Once upon a time, there were four different pairs of children who all had an interest in the supernatural. One was a set of twins who investigated mysteries in a small Oregon town. One was a girl and her friend who had defeated a witch known as the Beldam. One was a young boy who could communicate with spirits and his best friend. And one was a couple, both possessing psychic powers and working at an organization for those with them.
If these groups were ever to meet, it would be the start of something beautiful. Unfortunately, they all lived in separate universes.
Until the Internet got ahold of them...
Similar to Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons, this is the result of Friendly Fandoms going to the next logical step and becoming its own fandom. A crossover between Gravity Falls, Coraline, ParaNorman, and Psychonauts, it gained popularity in 2013 with the release of a 45-minute fanmade animatic and maintains a fanbase to this day.
The "official" DeviantArt club can be found here
, while the animatic can be found here, and the opening sequence can be found here. A sequel to the animatic was in production, but it's since been canceled; however a new project, "Mystery Kids and the Nightmare Mirror", has begun, featuring several people who worked on the first episode as well as several new faces. The official Tumblr is here.
Tropes relating to the fanbase as a whole include:
- Action Girl: Coraline definitely fits this trope to a T, and Mabel and Lili qualify as well.
- Badass Adorable: The entire group can count as this, but Mabel especially.
- Black and Nerdy: Wybie is usually characterized as this with a dash of Cloudcuckoolander.
- Sixth Ranger: Sometimes fans will add characters from another property to the crossover, such as Zim and Dib from Invader Zim, Danny from Danny Phantom, or Wirt and Greg from Over the Garden Wall.
- Occasionally, Aggie will be added as an additional member.
- Token Super: Norman can see ghosts, Aggie is a ghost, and Lili and Raz are Psychic Children, while Coraline, Wybie, Dipper, Mabel and Neil are just normal human children.
Tropes relating to the first episode include:
- Adaptation Personality Change: Raz's personality has changed noticeably since Psychonauts, making him more cocky, arrogant, and argumentative. According to Lili, this has been happening ever since he became a Psychonaut, implying that it went to his head.
- Art Shift: As it is a massive project involving multiple artists, the animatic goes through multiple shifts in style.
- Berserk Button: Do not insult Raz in-front of Lili. Or call her "Lil."
- Big Bad: Dr. Loboto.
- Big Damn Heroes: Raz arrives just in time to save everyone else from Dr. Loboto.
- The Cameo:
- Dib cameos as a ghost haunting a closet in the Mystery Shack.
- When looking for Loboto, Norman asks Billy Joe Cobra if he's seen him.
- Dull Surprise: Because most if not all the voice actors involved in the short were amateurs at the time, a lot of the voice acting is pretty deadpan.
- Genre Savvy: After the car they're in breaks down near Gravity Falls, Coraline assumes that they've become psycho bait. Thing is, she didn't expect to be right.
- Gilligan Cut: Coraline wonders how Norman's dad is doing in his search for a mechanic. Cut to him losing his patience with Lazy Susan.
- The Leader: Coraline and Raz make the decision to co-lead the team.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Raz has this attitude to some extent.
- Let Me at Him!: When Coraline insults Raz, Lili tries to initiate a Cat Fight with her, only getting stopped by Raz and Wybie.
- Lock-and-Load Montage: Invoked by Mabel, who starts up an "80's montage" while the team is preparing to face Loboto.
- Noodle Incident:
- Apparently Dipper and Mabel took part in an 80's montage sometime in the previous week.
- Dib's ghost is in the Mystery Shack, as Norman discovers. How he died and got there is a mystery (though the thing lodged in his forehead might have something to do with it).
- Official Couple: Raz and Lili.
- Precision F-Strike: Raz calls Coraline "badass" near the end.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: Coraline uses these to get Wybie to explore Gravity Falls with her.
- Race Lift: Wybie is notably more dark-skinned here than he was in the movie.
- Ship Tease: Plenty of it between Coraline and Wybie.
- Shout-Out: "Domo arigato, Dr. Loboto!"
- The Stinger: There's a clip after the credits in which Lili uses her mind-reading powers to thoroughly embarrass Coraline, Dipper, and Mabel.
- This Is a Drill: Dr Loboto has one. He uses it to try and give Dipper and Mabel a root canal.
- Title Drop: "How about...the Mystery Kids?"
- Trauma Button: A literal one; when Mabel sticks buttons in her eyes to imitate Dr. Loboto, Coraline has a panic attack.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
- Before he threatens them with a drill, Dipper and Mabel treat Dr. Loboto as just another customer (albeit they are quick to be suspicious of him). Considering where they live, it's somewhat justified.
- The fact that Raz and Lili having psychic powers doesn't warrant much of a reaction from the others either. Then again, this is set after each character's own canon adventure, so odds are they've Seen It All.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Ho boy, Lili.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Lili calls Raz out on his behavior towards the others.
- You Meddling Kids: Loboto gives this line.Dr. Loboto: Meddling kids and their disregard for free healthcare!
Tropes relating to "Nightmare Mirror" include:
- Big Bad: Gideon might be this. The Beldam might be involved as well, though all we know so far is that someone auditioned for her.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: It's implied that the first battle between Gideon and the Psychonauts will be this from the summary.
- Fastball Special: One of the pieces of concept art released shows Mabel being launched telekinetically by either Raz or Lili.
- Magic Mirror: The titular mirror seems to be one.
