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Cartoon Network are not as good as they were, back in the days when Dexter's Laboratory, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken and Powerpuff Girls were airing, but it is not a channel to give up hope on. There is trash like Problem Solvers, Mad and especially Johnny Test(Ben 10: Omniverse is not quite as bad but an example of a great franchise going a huge step backwards), but there are also gems like Regular Show and Adventure Time. While it's not without its faults The Amazing World of Gumball is one of Cartoon Network's better shows. In the earlier episodes especially, some jokes do fall flat due to either not being funny or having bad(rushed and drawn out, starting and ending too early or late) timing, and there are a few tired story lines here and there.
On the most part however, The Amazing World of Gumball is a very good show that has gotten better overtime and has potential to grow even more given the chance. The selling points are the animation, music and characters. The animation is colourful and wonderfully surreal, the mix of traditional, CGI, stop-motion and surreal environmental-like backgrounds make for one very unique visual style and in a good way. The music is bubbly and catchy, always memorable and enough to keep you in a good mood. The theme tune is not quite a personal favourite(populated with Hanna Barbera and 90s Disney shows admittedly), at least though it's not as cheesy as the ones for Ben 10: Omniverse and Johnny Test. The characters are admittedly cliché but they're funny, quirky and cute and fit beautifully within the show's overall tone. Gumball is an endearing titular character, but the most memorable are Anais and especially Darwin.
Some have shown annoyance towards Richard and understandably, he was annoying to begin with. But once the writing got better the more easier it was for me to like him better. Besides the father figures on the Seth McFarlane shows(especially Peter Griffin on Family Guy) are far more obnoxious. Although the writing and stories for The Amazing World of Gumball haven't been consistently perfect, they still have more shining moments than utter failures. Most of the humour and writing is smart and hilarious with clever timing, while the stories have a great oddball charm and are sweet-natured and fun. The voice acting is great, the voice actors of Gumball and Darwin have such a good dynamic and should get more work. To conclude, not quite amazing but very good. It starts off a little shaky but if you stay with it it gets better, and has more potential to grow even more than it is doing.
8/10 Bethany Cox
8/10
