The Owl House is an animated fantasy-comedy, created by Dana Terrace. The series premiered on January 10, 2020 on Disney Channel.
Overview
The series follows self-assured teenage girl Luz, who discovers a portal to another realm where humans are not well-liked.
Luz partners with a rebellious witch named Eda and her diminutive demon sidekick, King, who was indeed once a king and is searching for a way to restore his titles and glory. Despite not possessing any magical abilities of her own, Luz pursues her dream of becoming a witch by serving as Eda's apprentice and learning the ways of magic.
Picking up immediately after season one, season two follows Luz looking for a way to return to the Human Realm, while Eda confronts her inner demons, and King searching for the truth about his past.
Cast
Main
Recurring
- Matthew Rhys as Emperor Belos
- Alex Lawther as Philip Wittebane
- Isabella Rossellini as Bat Queen
- Mae Whitman as Amity Blight
- Tati Gabrielle as Willow Park
- Bumper Robinson as Principal Bump
- Issac Ryan Brown as Gus Porter
- Parvesh Cheena as Tibbles
- Eden Riegel as Boscha
- Cissy Jones as Lilith Clawthorne
- Jorge Diaz as Mattholomule
- Robin Atkin Downes as Adegast
- Erica Lindbeck as Emira Blight
- Ryan O'Flanagan as Edric Blight
- Arin Hanson as Snaggleback
- Zeno Robinson as Hunter, Derwin
- Deb Doetzer as Gwendolyn Clawthorne
- Peter Gallagher as Dell Clawthorne
- Felicia Day as Bria
- Harvey Guillén as Angmar
- Nik Dodani as Gavin
- Debra Wilson as Terra Snapdragon
- Avi Roque as Raine Whispers
- Elizabeth Grullon as Camila Noceda
Production
The Owl House was created by Dana Terrace, previously worked on Gravity Falls as a storyboard artist and later a director on the 2017 DuckTales reboot. The show was originally scheduled for release in 2019, but was delayed to early 2020. The animation is provided by Rough Draft Korea, Sunmin Image Pictures, and Sugarcube Animation.
The visual design of the show was inspired by various European painters including Remedios Varo, John Bauer, and definitely Hieronymus Bosch, who was best known for his surrealistic depictions of hell. Dana Terrace also took a lot of inspiration from Russian architecture as well as medieval church art.
The second season, consisting of 21 episodes, will begin airing on June 12, 2021. It was renewed for a third season ahead of the season two premiere and was later confirmed by Dana Terrace to not only be shorter, but also be the last season. Dana later admitted on a Reddit AMA this was because the show "did not fit the Disney brand."[1][2]
Marketing
The first trailer premiered on June 10, 2019 during the show's Annecy 2019 panel, which was uploaded onto the Disney Channel's YouTube channel.
The intro was released at the On San Diego Comic-Con on July 20, 2019, while the outro was released on October 4, 2019.
Reception
Critical reception
The Owl House has received a positive reception from critics. Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media rated the show 4 out of 5 stars and said putting different elements together made the series quirky and likable. It was also described as well written and animated, and speculated that "the show likely will be one you will want to watch alongside your older kids and tweens, giving you the opportunity to discuss these kinds of themes as they come up." LaughingPlace.com's critic praised the series for its unique visuals and voice acting, stating "The performances fit together beautifully as the diversity in their delivery showcases the characters’ unique roles in the Demon Realm." Collider's Dave Trumbore gave the series' first episode a 4-star rating, feeling that the episode "has got a dark, yet darkly comic edge to the whole thing." The conservative evangelical Christian religious television network, called the Christian Broadcasting Network attacked the show, declaring it was part of a "witch agenda to make witchcraft look positive," an assessment that a writer for The Mary Sue called "hyperbolic," and stated that a "rebellious Latina witch" is, to those like CBN, "probably the scariest thing," while stating that the show sounds like "a ton of fun." While Kevin Johnson of The A.V. Club was critical of the series, stating that they were not "buying the developments between Amity and Luz," and praised Eda's character, Ben Bertoli was more positive. He wrote that Terrace and those working on the job had done a great job creating a fantasy world, relatable characters, and predicted a "big animation fandom." Additionally, Nick Venable wrote that fans of Gravity Falls and Steven Universe would love the series because the "otherworld-ness of The Boiling Isles immediately asserts itself" while the show makes "relationships feel genuine and tactile," following in the footsteps of those shows. At the same time, Colin Hickson of Comic Book Resources praised the series, while noting that the opening of the series would give "any Gravity Falls fans a major sense of déjà vu."
LGBTQ+ representation
The Owl House has been praised for featuring several characters who are LGBTQ+, in particular the growing romance between the characters Luz Noceda and Amity Blight.[3][4] On July 7, 2020, series creator Dana Terrace implied this, when responding to a fan who posted a screenshot from the upcoming episode "Enchanting Grom Fright" on Twitter which showed one of the characters in the show, Amity Blight, putting her hands on the shoulders of Luz Noceda and looking into Luz's eyes. Claiming "there is no heterosexual explanation" for Amity's action, Terrace responded, "there really isn't". On August 8, 2020, the episode, written by Molly Ostertag, aired, and it featured a scene in which Luz and Amity dance together while casting spells to defeat "Grom," a demon that manifests as their deepest fears. The animation supervisor for the show, Spencer Wan, referred to their intimate dance as "the gay thing" and the first time he got to "do anything even remotely queer."
