Mystery Kids - Tumblr Posts
So, I’ve been thinking about things, and one thing I’ve wanted to do for a while was talk a little about the Mystery Kids episode we made what... a year and a half or so ago? Yeah. I was brought on as a writer for it, but ended up being more of an editor and board artist. There’s a lot I wish we’d done differently, but of course it’s easy to look back on something and see what you could have done after it’s already over. A lot of brainstorming went in that didn’t even make it into the script, and one of these things was why Loboto was in Gravity Falls at all!
Who else in this crossover is able to build huge, deadly machines?
Yep. Loboto was in town to have a giant robot fight with his old buddy McGucket.
Has anybody ever tried an iteration of the Mystery Kids/Spook Crew/whatever that includes Hanna is Not a Boy’s Name? I think the comic’s tone fits in with the other series pretty well. I mean, some people might argue that Hanna’s a little old for the group, but he’s about the same age as Danny Phantom, so—
Oh. Right.
Well, I still think some sort of crossover could work.
Thoughts on a Crossover: Mystery Kids
Crossovers are tricky beasts. Like any Alternate Universe version of a canon series, they can be fun, ridiculous, make all kinds of sense or none, but the best ones have at least some logic to them. The universes involved mesh well, and the characters are able to produce interesting interactions and possible plots just by virtue of being with people or encountering situations they wouldn’t otherwise. Fans are able to explore sides of these characters maybe they wouldn’t see otherwise, and perhaps learn more about the worlds their characters inhabit. But they can have problems too.
The larger a crossover is, the more separate media involved, the harder it becomes to manage. Unless the crossover totally throws them out, each universe may have separate ‘rules’ it works by, and these disparate canons may clash and contradict each other. The cast might become so large it’s impossible to write scenes that incorporate all involved without confusion, and keeping them all in character is another task altogether. Sometimes the reason these characters meet in the first place is convoluted, especially if it uses means that could be reasonably expected to appear in none of the established canons.
So, understandably, I was wary when I first saw Mystery Kids going around.
“ParaPines” was more popular at the time, and while I liked the idea of Gravity Falls and ParaNorman being crossed over, I was disappointed that the focus seemed to be entirely on shipping, which is not my cup of tea—especially when there’s more that could be done with the idea. Mystery Kids incorporated more of the things I liked with… slightly less shipping, though there was still enough of it that I chose to get into writing the kind of fic I would want to read, but that’s another story. What drew me to this particular crossover was how well everything fit. I personally prefer things that make a lot of sense, and Mystery Kids just seemed to click. But I never really thought about why, though I had some inklings, and of course the fact I dearly love all the media involved means they must have something in common. So I’m going to try and explain what I think makes this such a solid crossover, if only for myself; some events in the tags made me wonder why I bothered making stuff for it at all if people were only going to treat it as a joke, as bad as SuperWhoLock or what have you. And I get it; according to Sturgeon’s Law 90% of anything is going to be bad, and big crossovers have that much more chance of collapsing under their own weight. Mystery Kids, with its complex characters, is pretty easy to screw up if you’re not careful. I definitely won’t claim I get it right all the time, but I do my best, because these are characters I care about, and I want to do them justice. But enough about that.
There are a number of things that tie the Mystery Kids crossover together for me, and here, I’ve narrowed it down to six categories plus a list of coincidences that make it even sweeter.
Subject Matter
This is the most obvious reason for the crossover; pre-teen kids dealing with the supernatural, often ghosts, zombies, cryptids and the like. Gravity Falls obviously sees the most variety, but Psychonauts features psychic animals and a giant mutant lungfish that slides easily into the classic lake monster role—not to mention the actual psychics who boast a full range of mind-based powers. Coraline has ghosts and a creature that is just as easily called a faerie as she is a demon, but either idea fits into the expanded bestiary of the crossover, plus dowsing and divination. ParaNorman only features zombies and ghosts, but the fact that these have also appeared in Gravity Falls and Coraline is well enough, but that there’s a family line of mediums also ties in with Psychonauts’ world of astral ability.
Perhaps more importantly is that many of these creatures and antagonists are defeated in unconventional ways. Raz befriends the mutant lungfish, saving it from being mind-controlled, Mabel beats a horde of lawn gnomes with a leaf blower, Dipper appeases ghosts with dancing, and Norman calms the enraged Aggie by talking and empathizing with her. Coraline is the only one who arguably doesn’t defeat the Beldam, but she still manages to escape and seal her away largely using her wits alone.
