The Amazing World of Gumball (known also as Gumball) is a British-American children's animated television series created by Ben Bocquelet for Cartoon Network. Produced primarily by Cartoon Network Development Studio Europe, it first aired on May 3, 2011. The series revolves around the life of Gumball Watterson, a 12-year-old cat who attends middle school in the fictional city of Elmore. Accompanied by his adoptive goldfish brother Darwin, he frequently finds himself involved in various shenanigans around the city, during which he interacts with his other family members—sister Anais and parents Nicole and 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 Development Studio Europe, and is currently co-produced with Studio SOI and Great Marlborough Productions. One unique feature of the series is its total lack of stylistic unity. Characters are designed, filmed, and animated using different styles and techniques (stylized traditional animation, puppetry, photo-realistic CGI, stop motion, Flash animation, live action, etc.)

The third season of the British-American animated television series series The Amazing World of Gumball, created by Ben Bocquelet, aired on Cartoon Network in the United States. The season has 40 episodes. The series focuses on the misadventures of Gumball Watterson, a blue 12-year-old cat, along with his adopted brother, Darwin, a goldfish. Together, they cause mischief among their family, as well as with the wide array of students at Elmore Junior High, where they attend middle school.

Development

Concept

The season focuses on the misadventures of Gumball Watterson, a blue 12-year-old cat, along with his adopted brother, Darwin, a goldfish. Together, they cause mischief among their family, as well as with the wide array of students at Elmore Junior High, where they attend middle school. In a behind-the-scenes video documenting the production of the second season, creator Ben Bocquelet expanded on the development of some of the characters, and how they are based on interactions from his childhood.

The Amazing World of Gumball is a British-American animated comedy television series created by Ben Bocquelet for Cartoon Network. Since its debut on May 3, 2011, 135 episodes of the series have been broadcast; its fourth season premiered on July 7, 2015. The Amazing World of Gumball revolves around the life of a 12-year-old cat named Gumball Watterson (Logan Grove, seasons 1–2; Jacob Hopkins, season 3 onward) and his frequent shenanigans in the fictional American world of Elmore. Throughout the series, he interacts with characters such as his former pet, brother and best friend Darwin (Kwesi Boakye, seasons 1–2; Terrell Ransom, Jr., season 3 onward), sister Anais (Kyla Rae Kowalewski), and parents Nicole and Richard (Teresa Gallagher and Dan Russell).

Bocquelet conceived The Amazing World of Gumball in 2007 while working as a development artist for Cartoon Network Development Studio Europe. Having been asked by the network to pitch an idea for a new series for Adult Swim, he took sketches of several unused characters he had created for commercials and started developing a concept for a new series based on them. When Adult Swim saw the pilot, they didn't accept it because they thought it was "too cute". As Cartoon Network was heavily interested in "family and school shows" at the time, Bocquelet decided to make the series a kid series called The Amazing World of Gumball which was a combination of both. He pitched the series to Daniel Lennard, vice president of Original Series and Development at Turner Broadcasting, who was impressed by the series' premise and ultimately greenlit its production. The first series to be greenlit by Cartoon Network Development Studio Europe,The Amazing World of Gumball premiered on May 3, 2011 with the episode "The DVD", which was watched by 2.120 million viewers in the United States.