THE GHOST AND MOLLY McGEE

 WARNING: This is about a recently-cancelled series. Some spoilers may follow.

THE GHOST AND MOLLY McGEE
(Disney Channel, Disney+, October 1, 2021-January 13, 2024)
 
Disney Television Animation

 

MAIN CAST:
Ashly Burch – Molly McGee
Dana Snyder – Scratch
Jordan Klepper – Pete McGee
Sumalee Montano – Sharon McGee, Nin Suksai
Michaela Dietz – Darryl McGee
Lara Jill Miller – Libby Stein-Torres

  

This is the story about a young girl and her best friend. …Who happens to be a ghost.

Molly and Scratch.

The Ghost and Molly McGee was created by Bill Motz and Bob Roth. It centered on the titular Molly McGee (Ashly Burch), an extremely optimistic 13-year-old Thai-American who moved with her family to the town of Brighton; a downtrodden town whose chief export were turnips, since it was founded by turnip farmers. She was pleasantly surprised to discover their new house came with a live-in best friend: a grumpy lazy ghost named Scratch (Dana Snyder), whose only desire was to spend his afterlife relaxing and pigging out in solitude. Scratch was initially less-enthusiastic about his new roommates and attempted to scare them out; both for his own peace and to remove the curse he accidentally placed on Molly that bound them together until she moved out. Reluctantly, Scratch warmed up to Molly and found himself reciprocating her friendship and becoming a welcomed part of her family.

The McGees: Darryl, Molly, Pete and Sharon.

Molly’s family was comprised of Pete McGee (Jordan Klepper), her Irish father who worked as a civil engineer and City Council member. He often meant well, but could be a little dimwitted and accident prone. Sharon McGee (Sumalee Montano) was her Thai mother who once abandoned her dreams of becoming an artist. She made a living by doing odd jobs found through an app called Gig Pig (a play on Task Rabbit), and could be very competitive—especially with board games. Darryl McGee (Michaela Dietz) was her mischievous younger brother who was always running some kind of scheme and claimed to many connections that allowed him to get whatever he needed. He had a pet tarantula named Heidi Hairylegs (of which Molly was afraid). Occasionally they would facetime with or be visited by Sharon’s headstrong mother, Nin (also Montano), who was very wise but a poor communicator—especially where Sharon was concerned. Her culture made her very familiar with the concept of living with a ghost and therefore nonplussed by their new family member. Scratch became very enamored by the kind of food Nin could cook, since she was once a restauranteur, and they developed a very strong bond (Scratch would call Nin his “favorite McGee”).

A slumber party with Libby and Andrea.

Molly was on a mission to “enhappify” the world, making Brighton the perfect place for her as it was deemed one of the most miserable areas in the country. This often put her into contact (or at odds) with many of Brighton’s citizenry. At Brighton Middle School, she met her human best friend Libby Stein-Torres (Lara Jill Miller), a book and turtle-loving introvert with a deeply-hidden inner confidence that often had bad luck, clumsy tendencies, a strong conspiracy theorist streak that had her digging into all of the town’s dirty secrets; Andrea Davenport (pronounced AHN-dree-uh if you want to stay off her bad side, voiced by Jules Medcraft), the most popular and richest girl at school whose absentee parents owned the profitable Davenport’s department store (the name came from Davenport, Iowa where producer Britta Reitman grew up); Sheela (Aparna Nancherla), once a contender for Molly’s best friend who had an abrasive but ultimately good-natured personality; and Kat (Eden Riegel), Molly’s helpful and kind pink-haired friend. The Brighton Hills Retirement Home where the McGees often volunteered saw Molly befriend one of its residents, Patty (Jenifer Lewis), who led a long and interesting life and was in love with one-time bad boy Bobby Daniels (Danny Trejo).

Molly with Mayor Brunson and Patty.

Other characters in the human world included Principal O’Connor (Eugene Byrd), Brighton Middle School’s uptight principal that was often targeted by Darryl’s pranks; Miss Lightfoot (Julia Jones), a science teacher who was always worried she’d offend Andrea and had the annoying tendency to microwave fish in the teacher’s lounge; Mrs. Roop (Jane Lynch), a history teacher with such a passion for the subject that she’d consider flunking anyone for merely making fun of it; Mr. Pham (Andrew Phung), a drama teacher who lost his love of life and teaching to stress and fatigue; Mayor Stu Brunson (Patton Oswalt), the often inept Mayor of Brighton who came from a long line of politicians and was always looking for ways to outdo aptly-named rival town Perfektborg; Weird Larry (Trevor Devall), the eccentric pawn shop owner with a pet skunk who tended to ask for help with the most uncomfortable of favors; Irving the Illusionist (Devall), a street magician who got a thrill out of bewildering passersby with his tricks (as bad as they were); Leah Stein-Torres (Pamela Adlon), Libby’s mother who owned the Book Marks the Spot bookstore; and the Davenports Maxwell (Thomas Lennon) and Dorothea (never revealed on the show but instead via a now-deleted tweet by Roth, voiced by Jessica Keenan Wynn). Film director Greta Gerwig made a cameo appearance in “Hooray for Mollywood!” as the director Andrea hired to direct the film she hijacked from Molly and her friends.

The Chairman and the Ghost Council: Lucretia, Sir Alister, Grimbella and Bartholomew

As much as he wished it was, the afterlife wasn’t all fun and games for Scratch. He, like other ghosts, were charged with maintaining their designated haunting’s misery levels through scares in order to feed their boss: a tall, looming grim reaper-like being known as The Chairman. Failure to do so would result in banishment to the Flow of Failed Phantoms. Ensuring his will was carried out was The Ghost Council, comprised of the Barrister Ghosts Lucretia (Grey Griffin, Greg Baldwin in the pilot), Sir Alister (John DiMaggio), Grimbella (Kari Wahlgren using a British accent), and Bartholomew (Baldwin). They resided in the Ghost World, which was accessed by a ghost conjuring a swirling vortex. Scratch was often put into a position where he had to choose preventing his banishment by doing his required scares or preserving his budding friendship with Molly as she actively caused Brighton’s misery numbers to fall.

Scratch flanked by Geoff and Jeff with Abraham Lincoln, Grimbella, Barthrolomew and some other ghosts.

Other ghostly characters included Geoff (originally named Kevin, voiced by Eric Edelstein), a goofy and dimwitted spook that considered Scratch his best friend and who had been in a 100-year relationship with a buff ghost also named Jeff (albeit with a different spelling, voiced by Vincent Rodriguez III); Ghost Bouncer (DiMaggio), the bouncer of the Haughty Haunts Club responsible for keeping the riffraff out; Abraham Lincoln (Kelsey Grammer), the 16^th President of the United States; Ezekiel “Tug” Tugbottom (Chris Diamantopoulos), once believed to have been the great hero of Brighton until it was revealed he had just stolen the credit from his sister, Sally (Kerri Kenney-Silver); Franklin Roosevelt (DiMaggio), the 32^nd President of the United States; Jinx (Liza Koshy), a joy hunter dispatched by the Ghost Council to eliminate Molly; and Sobgoblins (Griffin), tiny ghosts that feed on misery and sadness and make it hard for those feelings to disappear.

Early concept art of Molly facing off against the Ghost Council on Scartch's behalf surrounded by the Flow of Failed Phantoms.

The series was first conceived back in 2007, then known as The Curse of Piper McGee. It would have focused Piper McGee going to Transylvania on a family vacation where she would be cursed by a vampiric ghoul called the Count for accidentally disturbing him. The series would have played out the same way: with the gloomy Count bound to the eternal sunshine of Molly and being forced to partake in her adventures. Motz and Roth pitched it to Nickelodeon, but they passed on it. After being signed to an overall deal with Disney, they pitched the series again; this time titled The Curse of Molly McGee, which received a much better reception. The series was greenlit by Disney Channel in July of 2019 to be produced by Disney Television Animation under the title it would eventually air; which was felt better reflected the relationship between Molly and Scratch. Molly was originally conceived as being half-Black, but ultimately became half-Thai; making her the second Disney Thai-American protagonist after Anne Boonchuy in Amphibia. The setting was also relocated to a town inspired by Motz’s childhood home in the Quad Cities region of Illinois and Iowa after it suffered an economic downturn when International Harvester’s Farmall Works Plant in Rock Island closed in 1985.

Jinx and the Sobgoblins.

Following a first-look during a panel at 2020’s New York Comic Con, The Ghost and Molly McGee debuted almost a year later on Disney Channel on October 1, 2021; with the first 5 episodes being added to Disney+ on October 6^th and further episodes being added to the service in batches after or preceding their televised airings. The series was written by Motz and Roth with Charley Feldman, Sammie Crowley, Katie Greenway, Paul Chang, Peter Limm, Maiya Williams, Madison Bateman, Cynthia Furey, Peri Segel, Jase Ricci, Ricky Roxburgh, Mia Resella, Brandon Hoàng, Sam Cherington, Gloria Shen, Jenava Mie and Mariam Girgis. Justin Rodrigues was the lead character designer, working with Karl Cruz, Claire Nero, Elsa Chang, Ham Firouzan, Harley Huang, Baptiste Rogron, Kali Cruz, and Phillip Light. Some members of the crew were very active on social media and often posted behind the scenes information about the episodes they worked on after they aired. The series’ theme was written by Motz, Roth, Allie Feder and Mike Kramer and performed by Burch and Snyder. Along with the score by Kramer, each episode contained a 1-minute humorous song number tied into the plot written by Rob Cantor. Those songs were performed by the characters involved. 

Molly on her mission to enhappify the world.

The first season largely followed Molly and Scratch as the former explored and sought to make positive changes in Brighton where she could, while the latter dealt with his growing affection for Molly and place within the McGee family that put him at odds with his job and the threat of banishment by the Chairman. Ahead of its premier, the series was renewed for a 2^nd season which saw a bit of a shift in the status quo. The Chairman ended up being destroyed, with Scratch appointed to reluctantly take his place. The naturally lazy Scratch decided to abolish the old Chairman’s rules and only donned the cloak to bark out an order or use its special powers when it served his purposes—which often ended up backfiring spectacularly. A mystery began unfolding as Molly took an interest in uncovering Scratch’s forgotten past. A discontinued strawberry soda unlocked a flash of his adventurous best friend, Adia Williams (Kimberly Brooks), who had moved away when they were children and gave him that soda to always remember her by.

