Darwin is often depicted as brown-skinned/Black in the fandom when made human, due to all of his voice actors being Black. Cut to season 6's episode "The Shippening", in which a humanized, anime-style Darwin is depicted with dark skin.
"Pepperoni" was originally just a surname made up by fans for the pizza couple, Quattro and Siciliana, and was never stated to be their surname. That is until "The Understanding", where their son is called "Peter Pepperoni", which means this surname is now official.
In "The Catfish", Gumball says searching his name in the internet resulted in him finding fan art of himself, which are based on real ones.
"The Lady" is skipped over in Russia, Bulgaria and countries of former USSR and Yugoslavia (most likely because of the references to infidelity, cross-dressing, and drug trips), even though the brief scene in "The Anybody" showing that Clayton once disguised himself as the mall fountain was shown in the Russian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Serbian and Bulgarian version of that episode.
In Italy, the episode "The Job" (known there as "Speedy Pizza") was mysteriously absent from reruns for a long time. It's still very rare to see it broadcast on TV nowdays, but at least it can be streamed on Netflix.
A frame of "The Tape" with Darwin saying "You really think people go on the Internet and get angry about cartoons?" became popular on the internet. He never said that.
"I'm a banana!" is considered Banana Joe's catchphrase, but that line was only spoken once, in "The Robot".
Cast Incest: In "The Ad", Bernie and Ethel Klein are siblings voiced by Garrick Hagon and Liza Ross, respectively, and their voice actors are married in real life.
Teresa Gallagher is a singer in real life. She gets to properly sing as Nicole in "The Compilation" and "The Fuss", as Penny in "The Love" and "The Compilation", and as Teri in "The Compilation" and "The Singing".
Nicolas Cantu gets to show his singing in "Goodbye" ("The Uncle"), "If It's Too Hard To Forgive" ("The Parents").
Donielle T. Hansley Jr. did an impressive singing of "Without You" in "The Matchmaker".
Jack Hobbs, better known as Beatbox Hobbit, is the provider of Juke's beatboxing noises.
Censor Decoy: Little Timmy in "The Schooling". In his original design◊, he looked Ambiguously Gay with his hair and clothing. His final design◊ makes it more like he's been wearing the same clothes since he was a child... except for his high heels, jeans shorts with pink polka dot leggings, and his crop top (even if it can be explained away as "Timmy outgrew his shirt and found the high heels, jean shorts, and polka-dot leggings in the trash or shoplifted them from a store").
The initial voice actors for Gumball (Logan Grove), Darwin (Kwesi Boakye), and Anais (Kyla Rae Kowalewski) took the roles at approximately the age of 12, 11, and 9, respectively. About three years later, Gumball and Darwin were recast for the third season due to puberty: Gumball's new voice actor (Jacob Hopkins) was 11 and Darwin's (Terrell Ransom Jr.) was 10. Anais's original voice actor continues to voice her even as she enters her teens as Kowalewski can still make her voice sound young — and the fact that girls' voices don't change as dramatically as boys' voices do during puberty. In Season 5, Gumball and Darwin's new voice actors hit puberty and were recast again, with Gumball being now voiced by Nicolas Cantu, which was 13 years old when he was cast, and Darwin voiced by Donielle Hansley Jr, which was 12 years old when he was cast. A few episodes into Season 6, Donielle was replaced as Darwin's voice actor by Christian J. Simon.
Originally played straight in French with Gumball being voiced by Arthur Dubois in the first four seasons of the show. Averted as of season 5 with Gumball being voiced by Sophie Pyronnet, who is an adult woman. Also in the French version, Darwin was voiced by Sacha Capelluto in Season 1 and Tim Balasri from the first episode of Season 2 to the 29th episode of Season 5(The Weirdo). Averted as of “The Heist” with Darwin being voiced by Marie-Line Landerwijn.
Zig-zagged in the Russian version. In the Season 1 Gumball and Drawin were voiced by women, but in Seasons 2-5 they were recast to be voiced by boys up until their puberty.
