Animation
The Amazing Digital Circus
The Amazing Digital Circus places its digitized humans under the terrorism of a maniacal AI ringmaster and his chaotic adventures.
It is a cloudy day as Gumball wakes up. Scraping the dust bunnies off his tongue and eyes, he sleepily asks Darwin, his adopted brother, the time. With a gasp, Darwin exclaims, “We overslept! We’re late for school!” How long? Only seven years.
When Gumball and his family first graced television sets in 2011, the blue, anthropomorphic cat ran around the cartoonish, Californian town of Elmore, exploring his animated reality and learning about the “Void.” The Void is a dimension where objects and even people from Gumball’s world are discarded if they are deemed redundant, out of style or a “mistake.” For instance, ‘80s hairspray has been sent to the Void, as well as jorts and the mullet.
But the Void didn’t stop Gumball from having some fun. Whether it be acting in a restaurant’s commercial, tagging along with his mom to work at the Rainbow Factory or joining a secret society within his school, Gumball always found a way to have a good time.
And now the whole family is back: Gumball is joined by his brother (Darwin), his sister (Anais) and their parents (Nicole and Richard). Together, they undertake more adventures in the weird city of Elmore. Only this time, their adventures are far crazier and zanier than before.
When the World of Gumball first began in 2011, it was known as The Amazing World of Gumball. The series concluded in 2019, after Gumball and Darwin saved their school from an evil Superintendent.
But the original creators weren’t done with Gumball just yet. According to Gumball, the show never ended: They’ve just been oversleeping these past few years. The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball continues the original show’s popular antics. Though, of course, Gumball’s world has changed from “amazing” to “wonderfully weird.” And this sequel series truly embodies the idea that Gumball’s world is, in fact, weird.
Whether it’s an AI robot falling in love or an all-out hunt for healthy food against a burger tycoon, Gumball’s world warps reality and imagination together.
However, some of that weird content becomes very concerning: Characters sometimes engage in witchcraft or New Age beliefs. One episode centers on a principal’s insecurity about his small rear end—and Gumball spends the episode trying to help him embrace the physical characteristic.
Additionally, there are some minor bathroom jokes, the occasional suggestive comment, a man dressed in woman’s clothing and reckless behaviors that parents might want their kids to avoid.
Gumball’s adventures are fun-filled and weird, though many parents will find it best to pack up and leave this weird world behind.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
After learning at school how bad a popular burger chain is for people’s hearts and overall health, Gumball’s brother, Darwin, takes it upon himself to change his family’s eating habits.
The Hindu greeting, “Namaste,” is said once. A character mimics the sound and gesture of choking someone. An earthquake occurs due to Gumball’s loud stomach. A piece of fruit gets stuck in someone’s nose. A character blows a kiss, and someone else eats it. Gumball shows off his rear end to his brother. Two characters rummage through a dumpster.
An established male character takes on a female name while wearing a dress and heels, though it’s unclear what his intention is.
Gumball’s mom, Nicole, is tired of her family not appreciating her—that, and the fact that her husband and kids just lay around and expect her to do all the housework. So, she gets help from an AI assistant named Ori.
The more Nicole hangs out with Ori, the more Ori wants to drive Nicole’s family out of the picture. Specifically, Ori wants to drive Nicole’s family into the bottom of a nearby lake. Soon, the whole family finds themselves in a fight against the AI robot.
We see rooms in the house littered with garbage and empty food containers. Nicole picks up dirty underwear off her desk. One character accidentally slaps herself. Some characters are seen in their underwear. Ori buys a bunch of gifts for Nicole’s family through “insider trading,” without Nicole’s knowledge. One character gets his tongue stuck in the freezer door often. A car is hijacked and driven into a lake with people stuck inside of it. (They’re ultimately rescued.) An AI makes a suggestive comment: “I’m an alpha software, but wouldn’t mind crashing at your place.”
When Gumball wants to read a poem about butts, Principal Brown admits to having an insecurity with his own, and Gumball vows to help him love his posterior again.
Principal Brown is covered in hair—except his bottom. So when scrolling potential hair styles Principal Brown could use as a wig to cover his rear end, after Gumball exclaims that a certain hair style “kind of slays,” Principal Brown unenthusiastically retorts, “If you’re talking about heretics during the Crusades, maybe.”
A character made of an amalgamation of limbs (like an overstuffed Mr. Potato Head) makes creepy statements, and it is released from prison because its alleged crime had “no witnesses, no body.”