The Ghost Chaser Chens: Ollie, Ruben, Esther and June.

The McGees also gained new neighbors in the Chens, who seemed to be a perfect match for the McGees. Unfortunately, there was one problem: they were ghost hunters. Patriarch Ruben (Leonard Wu) was scared by a ghost as a kid, and dedicated his life to studying and eradicating the supernatural when he wasn’t brewing his own root beer. He was joined by his wife, Esther (Stephanie Sheh), and his children Juniper (Sue Ann Pien, who was autistic like her character), an inventor responsible for much of their gear, and Oliver (Alan Lee), their research specialist. They documented their exploits and posted them online as The Ghost Chaser Chens. It also didn’t help matters that Ollie was Molly’s ideal boyfriend while she was best friends with a ghost.

Molly as a wraith with her soulless body.

Disney had commissioned the writing of 10 scripts for season 3 in anticipation of the series continuing to be a success; bolstered by the response the first batch of season 1 episodes received on Disney+. Season 3 would have seen Ollie become the Chairman after Scratch gave up the cloak and struggling to balance between the worlds. As a result, he was beginning to forget about his life due to all his time spent in wraith form; a ghost-like form a living person could assume to travel to the Ghost World while their body continued performing basic tasks and functions sans personality. Other stories would have seen Libby struggling with writer’s block; Ruben Chen becoming a full-time brewmaster after backing from Dorothea Davenport; Andrea would have had a relationship with her crush, Alina Webster (although this did make it into the Chibi Tiny Tales short “Scratch, Molly’s Third Wheel”); a Purim holiday special; a revolt against the recorder; and Molly attempting to rekindle Mr. Pham’s love of teaching.

Saying goodbye.

However, without the same marketing support of the first episode drop onto Disney+, the second in December didn’t perform as well. Despite the next drop improving, Disney had decided to cancel the 3^rd season by June of 2022. A glimmer of hope for a decision reversal came during the internal upheaval that would see studio head Bob Iger return to replace the embattled Bob Chapek, but that required an even higher threshold of viewership that the series just could not meet. Motz and Roth always had a clear ending in mind for the series, but now lacked the space in which to tell that story. They were surprised when their request for an additional episode to wrap everything up was granted. Before the official word of the cancellation came down, social media posts by Motz on Instagram with the cast wrap party and on Twitter gave all indication that this was the ultimately the series’ fate.

The mysteriously cancelled book.

A book adapting “First Day Frights” had appeared on online retail sites for pre-orders, but ended up cancelled for unspecified reasons by Disney Books. Disney slapped a promotional image on t-shirts, totes and pillows for sale in the Disney Channel Fan Shop on Amazon in 2021. DisneyNOW hosted a game called Bandshell Boo-Nanza on its website, where Molly was in charge of keeping the crowds happy during a week-long talent show. Tasks included making coupons, clearing customer lines, serving ice cream, fixing faders, plugging in plugs, and cleaning up litter. Scratch could help with some of these tasks provided Molly collected enough food. Molly and Scratch were also included in the 2019 game Disney All-Star Racers until the DisneyNOW app was shut down in 2024.

Molly and Scratch amongst other Chibified Disney characters from DuckTales, Big City Greens, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Amphibia, Phineas and Ferb and The Owl House.

Along with appearing in several Chibi Tiny Tales shorts, Molly and Scratch have starred in new segments of the anthology series Chibiverse. They and other characters have also participated in the Disney Channel short segments Broken Karaoke, Theme Song Takeover, How NOT to Draw and Random Rings that aired during commercial breaks. A collection of these from other programs were presented in a half-hour special called Spring Shorts-Tacular with the Ghost and Molly McGee, with Molly and Scratch featured in new hosting segments at various intervals. Along with being on Disney+, several episodes and various clips have been uploaded to the official Disney Channel YouTube.

  

EPISODE GUIDE:

Season 1:

“The Curse / First Day Frights” (10/1/21) – Scratch unintentionally curses himself and Molly to be bound together until they move out of the house. / Scratch tries to make matters worse for Molly at school when she ends up angering popular influencer Andrea Davenport.

 

“Howlin’ Harriet / The (Un)natural” (10/2/21) – Molly goes camping with the Wilder-Scouts to pick out her human best friend, and Libby’s ghost story ends up becoming a reality. / Molly joins the school’s terrible baseball team and Scratch ends up using his powers to cheat so they can win.

 

“Getting the Band(shell) Back Together / The Greatest Concert Ever” (10/6/21 D+, 10/9/21 DC) – Volunteering at a retirement home inspires Molly to try and resurrect the town’s bandshell, long destroyed by a hurricane. / Needing a performer for the restored bandshell, Molly meticulously plans to get country superstar Kenny Star.

 

“Mama’s Gotta Hustle / Hooray for Mollywood!” (10/6/21 D+, 10/16/21 DC) – When the McGees are unable to afford to fix their van, Sharon begins taking odd jobs through the Gig Pig app. / Molly and her friends get squeezed out of their own horror movie when Andrea gets involved.

 

“Not So Honest Abe / The Best of Nin-tensions” (10/6/21 D+, 10/23/21 DC) – Scratch has Geoff pretend to be Abraham Lincoln so Molly thinks he knows him, but Geoff’s faulty information causes Molly to fail her report. / Molly and Scratch attempt to fix the rift between Sharon and her mother.

 

“Mazel Tov, Libby! / No Good Deed” (10/30/21) – Molly attempts to jazz up Libby’s Bat Mitzvah, but it ends up just giving her a panic attack. / Molly, Darryl and Scratch must spring their teachers from prison after Darryl uses the nice lesson Molly gave him to get them incarcerated.

 

“The Trump Twist / All Systems No” (11/6/21) – To outdo Perfektborg for next month’s issue of Midwest Monthly, the Mayor places Pete and Molly in charge of the Turnip Festival—which Scratch must ruin or face banishment. / Molly and Scratch challenge each other to only say “yes” or “no” respectively for an entire day while the McGees try to get a bee out of their house.

 

“Monumental Disaster / Talent Show” (11/13/21) – After meeting the ghost of the legendary town hero, Molly and Libby are determined to expose him as the fraud he is. / Libby accidentally signs up to be in the talent show and Molly encourages her to do it—until she learns that Libby can’t sing.

 

“Scratch the Surface / Friend-Off” (11/20/21) – Molly tries to create an alter-ego to tell Libby anything since she can’t relay her adventures with Scratch, but Libby just thinks Molly doesn’t want to be friends anymore. / Molly sets up a scavenger hunt to try and bring Libby and Scratch together, but they end up turning it into a competition to see who Molly’s best friend is.

 

“Festival of Lights / Saving Christmas” (11/27/21) – The McGees spend their first Hannukah with the Stein-Torres family as a blackout hits Brighton. / Molly takes inspiration from A Christmas Carol to try and get Mr. Davenport in the holiday spirit and save the town’s Christmas celebration.

 

“Ice Princess / Read, Set, Snow!” (2/12/22) – The spirit of a failed ice skater brings major snow storms with her as she tries to perfect her routine, and Pete reveals himself to be a former ice skater as he steps up to be her partner. / Molly desperately wants someone to play in the snow with her, but everyone just wants to try hygge.

 

“Game Night / The Don’t-Gooder” (2/19/22) – Scratch uses the McGees’ love of board games to cheat his way out of cleaning the downstairs bathroom. / Molly gets tired of being outdone in charity work by Andrea when she does practically nothing and stumbles upon a secret that could expose Andrea once and for all.

 

“Innocent Until Proven Ghostly / Twin Trouble” (2/26/22) – Scratch is accused of eating the anniversary cake Pete baked, but Molly holds a trial to prove his innocence. / The arrival of Pete’s bullying twin siblings causes the depression-feeding Sobgoblins to come to the McGee household.

 

“Goat Your Own Way / A Very Hungry Ghost” (3/5/22) – Molly tries to prove her way of training a goat for the country fair is better than the prescribed way while Scratch trains Pete to get him a fried food platter. / Nin visits to celebrate Sart Duan Sib (a feast for ghosts) which excites Scratch—until Geoff ends up inviting every ghost including the Ghost Council.

 

“Scare Tactics / The Bad Boy Bobby Daniels” (3/12/22) – While Molly nervously searches for Heidi after she gets loose in the house, Scratch and Geoff ditch their yearly scaring seminar. / Molly and Scratch attempt to reunite Patty with her long-lost love.

 

“Citizen McGee / The Internship” (6/11/22) – Molly volunteers to be “Mayor for a Day”, but ends up with the job permanently as Brunson finds it too stressful. / Molly is disappointingly assigned to be Weird Larry’s intern while Scratch gets an intern of his own.

 

“The Lucky Penny / Lock, Stock, and Peril” (6/18/22) – Disasters occur when the already-lucky Andrea ends up possessing a luck-infused penny. / When the others get trapped in the basement, Molly and Scratch go to get Weird Larry to get them out but keep getting distracted along the way and missing him.

 

“Out of House and Home / Home is Where the Haunt Is” (6/25/22) – The McGees all chip in when Pete gets himself hurt, but along the way end up evicted after forgetting to pay the mortgage. / The McGees live in their van in the woods while Scratch tries to scare away any potential buyers for the house.

 

“The Jig is Up / Molly vs. the Ghost World” (7/9/22) – The Ghost Council sends Jinx to find out why Brighton’s joy is going up, and Scratch learns the truth about why ghosts are required to do scares. / Molly becomes a wraith and heads to the Ghost World with Geoff to rescue Scratch from his trial with the Ghost Council.

 

Season 2:

“The New (Para)Normal” (4/1/23) – Scratch reluctantly becomes the new Chariman while the McGees make friends with their new neighbors, the Chens—who happen to be ghost hunters.

 

“Book Marks the Sprite / Dobule, Double, Darryl & Trouble” (4/2/23 D+, 4/8/23 DC) – Molly keeps Ollie busy while Libby and Scratch deal with a story sprite that’s consuming all the stories in the book store. / Darryl becomes a wraith to have fun while his body does all the work, and comes to think everyone prefers his well-behaving body to his true self.