In the Brazilian Portuguese dub, Gumball was originally voiced by Eduardo Drummond in the first two seasons, but changed to João Victor Granja since Season 3, while Anais' voice actress changed from Fernanda Ribeiro to Mariana Dondi in Season 5; both due to puberty. Meanwhile, Darwin's voice actor Yago Machado is so iconic and associated to the character, he stayed in the role even after going through puberty.
On a similar note to the Russian and Brazilian dubs, the Mexican Latin American dub is a subversion, with Gumball being voiced by now-retired Paolo Filio during the first seven episodes, but he quitted the role as a result of management issues, so Gumball was recast to Isabel Martiñón. Played straight with Darwin and Anais, whose voice actors Gerardo Mendoza and Mariana Toledo continue in their roles to the present day, with them being rarely voiced by other persons.
Content Leak: Info on The Movie was discovered across 2022 through linkedin and Facebook of people who worked on it.
At least 3 storyboard artists (all working for Bobbypills) completed work on the film during September 2022.
Warner Bros. Animation is assisting in terms of editing and other work.
The possible final title is Gumball : The Movie as revealed through the storyboard artist updates mentioning it multiple times.
The film has gotten far enough to be in the editing stage.
The main VFX company behind the film is Light VFX who confirmed their partnership with Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe and Bobbypills on their Facebook page that doubled as a job listing for it.
Creator Backlash: When a fan suggested a forest episode, Ben Bocquelet replied he "already did a rubbish one", referring to "The Picnic".
Bocquelet said that he likes Darwin the most here.
Jacob Hopkins, Gumball's second voice actor, said that Rob is his favorite character.
Creator's Favorite Episode: A series of videos posted for Cartoon Network's Imagination Studios project had numerous staff talk about their favorite episodes (or possibly just their favorite in season three; the videos seem unclear).
Show creator Ben Bocquelet's favorite episode is the Season 3 finale "The Money".
Bocquelet's pet dog, Woody (yes, really) likes the episode "The Procrastinators".
Animator Yannis Boultadakis' favorite episode is "The Puppy".
Sarah Fell (producer) likes "The Pizza".
Richard Overall's (voice director and editor) favorite episode is "The Fraud".
Pascalita Bories (another animator) likes "The Joy" and considers Miss Simian her favorite character.
Juan Pedro's (another animator) favorite episode is "The Mothers".
Guillaume Cassuto's (one of the series writers) favorite episode is "The Shell".
Creator's Oddball: One of The Movie's animation studios Bobbypills rings as this as they primarily made super vulgar or violent adult cartoons and The Movie is their first family friendly production.
Miss Simian, Tina Rex, Coach Russo, and formerly Sussie are all women voiced by men, though Coach and Tina are intended to sound masculine.
In quite a few dubs, either Gumball, Darwin or both of them are voiced by females. A notable example is the Japanese dub, where they're voiced by Junko Takeuchi and Yumiko Kobayashi respectively.
The character Teri (the hypochondriac paper cutout bear) is played by Teresa Gallagher. Given Teri is a supporting character and Gallagher also voices one of the main cast, this was probably a coincidence.
Anton is played by Anthony Hull.
Jessica (Alan's mother, whose name was revealed in "The Saint") is played by Jessica McDonald.
In "The Neighbor", it is revealed the Crocodile Woman is called Alison Sandra Gator. The "Sandra" on her name is a reference to her voice actress, Sandra Searles Dickinson.
Dawson Casting: With the exception of the Watterson children, the kid characters are played by adults.
In Czech dub by Czech Television, the actors who voiced Gumball (Aleš Háma) and Darwin (Marek Holý) were 41 and 35, respectively during the time the dubbing was made (2014). In CN's dub they were voiced instead by Pavel Tesař and Petr Gelnar, who began voicing the characters when they were fifty and forty-four, respectively.
Sussie's model and first/fifth season voice actor is Aurelie Charbonnier, one of the show's storyboard artists and the creator's girlfriend. Her screams and laughs are provided by the show's creator and Charbonnier's boyfriend, Ben Bocquelet. In seasons two, three and four, Fergus Craig is the voice of Sussie on the rare times that Sussie speaks coherently, though Aurelie's chin is always used for the character and Ben Bocquelet always does Sussie's screaming and laughing.
