Owl House is a fantasy show that premiered on January 10, 2020, created by Dana Terrace. Owl house has released two full seasons ranging around 20 episodes each with 22 mins in average length. However, due to the show getting canceled early because “It didn’t match Disney’s brand,” its ending earlier then it was supposed to, so the third season will only consist of 3, 45minute episodes. The last season has finished airing, with the last episodes released on April 8.

The Owl House heavily serves as a spiritual sequel to Disney’s most critically acclaimed show “Gravity Falls.” Which makes a lot of sense since both Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch, and Gravity Falls Story boarder and the creator of The Owl House, Dana Terrace are involved in its creation. The Owl House is also coincidentally the best show that Disney has released since Gravity Falls, as the show has garnered a massive amount of both critical and audience praise.

While in my opinion The Owl House is not quite as great as Gravity Falls, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that if the show hadn’t been canceled early for “not matching the Disney Brand,” this show could have been just as great and impactful as its predecessor. The funniest part about this is that even despite Disney’s distain towards the show, in its current state it is still the best thing they have released since Gravity Falls.

This show does so much right, from the story, the world’s lore, the characters, the animation and even the inclusiveness. While usually I would not mention something like diversity in a review, this show does an excellent job of not only having a large diverse cast but making the central relationship of the show star two bisexual characters and making it feel natural.

Although that very inclusiveness is the major reason behind the shows cancellation for “not fitting the Disney brand,” which is just beyond ironic as Disney is all about diversity until you want to portray it for more than a 5 second clip of two same gender characters kissing in the background.

The public, but clearly not primary motive for cancelling this show is Disney wanting to distance themselves from the shows that are episodic and that lead to a greater story, in favor of shows that are more serialized. However, the “not matching the Disney brand,” issue the show essentially translates to “Ah! This show has well developed gay characters! Cancel immediately!” to fans and audience members.

The show is about a 14-year-old girl Luz Noceda who finds herself in an intriguing and dangerous magic fantasy world after going through a door in the woods. She finds company with Eda the Owl Lady who lives in the Owl House. Eda decides to keep Luz around as a helper, then promises to teach her magic because they both connect with one another.

The main character of the show Luz is more than a serviceable main character throughout the show with her zaniness never being too annoying, and her optimism never feeling too unrealistic. There is an array of intriguing side characters that are always unique enough to stray from their typical character role in new and interesting ways. Some of these characters include Gus, Willow, Hunter, Raine, Lilith, King and fan favorite Amity Blight.

One aspect of the show that I am particularly fond of, is its darkness. This is yet another place where The Owl House follows Gravity Falls, with the main villain being rather intense by Disney standards, the world’s dark and mysterious lore, and touching upon some serious topics like trauma and blind faith. Even when the show does have just “fun” episodes there is still almost always a purpose to the episode like building up the greater story, so you do not have to worry about wasting your time.

This is an amazing show that can be enjoyed by anyone and one that you should give a watch. I remember when I was younger watching the first few episodes of season one back in 2020. I was paranoid that I was watching a girl’s show. While hilarious in hindsight, the show does quickly pick up, offering much more depth and nuance than one would expect from such a show.

My only real criticism of the show is the 2^nd to last episode of it, I find it to be extremely underwhelming compared to the episode right before it. Especially considering the fact it is literally the second to last episode of the show and should be of higher quality than it is but ends up feeling more like a filler episode . But easily my biggest gripe with the show, is its villain. Emperor Bar-Belos is a constant presence throughout the first season of the show, whose few appearances leave him just as mysterious and intriguing as he is dark and dangerous.

Without spoiling too much of the show they take him down a solid route and go all in on his darker aspects. While I love a good dark villain in a cartoon, I do believe that they woefully missed the spot on this one as they had the perfect opportunity to set up a new and unique villain type that would have been much more effective than how he turned out.

This is not even mentioning the fact that he gets replaced later in the show by a far less intriguing and intimidating villain that, while entertaining, is just a cheaper version of Gravity Falls’ main villain, Bill Cipher.  However, the route that they ended up on is still enough for him to be one of my favorite Disney villains. I just cannot help but feel like Disney could have done something new and unique with him.

But even in this aspect of the show I cannot put full blame on the creators as Disney had a knife to the throats of them for practically the last two seasons, undoubtedly leading to tainted creative decisions.

The series finale just aired on April 8, and I believe it to be a more than acceptable finale. Offering both climatic action, the tying up of loose ends with a satisfying wrap-up of the entire story. One thing I especially liked about this finale was the fact that it recognizes that its life was cut short due to Disney and takes advantage of this by making fun of Disney and wishing its audience one last bittersweet goodbye.

If you enjoyed Gravity falls or any cartoon within the past 10 years, then I cannot recommend The Owl House enough. I’ll admit you may not be in love with it after the first episode, but I cannot recommend this show any more than I already have.

If you take anything away from this review, let it be that Disney is still capable of creating great content (even if they do seem ashamed of its existence) and that you should defiantly give The Owl House a try if you haven’t already.