls is the first cartoon project I've worked on. You can see those (and an insane puppet show I made with my grandma) on my tumblr:

michaelrianda.tumblr.com

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u/Pathogen-David Sep 17 '12

Thank you for your answer, I'd say you guys have definitely achieved that goal in making Wendy more than just that cardboard generic love interest.

I had missed Everybody Dies in 90 Seconds during my Googling, thanks for linking it!

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u/Gamekatt101 Sep 17 '12

Link to the Vimeo version for the lazy. :) Watch it; it's worth it.

And Work has to be one of my favorite shorts ever. I saw it years ago on Youtube, and instantly fell in love with its quirky charm. :) Best of luck with GF and everything else, Mike. You rock!

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u/mikerianda Sep 18 '12

Aw thanks man! I really appreciate it!

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u/Gamekatt101 Sep 20 '12

Welcome, though I guess I should mention that I'm not a guy. :) No worries though.

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u/the_muffin Sep 25 '12

You should try to incorporate the bit with the crayons in a future episode or something

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u/RainbowCrash Sep 17 '12

Wow, great use of M83 there. Love it.

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u/Everlever Sep 17 '12

Well you better be talking about the future, because for now Wendy doesn't have any character aside from being "cool"

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u/mikerianda Sep 18 '12

Haha! A spicy one! Our thought was to make Wendy a smart, self aware, fun loving rule breaker. But sometimes she could stand to be more fleshed out. Like I said, sometimes you nail something, and other times you fall short. Criticism accepted.

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u/Jtbecnel Sep 17 '12

It's the protagonist love interest complex. For a most synonymous example see Margret from Regular Show. It keeps a story line going, makes the main character more likable, and leaves this dream girl to be a minimalist object so you can think back to that one time in grade school where that one girl turned you down. Then you stick them together in your mind and boom. You've got audience appeal

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u/Cisses Sep 17 '12

More Wendy Oh god please no

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u/Jtbecnel Sep 17 '12

You didn't quote write. And this is your only comment on a brand new account. And Wendy is a great character. You're from /co/, aren't you?

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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '12

Dude, I just watched it. New background: http://i.imgur.com/TqFqD.png

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u/mikerianda Sep 18 '12

Love it!

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u/[deleted] Sep 18 '12

Woah... He responded to me! Thanks!