The first thing you’ll notice about The Amazing World of Gumball is the art style. Or perhaps you should say it’s a lack of a single style. It looks like each character was designed by someone different, in a different medium. Some characters like Miss Simian are CG. Some are animated in traditional hand-drawn style, like the main character, Gumball Watterson. One character is just someone’s upside-down chin, painted with a marker to make a face. The backgrounds range from live action sets to CG, to everything in between, just like the characters.
Again, I’m going to say this is along the same lines as The Regular Show. Cartoon Network seems to be developing lots of cartoons with as much weird, "wacky" content as possible, then throwing them all against the wall to see if something sticks. The Amazing World of Gumball is at least upbeat and pretty funny, even if it does seem a bit pointless at times. Per the current formula for all these shows, there are also lots of references for the older folks watching the show. I spotted a Big Lebowski (the car bashing scene) reference and nerdy D&D references to name a couple.
Although it’s trying to be different, it does still follow some classic cartoon formulas. I guess you can’t really get away from this, but it’s that classic episodic formula, slapstick comedy, and squeaky-voiced dialogue that just says cartoon. Yes, it’s one of those shows that tries to bridge the gap between audience ages with some throwback references, but it’s just not enough for me. Most of the stories revolve around home life and school. At least it’s not one of those moral-based cartoons, which pretty much lets the show fly off in any direction for no real reason.
This show just sounds like a cartoon when you’ve got it playing in the background. It’s that squeaky, sound effect filled chaotic drone that’s typical of a cartoon. But past that, there actually is some decent voice acting in this show. The main character Gumball’s slightly raspy voice is pretty cute. Gumball’s family is full of diverse characters, including a mom with anger management issues and a goldfish that sprouted legs. Some characters have those annoying, dopey, over the top types of voices, like Gumball’s rabbit father, Richard. And the music at least has a rather creative, modern flair to it. So at least it’s not filled with that Looney Toons type of orchestrated cartoon music.
I had some fun with The Amazing World of Gumball. This is one of those shows that you really need to see in action to appreciate. If you look at stills or the box, well yeah, you’ll have no idea what’s going on. The blend of art styles actually makes the show feel more like a more realistic sitcom at times. But then at times it just reverts to bland cartoon formula tropes. I wouldn’t say this is a very unique cartoon overall (save for the jumble of art styles), but it is at least entertaining, and feels pretty upbeat and funny overall.
