THE WONDERFULLY WEIRD WORLD OF GUMBALL: Episodes 1.1-1.6

Name: THE WONDERFULLY WEIRD WORLD OF GUMBALL: Episodes 1.1-1.6
Item: THE WONDERFULLY WEIRD WORLD OF GUMBALL: Episodes 1.1-1.6
Author: Review

"Welcome Back to Elmore"

Family Content: +1 Moderately questionable elements. (Discernment required for young children.)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

Credits →

What You Need To Know:

THE WONDERFULLY WEIRD WORLD OF GUMBALL is an animated fever dream, streaming on Hulu, about an anthropomorphic cat named Gumball and his brother Darwin, who get into mischief at home and school, much to the chagrin of their mother. They live with her, their father, and their sister Anais, and get into shenanigans together or with the whole family. Each episode has a self-contained storyline with a problem to solve, and recurring characters return from previous episodes. It continues the story of cult classic, THE AMAZING WORLD OF GUMBALL that aired on Cartoon Network.

The first six episodes of season one of THE WONDERFULLY WEIRD WORLD OF GUMBALL contain colorful animation with fast pacing and quirky characters. The voice actors give great performances and the humor lands sometimes. The 2-D and 3-D characters work, because of the strangeness. It presents a light moral worldview where characters make wrong decisions and learn their lesson at the end of the episode. One episode portrays the importance of family despite the mother's annoyance with her family members. Ultimately, the showrunners tackle complicated topics with humor. It also presents a light Romantic worldview, where a character advises another to be true to oneself. MOVIEGUIDE® recommends caution for young children.

Content:

(B, Ro, V, S, N, Ho, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

In most episodes, the show presents a light moral worldview where certain characters make the wrong decisions and learn their lesson at the end of the episode. One episodes portrays the importance of family despite the mother’s annoyance with her family members. It also shows a light Romantic worldview where a certain character tells another to be true to who you are;

Foul Language:

None. 15 instances of calling people dumb, 1 Dagnabbit; dust in character’s mouth, a reference to eating gunk in the sink, two characters spit food and drink into each other’s mouths, rat in someone’s mouth, fart sounds from a character;

Violence:

An anthropomorphic monkey beats up an anthropomorphic heart and the heart bleads in rainbow colors. After a plane crash lands on a character, implications of blood splatter, which is really ketchup and mustard. Off-screen the character talks afterwards, implying he’s fine. Characters get bruised after a fight that happened off-screen. Implication that the two main characters will eat an anthropomorphic burger. The principal pushes Gumball off a stage and Gumball crashes into a microphone system. In all episodes, the characters are in constant peril.

Sex:

The father sticks a sausage in and out of his mouth and the sister points out that he figured out how to rewind a memory he was having, and Gumball points out that he wishes his dad had not done that. A male and female character kiss a couple of times;

Nudity:

A character sits on an avocado seed and you can see outline of butt, two instances of outlined butt shots, more butt shots and shakes.

Alcohol Use:

None;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

None; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Light homosexual insinuation between the two brothers. A character offers his brother a kiss and the brother eats it. One of them says that it is the most romantic thing he has ever heard after another suggests they will be cellmates. It’s minor, though, because nothing happens in the following episode. Neither parents are always good role models. The father commits gluttony with his children, which the mother rebukes. The mother disobeys the police officers and plows through traffic to get to an amusement park and, visibly angry, and tells her husband to throw things at the police cars.

More Detail:

In the first episode, “The Burger”, the show acknowledges the passage of time between the two series and positions Gumball and Darwin to fight against the corruption of the fast food industry as they scramble to find a healthier alternative to eat. In the second episode, “The Assistant”, Gumball and Darwin’s mother must deal with her family’s lack of help around the house and the existence of artificial intelligence in her life.

In the third episode, “The Distance”, Gumball and Darwin’s constant togetherness drives their mom to separate them in different rooms, aiming to teach them independence. However, Gumball strongly opposes this idea. In the fourth episode, “The Thing”, before their paternal grandmother visits them, their father must figure out something their mother mentioned is or risk losing his marriage.

In the fifth episode, “The Butts”, Gumball wants to read his poem about butts in school, but his principal forbids him to do so because of his insecurity about his butt. In the sixth episode, “The Traffic”, their mother wants to take the family to an amusement park as a gift for Anais before it closes forever.

This TV show features colorful, simple animation with fast pacing and quirky characters who are aware of their existence within the show and the real world. The voice actors give great performances, and the humor sometimes lands. As the title suggests, weirdness ensues in every episode as if someone walked into a fever dream and has a hard time getting out. The blend of 2-D and 3-D characters works because of the strangeness of the whole endeavor.

The filmmakers overdo Gumball and Darwin’s shenanigans, as they did in the original cartoons, and the parents demonstrate hypocrisy when teaching the children to behave, because they continue to do things they shouldn’t. The show goes to inappropriate and bizarre places with “The Butts” episode in particular. While they present the principal’s insecurity with how his butt looks, there are too many butt shots that distract from the message. They definitely could have toned down the immaturity.

In most episodes, the show presents a light moral worldview where certain characters make the wrong decisions and learn their lesson at the end of the episode. One episode portrays the importance of family despite the mother’s annoyance with her family members. Ultimately, the showrunners tackle complicated topics with humor. It also presents a light Romantic worldview, where a character advises another to be true to oneself. MOVIEGUIDE® recommends caution for young children.