The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Ollie

(NOTE: This was written on December 2nd, 2016, BEFORE "The Copycats properly addressed the voice actor issue. The introduction is now virtually redundant.)

[gasps for 20 seconds.] Whelp, I missed an episode. And not just any episode, mind you, but the one where the voice actors were so unceremoniously swapped, which for the show is a bit of a big deal.

Heck, the last time they made the transaction, there was this huge, amazing episode about it called "The Kids" where Gumball and Darwin struggle to fight off the idea that they're aging only to have their voices change over in the end as they realize they'll never grow up. ("Yay?") And thus, Logan Grove passed his part down to Jacob Hopkins, and Kwesi Bokyae passed his part to Terrell Ransom, Jr.

This swap, however, is quite jarring. There wasn't really a huge episode to explore the concept so much as Nicolas Cantu and Donielle T. Hansley Jr. just kind of stepped in, stole the part, and sent Jacob and Terrell to the curb. At the very least, an altered rerun of "The Kids" would've sufficed just to be timeless.

Still, it's kind of hard to be angry. The last cast was going through puberty pretty hard, and while they still were able to capture the childlike candor of the characters, there was a bit of a mental block that kind of got in the way of parts of it. (Knowing that the person who voices their baby sister, Anais, is a child actor that is a fair bit older than them kind of offsets the connection too.) Also, of all the final episodes, they had a lot of lukewarm, reheated ones. Here's hoping the production code is a bit shuffled, and perhaps a bit too optimistically, Jacob could return for The Copycats later on, because if he can't pull of a counterfeit Gumball, then I don't know who can.

So... the episode. It was good!

The basic premise is that Gumball is angry that his dad Richard mishandled his skateboard as he is, a skateboarder, much to the hilarity of the town because, y'know, he's clearly not. Darwin, regardless, believes him and asks to be taught to skateboard, to which Gumball obliges, seeking to teach Darwin every element of skateboarding aside from how to ollie, which we can surmise he's trying to hold off on as much as possible. In other words, it starts out with more of the same, but there's nothing wrong with that.

First, it's clothes ("DUDE! You don't wear safety stuff! You just carry it with you at all times so people know you're choosing not to wear it."), then it's the attitude of red-flannel and douche beanies ("HA! You sad, conformist drone!" Gumball chants at a businessman), then one of the finer moments, trying to figure out if Darwin rode regular or goofy. Gumball surmises he can figure it out based on what leg Darwin would use to save his fall, telling him to fall forward. Darwin, naturally, falls face-first without breaking. They repeat this a couple of times, make similar jokes from "The Loophole" with Darwin rolling out and then literally splitting in half, and move on. The show uses this scene-by-scene mentality a lot, which is fine, because it exploits as much as they can get out of a premise without letting it linger too long, so I don't mind how often the device is used.

Then, the two go to a skate shop in hopes of finding the perfect board, which after a bit of trial and error ("This one is made of bamboo and the tears of factory workers," the sales clerk says before Darwin breaks it by standing on it), he does. They find out it's at the cheap bargain of $110, and before we can bare witness to the falling-through or even the end of that sentence, we get supercutted to them departing the dollar store with a cheap skateboard, hilariously enough with a Wonder Showzen-esque princess on the back.

Finally, Gumball teaches Darwin some tricks... kind of. They all have real terms but are literal and intentionally falsified to hide Gumball's incapabilities. The best one is, obviously, riding fakie. ("The next one is called 'riding fakie'. (gasp) Look over there! Ah man, you just missed me ridin' fakie. that was awesome.") Darwin is tired of not knowing how to a actually ride, and goes off on his own, only to find out that he can't stop and Gumball had a crapton of wool over his eyes, but regardless, Gumball sets out to rescue him.

Thus begins the best sequence of the episode. Gumball episodes are almost always at their strongest when they present a new visual style, and the sequence of Gumball dodging surreal obstacles in a colorful, Yellow Submarine-reminiscent dreamscape is certainly the show at its best. Was it funny? No, but it didn't have to be and it didn't aspire to be. It's simply the latest in a series of mind-blowing sequences (The Safety, The Money, The Fury, etc.) Gumball saves him, realizing he can finally skate, but every attempt to show off before his naysaying audience results in failure, the perfect little nonstarter to end the episode.

So, how did the voice actors fare? At the very least, it's an improvement over what Season 5 previously had, though it'll still take a lot to get used to. I feel that thus is the most noticeably different voice actor, but that probably stems from Cantu and Hansley's lack of experience, so they didn't do that bad once you add that factor in. Either way, this is how it's gonna be until the end, but I ain't complaining about it.

Takeaway:
-One particularly great wall-break was Gumball being self-conscious that his face always lay in profile. "You always tilt your head at a 3/4 angle because you look weird otherwise." The fact that they manage to keep finding new ways to critique the medium is seriously impressive.
-"But what if I hurt myself bad?" "Then you get to feature in Elmore's fail-stream compilation of the week!" "What if I hurt myself really really bad?" "Then you get to feature in Elmore's fail-stream compilation of the month."
-"Where do they get their clothes from, then, the thrift store?" "No, from the skate shop." "What's the difference?" "Everything costs ten times as much."

FINAL GRADE: A-. The episode was smooth and there were no issues beyond minor complaints only tangentially related. The jokes were especially well-executed and, of course, the skating sequence at the end was perfection. This will never be close to the most memorable Gumball episode, but it still delivers something consistently funny, which is something few shows are able to do week after week. Good job as always, show.

For the last Gumball Review on The Console, CLICK HERE.