The Owl House

The Owl House is an American animated fantasy television series created by Dana Terrace that premiered on Disney Channel on January 10, 2020. The series features the voices of Sarah-Nicole Robles, Wendie Malick and Alex Hirsch.

In November 2019, the series was renewed for a second season prior to the series premiere, which will premiere on June 12, 2021. In May 2021, the series was renewed for a third season comprising of three specials, ahead of the second season premiere, later announced to be the final season of the series.

Premise
Luz Noceda is a teenage human girl who accidentally stumbles upon a portal to another world instead of going to a juvenile detention summer camp. She arrives on an archipelago known as the Boiling Isles, formed from the remains of a dead Titan, and befriends the rebellious witch Eda Clawthorne (alias "The Owl Lady") and her adorable demon roommate King. Despite not having magical abilities, Luz pursues her dream of becoming a witch by serving as Eda's apprentice at the Owl House and ultimately finds a new family in an unlikely setting.

In the second season, directly following the events of the first season finale, it will follow the main protagonists working together to return Luz to the Human Realm, help Eda confront her inner demons, and search for the truth about King’s past.

Characters

 * See also: List of The Owl House characters.

Development
Dana Terrace first began conceiving early ideas for a series about a girl learning to be a witch in late 2016. While working on DuckTales, Terrace didn't feel "fulfilled artistically or emotionally", so she began to research influences and work from her college years, eventually rediscovering the works of artists such as Hieronymus Bosch and Remedios Varo, inspiring her to create a show for Disney that feature strong surreal visual elements.

In 2018, it was reported that Dana Terrace, previously a storyboard artist for Gravity Falls and later a director on the 2017 DuckTales reboot, was creating and executive-producing an animated series, titled The Owl House, for Disney Television Animation. The series was set originally for a 2019 release, but it was delayed for a 2020 release. Terrace is the fourth woman to create a series for Disney Television Animation, after Pepper Ann with Sue Rose, Doc McStuffins with Chris Nee, and Star vs. the Forces of Evil with Daron Nefcy.

Season 1 aired its 19th and final episode on August 29, 2020. On November 21, 2019, the series was renewed for a second season prior to the first season's debut. On May 17, 2021, the series was renewed for a third season, which will consist of three 44-minute specials, ahead of the second season premiere. The episode order was much shorter than the 10-20 episodes they were anticipating, only for Terrace later to confirm that it will be the final season.

When asked about the future of the series on Twitter, Terrace expressed interest continuing it in other forms of media, including doing a limited series centering on Eda's past, while also stating the three specials of Season 3 were the end of the main story arc, persuading fans to ask Disney about getting more content based on the show.

Writing
Terrace said that the general lore for the series was inspired by art and storybooks by Hieronymus Bosch. According to Terrace, the hardest decision when creating the series was whether to implement potential lore elements in the series. Terrace also stated the lore of the series is "70 percent made up", with writers also drawing inspiration from books about witchcraft for spells and character names, to add depth to its lore. The Pokémon franchise served as a strong influence on the series.

Eda was the earliest character created for the show. Terrace said the character is inspired by "the women who raised me. My aunts, my Nana and my mom, they're all in the Owl Lady". The second character created was King, who was described by Terrace as "a little guy that wants to be big", something she related to. Luz was the final main character created and was inspired by consultant and story artist Luz Batiste. Batiste agreed to let Terrace use her name for the series' main character on the condition that she be Dominican-American, which Terrace agreed to. The character's personality was inspired by "stories of each other about what dorks we were in high school", as well as parts from Terrace's own childhood. Alex Hirsch, Terrace's partner and creator of the TV series Gravity Falls, on which Terrace served as a storyboard artist and revisionist, serves as a creative consultant on the series.

Several of the series' themes are inspired by Terrace's childhood. The series features themes of uniqueness and conformity, which were inspired by Terrace's experience at school, where she was mocked for her habit of drawing roadkill, only to meet people with similarly different personalities when she went to a new school. The series also explores the idea of getting close to fulfilling a dream, yet being unable to completely fulfill it, inspired by how Terrace was told that she wouldn't be a cartoonist, only to "[find her] own path".

