Having grown up with the Saturday Morning Cartoons in the 60’s and 70’s, as well as being a huge fan of the old Warner Brothers cartoons, I am very particular about the cartoons I watch nowadays. Most are horribly written and animated and for a while did no more than become show length commercials for an assortment of toys.
There was a change over the past several years however, and while the vast majority of new cartoons are still crap, occasionally there are some so odd, so clever, or so genuinely well written as to become worthwhile of spending time on or sharing with my daughter. Shows I might have dismissed in the past like “Spongebob Squarepants” or “Phineas and Pherb” are actually delightfully funny and I find myself laughing out loud at them.
When Cartoon Network’s “The Amazing World of Gumball” was brought to my attention because of the DVD that is about to be released, I was at first not to thrilled to watch it. But always willing to give things a chance, I set down to watch some of the twelve episodes offered up. I already knew the creators of the series brought together a mixed bag of animation styles and live action to the series and I wasn’t sure how it would work out.
“The Amazing World of Gumball” revolves around the lives a blue cat named Gumball and his friend Darwin, an evolved fish who walks and talks. Together the pair deals with all sorts of situations… and where the situations are fairly normal to us, in Gumball’s world they are anything but.
Ultimately, I watched all twelve episodes and was rather disappointed there weren’t more on the disc. It is as weird as weird gets, though well produced enough to be funny to adults. My 9 year old daughter got a big kick out of it and thought it was pretty funny as well and we enjoyed watching them together. Admittedly it may not appeal to all, but being that my family is a little odd, we like the odd.
The DVD only offers a brief introduction to the characters as a bonus feature, which is kind of unusual for a Cartoon Network release. I really would have liked a featurette on the show’s creators and its background, but nothing like that was offered here.
Episodes:
The DVD
The Third
The End
The Quest
The Laziest
The Gi
The Refund
The Picnic
The Mustache
The Wand
The Curse
The Meddler
Starring (the voices of): Logan Grove, Kwesi Boakye, Kyla Rae Kowalewski, Teresa Gallagher, Dan Russell
Extras: Meet the Wattersons
Studio: Cartoon Network
Release Date: 8/28/2012
MPAA Rating: NR
http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/tv_shows/gumball/index.html
