“Gravity Falls,” the Disney Channel animated series that ran from 2012 to 2016, is one of the greatest children’s cartoons of all time in part because it always felt like a work all ages could enjoy. The series, created by Alex Hirsch, was always suitable for children, but from the start it was ambitious with its storytelling and its influences, tracking main characters Dipper and Maple Pines’ misadventures across one summer in a sleepy Oregon town teaming with secrets pulled from sources like “Twin Peaks” or “Lost” for a heavily story-driven, character-focused mystery series. It’s a total delight that remains satisfying for any age, from 4 to 40-year-olds.
I haven’t experienced a show that really captured what makes “Gravity Falls” so special since it went off the air. But while it hasn’t quite reached that prior series’ heights just yet, the new Disney+ series “The Doomies” has a similar appeal in its delightful mix of family-friendly storytelling with more grown-up source material. Best described as, essentially, “Evil Dead” meets “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” for kids, the show is a rollicking mystery series that will delight any horror buffs, and seems destined to turn any younger viewers who stumble upon it into horror buffs.
Produced by French animation studio Xiliam and created by Andrés Fernandez, Henry Gifford, and Rémi Zaarour, “The Doomies” went massively under the radar when it made its debut on Disney+ last June — I only heard of it via word of mouth from a friend raving about it weeks after its premiere. Part of the issue was Disney’s decision to release the show, which had been completed since around 2024, all at once, dumping 22 episodes onto the platform with limited prior advertising. This is the type of show that benefits from a weekly release, providing a mixture of episodic one-off adventures and a longer, serialized story arc throughout the season, which unfolds most satisfyingly not as a binge but with some distance between installments.
Like any good mystery show, “The Doomies” situates its world of mysteries and horror through the lens of two ordinary kids, best friends Bobby and Romy. Passionate about mysteries and horror, the two spend their days investigating supposed supernatural mysteries around their sleepy coastal French town and documenting it online for their “Doomies” social media page. In the pilot, “Crepe Day,” their fun and games suddenly turns very, very real when a glowing rock they stumble upon in the woods marks Doug with a dangerous curse and opens a portal to Subterra, a land of monsters. To combat the resulting paranormal phenomena they discover, the kids team up with the eccentric local lighthouse keeper Doug, and eventually Kim, a stoic woman created to be the Chosen One against the forces of evil.
The pilot is charming and funny, immediately drawing me into the dynamic of its two characters — Romy is a bit more gregarious and sarcastic, Bobby more sensitive and sullen. But I was really sold on the show with the end credits sequence, which depicts the Necronomicon of the “Evil Dead” series, with its torn flesh cover, drawn in crayon. It’s a good summation of what the show excels at, taking horror tropes and presenting them in ways that are digestible for kids without necessarily coming across as compromised for it. Over the course of 22 episodes, the Doomies crew encounters vampires, parasitic demons, vicious mermaids, and some spirits specific to French folklore, all rendered as real threats towards our heroes. There’s some comedy mixed in, but the show never reduces the monsters Bobby and Romy are dealing with to jokes. The animation style is simple and stylized, like an old comic strip, with bold use of color and shadow that creates real atmosphere and danger.
Like “Gravity Falls” before it, “The Doomies” mixes its one-off storylines with overarching plotlines from episode to episode, as the heroes look for a way to life Bobby’s curse and close the portal. Plot-relevant villains hang around as the focus of a longer story arc as new threats emerge, while the main characters’ relationships steadily grow — most obviously with Kim, who begins the series disconnected from modern human life and with a deep distrust of Bobby. Not every character moment in the first season fully lands, and the show could do a bit more filling out of Romy — who is often reduced to Bobby’s number two — but the cast’s sweet comedic chemistry makes for a likable group you want to spend time with plunging into the unknown.
As of this writing, “The Doomies” hasn’t been renewed for a second season, but it’s a show that deserves a sophomore outing to fully find its footing and deliver on its potential. Season 1 ends on a massive cliffhanger that’s begging for a follow-up — here’s hoping the show can find its audience, and Disney+ will allow “The Doomies” to explore their town for a little longer.
“The Doomies” is currently streaming on Disney+
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