[8.0/10] This is an appropriate episode to guest star Justin Roiland, because it feels like a proto episode of Rick and Morty. The time-travel shenanigans and general chicanery, mixed with something poignant is a formula Roiland’s series would deploy on the regular.
Nonetheless, “The Time Traveler's Pig” deploys the usual Gravity Falls escalation, if not an exact formula yet. THe first act is fairly down to earth, establishing a relatable kid problem and a bit of wackiness. Grunkle Stan putting on a cheap carnival (“I spared every expense!”) maes for a good playground for the kids to play around in. Dipper trying to woo Wendy and fend off Robbie is as cute as ever, and Mabel simply adoring Waddles, the little pig she wins in a carnival guessing game, are both fun kid stories. Once again, Dipper’s schoolboy crush on an older girl is sweet and sympathetic. And Mabel thinking a pig can say her name and simply delighting in the little porker’s company is downright delightful.
But the second act is when the shenanigans start. Roiland’s time traveler is an amusing agent of chaos in all this, sent to clean up the timeline of anomalies but with a jumbled view of the past and future. Roiland’s sweaty energy makes what could be anything character into a fun side dish for the episode.
At the same time, I love the Groundhog Day-esque setup of DIpper’s time-reversal escapades. He accidentally plunks Wedny at a carnival game, and sees Robbie take advantage of the situation to comfort her and ask her out, Dipper’s worst nightmare. I love the sequence where he goes back in time again and again, only for the same result to occur over and over, in increasingly ludicrous ways. There's a wonderfully Looney Tunes quality to his frantic and increasingly baroque methods to change the result of this one small interaction, and ending up in the same place anyway.
Until he doesn’t! HIs ultimate triumph in finding just the right blend of physics and luck to win the day and not plunk Wendy is a fun capstone to the montage. But it comes at a cost. The best timeline from Dipper’s standpoint requires Mabel’s help, and results in her being too occupied with his ball’s trajectory to win her precious pig before Pacifica can steal him out from under her. Mabel is understandably devastated, and the ensuing fight between the two twins leads to all sorts of amusing back in time adventures.
Here’s where the episode really feels like a forerunner to Rick and Morty, with madcap, quick-hit visits to the past and future and prior versions of the characters that tickle the funny bone. (Plus not for nothing, a tape measure as a time machine is a clever visual concept.) Spoofing pioneer times and The Oregon Trail is a blast. (Mabel’s line about whether this was the seventies had me in stitches.) The duo fending off dinosaurs, future warriors, and their own past adventures all comes with a wild energy that breeds excitement and humor.
The episode ends someplace sweet though. Despite all the time-hops, the twins eventually end back in the “good timeline”, or at least the one where things go right for Dipper. Mabel is sad about her pig, but as DIpper rightfully points out, she has this kind of instant and enthusiastic attachment to tons of things. That attachment is often fleeting, and he’s convinced this will pass too.
Except it doesn’t. It’s a sad montage when Dipper uses the tape measure to leap hours, days, and months into the future, and finds his poor sister banging her head in misery at her lost pig. So he chooses to do the selfless thing -- give up his romantic love in favor of his filial love. He values his sister’s happiness over his own, and it’s lovely to see. The fact that the universe rewards him, by allowgn Mabel’s pig to embarrass Robbie shortly after he asked out Wendy. It’s a sweet, wholesome way to end these irreverent adventures (as is Grunkle Stan’s rigged dunk tank getting upended by a futuristic laser, just like Soos predicted).
Overall, the premise and rendition of this one works for comedy, for a boundless adventure, and in the end, for something with a lot of heart. What more can you ask for?
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2022-07-19T00:28:22Z
[8.0/10] This is an appropriate episode to guest star Justin Roiland, because it feels like a proto episode of Rick and Morty. The time-travel shenanigans and general chicanery, mixed with something poignant is a formula Roiland’s series would deploy on the regular.
Nonetheless, “The Time Traveler's Pig” deploys the usual Gravity Falls escalation, if not an exact formula yet. THe first act is fairly down to earth, establishing a relatable kid problem and a bit of wackiness. Grunkle Stan putting on a cheap carnival (“I spared every expense!”) maes for a good playground for the kids to play around in. Dipper trying to woo Wendy and fend off Robbie is as cute as ever, and Mabel simply adoring Waddles, the little pig she wins in a carnival guessing game, are both fun kid stories. Once again, Dipper’s schoolboy crush on an older girl is sweet and sympathetic. And Mabel thinking a pig can say her name and simply delighting in the little porker’s company is downright delightful.
But the second act is when the shenanigans start. Roiland’s time traveler is an amusing agent of chaos in all this, sent to clean up the timeline of anomalies but with a jumbled view of the past and future. Roiland’s sweaty energy makes what could be anything character into a fun side dish for the episode.
At the same time, I love the Groundhog Day-esque setup of DIpper’s time-reversal escapades. He accidentally plunks Wedny at a carnival game, and sees Robbie take advantage of the situation to comfort her and ask her out, Dipper’s worst nightmare. I love the sequence where he goes back in time again and again, only for the same result to occur over and over, in increasingly ludicrous ways. There's a wonderfully Looney Tunes quality to his frantic and increasingly baroque methods to change the result of this one small interaction, and ending up in the same place anyway.
Until he doesn’t! HIs ultimate triumph in finding just the right blend of physics and luck to win the day and not plunk Wendy is a fun capstone to the montage. But it comes at a cost. The best timeline from Dipper’s standpoint requires Mabel’s help, and results in her being too occupied with his ball’s trajectory to win her precious pig before Pacifica can steal him out from under her. Mabel is understandably devastated, and the ensuing fight between the two twins leads to all sorts of amusing back in time adventures.
Here’s where the episode really feels like a forerunner to Rick and Morty, with madcap, quick-hit visits to the past and future and prior versions of the characters that tickle the funny bone. (Plus not for nothing, a tape measure as a time machine is a clever visual concept.) Spoofing pioneer times and The Oregon Trail is a blast. (Mabel’s line about whether this was the seventies had me in stitches.) The duo fending off dinosaurs, future warriors, and their own past adventures all comes with a wild energy that breeds excitement and humor.
The episode ends someplace sweet though. Despite all the time-hops, the twins eventually end back in the “good timeline”, or at least the one where things go right for Dipper. Mabel is sad about her pig, but as DIpper rightfully points out, she has this kind of instant and enthusiastic attachment to tons of things. That attachment is often fleeting, and he’s convinced this will pass too.
Except it doesn’t. It’s a sad montage when Dipper uses the tape measure to leap hours, days, and months into the future, and finds his poor sister banging her head in misery at her lost pig. So he chooses to do the selfless thing -- give up his romantic love in favor of his filial love. He values his sister’s happiness over his own, and it’s lovely to see. The fact that the universe rewards him, by allowgn Mabel’s pig to embarrass Robbie shortly after he asked out Wendy. It’s a sweet, wholesome way to end these irreverent adventures (as is Grunkle Stan’s rigged dunk tank getting upended by a futuristic laser, just like Soos predicted).
Overall, the premise and rendition of this one works for comedy, for a boundless adventure, and in the end, for something with a lot of heart. What more can you ask for?