Gumball Review

TheWildeOne Reviews: The Amazing World of Gumball

Hello and welcome again to TheWildeOne Reviews. New shows are gracing Cartoon Network much more often now. I'm not talking about Redaki or Mountain awesome whatever show (don't care about the name), but I am of course talking about one show in particular that may join with the other great shows on Cartoon Network to form the new foundation that will be the childhood for the next generation of kids. I am of course talking about the show I will review today: The Amazing World of Gumball.
The Amazing World of Gumball, or Gumball for short in this review, was produced by Dandelion Studios, Studio Soi (I think this may be a French producing company), Boulder Media Limited, and of course Cartoon Network Europe, originally airing in Britain before making its way across the seas; This series was created by Burt Bocquelet, a French man. Thought I should just make a note of that since some of the humor in this series may have been intended for a French audience and French culture, what with them more accepting of nudity than us American audiences. Also worth mentioning is that Gumball was originally brought to life when Burt got the chance at his Cartoon Network Europe company to pitch an idea of his for a cartoon. Originally, from what I can gather, Gumball and its characters were based off of a string of commercial ideas that Burt had in mind, but since he had his chance to shine with his own ideas and put them into a cartoon he put his commercial characters into a school environment and we got Gumball.  So yeah, if not for the Cartoon Network European company we would probably have gotten commercials with Gumball rather than this treasure trove of greatness! Kind of makes me imagine if commercial characters got their own shows just like that. Would be kind of boring since every episode of Trix The Rabbit would have a very predictable ending and Sunny from Cocoa Puffs would be turned into the perfect allegory for crack addiction, but that's beside the point.
Now, the general set up of this series is kind of what you'd expect on Cartoon Network today: its surreal humor, just like Regular Show and Adventure Time (which I am sure to get to eventually). But this show, like Adventure Time, is so much more than just a show with zany, unexplainable characters. Yes, this series has giant gorillas, robots, ghosts, paper bears, antlered peanuts and T-Rex's, but you know what, it all fits together! Seriously, this all fits together so well with what Burt Bocquelet does with the characters, because Burt actually makes this into one great cartoon series that is, I am afraid to say since this is European, family friendly. You see Burt puts all of the characters he had for his commercials into a family and school environment, and in the hands of an incompetent creator this could suck, but this show actually manages to have some good writing to go with all of this.
To start off, let's start with the characters. Gumball Watterson, our title character, is a anthropomorphic house cat who is a young boy starting out in 7th grade. Throughout the series, we see that he is a very irresponsible, yet adventurous young boy, constantly getting into trouble and incapable of learning from his mistakes. He is further egged on with this by his pet/best friend Darwin. Darwin is a fish with legs (ha ha, get it?) that was originally Gumballs pet until he one day sprouted legs and quickly became the best friend of Gumball. Darwin is a very naïve character, usually becoming a big part of Gumball's ideas and following him around a lot, but another concept that they apparently go with is that the explanation for his naivety is that since he has spent so much time in a fishbowl, his world view is obscured. I thought that was a nice touch. We also have Anais, a small rabbit who is brother to Gumball and step brother to Darwin. She is usually the voice of reason in most situations since she is a smart child prodigy at age 4. Next, we have Nicole, Gumball's mother. She's portrayed as a hardworking, stressed out and prone to anger mother, but she also is shown to have a soft side, which contributes to one of the great things about this series that I will get to later. Finally, for the main characters, we have Robert, Gumballs dad. He's portrayed as a lazy stay at home dad, usually forsaking a lot of work to play video games and watch TV. While those were just the main characters, the show sports a very large cast of characters, ranging from the sweet voiced and kind Penny, whom Gumball has a crush on, to the loud and annoying Ms. Simian, Gumball's teacher in school.
As for the animation and voice acting in this series, people who are first to watch will be impressed. The main hand drawn animation reminds me of the show Ying, Yang, Yo!, but it turns out to be a lot better in quality I think. The style of artwork on the character designs is minimalistic but very well animated; blending well with the 3D animation that also comes into this series. Yeah, this series is one of those that have an equal blend of live action, CGI, 2D, and 3D animation, but it does blend very well in this series and the art style is original and well animated. As for the voice acting, since this isn't a series that originated in America there are sure to be a lot of unknown voice actors; that or this series had to be dubbed, which is unlikely. Nonetheless, this series actually sports some very good voice actors. Gumball and Darwin's voice actors are some of the best child actors that I have heard in a long time, with Gumball's voice actor having a past role in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody (don't get me started on that show), and Darwin's voice actor playing the role of Gossamer on The Looney Tunes Show (a nice little trivia there). Both are very expressive voice actors, managing to portray a lot of emotions in their character voices, and both portray their characters very well. Anais may not have as good a voice actress as Gumball and Darwin, but her voice actress does well too. For the parents, Nicole's voice actress has a very dominating and authoritative tone to it while still managing to portray a loving mother and this is done extremely well. For Robert, since he is a very irresponsible and goofy character you expect a goofy voice, and a goofy voice is what you get as Robert's voice actor correctly portrays the stupid and lazy character that is Robert. All in all, the voice acting for the series is done extremely well, including for the side characters, although I think there could be some room for improvement for a certain gender ambiguous flower in the series.
