The Amazing World of Gumball

The Amazing World of Gumball (also known simply as Gumball) is a British-American surreal comedy animated television series created by Ben Bocquelet for Cartoon Network. Produced primarily by Cartoon Network Studios Europe, it first aired on May 3, 2011. The series revolves around the lives of 12-year-old Gumball Watterson, a blue cat and his goldfish best friend—adoptive brother 10-year-old Darwin, who attend middle school in the fictional city of Elmore. They frequently find themselves involved in various shenanigans around the city, during which time they interact with fellow family members—younger sister Anais, mother Nicole and father Richard—and an extended supporting cast of characters.

Bocquelet based several of the series' characters on rejected characters from his previous commercial work and making its premise a mixture of "family shows and school shows", which Cartoon Network was heavily interested in. He pitched The Amazing World of Gumball to the network and Turner Broadcasting executive Daniel Lennard subsequently greenlit production of the series. It is the first series to be produced by Cartoon Network Studios Europe, and is currently co-produced with Studio SOI in Germany and Great Marlborough Productions Limited.

One unique feature of the series is its lack of stylistic unity. Characters are designed, filmed, and animated using multiple styles and techniques (stylised traditional animation, puppetry, CGI, stop motion, Flash animation, live-action, etc.)

The series has made multiple stylistic changes throughout its production, specifically in the transition between its first and second seasons. Such changes include character redesigns, an increase in the use of VFX, higher quality animation, and a shift towards a much darker, more satirical comedic style.

Bocquelet later stated on September 6, 2016 that the sixth season would be his last time working on the show, but production could continue without him. However, 2 years later on October 7, 2018, he retweeted an article stating that the sixth season will be the last, though the author of the article made a follow-up article saying that more seasons are still possible. A six-episode miniseries titled Darwin's Yearbook was announced for the series in November.