Playing with Aspect Ratio: GRAVITY FALLS

Playing with AniMAYshun 2026

There are a LOT of things going on in this scene from Gravity Falls 1.10 “Fight Fighters,” including multiple aspect ratio gags!

Rumble McSkirmish has come out of a video game into Gravity Falls, starting by obeying Dipper’s wishes . . . but soon he gets out of control.

Take a look, then we’ll break down each aspect ratio change.

Setup and POV Gag

This is a great little gag on its own — noticeably narrowing the aspect ratio, then cutting to a closeup of Dipper’s eyes, then the camera zooming out to show Dipper holding two pieces of wood, confirming the narrowing was within Dipper’s POV.

But this sight gag also works to set up the scene’s main use for aspect ratio change, which is . . .

Distinguishing Worlds

The video game world and the ‘real’ world of Gravity Falls are blurring, and the aspect ratio helps signal both POV, and also what is ‘actually’ happening.

The next aspect ratio ‘narrowing’ puts us in Rumble McSkirmish’s head (yes obviously we are going to use his full name every time), before switching back to ‘full’ to bring us back to the Gravity Falls world, quickly confirmed when a START button pops up next to Dipper.

While you’re at it, take a look at the ways and whys Only Murders in the Building, Dead Boy Detectives, Lesbian Space Princess, and P-Valley change their aspect ratios.

Then the third aspect ratio narrowing is short and sweet; showing a familiar fighter-game-style READY screen, before coming back to the full screen.

So despite them fighting like a video game, Rumble McSkirmish’s reality has bled further into Gravity Falls. These hits and impacts are really happening to Dipper . . . which the following fight, and the final aspect ratio shift, confirms.

Here is the final shift, in context:

It’s not only the shortest yet — switching back to full screen almost immediately — but after reminding us of the video game graphics with those graphics in the video game setup, the scene continually shows us those graphics within the full screen. Dipper looks at the graphics, and Soos attempts to interact with one, with no luck.

The aspect ratio shifts have done their job, giving a fun sight gag before showing us how the video game has fully bled into Gravity Falls.

Takeaways

The scene does a lot of other small things well — for example how the look of Rumble McSkirmish’s 'hero shots’ look more pixelated than Dipper’s, and how Rumble McSkirmish gets more 2D as he loses power, and how eyelines and directionality work.

Because there’s so MUCH going on in this scene, from the fight to multiple sight gags to the way the worlds are crossing over, the aspect ratio shift execution is even more crucial. It doesn’t just make for a couple jokes, it has a narrative purpose

The first shift is essentially a fakeout, it’s not a ‘real’ shift because it’s Dipper’s POV looking through two boards, but it still draws attention to the shift, and sets us up the next three shifts which are all diegetic (ie. within the scene).

The next three shifts continue to demonstrate how the worlds have drifted, and how the video game stakes impact the real world.

Dipper isn’t just in this to win a game, he’s playing for his life!