Billy Parham is voiced by Richard Overall, the show's voice director and one of its editors. He also performed some of the songs that weren't sung by a character, such as "Because We're Men" in "The Mustache", and played the physical model for the anchorman of Elmore News (albeit dubbed over by another voice actor) until he was Ret Conned into being a puppet made of newspaper in "The News" (though Rich Overall did play the anchorman for Elmore News on the original, rarely-shown version of "The News" where most of the news crew was played by people).
Mic Graves, the series's director, voices Banana Joe, Banana Joe's father Banana Bob, the voiceover heard through "The Voice" which is actually William the flying eyeball's internal monologue which was also heard in “The Compilation”, Leonard Daniels, and Sussie's father (and also provides the chin).
Sussie's mother uses the chin of executive producer Sarah Fell.
Ben Bocquelet provided the sneezes of the drum kit guy and was the guy on the antique show on "The Watch".
"The Mystery": The yearbook pictures for Alan and Tina both use their designs from the early reel.
According to an early production image, the fingerprint robber was going to study in Gumball's class. He was aged, but in "The Gi" he is shown in a flashback with his early kid design.
The class photo in "The Curse" that gets impaled by pencils has everyone but Darwin and Gumball as they were in the early reel.
"The Fridge": Nicole puts war paint on her face during the paintball game. The way she does it covers her whiskers, making them look longer, and thus more like they did in her character model before it was redesigned for the second season.
"The Skull": When Clayton shapeshifts into Banana Joe's form, he looks like Joe's first season character model instead of his current one.
"The Storm": Masami's crush on Alan is funnier when you realize that they were a couple in the pitch pilot.
"The Tape": The group shot where Gumball almost says the show's name is very similar to the end of one of the series's trailers, except that was in front of the Watterson house and everyone managed to say it. In "The Compilation" there is also a similar scene, with several characters singing in front of the Wattersons' house.
"The Void": Darwin's CGI design from the pitch pilot can be seen floating around, as can a rejected design for the Watterson house.
Development Hell: The Movie! the shows titular Grand Finale has been stuck in this since 2019. Even with 2 updates on the film from 2021 both confirming it being greenlit and its plot Cartoon NetworkHBO Max and Hanna Barbera Studios Europe have not given any info on what happened to the film. With the movie not showing up during the Warner Discovery Upfront the status of The Movie! and how much was/is done is unknown. Not helping is Ben Bocquelet with the films staff implying they were going to communicate with fans about The Movies status through Discord but never went through with that plan.
The Series being a sequel to the show/movie as it was also announced with The Movie! is in the same situation.
The Movie! despite still progressing in development at Hanna Barbera Studios Europe has been dropped by HBO Max and until they can find another streaming service for it/way to get around it the film will remain unreleased.
Executive Meddling: In the skateboarding scene from "The Ollie", Simon Landrein, the animator of it, had to face several censorship conflicts during production of the animation. For instance, he included Gumball skating around a hot dog car, simply because he "was not allowed to show him passing over the hood of a moving car, a gesture considered dangerous and that children might want to reproduce." (the UK has a lot of strict rules against "dangerous, imitable, and antisocial behavior" in any show or movie meant for children 12 and undernote this also applies to shows and movies made for teens and adults, but there's more of an emphasis on censoring dangerous behavior in kids' shows than on shows meant for adults, so things like playing with fireworks, bullying, skipping school, or doing skateboarding tricks, among other things, often do get censored for being seen as "fun and risk-free", according to BBFC guidelines).
The Movie! and The Series are in limbo because Warner Bros. Discovery canned the HBO Max release and whether the film gets cancelled or not will revolve around a Network to the Rescue situation where anyone can pick it up to be finished. Ben notes "It's a Schrödinger's cat situation"
Fake American: Most of the cast besides the voice actors for Gumball, Darwin, and Anais are English, Scottish, or Irish voice actors doing American Accents. Technically averted with Dan Russellnote Richard, Mr. Fitzgerald, the Coach, Paperball, Pantsbully, shooting star, bandage doctor, Hank, jolly hamburger, Donut Cop, and Tina in the first season, Adam Longnote Mr. Small and Phil, and Sandra Searles Dickinsonnote Granny Jojo, Mrs. Jotunheim, the pink cupcake lady, Alison, Felicity, Banana Barbara, Karen, and from Season 3 onwards, Joan Markham, the Band-Aid school nurse, who are American actors based in the UK. Similarly, numerous characters are voiced by Kerry Shalenote Bobert the robot, Hector the giant, Leslie the flower, Larry the rock-head clerk, Sal Left Thumb, Harold in Season 1-4 and 5 until “The Cycle”; Alan the balloon and Idaho the potato (sometimes) in the first season, and Mike the Microphone Guy, who is Canadian and currently living in London.
