Review: The Amazing World Of Gumball “The Puppets”

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Overview (Spoilers Below)

Darwin & Gumball look into the attic to get rid of some old toys from their past and come across some old puppets that Darwin ends up sneaking away while Gumball cuts his losses with their toys by way of a yard sale. Darwin feels a sense of guilt for ignoring the puppets for 7 years to the point that he subconsciously promises not to take them off his hands which of course lead to some awkwardly funny scenarios that begin to affect his social life while hiding them. Gumball eventually finds out, but the puppets in Darwin’s hands project negative & violent behavior which is the complete opposite of Darwin’s good nature.

Later on, the puppets haunt Darwin in his sleep to the point that they physically take over. Gumball takes action and figures out how to enter Darwin’s dreamworld where the art style completely changes into an overly surreal level of nightmare fuel and within that world, Gumball & Darwin become literal puppets themselves. The third act leads to a lot of fourth wall breaking puppet jokes and they eventually escape using a funny and clever twist and it comedically ends with the two completely cutting their losses with the puppets assuring their mother Nicole that they have no regrets.

Our Take

The episode had a good balance of comedy & horror with the puppets but the horror aspect elevated with the dream world with its surreal uses of color and in parts that purposely have no color. You begin to sympathize with Darwin at some level but the entire episode backs up Gumball’s argument about growing up but still felt a small sense of wonder when he first enters the dream world from his imagination. I think at some level we can appreciate the past for the positive nostalgia & happier times but to quote a particular biblical verse that Matthew Lillard used in the film Hackers: “When I was a child I spoke as a child I understood as a child I thought as a child, but when I became a man I put away childish things.”