 

“Faint of Art / A Soda to Remember” (4/2/23 D+, 4/15/23 DC) – Sharon becomes intended by the blank canvas when she sets out to do some painting in the basement. / Molly and Libby attempt to obtain a discontinued brand of strawberry soda to help Scratch retrieve memories of his past life.

 

“A Period Piece / It’s Always Sunny in Sunnyland” (4/2/23 D+, 4/22/23 DC) – Molly becomes jealous of the new bond Andrea and Libby form after Libby gets her first period. / Molly creates a theme park experience in their home when their vacation plans get cancelled, but quickly grows tired of planning things out as the week goes on.

 

“I Wanna Dance with Some-Ollie / Davenport’s on Demand” (4/2/23 D+, 4/29/23 DC) – When Molly confesses that she has a crush on Ollie, an upset Scratch ends up finding himself in one of the Chens’ traps. / Andrea’s new app for her store is such a hit that it ends up threatening all the small businesses in the town.

 

“A Doll to Die For / The (After)life of the Party” (5/6/23) – Scratch traps a troublemaker named Lord Doom in a baby doll and Molly attempts to teach him how to be nice. / Scratch plans to ditch Geoff’s party to go to the one being held by the much cooler Jeff.

 

“Frightmares on Main Street” (5/13/23) – When Scratch enlists the aid of other ghosts to turn Molly’s charity haunted house into a success, it attracts the attention of the Ghost Chaser Chens.

 

“The Unhaunting of Brighton Video / 100% Molly McGee” (5/20/23) – Molly, Libby, Scratch and Ollie attempt to get a ghost out of the old video store so that it can become a new community center. / A visit from relatives leaves Molly feeling inadequately connected to her culture and hunkers down to make herself more Thai.

 

“All Shark No Bite / Nin-dependence” (6/28/23 D+, 7/8/23 DC) – Attempting to prove ghost sharks aren’t real, Scratch ends up summoning one that prowls the McGee household. / The McGees become overprotective and smothering of Nin after she hurts herself.

 

“Like Father Like Libby / Dance Dad Revolution” (6/28/23 D+, 7/15/23 DC) – Libby gets a chance to see her dad and is excited about all the things they could do together only to learn he’ll be extending his book-writing tour. / Molly helps Pete get his messages across with viral dance videos, but internet fame goes to his head and he begins to forget his original intent.

 

“Jinx! / Let’s Play Turnipball!” (7/22/23) – Jinx curses Scratch with bad luck until he gets her to say his name three times. / Ollie becomes the star player of the Turnipball team by pure luck, however his misinterpretation of the rules benches him and allows Perfektborg to pull ahead.

 

“The Ghost IS Molly McGee / All in the Mind” (7/29/23) – Molly and Scratch decide to switch bodies to fix Molly’s problem with the school play and Scratch’s problem with the Ghost Council. / Molly and Scratch head into Scratch’s mind to find out the cause of the bubbles developing on his body.

 

“Carbon Zero Heroes / Davenport’s in Demise” (8/5/23) – Molly and Ollie dedicate themselves to a carbon-neutral lifestyle while Libby drags Scratch into her bunker to prepare for the climate apocalypse. / When a new mega-store outside of town drives Davenport’s out of business, Molly must help Andrea rebrand herself online and stop losing followers.

 

“Web of Lies / Kenny’s Falling Star” (8/12/23) – Molly and Scratch believe they accidentally killed Darryl’s spider and are wracked with guilt when they hide the evidence. / Kenny Star is hiding out in Brighton after being branded a sell-out, and Molly tries to help him rediscover his country roots.

 

“Welcome to NecroComic-Con / Fit to Print” (10/28/23) – Molly, Ollie and Scratch must attempt to get the ghost canister back from the Chens before they inadvertently open it and release the Failed Phantoms inside. / Molly becomes editor of the broke school paper and secures major sponsorship from Flavor Burger, only to uncover the scandal that their Turnip Burgers are actually made of Perfektborg parsnips.

 

“Smile Valley Farm / The Grand Gesture” (11/4/23) – The McGees become addicted to a new farming simulation game. / Molly’s attempts to ask Ollie to be her boyfriend are repeatedly interrupted—especially by a piece of Scratch’s ectoplasm that Darryl and June accidentally brought to life.

 

“The Many Lives of Scratch / Alaka-Sham!” (11/11/23) – Scratch’s friends throw him a “death day party” and share far-fetched stories about his death, since he can’t remember it. / Irving challenges Darryl to a magic competition when Darryl and Scratch start performing to sucker money from people.

 

“F.O.N.A.A.! / Game On” (11/15/23 D+, 11/18/23 DC) – Scratch curses Molly to be fear-free for 24 hours so she can go to the dentist, but she spends the day doing reckless things. / Principal O’Connor wants Darryl to join a team sport, but Darryl talks him into forming an e-sports team and bets him he can win on the first try.

 

“White Christmases / Perfect Day” (12/1/23) – As Molly prepares the perfect Christmas for the town seniors, Scratch stresses about finding her the perfect gift. / Molly asks Scratch to create a time loop so she can fix every mistake she makes on New Year’s Day.

 

“Jinx vs. the Human World” (1/13/24) – Jinx steals the Chairman’s cloak and uses it to conquer the Ghost World and restore misery to the Human World.

 

“The End” (1/13/24) – Molly, Geoff, Libby and Ollie discover that Scratch is actually the wraith of a very-much alive man, and Molly convinces him to take his old life back.

 

Special:

“Spring Shorts-Tacular”(5/21/22) – Molly drags Scratch into helping her show off a series of Disney shorts to mark the start of the Spring season.

 

Shorts:

Chibi Tiny-Tales:

“Scratch Haunts the Chibiverse” (10/3/21) – Scratch haunts other Disney Channel characters to raise his scare chart.

 

“Mansion Madness” (10/8/21) – Molly and Scratch make themselves unwelcome at the Haunted Mansion.

 

“Scratch’s Sugar Rush” (10/17/21) – Scratch goes candy-crazy on Halloween.

 

“The War of Décor” (4/3/22) – Molly and Scratch have a disagreement over how their room should look.

 

“Springtime for Mama Scratch” (5/1/22) – Baby animals mistake Scratch for their mothers.

 

“Scratch, Molly’s Third Wheel” (4/15/23) – Scratch looks for someplace else to sit at a concert when Molly sits next to Ollie.

 

Broken Karaoke:

“Broken Scary-oke” (12/5/21) – Scratch sings about haunting people during the holidays.

 

“I Just Wanna Eat Bread” (8/13/22) – Scratch and Molly sing an ode to bread and salad.

 

“Ways We Feel Anxious” (10/10/22) – Libby forms The Stress Girlz with Candace Flynn (Phineas and Ferb), Marcy Wu (Amphibia) and Gloria (Big City Greens) to sing about what makes them anxious.

 

Theme Song Takeover:

“Andrea Theme Song Takeover” (6/12/22) – Molly and Scratch must deal with Andrea’s theme for The Most Fab Andrea Show.

 

“Libby Theme Song Takeover” (5/3/23) – Libby belts out how she’s unable to do a much-requested theme song takeover.

 

“Darryl Theme Song Takeover” (6/24/23) – Darryl’s theme song takeover highlights his many business schemes.

 

Disney Random Rings:

“Scratch Calls the Haunted Mansion” (9/25/03) – Scratch tries to wrangle a referral from one of the other residents so he can move into the Haunted Mansion.

 

How NOT to Draw:

“Scratch Comes to Life” (2/24/24) – Scratch tries several different schemes to get his hands on the animator’s lunch.

MIRA, ROYAL DETECTIVE

 

MIRA, ROYAL DETECTIVE
(Disney Junior, Disney Channel, DisneyNOW, March 20, 2020-June 20, 2022)
 
Wild Canary Animation, Technicolor Animation Productions

 

 

MAIN CAST:
Leela Ladnier – Mira
Kal Penn- Mikku
Utkarsh Ambudkar - Chikku
 

 

            Developed by Elena of Avalor story editor Becca Topol, Mira, Royal Detective was a CGI-animated mystery series that took place in the fictional kingdom of Jalpur; which resembled 19^th century India. Mira (Leela Ladnier) was appointed the royal detective by Queen Shanti (Freida Pinto) after solving a mystery involving Prince Neel (Kamran Lucas). Mira traveled around the kingdom helping out royals and commoners with the aid of her two mongoose sidekicks, Mikku (Kal Penn) and Chikku (Utkarsh Ambudkar). Sometimes aiding her was Neel, a talented inventor in his own right, and her cousin, Priya (Roshni Edwards), who was clever and creative. The series was designed to highlight critical thinking and encourage deductive reasoning.

Mira with Mikku and Chikku.

            Mira, Royal Detective debuted on Disney Junior on March 20, 2020; the first to feature a South Asian protagonist. The series was highly influenced by South Asian design and culture, with IW Group’s Shagorika Ghosh Perkins serving as a cultural consultant. Producer Sascha Paladino had stated that they watched a lot of Bollywood films to prepare for the show, and decided to emulate the musical numbers often featured in them. Bollywood choreographer Nakul Dev Mahajan coordinated and recorded the dances for those musical numbers with assistants, and the animators would then work off of these to render the routine on screen. Deepak Ramapriyan and Amritha Vaz composed the music for the show. Art director Dorothea Gerassimova took great inspiration from Indian art and architecture in designing the look of the series. Further adding authenticity to the series was that the cast was of South Asian descent. The characters were designed by Michelle Lin and David A. Cardenas B. Animation was handled by Wild Canary Animation and Technicolor Studios.

Everybody dance now!

            The series ran for two seasons, with the majority of episodes containing two segments each. For the final four episodes, the series switched over to full single-story episodes that were even more influenced by Bollywood films. In press-releases, these were touted as being the show’s third season, but ended up being just included as part of the second’s count. The series was nominated for a National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications Vision Award, two Annie Awards, an ASCAP Film and Television Music Award, and a Television Critics Association Award. The series was made available to stream on Disney+.

THE OWL HOUSE

 NOTE: THIS IS A RECENTLY-CONCLUDED SHOW. SOME SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW.