And perhaps that’s what really helps tie these things together; the major conflicts of each story don’t rely so much on force as they do the intelligence of those involved. Psychonauts is the most combat-oriented for sake of gameplay, but the things you fight there are inner demons and emotional traumas—you help people by literally changing their minds and breaking down harmful thoughts, hardly the usual force-driven narrative.
Characters
Perhaps the next obvious reason is the characters themselves. Richly written in their source material, they are already well-rounded. Each one offers a different personality and approach to life, which easily allows for various group dynamics to spring up, with some working better than others, which naturally occurs in circles of real friends. This makes for an interesting challenge when writing though because with such layered characters, there’s that much more to their personality to memorize and attempt to mimic. It’s tempting to reduce them to one-note archetypes: Norman the timid doormat, Raz the brash ‘cool guy’, Mabel the silly random one, Coraline the snarky hothead. It’s all too easy for these aspects of their personality to overshadow the others: Norman who shields others with his own body, Raz who laughs at (his own) bad jokes, Mabel and her quick thinking, Coraline who loves gardening.
Even the characters we see the least of can make comments, or do things, that reveal a lot about who they are. Neil seems like the simple comedic relief character, and while that is his role in much of ParaNorman, he’s also unfalteringly loyal and pretty fearless, refusing to leave Norman’s side in the Town Hall, and tackling the zombie Judge when he attacks the van. He’s even the one to suggest calling Selma when the others have no idea what to do next—so he’s not as clueless as he can seem. Wybie has the similar misfortune of not having much screentime, his role created to provide exposition for Coraline, so we don’t get to know him very well. However, we can infer a few things based on what we’re shown rather than told. His bike and welding mask are heavily customized, and since he only mentions living with his grandma, we can presume that he’s done all this customizing himself, which is pretty impressive for a kid his age. He also knows what Coraline is doing with a forked branch out in the middle of nowhere—he’s heard of dowsing and exactly what it’s used for, and even who might typically use it. Wybie’s clearly a smart kid whose talents just don’t get showcased. Sadly, both kids often get left out despite having much to offer.
Either through established canon traits or extrapolated headcanon, these kids have so much to them already that the ways they can interact and bounce off each other are nearly infinite. It might not always be positive—Dipper could easily become jealous of Raz and all the psychic has going for him, for example—but conflict is plot fuel. Of course inter-group disputes shouldn’t always be the only source of conflict, but it’s necessary for character development, and resolution can bring them closer together in the end. There’s plenty they have in common, not just facing the supernatural, so it can be fun putting any two characters together and seeing what happens—much less a whole group.
Setting
The stories involved all seem to take place in similar areas—if not in actual geography, then in the size, economic status, and surrounding landscape of their settings. Gravity Falls and Blithe Hollow seem like they could be the same place even though they exist on opposite sides of the country. They’re both small, run-down towns that rely heavily on the tourist industry to bring money in, full of absent-minded locals who are unaware of their hometown’s darker secrets. Then, of course, is the fact Coraline takes place in or near Ashland, Oregon, while Gravity Falls is a fictional town a bit farther north in the same state. It’s unknown where exactly Whispering Rock in Psychonauts is located, but based on the flora (mixed deciduous and evergreen forest), fauna (bears, cougars), and geography (mountains surrounding a valley), it’s not unreasonable to think it could be somewhere in northern California or the Pacific Northwest too—though one of the in-game collectibles, a condor egg, seems to make California a more likely choice. With all it has going on, Gravity Falls is the obvious choice for fics involving supernatural shenanigans, but there’s no real reason why the other places couldn’t make for good locations either. Blithe Hollow is surrounded by old forest and hills, and the Pink Palace is set in a similar landscape—who knows what further secrets they hide?
All these locations also have lengthy histories behind them; Gravity Falls was settled in the 1860s, the Pink Palace is clearly an old Victorian home that’s at least a hundred years old, Whispering Rock owes much of its existence to a mining town also settled in the 1800s, and Blithe Hollow has the longest history out of all of them. This all shapes how these places look, behave, and how people interact with them, and lends a sense of realness that grounds the world no matter how weird the events that take place there might be. They exist outside of the canon’s main plot, yet are still inextricably linked. The trick is getting the kids out to these places in the first place, and then figuring out what they find when they get there.