On September 2, 2020, during a Reddit AMA, Dana Terrace confirmed that Amity is intended to be a lesbian and that Luz is bisexual.[5] The two girls represent Disney's first animated LGBT+ regular characters.[6] Additionally, in the episode "Understanding Willow", one of the main characters (Willow Park) is shown to have two dads. Some noted that the beginning of the show's second season, which began airing in 2021, continued to build up the relationship between Amity and Luz, with Luz reciprocating Amity's feelings at the end of "Escaping Expulsion". Others praised Amity's character evolving outside her "relationship with Luz." In the episode "Through the Looking Glass Ruins", Amity kisses Luz on the cheek.
On July 24, 2021, the series introduced Raine Whispers in the episode "Eda's Requiem." Raine is Disney's first non-binary character as Raine goes by they/them pronouns. The character is voiced by trans and non-binary actor Avi Roque.[7]
In the episode "Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door", Luz and Amity officially become a couple. GLAAD praised the episode, saying they were excited to see a "wonderful and affirming message" from the series. Jade King of TheGamer praised the series for having a fictional universe where queer characters can "learn to love themselves without the fear of ridicule," comparing it to the similar approaches in Steven Universe and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, noting the relationship between Luz and Amity.[8]
In March 2022, Lilith was confirmed to be aromantic and asexual during a charity livestream, via an in-character letter read by the character's voice actress Cissy Jones. Jade King of The Gamer noted that Cissy Jones said that her letter during a charity stream saying that Lilith didn't have any romantic attractions was "basically canon," further confirming those identities.
On May 21, 2022, Luz and Amity kissed each other on the lips in the episode "Clouds on the Horizon". It is the first same-sex kiss between the main characters in a Disney animated series.
Videos
Gallery
Trivia
- This is the first Disney work with an LGBT protagonist. While previous Disney works had LGBT characters, all of them were side characters.
- Amity is the first openly gay Disney character, as previous gay Disney characters had their sexuality implied rather than shown.
- Luz is the first openly bisexual Disney lead character.
- Dana Terrace confirmed Luz is bisexual, while Amity is confirmed to be a lesbian.
- "Eda's Requiem" introduced Raine Whispers, who is confirmed to be the first non-binary character in a Disney work.
- With this series, Dana Terrace is the sixth woman to create a series for Disney Television Animation, after Sue Rose (Pepper Ann), Chris Nee (Doc McStuffins), Daron Nefcy (Star vs. the Forces of Evil), Krista Tucker (Fancy Nancy), and Nicole Dubuc (The Rocketeer).
- This is the second series where Alex Hirsch is featured in a magical setting, opposite to his past series, Gravity Falls, which is magical, but paranormal.
- He also voices demons such as King in this series or Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls.
- It also featured a kid (Luz in this setting, Dipper and Mabel Pines in Gravity Falls) who travels into a place where it was alive with magic.
- This is the fourth Disney Channel series to feature a Latina protagonist after Wizards of Waverly Place, Stuck in the Middle, and Gabby Duran & the Unsittables.
- The first letter of each episode title in each season spells out a phrase:
- Season 1: "A witch loses a true way."
- Season 2: "Seek the key fear the lock."
- One scene of each episode also contains a freeze-frame of an eye code in Cyrillic alphabet in the background and reads a sentence:
- Season 1: "Two witches torn apart, now alone. Two hearts of stone. A curse of feather and mud, a betrayal of blood skies".
- Season 2: "Seething seas and puppet strings, he no longer dreams of kings as above rush darkened skies as below his father lies."
- Due to Disney Channel in Italy shutting down prior to the series' premiere in Italy, the series ended up premiering its entire first Season in Italy on February 5, 2021, on Disney+, making this the first time a Disney Channel series has had its premiere on Disney+ instead of Disney Channel.
- This is the second animated Disney series where the main character of the show gets wound up in another world. The first being Anne from Amphibia (later Sasha and Marcy).
- In 2021, it won the Peabody Award for "Children's & Youth Programming".
- An unofficial website titled "The Owl Club" has been running the entire series with the goal of having it available in both English and Spanish (dubbed and subtitled). Episodes are posted, usually the evening before the episodes officially air.[1]
References
- ↑ "AMA (except by "anything" I mean these questions only)". Reddit (October 5, 2021). Retrieved on October 24, 2021.
- ↑ "Dana Terrace, creator of 'THE OWL HOUSE,' has clarified some info about her show's ending.". Twitter (October 5, 2021).
- ↑ "The Owl House: Disney Animated Series' LGBTQ+ Relationship is No Longer Subtext". Comic Book Resources (August 9, 2020).
- ↑ "The five TV shows you should be watching this week – "The Owl House" (Disney Channel)". Los Angeles Times (August 10, 2020).
- ↑ Terrace, Dana (September 2, 2020). "Amity is intended to be a lesbian and Luz is bi. I apologize for my original post which was worded vaguely. Romantic threads are fun and I love how many people are connecting to that storyline, but my personal taste as a storyteller will never allow me to write a full on romance saga. THAT BEING SAID... Me and the crew are having a crap ton of fun developing this thread in season 2. All the ins and outs of these storylines we're keeping track of... Feels like we're knitting." (en-US).
- ↑ Variety (August 17, 2020). "'The Owl House' makes history with Disney's first bisexual lead character". NBC News.
- ↑ "The Owl House Is Introducing a New Non-binary Character to the Show". Out.com (July 23, 2021).
- ↑ "The Owl House Is Right To Exist In A World Without Homophobia". TheGamer (August 6, 2021).
External links
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