THE OWL HOUSE
(Disney Channel, Disney XD January 10, 2020-April 8, 2023)
 
Disney Television Animation

 

 

MAIN CAST:
Sarah-Nicole Robles – Luz Noceda
Wendie Malick & Natalie Palamides (young) – Edalyn “Eda” Clawthrone/The Owl Lady
Alex Hirsch – King Clawthorne, Hooty, Steve (season 1), various
Zeno Robinson (season 2-3) – Golden Guard/Hunter
Tati Gabrielle (season 3, recurring previously) – Willow Park
Isaac Ryan Brown (season 3, recurring previously) – Augustus “Gus” Porter
Mae Whitman (season 3, recurring previously) – Amity Blight
Elizabeth Grullon (season 3, recurring previously) – Camila Noceda
Matthew Rhys (season 3, recurring previously) – Emperor Belos/Philip Whittebane

 

 

14-year-old Luz Noceda (Sarah-Nicole Robles) just could not fit in. Teachers found her troublesome and disruptive, classmates found her weird and gross, and Luz herself had little interest in what the “real world” had to offer. Instead, she was enthralled with the fantastical elements found in The Good Witch Azura book series—something her father got her into around the time of his passing. After one too many incidents of Luz enhancing her reports with animals, insects and explosives, her mother, Camila (Elizabeth Grullon), was encouraged to send her to a special summer camp that would help “normalize” her. Instead, Luz found her way through a portal to the Demon Realm, populated by magical beings, supernatural creatures, and other oddities. A place where Luz could finally find her place and become a witch.

Season 1 poster featuring Luz, Eda and King riding Owlbert.

            The Owl House was created by Dana Terrace--the 4^th series for Disney Television Animation to be created by a woman--while she was working on the reboot of DuckTales. Feeling unfulfilled artistically and emotionally, the works of painters Hiëronymus Bosch and Remedios Varo inspired her to pitch a show to with strong surreal visual elements. She shopped it to places like Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon before Disney ultimately picked it up. The show would deal with the themes of uniqueness and conformity, inspired by Terrace’s own childhood of being bullied for her habit of drawing roadkill and people constantly trying to dash her dreams of becoming a cartoonist, as well as mature topics like grief and depression. Additionally, the show was an attempt to prove a colleague who thought “it was a dumb idea” wrong. Disney had concerns about the horror elements she wanted to include, but Terrace argued that Disney often ran the full spectrum of emotions in their works already and she liked being a little scared when she was younger. Ultimately, they allowed her to do a great deal of what she envisioned—with some compromises.

The Boiling Isles (top) and Bonesborough.

            The series was primarily set on a place called the Boiling Isles, which was comprised of various towns and districts built on the decaying corpse of a giant being known as a Titan; in particular, the town of Bonesborough around which most of the show was set. Initially, Terrace considered setting it in the afterlife after Luz had died. Witches and demons were the main population; most of them resembling humans beyond their pointed ears and unique skin tones, while others had very non-human extra appendages or proportions. Magic was granted to them by sacks attached to their hearts, and the majority of their spells were cast by first drawing an energy circle in the air (the bigger the circle, the more powerful the spell). The Isles was meant to represent the cycle of death and rebirth found in nature. Along with the influence from surreal artwork, the designers took inspiration from medieval architecture for various locations and made real-life elements different to further distinguish the Demon Realm from the Human Realm; such as water being purple as well as boiling, vegetation being red instead of green (changed from black due to Luz’s hair constantly being lost in it), a beverage of choice being apple blood instead of apple juice, etc. And while there was a medieval influence to the world, modern elements were also incorporated, such as tiny magic scrolls acting as mobile devices that browsed the web, took photos and video, allowed texting and accessed to their social media of choice, Penstagram; crystal balls that could be used as televisions, video phones and computers; and crows used as phones.

Painting of Belos eliminating wild witches.

        50 years prior to the start of the series, a powerful witch known as Belos (Matthew Rhys) rose to power and became Emperor of the Isles, building his castle around the still-beating heart of the Titan (Arin Hanson) with whom he claimed he could communicate with. As part of the “Titan’s will”, he banned the practice of “dangerous” wild magic and created the Coven System. At a certain point, witches were required to join a coven where they would be branded with a sigil on their wrist that would restrict their magical abilities to those specific to that coven.

The Coven colors and their symbols: Potions, Abomination, Plant, Healing, Construction, Beast Keeping, Illusion, Bard and Oracle.

The nine main covens were the Abomination Coven, which utilized a purple ooze to create golems or constructs; the Bard Coven, whose magic was cast via soundwaves, particularly those generated by instruments; the Beast Keeping Coven, focusing on the taming and control of various beasts and the assuming of bestial traits when needed; the Construction Coven, which built and created things from the earth; the Healing Coven, which dealt with various forms of medicinal treatments; the Illusion Coven, able to create various kinds of illusions and often derided for their spells’ lack of physicality; the Oracle Coven, which dealt in fortune-telling, spirits and mind-based spells; the Plant Coven, specializing in the manipulation and rapid growth of flora; and the Potions Coven, which concocted potions of different varieties and effects. Additionally, there was the Emperor’s Coven, often considered the most elite, where witches worked directly for the Emperor and were able to keep access to all of their magic. Other smaller covens also existed as extensions of the main ones geared towards particular interests (Tiny Cat Coven, Carnivorous Plant Coven, Fashion Coven, Prose Coven, Wood Coven, etc.).

The Bat Queen and her orphaned Palisman charges.

            Witches customarily also had a Palisman. Palismen were sentient magical totems carved into a creature form (generally resembling a normal animal, like a bird or sloth) from a special kind of wood called Palistrom. Palismen acted as loyal friends and familiars to witches they bonded with, but could also be a powerful magic-enhancer. When not in autonomous form, the Palisman could be found atop of a witch’s staff through which magic could be channeled or used as flying transportation. Upon joining a Coven, however, witches were required to surrender their Palismen.

Eda with one of her many wanted posters.

            Luz’s chosen mentor was Eda Clawthorne (Wendie Malik), also known as “The Owl Lady” due to her living in the titular Owl House, having an owl Palisman named Owlbert, and being inflicted by a curse that caused her to turn into an Owl Beast unless kept in check with a special potion. Eda was a rebellious witch, refusing to join a coven and continued practicing wild magic, which often put her at odds with the Emperor’s Coven and their police force, the Coven Scouts. She was in possession of the portal that brought Luz to the realm, which was a doorway that collapsed into a carrying case and led to an abandoned house behind the Nocedas’. She used it to visit the Human Realm and acquire human items—read: junk—to bring back and sell at her stall in the market as collectibles. Because of the curse, Eda had to monitor her magic use as running out would cause her to change permanently, and it also allowed her to remove body parts at will. Eventually, Eda and the Owl Beast would come to an understanding and she would gain the combined form of Harpy Eda, which allowed Eda to remain in control while giving her enhanced strength and wings with which to fly. Eda was the first character created for the series, inspired by the women in Terrace’s life that raised her.

King addressing his toy "army".

            Eda’s roommate/pet/son was King (Alex Hirsch), the second character created.  He was a dog-like creature with a horned skull for a head. King believed he was the one-time King of Demons, cursed into a tiny form and cast out from his kingdom. In actuality, it turned out that Eda had found him alone in a large ruin shortly after he hatched and had encouraged his fantasies of grandeur. In the ruin, he had built little “subjects” out of rock, and at the Owl House he amassed an “army” of stuffed animals. King was eventually revealed to be the last remaining Titan, and the son of the Boiling Isles itself. As King matured, he would gain access to a sonic “Weh!”, projecting out a rainbow wave of energy from his mouth. Until Luz came along, King’s best friend was a stuffed rabbit with a button eye he named Francois. Terrance described him as “a little guy that wants to be big” and related to his desire to be taken seriously despite his small stature.

Hooty.

            Protecting the Owl House was a house demon named Hooty (also Hirsch, doing the “world’s worst Mickey Mouse impression” he had used to help lay down temporary tracks which Terrace ended up liking enough to use). Hooty had an owl’s face and primarily resided in the house’s front door; however he could stretch his tube-like body to great lengths, allowing him to travel well into the woods around the house or anywhere within the house itself (Terrace once responded to the question of Hooty’s length during a Reddit Ask Me Anything session: “There is no beginning. There is no end. There is only…Hooty.”). In fact, he was the house, and proved capable of modifying its floorplan on a whim if so desired. Hooty could dispatch a legion of Emperor’s Coven Scouts as easily as he could annoy with occupants of the house with his incessant and cheerful prattling in his attempts to be included. At times, Hooty could (disgustingly) remove himself from his door to go into a wearable birdhouse backpack to join the others on adventures as Port-A-Hooty.

Luz figuring out the invisibility glyph combination.

            Luz was harder for Terrace to nail down. It was only through conversations with her best friend, roommate, story artist and creative consultant Luz Batista, that the character began to take shape. Terrace asked if she could name Luz after her, which Batista allowed so long as Luz was made Dominican. A lot of her personality came from the conversations the pair had about being “wayward” and “awkward” teams that dreamt of escaping to a magical place. Being human, Luz had no inherent magical ability. Instead, she was able to cast spells using a kind of magic few had ever encountered: glyph magic. At various intervals, the Titan would reveal one of four glyphs to Luz: light, ice, fire and plant. Once revealed, Luz could draw the glyphs on any surface and then touch them to activate them; the effects of the spell determined by her own mind. Eventually, Luz learned the glyphs could be combined in various configurations to create new spells, such as invisibility and hovering. As these glyphs were powered by the Titan, they didn’t work in the Human Realm despite witches maintaining their own magical abilities. Terrace infused much of herself in Luz to the point it was almost semi-autobiographical. Many have come to regard Luz as having ADHD, and while Terrace did consider her neurodivergent when creating her, she didn’t specifically envision ADHD.

Luz with her besties Gus and Willow at school.

