The Amazing World of Gumball (also known simply as Gumball or by its abbreviation TAWOG) is an animated sitcom created by Ben Bocquelet for Cartoon Network. The series concerns the lives of 12-year-old Gumball Watterson, an anthropomorphic blue cat, and adoptive goldfish brother Darwin, who attend middle school in the fictional city of Elmore, California. They often find themselves in various shenanigans around the city, during which they interact with fellow family members—younger sister Anais, mother Nicole, and father Richard—along with an extended supporting cast of characters.
Bocquelet based several of the series' characters on rejected characters from his previous commercial work while making its premise a mixture of "family shows and school shows", which Cartoon Network was heavily interested in. After Bocquelet pitched The Amazing World of Gumball to the network, Turner Broadcasting executive Daniel Lennard green-lit the production of the series. The show was produced by Cartoon Network Studios Europe, in association with Boulder Media (Ireland; season 1) and Studio Soi (Germany; seasons 2–6).
Gumball is noted for its intentional stylistic disunity, with characters designed, filmed, and animated using various styles and techniques, oftentimes within the same scene (stylized traditional animation, puppetry, CGI, stop motion, Flash animation, live-action, etc.). Although it is a children's series, Gumball comments on topics that are often considered serious or mature, including philosophy, marriage, cyberbullying, political intolerance, mental illness, and the human condition. The series has received critical acclaim and developed a cult following, with particular praises for its extensive references to popular culture and internet culture, sarcasm, subtle innuendos, dark humor, and metahumor.On 6 September 2016, Bocquelet announced the series would end after season 6; he reaffirmed his position on Twitter in October 2018. However, Turner Northern Europe was unable to confirm at the time whether the sixth season would be the show's last. Following the season 6 finale, two miniseries were released: the six-episode Darwin's Yearbook in November 2019 and The Gumball Chronicles in October 2020. On 15 June 2023, it was confirmed at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival that the seventh season of the show was in the works, though a release date has not been announced yet.On 17 February 2021, Cartoon Network revealed that a television film based on the series was in development. On 21 September 2021, it was announced that a new spin-off series, to be a follow-up for both the show and the movie, had been greenlit for Cartoon Network and HBO Max alongside the film. On 22 August 2022, it was reported that the film would no longer be heading to HBO Max, but would be shopped to other outlets instead.
