The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Console

(Sorry this is late, I was preoccupied. That shouldn't surprise you that much.)

"Okay, we need to find this Awesome Store before we all start growing anime hair."
I was super cautious about approaching this episode. Don't get me wrong, I was excited, but I tried to rationalize how likely it would fail. Well, it was amazing. However, because this article is up so late already and so many people already know it by heart, I'm just going to skip to my thoughts. No plot synopsis.

There is so much to like about this episode, but most importantly, they managed to nail to source material better than any other show I've ever seen. I mean it: there is not another show that I can think of that has such an acute understanding of how this kind of stuff works and is able to make every joke flow perfectly instead of feeling contrived.

Seriously. Almost every cartoon has done a video game episode. So few get it right, yet here we have Gumball, which has nailed it so many times already - "The Phone," "The Words," "The Blame" - but to have the audacity to pull out the most generic concept possible - "THEY GET SUCKED INTO A VIDEO GAME" - and utterly destroy the source material is insane.

Even the tiniest, most insignificant aspects are a miracle. Darwin and Anais have stilted animation, the background has that PS1 texture filling going on, and the music is repetitive. It's one thing to know how to write this kind of episode, but it's another to find all of the visual nuances. They don't even serve as a joke- they just show how much dedication the team put into making the situation as aesthetically believable as possible.

And the jokes. The jokes! From anyone else they would be ill-conceived and hacky, but the show manages to find a new angle on even the most overdone jokes. The ridiculous emphasis on "THE AWESOME STORE" as the ultimate villain; the gunblade just existing; and the gang suddenly growing Cloud and Sephiroth's hair from FFVII- it's all brilliant. The best joke is obviously Anais rejecting an alternative outfit on the basis of it not being age-appropriate- it's such a repeated complaint that the joke shouldn't work, but the show downplays it so much that it's fantastic.

Special shout-out as well to the constant use of "MYBUTT" which starts out as a lame joke, which the show is aware of, and which they normalize it over time, regardless of how tempting it is to try to keep pushing the concept as the funniest thing ever. The show understands the shelf-lives of its jokes, whereas other shows would continuously pursue it.

Takeaway:
-Every fourth-wall break with the dialogue boxes was great, specifically Gumball grabbing it and using it to knock Leslie unconscious. If it's not a joke about video games, it's just the show's natural instincts shining through, and the jokes always work regardless of the context. It's like in "The Joy" when Miss Simian walks past an infected Sussie and confusedly imitates her to avoid getting caught- it doesn't pertain to the genre it's making fun of. It's just a perfect fusion of the show's humor and the genre it seeks to imitate.
-"NOOOOO! A SUPER TEDIOUS SIDEQUEST THAT PRAYS ON EVERY GAMER'S WEAKNESS!" "Tortilla chips and sugary drinks?" "No." "The Sun?" "No, the compulsive need to complete every game to 100%."
-Bonus points for Nicole's "I'm Not Angry, Just Disappointed" final move dealing waaay more damage than any standard move, because there's nothing worse than emotional turmoil.
-Gumball's completionist tendencies kicking in and ending the episode with him about to restart the whole game after winning with only 89% completion was perfect.

Final Grade: A+. To take a generic plot and make it something truly original is one of the most difficult things I can think of doing, but once again, they did it. There's so much meticulous brilliance to it all, sure, but I also want to give a specific shout-out to the fact that this episode had an ongoing plot. An issue with most episodes is that they format them as such:

Beginning -> Middle interlude with lots of gags but no true advancement -> Climax -> End

This episode instead actually made that dangerous middle portion build over time, and the end result is an-adjective-synonymous-with-'perfect'-that-I-haven't-already-used. Making an ongoing plot is hard, but when it's done right, the show soars.

All in all, this is definitely one of the sharpest episodes that the show has done in mocking an element of pop culture, even if it can't beat the show just being itself.

For the last Gumball review on "The Box," CLICK HERE.
For a second opinion on "The Extras," CLICK HERE.