A Gravity Falls Kissing Scene Broke Disney's 'Coward' Censors
"Gravity Falls" creator Alex Hirsch has never been shy about venting his frustrations with Disney's censors. To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the series, he tweeted out a video of his most insane back-and-forths with Disney's Standards & Practices division, who were deeply concerned about risque jokes like Soos Ramirez wearing a teddy bear costume or a horse smoking a pipe. The squeaky clean House of Mouse could never survive vulgar content like — checks notes — the phrase "poop-face."
The most frustrating instances arose any time the series dared to portray or even hint at a same-sex couple. Something that the "Gravity Falls" creatives dared to try, over and over again. Once, they even succeeded in getting something through — but that win didn't come until the series finale.
Throughout the show's two-season run, fans suspected that the relationship between Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland was romantic. The chemistry, the twinkle in their eyes when they looked at each other, and the fact that they'd casually drop pick-up lines ("If being delightful was a crime, you'd be breaking the law") said it all. But at the time, a queer couple in a Disney series was wishful thinking. 2012 wasn't that long ago, but it was long before Disney's Rainbow Capitalism tirade of blink-and-you-miss-it openly gay characters.
So instead of being celebrated, embraced, or even tolerated, the relationship between Blubs and Durland was scrutinized. Their interactions were (ironically) policed by Disney's Standards & Practices division. It wasn't until the final episode rolled around that "Gravity Falls" was allowed to quit playing coy and confirm their relationship. Under the eye of Disney's censors, getting to the point of their love proclamation took ages. And along the way, plenty of other queer characters were silenced out of existence.
Another day, another censored relationship
The most infamous case has nothing to do with Blubs and Durland: just an innocuous pair of old ladies, who almost sat in the background of the season 2 episode, "The Love God." You'll recall this as the episode where Mabel Pines takes matchmaking a tad too far and steals a love potion from an actual god of love. In a 2017 interview with The Mary Sue, Alex Hirsch explained that one scene in the script described a few random couples at Greasy's Diner falling in love thanks to cupid's magic.
"When one of our storyboard artists presented the scene to me, she'd made one of the couples two lovable old ladies," Hirsch said. "It was sweet and casual and I knew INSTANTLY that it was going to turn into a huge fight with Disney. So naturally, I left it in."
As expected, the team immediately received a note from Disney's Standards & Practices division: "The scene of the two old ladies kissing in the diner is not appropriate for our audience. Please revise." Hirsch hit them back with a one-word answer: "Why?"
Breaking the censors
If you've seen the infamous Twitter video and you're already familiar with his handling of S&P, then this should be no big surprise. Alex Hirsch's philosophy on the matter is simple: what happens when S&P is forced to justify their silly commands? Even better, what happens when they have to start a paper trail explaining why two women can't fall in love in the background of a random "Gravity Falls" episode? The answer falls somewhere between cowardice and straight-up bigotry.
According to Hirsch, his question "basically broke the censors." He explained:
"They couldn't think of a single way to phrase an answer to that question so they made me talk on the phone so there would be no paper trail. They were terrified of sounding like bigots — but I honestly don't think they were bigots, I think they were cowards. They basically admitted that there was no good reason why I should change it, but that they get complaints about this stuff from various homophobic parents and would rather avoid the headache, and couldn't I just drop it?"
Unfortunately, when it comes to Disney and queer characters, the fear of receiving complaints motivated a lot of decision-making. Hirsch tried to push them away from this reasoning to no avail. "Disney's a giant company," he argued. "We can survive some letters from some cranks." He added that giving in would mean allowing creatives to be "held hostage by bigots," but that didn't sway them either. With the issue too big to drop and their response so disappointingly insufficient, Hirsch kept pushing back.
Hirsch vs. Disney S&P
After six or so conversations about the scene, the situation evolved. It became one of the rare occasions where the series creator came face-to-face with the censors. "I didn't want to go back to my board artist and tell her that I lost this fight," Alex Hirsch explained. "I wanted to win, and I wanted to set a precedent, and I argued that little things like this could mean the world to people and that anyone who was pissed off deserved to be pissed off."
Despite his efforts, the censors didn't budge. It finally came down to, in his words, "Change the scene or we'll cut it out of the episode ourselves.'" And so ends the story of those lovable old ladies.
That loss didn't stop Hirsch from pushing the censors again and again until something broke through. The final episode of "Gravity Falls" features police officers Blubs and Durland declaring their love for one another. In that scene, Hirsch didn't receive a single note. "I think the censors were finally less scared of complaining parents than they were of having to deal with how annoying I am," Hirsch added.
The bigger picture
Alex Hirsch is one of many. Across various networks, queer creators have been fighting tooth and nail to get queer characters into animated children's shows. In the past decade, they've succeeded more and more — Rebecca Sugar's "Steven Universe," Noelle Stevenson's "She-Ra," and Dana Terrace's "The Owl House" are just a few examples. But for all those successes, there are dozens of cases that never survived the censors, the bureaucracy, or other barriers of backward thinking. At Disney, progress for queer representation has been disappointingly slow, but I suppose it's progress all the same.
More action needs to be taken, both on-screen and behind the scenes. In features like "Lightyear" and shows like "Gravity Falls," these moments remain minuscule and blink-and-you-miss-it. That leaves space for censorship after the fact, and there have been multiple instances of Disney films being edited to remove any trace of LGBTQIA+ characters for release in conservative countries or where anti-LGBTQIA+ laws exist.
As recently as last year, an open letter from Pixar employees alleged that Disney itself shuts down plenty of LGBTQIA+ character affection before it can happen. Their "standard practices" still lean towards limiting queer perspectives, but thanks to dedicated staffers and relentless creatives, that standard is changing for the better.