Hirsch said that while there was a concern with the Disney Channel over the series' horror elements, Terrace nevertheless chooses to feature horror elements, arguing that "Disney is the full spectrum of emotions, creatures and scary things". Terrace said that Disney "allowed me to do more than I thought they would". Terrace also said that the producers "[don't] want to pull [their] punches on the show" in its horror elements, as she "loved being a little scared" as a child, though she also wanted to balance them with comedy and heartfelt moments. She described the magic elements on the show as "a framing device for the grounded emotional stories" featured in the series.

According to Terrace, the series initially had a darker tone, as she wanted to create a TV series targeted at older audiences "where things like whimsy and darkness can coexist", but had to tone it down during season 1 to find a compromise between her personal ideas and Disney executives' wishes, though she nevertheless was proud of the final product. Season 2 will have a tone closer to what Terrace originally intended.

Animation
The show is animated by Rough Draft Korea, Sunmin Image Pictures, and Sugarcube Animation. Terrace said that the visual style was inspired by paintings by Remedios Varo, John Bauer and Hieronymus Bosch, as well as Russian architecture. By December 2019, the show had 120 people working on the show, including those in the animation studios, and 50 staffers on the pre-production crew.

Spencer Wan served as animation supervisor during season one. Disney initially refused for the series to have an in-house animator, feeling Wan may not meet their "overseas pipeline", but he was eventually hired. Kofi Fiagome will serve as animation supervisor for season two.

Ricky Cometa served as art director for the series. Cometa first became involved with the series when Terrace began working on the pilot, before the series was green-lighted by Disney, and was approached by Terrace, a fan and friend of Cometa's because she "really wanted to work with someone who I vibed with, someone whose style I knew, that could execute the kind of weird junk I wanted to do", and Cometa agreed to work on the series due to being interested in the concept. Cometa said that he wanted to "[t]ry and show the dualities between the Demon Realm and the human realm, and with a little twist of demons and eyeballs and bones and whatnot". He also didn't want all demons on the show to have scary appearances, as they are supposed to represent normal people within the show.

Terrace said that Luz's design was "challenging", as she struggled to create a design for Luz that didn't make her look too old or that felt too much like a costume. Cometa eventually created a t-shirt for Luz to wear that is "low key, and like a nod to all our fellow nerds out there". Cometa said that it was "fun" to design demonic versions of commonplaces. The animators also changed real-life elements to further distinguish the Boiling Isles from Earth, such as making the ocean purple.

By March 2020, Disney Television Animation was closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing the production crew to work on season 2 remotely from their homes.

Music
On July 19, 2019, Terrace announced that T. J. Hill composed the series' score. On January 10, 2020, Hill said that the score features "interesting and experimental sounds that [he] had a ton of fun cooking up".

Marketing
On June 10, 2019, the trailer premiered during the show's Annecy 2019 panel. It was uploaded to Disney Channel's YouTube channel a day later.

The show's main title sequence was released on July 19, 2019, during San Diego Comic-Con 2019.

The show released a sneak peek and an official end credit sequence on October 4, 2019, during a panel at New York Comic Con 2019.

The show's main title sequence for season 2 was released on May 17, 2021.

Broadcast
The Owl House had its first international debut in Canada on January 12, 2020, in Southeast Asia on March 20, 2020, and on April 13, 2020, in Latin America. It premiered in France on April 15, 2020, in South Korea on May 23, 2020,and in Japan on July 23, 2020. The show premiered in the UK & Ireland on August 10, 2020, in the Netherlands on August 24, 2020, Lkoui (August 14, 2020). in Spain on October 3, 2020, in Africa on October 26, 2020, and in Romania on January 2, 2021.

The entire first season was added to Disney+ on October 30, 2020.

The show was supposed to premiere on January 2, 2021 in Hungary and The Czech Republic as well, but Disney decided to ban it in those countries due to its LGBTQ+ supporting narrative.