            When Luz realized Eda wasn’t going to be the most dedicated of teachers, she decided to enroll in the nearby school of magic: Hexside School of Magic and Demonics (the school being one of the compromises Terrace had to make). At Hexside, each student was assigned a track of study that aligned with one of the main covens (including an additional “detention track” for troublesome students). After Luz’s admission, however, the concept of multi-tracks was allowed and students began to learn different disciplines at the same time (with Luz, of course, studying all of them). It was there that Luz met her new friends: Willow Park (Tati Gabrielle), an adept plant magic user whose years struggling being misassigned to the Abomination Track led to a long period of self-doubt and believing taunts that she was just “half a witch”, and Augustus “Gus” porter (Issac Ryan Brown), a younger prodigy that was adept at illusion magic and was the enthusiastic and excitable president of the Human Appreciation Society where he shared his (inaccurate) knowledge about human culture and artifacts. Collectively, they and later friends would be known by fans as The Hexsquad. Willow’s Palismen was a bee named Clover and Gus’ a chameleon named Emmiline Bailey Marcostimo (named after a combination of writers Emmy Cicierega, Madeleine Hernandez, John Bailey Owen, Zach Marcus and Mikki Crisostomo). Many inspirations from Harry Potter were taken for the school, including secret doors and pathways, a Choosy Hat (a parody of the Sorting Hat) that picked student’s tracks for them (before trying to eat their heads), and the school’s chief sport Grudgby, which was like rugby with magical perils galore and featured a bug called the rusty smidge (a parody of the Golden Snitch from Quidditch) that resulted in instant victory. A Flyer Derby team, a sport that was like capture the flag with extreme flying, would eventually be established by Willow.

The Grudgby team: Skara, Amelia, Boscha and Cat.

            What school would be complete without its clique of mean girls? Boscha (voice director Eden Riegel) was a three-eyed potions student that was captain of the Grudgby team, which allowed her to lord over the other students unchecked and make sure they all knew they were beneath her. Skara (Kimberly Brooks) was a bard student who was excitable and sociable, often followed Boscha’s lead in belittling others, and engaged in practical jokes when not playing on the Grudgby team. Cat (based on storyboard artist Catherine Harman-Mitchell, voiced by Grey DeLisle) was a healing student and a member of Boscha’s Grudgby team. Amelia (Riegel, using different voices each time) was a plant student and the fourth member of the Grudgby team.

Amity enjoying her job at the library.

        Amity Blight (Mae Whitman) was an abomination student who was bright and competitive, driven to succeed with the goal of ending up in the Emperor’s Coven and earning the top student spot because of it. She was once Willow’s best friend until forced to abandon her for Boscha and Skara by her parents, Odalia (Rachael MacFarlane), an oracle who ran their company, Blight Industries, and Alador (Jim Pirri), an absent-minded inventor who merged abomination magic with technology to create the weaponry the company sold. Originally, she detested Luz and treated her as shabbily as she did her fellow classmates, but after coming to know her Amity reevaluated her life choices and began making decisions outside of her parents’ whims. That included reigniting her friendship with Willow, and giving in to her growing attraction towards Luz to become her awesome girlfriend (the pairing dubbed by fans as “Lumity”). Amity worked at the town library reading to little witchlings, had her own secret space behind the “Romance” section, and was also a fan of The Good Witch Azura series. Her Palisman was a white cat named Ghost (based on Terrace’s own cat).

Principal Bump with Edric, Emira, Jerbo, Hunter, Viney, Skara, Willow, Amity, Barcus and Matt Tholomuel.

            Other students included Amity’s antagonistic (yet supportive when it counted) twin siblings, Emira (Erica Lindbeck) and Edric (Ryan O’Flanagan), who were both studying illusions but expanded to healing and potions and beast keeping, respectively; Matt Tholomule (initially said as one complete name, voiced by Jorge Diaz), an overconfident construction student who had power-hungry plans of supplanting Gus in the Human Appreciation Society, but instead became Gus’ friend and was inspired to join the illusion track as well; Viney (Ally Maki), a healing and beast keeping student with a casual and laid-back demeanor and a penchant for leadership, who had a pet griffin named Puddles; Jerbo (Noah Galvin), a plant and abomination student who was best friends with Viney and had ambitions of evolving the Coven System to involve more mixed-magic covens; Barcus (named after writer Zach Marcus), a dog-like student of oracle and potions who only spoke by barking (though others understood him), had a deep loyalty to his friends, and stood up against injustice; Eileen (Brooks), a potions student whose entire head was a giant eye and always had a slouched, emotionless posture (she was never named within the show, but character designer Matthieu Cousin revealed her name in a tweet); Bo (inspired by storyboard artist and director Bosook “Bo” Coburn, voiced by Riegel), a healing student who was friends with Skara apart from Amity and Boscha; Celine (aka Moon Girl), an oracle student with one eye and a head shaped like a crescent moon (again not named on the show, but in a tweet by Cousin and during a stream by Terrace); and Mary (Riegel), an abomination student with large horns on her head. Overseeing the school was Principal Hieronymus Bump (Bumper Robinson), who, while strict, genuinely cared for his students’ welfare and success. Bump was a wielder of abomination magic, and his Palisman rested on top of his head; helping him to see due to a missing eye, and concealing his long, raven locks.

Never meet your heroes--Luz encounters Philip through time travel shenanigans.

            Emperor Belos was the primary antagonist of the show, although he was only a background presence for the beginning of it. It would be discovered that Belos was actually a human named Philip Whittebane (voiced by Alex Lawther when not Belos) who had found his way to the Isles with his older brother, Caleb, back during the height of anti-witch hysteria in America. As such, both he and his brother had aspirations of becoming witch-hunters. That is until Caleb met and fell for a witch named Evelyn. Philip murdered Caleb and dedicated the next few centuries to finding the glyphs (actively hidden from him by the Titan) and learning their secrets, and then establishing himself as a savior and ruler as part of a plan to destroy the Demon Realm as he found his way back to the Human Realm. As part of his attempt to harness magic himself, Belos had carved glyphs into his body which backfired and cause his body to destabilize and turn into a black goo. The only way to revert back was for him to regularly consume the essence of Palismen, which he collected by from those surrendered by new Coven members.

Lilith accepting a Grudgby challenge for Eda's surrender.

            Serving directly under Belos was Lilith Clawthorne (Cissy Jones as an adult, Abigail Zoe Lewis & Lily Sanfelippo in her younger years), Eda’s estranged sister who had actually put the curse on her believing it would only remove her magic for a day, allowing her to win her position in the Emperor’s Coven. She worked her way up to the head of the Coven and led the attempts to capture Eda, believing that Belos would help cure Eda. Upon learning Belos had no intentions of doing so, Lilith left the Coven and took on half of Eda’s curse; losing her magic and gaining a Raven Beast form, before eventually getting her own Harpy form.

Kikimora antagonizes Lilith over her failure to capture her sister.

        Kikimora (Mela Lee) was Belos’ assistant; a diminutive demonic-looking witch with two hands joined at the wrist for hair. She was fiercely loyal to Belos and did whatever she could to maintain his favor, including subtly eliminating or sabotaging any competition within the Coven. However, after a string of failures thanks to Luz and Eda, Kikimora’s position gradually diminished along with her mental state, turning her into an unhinged paranoid with fits of aggression. She absolutely hated the Golden Guard and viewed him as the ultimate threat to her status, doing whatever she could to undermine and outright destroy him.

The Golden Guard and Coven Scouts.

The Golden Guard was a title bestowed upon Belos’ right hand. The latest in the line was a boy named Hunter (Zeno Robinson), who had ascended to the head of the Coven after Lilith’s defection. Secretly, Hunter possessed no magic of his own and could only cast “spells” via the technological staff Belos made for him. Hunter was not above doing whatever it took to achieve Belos’ goals--including blackmail or extortion—as he was always told by Belos that the Titan had great plans for him. However, Hunter ended up defecting as well when he learned that he was a grimwalker (a magically-created clone), the latest in a very long line made to resemble Belos’ brother and, in fact, be a better version of him that wouldn’t “betray” him (read: continue to help destroy wtichkind and not befriend them). Hunter would find a new place as a member of the Hexsquad, using his Golden Guard training and extensive personal studies on magic to help aid in the battle against Belos. Part of this shift came about through his acquiring his own Palisman, a one-eyed cardinal named Flapjack, which was strongly hinted at having a connection to Caleb.

The Coven heads: Raine, Hettie, Eberwolf, Adrian, Vitimir, Darius, Orsan, Terra and Mason.

        The Coven Heads serving Belos were Raine Whispers (Avi Roque, whom they were modeled after, and Blu del Barrio as a youth), the head of the Bard Coven with tremendous stage fright, Eda’s former romantic partner, and secret leader of groups against Belos (first Bards Against the Throne, or the BATs, then Covens Against the Throne, or the CATs); Darius Deamonne (Keston John), the posh and meticulous head of the Abomination Coven who was also secretly working against Belos and joined up with Raine; Eberwolf the Huntsman (Kari Wahlgren), the animalistic leader of the Beast Keeping Coven who often drove Darius nuts, but was working with him against Belos until joining up with Raine as well; Terra Snapdragon (Debra Wilson), the merciless head of the Plant Coven that was fanatically loyal to Belos for the rewards he promised and enjoyed sadistically toying with her prey; and Adrian Graye Vernworth (named after the character Dorian Gray and whose surname was only seen in the credits, voiced by Noshir Dalal), head of the Illusion Coven with an overdramatic and theatrical diva demeanor who approached things as if they were scripted productions of which he was the director. The other Coven heads—Mason for Construction, Hettie Cutburn for Healing, Osran for Oracle, Vitimir for Potions—were seen, but their screen time was limited due to circumstances explained shortly, and their names only ever revealed in a Tweet.

Celebrating Lilith's new job with Flora D'Splora, mother Gwendolyn, Morton and Steve.