Now, for the big one. The overall premise and point that this series makes. You see, when reviewing a cartoon, you have to take a look at the world the show inhabits and see if the show inhabits its own world well enough and fits it to the series. In Gumball, this is handled well. The world of Gumball is a zany, yet suburban world where pretty much anything can pop up. You got robots, ghosts, and talking chimps, and all of this fits well here since none of it should. This series is about surreal characters placed into real life situations and get put a melodramatic spin on them. As a matter of fact, this series handles melodrama very well in making some of the most mundane things, such as getting a refund and having a party, into zany moments where a lot of chaos can occur. I also believe that, with a rating like TV-Y7 FV, this series does extremely well. After all, a lot of new shows on Cartoon Network are PG now, but with Gumball, and all of its melodrama, you really get a sense of innocence when you see situations like babysitting a little sister and getting in trouble for not doing chores. Also, I dare you to find a series today that makes an episode about how gross girls are and how kissing is gross. I DARE YOU!!! The humor is also very good here. A lot of the humor is derived from the melodrama and overall chaos of the situations Gumball gets into, but there is also a lot of slapstick humor to boot. Also, with what I said earlier about this show being a little mature since it's European, there are some moments like that (Gumball being naked and censored, calling a girl flat, and I just dare you to find the subliminal vagina in the episode known as The Painting; it will freak you out! I'll give you a hint to find it: elevator. Happy hunting!). Also, with all of the chaotic humor in this show and slapstick, this series, in my opinion, will remind old school cartoon fans of a simpler time when slapstick humor ruled most of cartoons, like Ren and Stimpy and Angry Beavers.
But, this series does so much more than just present its humor and world well. The characters for the series are very well handled and fit with the overall tone and theme of the series. Gumball and Darwin are a very good team up and bounce off each other very well. As for Anais, she makes for a very good straight man in a lot of situations and she is really the only one in this series deeply rooted in reality. It's kind of ironic that the four-year-old is the only rational one in the series (except even she believed the Gumball disguise in The Robot. You'll see.) Robert is portrayed as a lazy man-rabbit-human-abortion-thing in this series, but he is a lazy rabbit you can get behind. Robert portrays in the episode The Laziest to be very smart in keeping being lazy, even doing some actual small work just for more time to be lazy. He is cunning with how he approaches his laziness, and that's what makes him into a smart, yet stupid, and fun character. Nicole is portrayed as being fairly strict on her sons Gumball and Darwin, but she is also portrayed as being very protective of them and caring, and that is when we get to one of the central themes of the show: family.
      The Watterson's present a very strong sense of family and togetherness that I have not seen in a show for a while. For example, Gumball and Darwin have shown to actually care about Anais in getting her stuffed toy back from a bully in the episode The Quest, but then after realizing that Anais doesn't need the toy since she has good brothers around to keep her company. In the episode The DVD Gumball and Darwin are scared that their mother will get mad at them when they don't return a DVD, but in the end she says that she will never hate them since their her kids and she loves them. But, the epitome of their togetherness, and overall dysfunctional behavior, is portrayed well in the episode The Painting, where the principal of Anais and Gumball's school sees a painting Anais drew of her family being very bad: Robert was lazy, Nicole was over worked, and Gumball and Darwin were rambunctious malcontents. So, Principal Brown, who I swear is based off of Sigmund Freud with his glasses, voice, and hair, ends up suggesting that Robert get a job, Nicole take a vacation, and Gumball and Darwin channel their young kid energy into more productive means. Of course, they all fail at this since they realize how incompetent they all are out of their natural environments, with Gumball being the only one to embrace the crab walk he learned, but Anais speaks up when Principal Brown is in the area and explains that even though she drew the painting depicting her family like it is, she says that they are all different but also that she still loves them all the same way since they are her family, and they all embrace. This was such a good moment in the series that really caught my eye, and that is what I mean.
       The Amazing World of Gumball not only portrays a melodramatic world with zany and diverse characters and harkens back to a more innocent time of cartoons but is also family based. The love between the Watterson family members in the show is what really ties the show together and makes it a touching show to watch. Sure, it is mostly chaotic slapstick humor, but when matched with the characters, animation, voice acting and family togetherness of the characters, this show really becomes worth it to watch officially receives my Childhood Material stamp-of-approval! Every child in the U.S should check out this show and any adults out there will also get a kick out of it. I give this series 3/5 of a gold star. I am TheWildeOne, and I'm considering changing my name to RC Funsys. Have a wonderful day!