Critical reception
The Owl House has received a positive reception from critics. Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media rated the show 4 out of 5 stars and said putting different elements together made the series quirky and likable. It was also described as well written and animated, and speculated that "the show likely will be one you will want to watch alongside your older kids and tweens, giving you the opportunity to discuss these kinds of themes as they come up."LaughingPlace.coms critic praised the series for its unique visuals and voice acting, stating "The performances fit together beautifully as the diversity in their delivery showcases the characters’ unique roles in the Demon Realm." ''Collider's Dave Trumbore gave the series' first episode a 4-star rating, feeling that the episode "has got a dark, yet darkly comic edge to the whole thing." The conservative, evangelical Christian religious television network, called the Christian Broadcasting Network attacked the show, declaring it was part of a "witch agenda to make witchcraft look positive," an assessment that a writer for The Mary Sue called "hyperbolic," and stated that a "rebellious Latina witch" is, to those like CBN, "probably the scariest thing," while stating that the show sounds like "a ton of fun." While Kevin Johnson of The A.V. Club was critical of the series, stating that they were not "buying the developments between Amity and Luz," and praised Eda's character, Ben Bertoli was more positive. He wrote that Terrace and those working on the job had done a great job creating a fantasy world, relatable characters, and predicted a "big animation fandom." Nick Venable wrote that fans of Gravity Falls and Steven Universe would love the series because the "otherworld-ness of the Boiling Isle's immediately asserts itself" while the show makes "relationships feel genuine and tactile," following in the footsteps of those shows. At the same time, Colin Hickson of Comic Book Resources praised the series, while noting that the opening of the series would give "any Gravity Falls fans a major sense of deja vu."

LGBTQ+ representation
The Owl House has been praised for featuring several characters who are LGBTQ+, in particular the growing romance between the characters of Luz Noceda and Amity Blight. On July 7, 2020, series creator Dana Terrace implied this, when responding to a fan who posted a screenshot from the upcoming episode "Enchanting Grom Fright" on Twitter which showed one of the characters in the show, Amity Blight, putting her hands on the shoulders of Luz Noceda, the show's main protagonist, and looking into Luz's eyes.x Claiming "there is no heterosexual explanation" for Amity's action, Terrace responded, "there really isn't". aired, and it featured a scene in which Luz and Amity dance together while casting spells to defeat "Grom," a demon that manifests as their deepest fears. The animation supervisor for the show, Spencer Wan, referred to their intimate dance as "the gay thing" and the first time he got to "do anything even remotely queer."

On September 2, 2020, during a Reddit AMA, Dana Terrace confirmed that Amity is intended to be a lesbian and that Luz is bisexual. The two girls represent Disney's second animated LGBTQ+ characters after Sheriff Blubbs and Deputy Derland in Gravity Falls. In the episode "Understanding Willow", one of the main characters (Willow Park) is shown to have two dads. Mitchell is a story artist for the show.

The series was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Kids and Family Programming.

Season 2 (2021)
The show was renewed for a second season ahead of the series premiere, which is set to premiere on June 12, 2021. Directly following the events of the first season finale, the new season will "find our heroes working together to return Luz to the Human Realm, help Eda confront her inner demons, and search for the truth about King’s past." The season will feature 21 episodes. The first two episodes of season 2 will be previewed at the Paley Center for a virtual screening from June 5-7, 2021 in celebration of Pride Month.

Look Hooo's Talking
A series of shorts, modeled after the aftershow format, titled Look Hooo's Talking premiered on the official Disney Channel YouTube channel. The shorts, which are usually posted a day after an episode's airing but air right after its TV premiere, depict two live action owls named Horus Herashoo and Owlyvia Kim talking about the events of the most recent episode and pick apart some of the details that potentially will make an impact later in the show. At the end of each episode, the credits quickly scroll by, but when paused reveal the name of the "crew" which consists of names of the actual crew of the show, but with re-imagined bird name puns such as the creator, Dana Terrace, being renamed Danightingale Terrace.

Starting with the episode "Sense and Insensitivity", the format retired.

Owl Pellets
Disney Channel began releasing a series of comedic shorts called Owl Pellets involving Luz, Eda, and King's antics with magic and the exploration of the Boiling Isles.