Fandom Life Cycle: The show historically peaked at stage 4, although it stayed at stages 1 or 2 throughout most of the world. It then reached stage 6a/6b during the run of the final two seasons, and entered stage X a few years after the ending.
Flashback with the Other Darrin: A flashback in "The Name" redubs the scene from the first season episode "The Curse" where Gumball is riding down the highway in a mop bucket shouting, "I'm gonna make it! I'm gonna make it!" with Jacob Hopkins' voice instead of Logan Grove's. The same goes for a flashback with Darwin in "The Extras" to the second season episode "The Sweaters" where Darwin's line "This is boring! b-b-b-b-boring!" was done by Terrell Ransom, Jr. rather than Kwesi Boakye.
Ben Bocquelet stated in the interview that the Working TitleGumball, which later became the main character's name, came from thinking of things a child would randomly have in his pocket.
The episode "The Money", particularly the climax where the Wattersons' lack of money causes the show's animation to get cruder and more low-budget until everyone—except Gumball—signs the contract, was inspired by the show's budget always running out by season's end.
The family copying the Wattersons in "The Copycats" is inspired by a real series of Chinese commercials that blatantly plagiarized Gumball's art style, character design, and even individual scenes. The commercial advertised a brand of goat milk called "Miracle Star", hence the scene where Gumball first meets his doppelganger while looking at containers of powdered goat milk. Storyboards of the episode actually featured the Miracle Star characters exactly, rather than parodies thereof in the final episode.
The official upload of the music video "My Mom" was taken off YouTube around 2014 and wasn't posted there again until 2019.
The "Darwin's Yearbook" miniseries has only aired sparingly on Cartoon Network since it premiered. This is most likely due to the fact that the episode is mostly a Clip Show with only a handful of new footage so Cartoon Network probably didn't see a reason to air it again. It's unavailable on HBO Max and Hulu but it remains on the Cartoon Network app for the time being.
Late Export for You: "The Compilation" first aired on the US on August 2016. In Latin America and Brazil, for some reason, it took more than two years to air, airing only in August and September of 2018 respectively, even though the rest of the season had already finished airing there in August 2017.
Teresa Gallagher voices Nicole, Penny, Mrs. Robinson, Jackie, Teri, Polly, Siciliana Pepperoni (in Season 2-3), Joan Markham (in Season 2), Carmen (in Season 1), among others, and each one of them has their own unique voice.
Dan Russell voices Richard, Patrick, Dr. Butt (in “The Goons” only), Coach, Tina (Season 1), Hot Dog Guy (Seasons 2-4, “The Nest”, and “The Diet”), Bandage Doctor, Hamburger Cop, Donut Cop (Season 2 onwards), Mr. Chanax, Paperball, Hank, Ripley 2000 Manager, Gary (Season 2 onwards), Marvin (Season 2 onwards), shooting star, and Donald (Season 4 onwards).
Meaningful Release Date: It's unknown if it was a massive coincidence or intentional, but "The Schooling", the 18th episode produced and aired in Season 6, first aired on the USA in June18, 2018.
While the host segments in "The News" are done by puppets in the final episode, in an earlier version they were done with live-action actors. This version was enough for a complete cut of the episode that actually aired in several countries.
In the Latin American dub, sometimes the voice actors were either busy or unavailable at the time, so they were changed for a few loops.
Anais' voice was changed with Lourdes Arruti in the middle of episode "The Box", then it went back to Mariana Toledo.
In the episode "The Castle", Nicole's voice was changed with Gerardo Suárez due to the character speaking in low-pitch.