        Other characters included Steve (Hirsch at first, then Matt Chapman), a Coven Scout who slowly became disillusioned with the Emperor’s Coven and eventually quit, and was Matt Tholomule’s older half-brother (confirmed by Terrace on Twitter, as it didn’t make it into the show itself); the Bat Queen (Isabella Rossellini), a giant Palisman who had long forgotten her original owner and now took care of other lost and abandoned Palismen; Morton (Shannon McKain), who worked at an elixir shop and sold Eda the one that helped keep her curse in check; Warden Wrath (Roger Craig Smith), one-time warden of the Conformatorium (Belos’ prison for witches that refuse to conform to his established standards for society) and father of the deep-voiced Braxas (Kevin Locarro); Tinella Nosa, also called Tiny Nose (a self-caricature voiced by Terrace), a tiny round demon with a large nose who often popped up in the main characters’ lives; Tibbles (Parvesh Cheena), an opportunistic con artist that resembled a demonic pig and whose schemes often included getting the better of Eda, King and Luz; Number 5, aka Vee (Michaela Dietz), a shape-shifting basilisk brought back from extinction by Belos for their magic-eating abilities, who escaped from him and took Luz’s place in the Human Realm before adopting her own human identity; Eda’s parents Gwendolyn (Deb Doetzer), who became obsessed with curing Eda’s curse much to Eda’s chagrin and to the neglect of Lilith, and Dell (Peter Gallagher), who lost an eye and the ability to carve Palismen when he accidentally triggered the Owl Beast to attack him; Perry Porter (Gary Anthony Williams), Gus’ reporter father; Gilbert (Eric Bauza) and Harvey (Chapman) Park, Willow’s dads; Flora D’splora (a parody of Dora the Explorer, voiced by Eileen Galindo), Lilith’s old mentor and an adventurous historian; and Masha (DeLisle), an attendee at the summer camp with Vee (as Luz) that took over the Gravesfield Historical Society after its former manager, Jacob Hopkins (Smith), a wannabe witch hunter, was fired for altering the exhibits to include himself as a hero.

A pilot comprised entirely of storyboards—mandated by Disney—was developed between April and September of 2017. It was similar to the first episode, except for Amity defending Luz against bullies and Luz drawing a picture of her in gratitude (a resulting papercut’s blood was used to add blush to it); Lilith was the principal of Hexside and could transform into a bat-creature; and Luz ended up trapped in the Demon Realm needing to find a way home. This pilot often ended up confused with the animation test used to demonstrate the show’s tone and art style. While similar to the final product, there were some notable differences: Luz (dubbed “Beta Luz” by fans) wore a striped shirt and leggings without the shorts (which would reappear in her closet in “Yesterday’s Lie”); King had amber fur and red and blue eyes; Willow was named “Paulina” and she used a broken wand to cast spells (wands existed in the final show, but were known as “training wands” for novice students); Eda’s shop was at the Owl House itself; necromancer magic was present; and a character named “Sir William” never appeared in the series, but Luz’s slapping him awake was recycled for her encounter with Hunter in “Hunting Palismen”. Two versions of the test reel exist and are virtually identical, but one featured slightly different animation and no dialogue. Both were eventually leaked online.

        The Owl House debuted on January 10, 2020 on Disney Channel. It initially aired on Friday nights, repeating the next morning, for its first batch of episodes. New episodes moved to Saturday mornings in July. It was originally intended to air in 2019 alongside sister series Amphibia—also about a human girl being stranded in a strange alternate dimension in production around the same time—but was held over until January. A trailer for the series was shown at Annecy Festival 2019, the main title sequence at San Diego Comic-Con, and a sneak peek and the end credit sequence at a panel at New York Comic Con. It received early pick-ups for both a second and third season. While the first season primarily set up the characters and the world, it steadily introduced elements of the world’s lore that would ramp up in the second. This was supplemented by two shorts series on Disney Channel’s YouTube channel: Look Hooo’s Talking, which had two live-action owls providing recaps and commentary on the first ten episodes, and Owl Pellets, featuring the characters in small slice of life misadventures (a 6^th short centered on Tinella Nosa was never released due to being deemed too scary to air).  

Official season 2 poster.

        The second season would also skew into a darker tone, closer to what Terrace always envisioned. Gradually, Luz would become more proficient in magic while steadily descending into the depths of depression due to blaming herself for Belos almost succeeding in his plans; an extension of her already feeling like a burden to others due to her treatment by others back in the Human Realm. It would also showcase the growth of Lumity’s relationship, Eda’s sense of responsibility and maternal nature, Willow’s confidence and the restoration of her friendship with Amity, and Hunter finding the support he never had before. Luz would also spend most of it trying to find a way back home with the help of Philip’s journal after having to destroy the portal door to keep it out of Belos’ hands.

Luz and Hunter trapped in Belos' mind.

        Unfortunately, for its third season, the show became a victim of circumstance. March 2020 marked the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the cast and crew to work on the second season from their homes. It also meant that Disney’s parks, which generate the revenue needed for their productions, were shut down and not making any money. As a result, budgets were slashed for their programs moving forward. Amphibia was farther along, losing only a single episode in its third season. The Owl House, however, had received a third season renewal of only three 44-minute specials and would be the show’s final season with no possibility to discuss a fourth. During another Reddit AMA session, Terrace explained that the decision came down to a single executive who felt the show didn’t fit “into the Disney brand” being that it was serialized—something Disney had decided to move away from with their newer shows—and its audience skewed older than their desired demographic. Terrace and the crew had ample notice of their show’s abrupt ending, allowing them to retool the second half of the second season to focus more on what they needed to wrap up by series’ end as well as slip in a few personal jabs at the decision. The tonal shift was not only a creative decision, but also an outlet for their collective frustration of dealing with quarantine.

The Collector: phenomenal cosmic power! Itty bitty body.

        To help facilitate things, Terrace and Owen introduced a character they had developed from a folder of collected reference images to potentially appear later on the show. That character was The Collector (Fryda Wolff), inspired by the works of Varo, puppets and clown dolls. The Collector was a humanoid childlike being with two-toned cosmic-themed clothing and a large blue blotch on his face that created a crescent moon shape on his face. He had god-like powers, but the mentality and temperament of a child which meant he only wanted to have fun and had little understanding of what that fun could do to other beings. He was part of a group of Collectors known as The Archivists who were dedicated to observing the passage of time and life, and took members of various species to preserve for all time. Any time they were met with resistance, they would destroy the offending planet. They were also the ones who bound the Owl Beast to Eda’s curse. The Collectors had come to fear the Titans that once populated the Demon Realm as their magic was the only thing that hurt them, and facilitated their extinction. The Collector, however, had no interest in that and simply wanted to play with the younger Titans. Believing them the perpetrator of his race’s annihilation, King’s father imprisoned the Collector in the In Between Realm, a strange place that connected all realms. A group of ancient witches calling themselves Titan Trappers would come to worship the Collector as the “Grand Huntsman” and were dedicated to finding the last Titan—aka King—as his blood could free them. Belos, however, found one of the crescent moon tablets that allowed direct communication with the Collector and manipulated him into helping fulfill his plans.

The Hexsquad in the Noceda household.

Further parallels between Amphibia and The Owl House arose during their respective third seasons, as the action was transferred briefly to the Human world at the beginning and ended with a time jump once the stories concluded. However, without a full season of episodes, The Owl House had to condense any non-story-focused adventures into the opening sequence montage for the first special. This montage was previewed as part of the episode’s first 6 minutes to attendees of the show’s panel at New York Comic Con in 2022, which featured Terrace, Robles, Whitman, Hirsch (complete with Hooty hand puppet), Robinson (complete with Golden Guard mask) and Jones, who also moderated.

A pair of awesome girlfriends share an on-screen kiss.

        The series was written by Terrace, Marcus, Owen, Crisostomo, Cicierega, Batista, Hernandez, Rachel Vine, Charley Feldman, Manuel Jesse Nieto Jr., Jeff Trammell, Molly Ostertag and Janae Hall, with Vine serving as story editor. Each episode contained two types of hidden messages. The first were comprised of runes—phonetic symbols used as a complementary language in the Boiling Isles alongside the spoken language—with one word hidden somewhere in every episode as indicated by an eye symbol and decoded with a provided cipher. These rune messages when completed alluded to the overall plot of the season in the format of poems. The second kind of message came by using the first letter of every episode title to spell out a phrase that also alluded to a plot element for the season (excluding the third season, where the entire first word of each title was used to give fans the parting message: “Thanks For Watching”).

The Titan Trappers seek to make a sacrifice out of King.

        Character designs were done by Cousin, Andy Garner-Flexner, Asia Ellington, Becky Dreistadt, Erik Elizarrez, Fabien Mense, Jess Marfisi, Joe Sparrow, Justin K. Noel, Lina Schlotter, Marina Gardner, Sarah Craig, Tristan Yuvienco, Zharia Rahn and Lío Guevara, with backgrounds designed by Alexandre Diboine, Jane Bak, Killian Ng, Kyle Fewell, Leland Goodman and Sam Bosma. Animation duties were handled by Sugarcube, Rough Draft Korea and Sunmin Image Pictures. Spencer Wan was hired as an in-house animator for season 1 with the title “animation supervisor” on Terrace’s insistence. Disney was hesitant at first because they felt he wouldn’t fit their “overseas pipeline”. Kofi Fiagome took over the position in season 2, with Terrace herself also doing rough animation for three episodes. Ricky Cometa served as the art director, picked by Terrace because she knew he could “execute the kind of weird junk I wanted to do.” He was succeeded by Garner-Flexner for the second half of the series’ run. TJ Hill composed the music for the first season including the intro and outro themes, with Brad Breeck taking over from the second season onward and Andrew Morgan Smith providing additional music.

        The series’ opening served as an introduction to the world and characters utilizing completely original animation by Sugarcube, ending with the title enhanced by a quick burst of glyph magic. In season two, the intro received continued alterations to reflect the changes to the characters’ designs (based on a storyboard Wan drew as an alternative to the flying sequence from the original, done by Fiagome); Luz’s proficiency with glyph magic; the state of the show’s secondary villains and prominence of Belos; and all the learned glyph spells projecting from the title. The intro would often end up shortened or eliminated entirely in favor of a quick musical cue and the title if more time was needed for the story. The show’s outro for the first season featured Luz strolling through the Boiling Isles before returning to the Owl House. For the second season, that was replaced by artwork created by Jesse Balmer depicting events of the season, with new images being added for the second half of the season. Episode 1 and episode 2 of the third season featured new pictures by Daun Han depicting events between those shown on screen. The final episode’s served as an epilogue; following Owlbert as a means to showcase everyone after the timeskip (including new background characters based on members of the crew). For crucial episodes, the outro was replaced with a shot of the Emperor’s castle, the Titan’s skull, and the old house in the Human Realm, respectively.

