THE WONDERFULLY WEIRD WORLD OF GUMBALL: Episodes 1.1-1.6

Here's the honest read. This sequel to the cult-classic The Amazing World of Gumball is a genuinely funny, colorful, well-voiced cartoon that mostly does what a family comedy should: let kids screw up, then learn something. One episode makes a real case for family, even when everyone's annoyed with each other.

But it earns its caution, too. The humor leans hard on bodily functions — one episode ("The Butts") is built almost entirely around rear-end jokes and outlines of characters' backsides, and it overstays its welcome. The parents model some of the same bad behavior they scold the kids for. A couple of jokes nod toward political correctness and anti-wealth messaging, and a few gags play Eastern spiritual ideas for laughs.

None of it is severe, and most episodes land their lesson by the end. But if your family is younger or particularly sensitive to crude humor, this one's worth previewing first. For everyone else: it's worth watching.

Gumball, an anthropomorphic cat, and his adopted brother Darwin, a fish, get into mischief at home and school — much to their mother's chagrin. They live with her, their father, and their sister, Anais, and stumble through family shenanigans together. Each episode is self-contained, with recurring characters popping back in, continuing the story of the beloved Amazing World of Gumball.

Three stars means this is solidly entertaining, with real flaws that keep it from greatness. The animation is colorful and simple, the pacing is fast, and the voice cast gives it real energy — the humor often lands, and the blend of 2-D and 3-D characters works because the whole show leans into its own strangeness.

Where it stumbles is restraint. The show overdoes Gumball and Darwin's antics the way the original series sometimes did, and the parents' hypocrisy — telling the kids to behave while misbehaving themselves — undercuts the lessons being taught. "The Butts" in particular goes further into crude territory than it needed to, letting the joke run long past the point of usefulness. It's a fun watch that could use tighter editing on its rowdier instincts.

Most of these six episodes carry a light moral worldview: characters make bad choices and learn from them by episode's end, and one story makes a genuine case for the value of family even amid daily annoyance. There's a small, welcome thread about self-esteem, too, as Gumball encourages another character to be true to himself.

Alongside that, a few things dilute the good. One episode leans into an anti-wealth, anti-capitalist message about a rich businessman controlling the food supply. A handful of jokes treat Eastern spiritual ideas — thanking "the Universe," references to chakra, a mystical connection between food and memory — as harmless punchlines rather than as claims about reality. And the parents' example doesn't always match what they're teaching, which blurs the lessons the show is trying to land.

What's underneath all the noise, though, is something true: these two brothers — one adopted, one not — need each other, and the family that frustrates them is still the family that holds them. Scripture puts it plainly: "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity" (Proverbs 17:17). This show gets that much right, even when it's busy being weird.

This is a funny, colorful continuation of a beloved cartoon — one that mostly teaches the lessons it sets out to teach, even while indulging in more crude humor than it needs. Older kids and their parents can enjoy it together with eyes open. Same verdict we opened with: worth watching — ages 10 and up.