Themes
While being media aimed at children, and featuring children as main characters, the works Mystery Kids consists of deal with a lot of heavy topics. Abuse, mental illness, death, long-running conspiracy, abandonment—to name just a few. Raz runs away because he’s afraid his dad literally wants to kill him. Norman breaks a cycle of abuse and misunderstanding that had persisted for centuries. The Pines have to deal with all kinds of monsters that threaten their health one way or another, but there’s so much more than a monster-of-the-week going on—something that probably goes all the way back to the foundation of Gravity Falls itself. Their caretaker has been hiding something huge from them all summer, and there’s the normal pains of growing up on top of it all. Bonds are going to be tested, and it’s uncertain if everyone will survive. More importantly, these problems are treated as the serious things they are for the most part, not to be brushed aside or have no lasting consequences.
These kids have baggage, to say the least, and much of their stories involve coming to terms with it. Their friends may not always be able to help or understand completely, but having someone who knows that your family might not always be there for you, or that the world can be unforgiving, can be all you need.
Humor
Despite these hefty themes, the media involved all feature humor—puns, visual and otherwise, wordplay, slapstick, and sometimes just nonsense—heavily. Tropes and clichés are invoked then subverted, averted, and played with, wit and expert timing come together to send it all home. Without being strictly comedies, these media manage to make their audiences laugh regularly. Humor helps throw the more serious moments into sharper contrast, giving them more power, or alternatively breaking the tension when there’s been a long stretch of action.
The kids themselves are a major source of this humor; Lili, Norman, and Coraline are masters of snark, Raz cracks puns regularly, and Mabel brings laughs with her good-natured and enthusiastic silliness, and this is just off the top of my head. While it may be tempting to focus on the more serious aspects of the crossover-- and it does have a lot to offer in this regard-- its capability to be downright hilarious shouldn’t be forgotten.
Visuals
All media feature high production values and care put into how the characters look and move, but in particular, Psychonauts, Coraline, and ParaNorman are similar stylistically, boasting characters that range from normal-looking to totally asymmetrical, and though it’s more prevalent in Psychonauts, unusual skin colors (like blue, green, and purple) too. Gravity Falls looks the least like these other media, but its backgrounds in particular boast rich detail and incredible use of lighting and color to create atmosphere in ways that match its cinematic kin. The yellow-green and red-violet palette of ‘Scary-oke’ calls to mind the red and blue-green of ParaNorman’s zombie ‘invasion’, and the warm reds and oranges and muted greens of Psychonauts’ woods matches Gravity Falls’ forest quite perfectly. It also makes an effort to make its places feel real, with texture and wear that makes it feel lived in—effort that doesn’t always go into a cartoon.
Coincidences
Direct references to each other are pretty unlikely, but regardless, sometimes things pop up that make for interesting little connections anyway, and can be used to tie things together when it comes to making fanart or fanfiction:
Gravity Falls and Psychonauts share floating eyeballs—one as the core to a level-up item, and one as a creature that turns out to be harmless, if eerie. Could they be one and the same?
Gravity Falls and Psychonauts also both feature glittering purple mind-enhancers— both with puns for names. Psitanium is a mineral, and Percepshrooms are mushrooms, but this goes even further. ‘Mind-enhancing’ mushrooms are an obvious drug reference, but people who claim to use these drugs to explore their minds call themselves ‘psychonauts’. How’s that for coincidence?
The mind of conspiracy theorist Boyd Cooper in Psychonauts also features red books with a yellow insignia on their covers. This insignia? The all-seeing eye.
Alex Hirsch, creator of Gravity Falls, actually interned at Laika for a short time; he set Gravity Falls in Oregon for this reason, and ‘Norman’ the ‘Zombie’ (who is really a bunch of gnomes, but most people know this by now) and Mabel’s star sweater in ‘Boyz Crazy’ may be shout-outs.
This is hardly the final word on Mystery Kids; the only person who might dictate the ‘rules’ is the actual creator of this crossover, but that detail has been lost and no one’s come forward about it. I’ve seen a number of other things brought in to the group-- The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Scooby Doo, Lilo and Stitch, Invader Zim, Over The Garden Wall, Danny Phantom, and probably others I’ve since forgotten. Some possibilities like bringing in Billy and Mandy and Invader Zim make me laugh because that would mean three characters share the same voice actor, but certain details don’t quite fit and the hilarity of having three very different characters yelling at each other with the same voice isn’t enough justification for adding them in my book; I’m picky like that, but that shouldn’t stop anyone else and it certainly hasn’t stopped me from making references to this amusing fact! The advantage of fan media is that while there may be popular interpretations of things, unless the creator has stated they don’t want changes made it’s totally up to the fan to decide how they want to do things, and it’s something I’ve stressed time and time again. This little essay is just my take on things and the conclusions I’ve come to; someone else might have a totally different view, and that’s perfectly fine. One thing’s for certain: I’ve greatly enjoyed writing and drawing for it, and I plan to do so for a good while yet.