Richard has gotten three replacements: Arturo Castañeda in episode "The Nobody", Miguel Ángel Ruiz in "The Guy", and despite his official actor recording most of his lines in "The Singing", Moisés Iván Mora recorded the very last one.note Presumably because Benjamín Rivera was also replaced in the singing role by Dan Frausto
Outdated by Canon: "The Shell" revealed that Penny is actually a shapeshifting fairy. This pretty much blew away the popular fan theory that, because of her antlers, she was a deer under her shell.
Out of Order: Episodes often air out of production order, which was stated by one writer to be why no multi-part episodes were planned in its early episodes (there eventually were in the fourth season). Plus, the Halloween episodes are always aired in October, which resulted in "The Ghouls", the 43th and penultimate episode of season six and the series in production order, to be only the 25th episode in the season in airing order.
Despite being one of Nicolas Cantu's best-known roles, Gumball is rather against type for him. Most of Cantu's characters tend to be kind, upstanding types - such as Prince James, Leonardo, and Charlie. Gumball, however, is an irascible, scheming cynic motivated primarily by greed and spite.
The Amazing World of Gumball: The Movie's lead writer is Shane Mack who is best known for making the Hard R raunchy comedy Coffee and Kareem and various NSFW short films. Downplayed in that considering thisparticularseries this choice is pretty appropriate.
Production Nickname: The Orange Lady with blue hair that appears in Season 6 and the pink Checkout Clerk from "The Brain" are called "Blue Lady" and "Dill Pickle Boy", respectively, by staff members.
Prop Recycling: As mentioned in the main page quote, a lot of the characters on the show are rejected advertising mascots Ben Bocquelet had in his portfolio that he didn't want to throw out or remodel in the hopes they get accepted.
"The Procrastinators" is similar to "The End", because in both episodes, Gumball and Darwin try to do as many things as possible before a time limit ends.
"The Saint" and "The Best" are both about Gumball trying to bring someone perfect to his level. Also, the characters from the respective episodes are boyfriend and girlfriend (Alan and Carmen)
"The Vegging" is somewhat similar to "The Laziest", since Gumball and Darwin are trying to do nothing but just relax on the couch.
"The Misunderstandings" can be seen similarly to "The Pony", as both episodes have Gumball rushing to a location before it's too late and having to deal with several cringe-inducing obstacles along the way.
Referenced by...: In the comic series Adoption, the main character Gabriel watches The Amazing World of Gumball in his hotel room in Peru. He seems to think that the show is Peruvian in origin and notes that many cartoons portray fathers as bumbling and unkind (the comic being about Gabriel reflecting on his failure to be a good father and suddenly being saddled with the responsibility of being a grandfather to his son's adopted daughter while his son is jailed).
Saved from Development Hell: Season 6 was meant to premiere with the episode "The Future", but it was delayed due to heavy production. It eventually aired as the 33rd episode.
"The Stink" was originally supposed to premiere on April 27, 2018, and "The Awareness" was supposed to premiere on May 3, 2018, but were replaced by reruns of Teen Titans Go! and Unikitty!, respectively. The latter episode was accidentally uploaded on VOD services, however. In the US, they both premiered in November.
Series Hiatus: Because of the show's multi-medium format increasing production time and how everyone on staff works to make sure every episode is made with care, the first two seasons of Gumball took about one-and-a-half times as long to come out per episode as most cartoons of similar length, which is why there can be anywhere from three weeks to a couple of months between new episodes in the same season. By the third season, production apparently sped up, bringing it more in line with others shows on the same network.
Short Run in Peru: Several times the series has gone on an extended hiatus in the middle of a season, leading episodes to premiere in other countries before reaching U.S. and U.K. audiences:
UK*Given the show is made in the UK, but with the US as its primary audience, one could debate whether episodes premiering in the UK are examples of this trope or the only ones where this trope does not apply.: "The Mystery", "The Microwave", The Meddler", "The Fight", "The Apprentice", "The Hug", "The Wicked", "The Scam", "The News"*Finished version., "The Stink", "The Awareness"
Spain: "The Virus", "The Pony", "The Hero", "The Dream", "The Sidekick", "The Photo", "The Storm", "The Possession", "The Future", "The Wish", "The Factory", "The Mess", "The Revolt", "The Heart"
Middle East and North Africa (Arabic dub): the last nine episodes of season two (from "The Promise" to "The Finale"), "The Origins" (also premiered in the Netherlands on the same day), "The News"*Unfinished version.