Luz finally gets a Palisman.

        One of the show’s enduring mysteries was what kind of Palisman Luz would get. While others in her class had gotten theirs in the second season, Luz was unable to as she wasn’t clear on her hearts’ desire; one of the requirements for bonding with a Palisman. Eda and King would then get Luz some Palistrom wood to carve her own from, and she ultimately chose to carve an egg so that her Palisman could choose what it wanted to be as she had. Fans speculated that it would either be a bat, due to the wings on Luz’s phone case and it being her icon in the Tamagotchi-like device she used to communicate with Amity via emojis, or a snake, due to all of the snake imagery throughout the series. Further bolstering the latter idea was that viewers noticed that in The Owl House’s title logo, part of the “H” looked like a staff with how it was positioned under the “O”, which contained Owlbert. When the logo was flipped upside-down, the “L” resembled that part of the “H” and was positioned directly under the “S” which looked like a snake. Those fans were, in fact, half right. Terrace noticed that herself after the logo was finalized, which kind of cemented her own desire to have it be a snake tying into their appearances in the first episode, and Luz ended up with the snakeshifter named Stringbean. A snakeshifter was the invention of Marcus to allow them to utilize all the other suggested animals the Palisman could be since she could change into any of them at will, and the name appealed to Terrace’s love of lame puns.

The beginnings of Lumity.

        The Owl House had received special notoriety for its unprecedented and overt LGBTQ+ representation—particularly for a Disney show. Over the course of the series, Luz would come out as bisexual (first made official during a Reddit AMA with Terrace, and making her Disney’s first as a lead character), and Hunter was also stated to be by Terrace after the show ended; Amity was declared a lesbian by Terrace and actively dated Luz, who was also her first crush; Willow had two dads and was said to be Pansexual (again, by Terrace after the fact); Raine was non-binary with they/them pronouns (a first for Disney) like Roque used, as was Masha; and Lilith was aromantic and asexual (revealed during a charity livestream). The Collector also alternated between he/they pronouns. Other queer characters would appear as background or minor characters, all of which was completely normalized in the Demon Realm and not really presented as an issue for the brief time in the Human Realm. After Luz came out to her mother, Camila started wearing a heart pin in Pride colors. Additionally, many scenes would employ a color palette representative of the various Pride Flags. These efforts earned praise from GLAAD, resulting in a nomination for a GLAAD Media Award in 2021, and won the series a Peabody Award. From a personal perspective, many LGBTQ+ fans found comfort in a show like this existing; having lacked such representation in media when they were children themselves. However, this also came with its fair share of detractors in the form of parent, conservative and religious groups who felt any form of queer was akin to degenerate and pedophilic behavior (they also had a problem with the witchcraft and demonic elements to it). In certain countries where Disney aired, episodes were required to be edited to remove any queer content, left out of circulation altogether, or the series was outright banned in its entirety. Terrace was upfront about her desire to include LGBTQ+ characters, but Disney was initially hesitant to allow it. Terrace credited her stubbornness for their eventual change of heart and support. Other award nominations included Annie Awards, Daytime Emmy Awards, Imagen Foundation Awards, Pena de Prata, and Autostraddle TV Awards, winning one of those and a BMI Film & TV Award.

Our own effort to try and show Disney the show deserved to stick around.

            While the show was in production, members of the cast and crew were very active on social media; showing off behind the scenes material, giving background on story and character choices, and just interacting with the fans in general. Fans, in turn, worked to try and reverse Disney’s cancellation decision by ensuring the series would be one of the top trending topics every week. Numerous YouTube reactors reacted to the series; some even attracting the attention of members of the cast and crew including Zach Reacts, The Third Bill, Man of 1000 Thoughts, and Not-So-Average-Fangirl. The day before the second half of season 2 began, Jones and Robles started an informal Instagram Live show on Jones’ account called the Post Hoot. Typically posted the Friday before a new episode, they would discuss events up to that point and answer some fan questions as time allowed. The duo would soon become a trio with the addition of YouTube reactor-turned-Production Associate Rebecca Bozza, aka Rebecca Rose. Bozza's reactions were followed by an in-depth analysis of the episode, themes, characters and the hidden codes. Despite her comparatively short time with the show, she became almost an encyclopedia of knowledge about the ins and outs of everything on screen and behind the scenes and displayed that knowledge within each Post Hoot appearance. Various members from the cast and crew joined them to talk about the show and their own creative backgrounds for the benefit of viewers looking to join the industry themselves. Bozza would upload several of these to her YouTube channel for wider access, while other users would upload the ones she hadn’t yet.

Eda's Bad Girl Coven t-shirt.

            There hasn’t been much in the way of Disney-branded merchandise for the show. A platforming game titled Witch’s Apprentice was released for PC and iOS. Players controlled Luz as she performed errands for Eda and collected 19 “relics” that corresponded to the 19 episodes of the first season. The game featured new dialogue from Luz, Eda, King and Hooty. Luz, Eda and King would also be playable characters in the 2019 game Disney All-Star Racers, and the Boiling Isles as a track complete with theme music, until the DisneyNOW app was shut down in 2024. Disney Books published a picture book adapting “Witches Before Wizards” and an easy-reader book adapting “I Was a Teenage Abomination” and “Adventures in the Elements” called Hex-cellent Tales from the Boiling Isles. The Mystery Shack, a website dedicated to ensuring shows get some products out there when their IP holders seem unwilling to do so, had become central in providing a wide variety of merchandise ranging from plush dolls, clothing, posters and pictures, and even props like the Golden Guard’s mask and Amity’s library staff ID. Anything else was provided by the fans for the fans through various online storefronts like Etsy, Kickstarter campaigns, or attempting to get an official LEGO set made. Webcomic artist MoringMark took to doing continuing strips set between and following events of the show. Terrace and various members of the cast have participated in Streamily live signing events and maintained Streamily storefronts to allow fans to acquire signed official season posters or prints provided by fan artists and Terrace herself.

How it started, how it's going. Tracking the viewership of season 3.

        The Owl House aired on Disney Channel for its entire original run, and simultaneously on Disney XD for its third season. After its finale aired, the series was moved to Disney XD for reruns until October of 2023, where it became exclusive to streaming services. It was first uploaded to Disney+ in October of 2020 after the first season had completely aired. The second season was uploaded in batches of 5 (with one batch including 6) a few weeks after the last episode of each batch aired. The third season was uploaded within about a month of each episode’s debut. “A Lying Witch and a Warden”, “Separate Tides”, “Eclipse Lake”, “Labyrinth Runners” and “King’s Tide” (the latter four now only clips as of this writing) were uploaded in full to Disney Channel’s YouTube channel, as were each part of season three within a day or two of their televised debut. “Thanks to Them” was made private when “For the Future” was uploaded, but returned when “Watching and Dreaming” was added. All three would also be combined into a single compilation movie. Numerous clip videos have been uploaded, which include episode teasers or character moment compilations. “For the Future” was accidentally released early to iTunes Canada, but was quickly deleted within hours—though not before many had already viewed it. Owl Pellets was made available on Disney+ in the United Kingdom.

Luz taking center stage in an episode of Chibiverse.

        As each special of the third season broke a million views faster than the last on YouTube, coupled with the massive attendance at the panel during New York Comic Con, Disney executives finally realized just how successful the show was (they had been dismissive of all the fans’ efforts to get it trending as they felt “anyone can trend on Twitter”). Unfortunately, this newfound awareness couldn’t do the show any good at that point in time. It did continue to live on, however, as part of their Chibiverse. Inspired by the Big Hero 6 short series, Big Cibi 6: The Shorts, Disney began a series called Chibi Tiny Tales that would feature Chibi versions of Disney characters in quick 1-minute comedy adventures that aired during commercial breaks on the networks. The Owl House received four dedicated shorts, while King and Luz and Amity each cameoed in another short, respectively. A spin-off series, Chibiverse, collected previously aired and new shorts together in a single episode with an all-new connecting story with full voice acting (the shorts themselves were typically done in mime with sound effects). The Owl House characters appeared in the new material, with Robles, Hirsch and Whitman reprising their respective roles.

The official poster for The Owl House/Amphibia crossover.

        During the 2021 San Diego Comic-Con’s Disney Television Animation panel, Amphibia and The Owl House fulfilled fans’ desires to see the two shows cross over. Terrace and Amphibia creator Matt Braly penned a script set between “Through the Looking Glass Ruins” and “Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door” that saw one of Luz’s attempts at recreating the portal shunting her and Eda to the world of Amphibia, where they met Anne Boonchuy (Brenda Song), Hop Pop (Bill Farmer), Sprig (Justin Felbinger) and Polly (Amanda Leighton). The crossover was done as a remote table read, with Terrace and Braly serving as narrators. 65 fan artists came together to animate the crossover and uploaded it to YouTube. A more visual official crossover happened as one of the aforementioned Chibi shorts.

The Chibi Owl House/Amphibia crossover.

        Both series would continue to reference each other with little easter eggs. In The Owl House, Hop Pop’s face appeared on a book in Willow’s room and a poster in Camila’s veterinary clinic; Sprig as a doll in Hunter’s room; the Calamity Box in the Owl House’s basement; Anne’s tennis racket and Sasha’s sword in a weapons rooms on Titan Trapper Island; Anne’s picture in an online article about her return on Camila’s tablet; a snail that resembled their transportation, Bessie, outside the Noceda house; Polly in a realistic sketch in Luz’s sketchbook and as a pin on her bulletin board; someone wearing a Grime costume for Halloween in “Thanks to Them”; Bibsy as some graffiti; and a Hexside student resembling Anne wearing the Calamity Trio colors. In Amphibia, King’s skull adorns a staff Anne holds as she’s outfitted with an armor choice and the Owl House was shown in an alternate dimension (an unconfirmed one is a planet with purple oceans appearing in a book during research of the Calamity Box). Hirsch’s earlier series, Gravity Falls, also got in on the action. The graphic novel, Gravity Falls: Lost Legends (on which Terrace worked), featured several easter eggs including Eda’s silhouette on a wanted poster, the Boiling Isles mentioned in the journal, and Eda’s staff showing up in a bundle of wood. On The Owl House, an image of series villain Bill Cipher was featured among the demons King was teaching Luz about in the episode “The Intruder”, Bear-O was seen on a wanted poster, and the revelation of one of Eda’s Human Realm aliases being “Marylin” fueled the speculation that she was Grunkle Stan’s ex-wife, who shared that name and Eda’s general description via Hirsch’s in-character commentary on the DVD set. It’s often said that Dipper’s hat appears in Eda’s stand, but Bosma corrected that it was a Philadelphia 76ers hat.