Man, all my MK blogs that I follow arw slowly going out one by one. But at least you're still active, right?
Yep! I know I’ve been quiet lately, but I promise.
It’s because I’m working on something I hope you’ll all like very much.
For now, it’s top secret, but you should expect to see something soon. :D
What do you think would happen if the mystery kids faced their worst fears? (But it was all some kind of illusion you know by Bill or something). random thought in my head
I actually think the kids would have to help each other, kind of like overcoming there friends fears for them, and working together ‘n stuff.
Remember when I said I was working on something I hoped you would all like?
It’s another animatic episode, and I’m excited to finally announce it!
If you draw and would like to help, be on the lookout-- we’ll be calling for auditions starting next week~
“I’m afraid that won’t be much use. The mirror is indestructible, and the only way out is to defeat the things that lurk in your nightmares!”
Stay tuned– there’s more coming, and soon!
Artist Auditions!
That’s right! While we already have some great artists on our team, we’re going to need a lot more if we want this thing to get off the ground anytime soon!
You don’t have to be experienced with making storyboards or animatics– we can walk you through that part as needed! What’s important is that you can work with our visual style– and even that’s more of an overall goal than strict standard.
So how do you audition? It’s pretty easy, actually– either email us or use the submit button to send us your samples! Do your best to match our style, but don’t worry about getting it perfect; even the first episode had a range depending on who was doing the scene! The important thing we want to see is how you can help bring this story to life through character poses and expressions, so the examples you send us should focus on that.
Here’s the finalized designs of our lineup to get you started– good luck!
No spoilers, don’t worry! These are sketches to help our artists get a sense of the characters from all angles, but since there’s nothing important to the plot, I figured I’d post them! Enjoy!
~Sam
The gang’s all here!
We’ve started boarding, but it’s not too late to sign up as an artist; send in your audition if you want in on the fun!
We’ll also be opening things up for voice auditions too– I hope everyone’s been practicing~
“Everything Else” Auditions!
Sorry for the wait, everyone! It’s time for auditions for every other position available! This includes voice actors, video editors, and composers!
Voice actors need to recite the predetermined lines located on the Audition Info page, and then send them to our email, mysterykidsproject2@gmail.com! Please label your tracks clearly. ESPECIALLY if you’re auditioning for more than one character.
Musicians and sound effects artists! You guys need to send us your samples! Please try to include a large variety for us to listen to in your email to mysterykidsproject2@gmail.com.
Video editors will need to put together a multimedia video for us, utilizing music, video clips, or still images to demonstrate their timing and also your rendering skills! For these, you can either submit your video straight to our inbox, or send us an email at mysterykidsproject2@gmail.com! We’d prefer material related to what we have going on here, but if you don’t have anything like that, then you’ll be fine anyways. C: Be warned! This position needs only one, if not two or three, spots filled, so do your best!
And as these auditions open, our art auditions come to a close! Do not send us any more artwork at this time, as you will be turned down immediately. If we happen to need more artists down the road, we will make another post calling for them!
Good luck, everyone!
Things are getting spooky in the forest, but there’s still a long way to go before the episode is ready! Keep sending in your voice auditions, we’ve still got roles to fill!
A basic demonstration of MabelToss, a fun new game coming to a Mystery Shack or Psychic Summer Camp near you!
What a nice mirror! Like something you could pick up at the local antique mall… wait, what do you mean that isn’t just decorative etching?
A long time ago I’d asked one of my friends to give me some silly doodle prompts, and well, this was one of them! I love drawing silly things ;u;
Although considering recent events in Gravity Falls it’s maybe... kind of sad too... :’D
The gang is back! And this time, their enemy will be tougher to take down than ever…their worst nightmare!
Coming Soon To A Computer Near You
If i had a nickel for every time a preteen kid solved a multigenerational traumatic event with kindness and supernatural powers, I'd have two nickels