Chile: "The Oracle"
Latin America: "The Helmet", "The Safety" (original English dialogue and not dubbed in Spanish)
Portugal (Portuguese dub): The last four episodes of season three ("The Downer", "The Egg", "The Triangle", and "The Money")
France: "The Ape", "The Curse", "The Wicked", "The Nest", "The Scam", "The Stink", "The Awareness", "The Master", "The Silence", "The Future"
Turkey: "The Awareness"
Trolling Creator: After months of no info Ben Bocquelet brought The Gumball Movie to Annecy 2022 promising a preview. He presented to the audience page 1 of the movie's script all blocked out with rejected covering nearly all words blurred all character sheets and obscured behind the scenes details.
Troubled Production: The show's production had a rather rocky start because very few of the crew members hired were experienced in doing TV. This resulted in major organizational restructurings and numerous delays that the show's creator is thankful for not getting in trouble for.
Four episodes were scrapped in the first season: two were called "The Mom" and "The Pizza", the other two weren't named. The premise for the two named episodes may or may not have been reused for the season three episodes "The Mothers" and "The Pizza".
Season two had an episode planned called "The Rex" which would have fully introduced Tina's father and have been a parody of/homage to Jurassic Park. It was cut because it would have gone over budget. Mr. Rex eventually ended up showing up in full anyway in the fourth season episode "The Routine".
Unspecified Role Credit: The show's credits list all the voice actors featured in that season (even if they hadn't appeared in that episode) and only specifies character for the Watterson family, so it is hard to know who voices whom, especially since the roles have changed since season one. The rest have to be confirmed by the actors and staff over the internet—mostly notably, the voice director registered an account on the show's fan wiki in May of 2015, correcting some mistakes that had been standing since the show start four years earlier. He continues to reveal voice actors when asked in his Twitter.
Word of God: According to this response regarding Nicole's reaction to buff Richard in "The Diet" due to her not appearing in the episode, she prefers Richard the way he is, being fat and chubby, more than being buff.
Working Title: The show was first planned to just be called Gumball, but after deciding that would be the main character's name, it was lengthened to its final name. Some individual episodes also changed name mid-production:
"The World" was at one point named "The Objects".
"The Extras" was originally titled "The People"
"The Fraud" was originally called "The Phoney"
"The Void" was originally called "The Hole".
"The Boss" was originally called "The Heart" (and thus presumably Mr. Robinson's injury was heart-related instead of "stuffing deficiency"). That title was later reused for a Season 6 episode.
"The Question" was originally "The Answer".
"The Origins" was "The Roots", though "The Roots" is repurposed as the title of a later episode in the same season.
"The Rerun" was originally "The Disaster: Part 2".
"The Singing" was originally called "The Music".
"The Cage" was originally called "The Octagon".
"The One" was originally called "The Right" for unknown reasons.
Ben Bocquelet has described Richard, Nicole, and Anais as caricatured versions of his family members that they're named after and Gumball as being based on his perception, as an adult, of what he was like as a kidalthoughBetween different interviews, Bocquelet has expressed ambivalence as to how much Gumball is based on himself. In one video, Bocquelet said he considered Gumball more of a character, another staff member said Gumball reminded them of Ben often, and Bocquelet sheepishly emphasized that he's not that stupid.. Darwin was inspired by several childhood friends that spent so much time at Bocquelet's house that they felt like members of the family. One, named Paul, was also bald and had a similar personality.
Writer Conflicts with Canon: Ben Bocquelet said that there aren't any other towns in this world besides Elmore, but the show states otherwise; for example, frequently seen road signs◊ read other town names such as "Big Bun City" and "Panays Town", and real life towns are also existent in the show itself. Given the way the question was phrased, he may have just meant the show wasn't going to have any other towns appear.
◊, he looked Ambiguously Gay with his hair and clothing. His final design
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