From the Boiling Isles to the viewers: "Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

        Once the show wrapped, Terrace left Disney; taking time to recover from the exhaustion of running a show, the constant battles with Disney leadership, and the frustration of the company’s refusal to fully stand up for a large part of their audience and workforce—particularly in the face of Florida’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill. However, she has repeatedly said that she hopes to get a chance to revisit The Owl House with either with a spin-off series or in some other medium like a comic book she’d write and draw to tap into some of the stories they were forced to abandon. That chance came in 2026 with the announcement of an all-new graphic novel, The Long-Lived King, released that September.

 

EPISODE GUIDE:
Season 1:
“A Lying Witch and a Warden” (1/10/20) – Luz ends up in a magical world where she manages to convince Eda the “Owl Lady” to take her on as a witch’s apprentice.
 
“Witches Before Wizards” (1/17/20) – Luz ends up being tricked into going on a phony quest in a ploy to trap Eda.
 
“I Was a Teenage Abomination” (1/24/20) – Luz meets Willow and agrees to pose as her abomination in exchange for being shown around Hexside, which puts them at odds with bully Amity.
 
“The Intruder” (1/31/20) – Luz and King learn Eda’s elixir is meant to keep her from succumbing to a curse and transforming into an owl beast.
 
“Covention” (2/7/20) – Luz convinces Eda to take her to the Covention to check out various covens, which ends up with her getting into a witches’ duel with Amity under the tutelage of Eda’s sister, Lilith.
 
“Hooty’s Moving Hassle” (2/21/20) – When they’re not invited to Amity’s Moonlight Conjuring, Luz, Willow and Gus have one of their own and end up causing the Owl House to become mobile.
 
“Lost in Language” (2/28/20) – A shooting star causes book contents to come to life in the library, which has Luz and Amity facing a children’s character Amity’s siblings turned into a monster.
 
“Once Upon a Swap” (3/6/20) – Convinced each other has an easier life, Eda casts a spell that causes her, Luz and King to swap bodies for a day.
 
“Something Ventured, Someone Framed” (3/13/20) – To best his rival in the Human Appreciation Society, Gus ends up getting Luz thrown into the detention pit when he lies that her ban at Hexside was lifted.
 
“Escape of the Palisman” (3/20/20) – While King uses Eda’s owl form for revenge, Luz is put to a series of trials by the Bat Queen to earn back Owlbert’s trust after she crashed and damaged him.
 
“Sense and Insensitivity” (7/11/20) – King ends up stealing credit for the book he wrote with Luz and has trouble coming up with the second volume his publisher demands.
 
“Adventures in the Elements” (7/18/20) – Luz and Amity take to the wilds to train in magic and end up having to team up to rescue Eda and Amity’s siblings from a Slitherbeast.
 
“The First Day” (7/25/20) – Luz is sent to detention when she attempts to mix magic and ends up rallying her fellow detentionees to save the school from a magic-draining basilisk.
 
“Really Small Problems” (8/1/20) – Tibbles manages to trick King, Luz, Willow and Gus into being shrunk to become part of his miniature circus attraction.
 
“Understanding Willow” (8/1/20) – Luz and Amity journey into Willow’s mind to fix her memories after Amity attempted to destroy evidence of their prior friendship.
 
“Enchanting Grom Fright” (8/8/20) – Luz volunteers to take Amity’s place battling the demon that lives under Hexside, but unfortunately isn’t as ready to face her biggest fear as she thought.
 
“Wing it Like Witches” (8/15/20) – Luz challenges Boscha to a grudgby match on Willow’s behalf after she picks on them all day, but Luz’s recklessness ends up driving her friends away.
 
“Agony of a Witch” (8/22/20) – Lilith captures Luz and uses her to lure Eda into a battle that drains all of her magic, allows her to become the Owl Beast and be captured by the Emperor’s Coven.
 
“Young Blood, Old Souls” (8/29/20) – Learning Belos has no intention of curing Eda of the curse, Lilith helps Luz attempt to rescue her from eternal petrification.
 
Season 2:
“Separate Tides” (6/12/21) – Feeling like a burden to Eda, Luz takes on a dangerous hunting mission to earn a lot of money that ends up being a trap set up by the Golden Guard.
 
“Escaping Expulsion” (6/19/21) – Luz volunteers to help Odalia and Alador Blight demonstrate their new weaponry in exchange for allowing her and her friends to go back to Hexside.
 
“Echoes of the Past” (6/26/21) – When Lilith doubts King’s claim of royalty he takes them to the island where Eda found him, but soon learns Eda made the whole thing up.
 
“Keeping up A-fear-ances” (7/3/21) – Eda’s mother’s new attempt at a cure turns out to be a scam, while someone impersonating Luz is living with her mother in the human realm.
 
“Through the Looking Glass Ruins” (7/10/21) – While Gus goes on an adventure with some new friends, Luz ends up getting Amity fired from the library when they find Philip’s journal destroyed.
 
“Hunting Palismen” (7/17/21) – Unmatched with a Palisman, Luz decides to spend the night in the Palisman nest just as it’s stolen by the Golden Guard for Belos.
 
“Eda’s Requiem” (7/24/21) – Eda is reunited with her ex Raine Whispers who is secretly leading a rebel group against Belos.
 
“Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door” (7/21/21) – Hooty decides it’s up to him to help his friends with their problems: King with his origin; Eda with her curse; Luz asking out Amity.
 
“Eclipse Lake” (8/7/21) – Eda, King and Amity head off to find some Titan’s blood for a new portal door and encounter Belos’ forces there, with Amity losing the portal key to Hunter.
 
“Yesterday’s Lie” (8/14/21) – Luz’s new portal door allows her to view things through reflections and discover that a shapeshifter is living in her house posing as her.
 
“Follies at the Coven Day Parade” (3/19/22) – Luz attempts to help Kikimora with her family problems by “abducting” her during the parade to prove to herself there could be a balance between two worlds.
 
“Elsewhere and Elsewhen” (3/26/22) – Luz and Lilith end up going back in time and meeting Philip, however they discover he may not be what he appears.
 
“Any Sport in the Storm” (4/2/22) – Hunter goes to Hexside to attempt to recruit new members for the Emperor’s Coven only to end up a key player on Willow’s flyer derby team.
 
“Reaching Out” (4/9/22) – Luz’s desire to avoid dealing with something causes her to ruin Amity’s chances to win the Bonesborough Brawl and prove herself to her father.
 
“Them’s the Breaks, Kid” (4/16/22) – Eda recounts how she met Raine during a tense school competition overseen by Terra Snapdragon.
 
“Hollow Mind” (4/23/22) – Luz accidentally gets herself and Hunter trapped in Belos’ mind where they learn the truth about both him and Hunter.
 
“Edge of the World” (4/30/22) – Luz, King and Hooty travel to the other side of the world to meet people who might be like King, but they turn out to just want to sacrifice King for the Collector.
 
“Labyrinth Runners” (5/7/22) – Gus’ anxiety problems resurface with a powerful spell when he ends up getting tricked by an illusion from Coven Head Adrian Graye.
 
“O Titan, Where Art Thou” (5/14/22) – While King goes on an impromptu road trip with Steve to gather his thoughts, Eda and Luz fight over Eda wanting to send her and King away for their own safety.
 
“Clouds on the Horizon” (5/21/22) – While Eda takes Raine’s place at the Day of Unity, Luz tries to help Amity convince her parents about Belos’ plans only to learn Odalia already knows and there’s a spy in CATs.
 
“King’s Tide” (5/28/22) – When the Collector is freed and turns the Boiling Isles upside-down, Luz and her friends are forced to flee through the reassembled portal door into the Human Realm.
 
Season 3:
“Thanks to Them” (10/15/22) – The Hexside gang believes they may have found a cache of Titan’s Blood in the Human Realm, but Belos is still lurking in the background ready to make his move.
 
“For the Future” (1/21/23) – The Hexside gang discovers that the Collector has been using everyone as toys in his games while Kikimora has used Boscha to take over Hexside and subjugate the remaining students.
 
“Watching and Dreaming” (4/8/23) – Luz, King and Eda manage to get the Collector on their side just as Belos possesses the Titan’s body.
 
Shorts:
Owl Pellets:
“Welcome to Hexside!” (4/4/20) – King stops his crystal ball on a commercial for Hexside starring Principal Bump.
 
“Eda’s Cursed Brush” (4/11/20) – Luz shows off her drawing prowess with any kind of instrument, one of which ended up being one of Eda’s cursed pencils.
 
“Paint Scare!” (4/18/20) – Luz is about to explain to King how she’s so good at art when she notices a monster that she didn’t draw in her piece coming progressively closer…
 
“Art Lessons with Luz” (4/25/20) – Luz shows King how she uses shapes to help in her drawing, but her drawing of Hooty causes him to attack.
 
“Coven Lovin Soap Opera” (5/2/20) – King tries to pretend to not be into the soap opera Luz watches on the crystal ball.
 
Chibi Tiny Tales:
“The Bake Off!” (5/17/22) – Disagreeing over what kind of snack to bake, Eda and Lilith have a baking battle.
 
“Hooty the Palisman Sitter” (9/3/22) – Hooty is tasked with watching the mischievous Palismen, but ends up having to protect the whole house from them.
 
“Lumity Date” (9/10/22) – Luz and Amity attempt to enjoy a quiet date, but it keeps being constantly interrupted.
 
“The Amphibia House” (1/14/23) – The Calamity Box malfunctions and sends Anne Boonchuy and the Plantars to the Boiling Isles where Anne becomes fast friends with Luz.

Originally posted in 2023. Updated in 2026.