Principal Brown explains how a bully made fun of him for the size of his butt crack (and includes a reference to flatulence). Gumball uses his own rear to untie a rope. Eventually, Principal Brown raps about the size of his posterior in front of his students, and he tears the wig off his behind to expose himself to his students (in the show, this is played for laughs rather than public indecency in front of kids).
Gumball makes flatulence noises with his hand. Gumball says that it sounds like a bully was a “massive cuss word.” We hear a bunch of demeaning butt-related nicknames. When asked how he sleeps at night, Principal Brown says, “On my stomach, so you can kiss it.”
When a New-Age substitute teacher takes over Gumball’s class and claims the stars determine true-love matches, Gumball panics when the teacher says he and his girlfriend will break up by the end of the day.
When the sub, Mr. Small, first arrives, Gumball’s girlfriend, Penny (a shapeshifting fairy), says, “Grab your essential oils; We’re in for some New-Age nonsense.”
Indeed, they are. Mr. Small pulls out a glowing crystal, claiming it is a celestial stone with which he can “divine destinies from the stars,” since their “mystical movements control our predetermined fates.”
Mr. Small calls out to the stars to reveal the students’ true love matches, pairing male and female students off. He also pairs a flower student with itself, and the flower says it’s because he can self-pollinate. The flower then demonstrates this, sprouting a second flower and passionately kissing it.
Couples begin to pair off throughout the school, making some suggestive comments to each other. For instance, when someone says she loves rotten fruit, a banana character asks her if she has room for another one. The sub passionately kisses the crystal.
When Gumball breaks the crystal, he wakes up in a different realm, where he stands atop the symbols of a horoscope. Mr. Small, who appears as an entity made of space itself, tells him that his mercury is in retrograde, “while Penny’s Saturn is rising.” He claims the couple could never work out because Gumball is a Sagittarius, while Penny is a Capricorn.
We later find out that the crystal was a hazardous material, and it caused a “heightened romantic state in the brain.” They claim the sub “fell in love with the rock.”
When discussing the concept of true-love matches, we see a depiction of two men embracing each other.
A basketball bounces off a student’s exposed rear. A male character constantly flexes his pecs. Gumball gets blasted with energy beams, which give him a black eye.
When a handful of witches note Darwin’s latent magical talent, they invite him to join their coven.
A banana character takes pictures of his naked rear, and we later see him photocopying pictures of his rear, too.
The trio of witches (a girl made of paper, a cloud-based girl, and a girl covered in glitter) practice magic (which mostly involves them causing things to levitate). However, they also rip pieces off their bodies (a chunk of cloud, a fish scale, a slice of paper) and put them into a chalice, swirl it all in soda, and drink the concoction while calling upon spirits to give them what they desire. After drinking the mixture, their eyes briefly glow.
After gaining power from the mixture, the witches cast spells upon others in the school, causing havoc: Gumball is forced to vomit frogs; a paper girl gets lit on fire; someone is forced to run uncontrollably into lockers; another student gets pulled underground by ethereal hands; others get turned into inanimate objects.
Gumball’s soul briefly leaves his body. When asked why being in a coven doesn’t scare him, Darwin notes that his girlfriend “took [him] to the lake of eternally lost souls for [their] anniversary,” so a few witches isn’t a big deal to him.
One witch, Masami, continuously drinks from the chalice to gain more witchcraft power from it. She invokes the full power of “the spirit of the yearbook.” The other coven members, seeing her destroy the school, chant “the power of three will set you free” in an attempt to stop her. Once she calms down, Masami asks if the others want to run the school yearbook, “this time without any demonic spirits of vengeance.”
Someone makes a joke about a Christian denomination. For some reason, all the witches wear ankhs.
Two egg characters get arrested for watching videos of a human crushing an egg with his hands.
To fit in with the witches, Darwin wears a dress and a wig.
A man passes gas.
Natalie Dean is Plugged In’s 2025 Summer Intern. A native from South Dakota, she recently graduated from South Dakota State University with a degree in Journalism and in the fall will be pursuing a master’s at Liberty University. Growing up in the Black Hills, Natalie enjoys spending her time outside, whether that be riding bikes or kayaking with her sisters, walking the dogs or going on long hikes. Her love for movie soundtracks stems from her sister asking, “what movie is this from” and “name the movie scene.” She has a passion for writing and hopes to one day be a published author.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He’s also an avid cook. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
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