{"id":30433,"date":"2025-09-12T08:50:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T12:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T10:42:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T14:42:08","slug":"ben-bocquelet-eric-fountain-talk-gumballs-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/ben-bocquelet-eric-fountain-talk-gumballs-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Bocquelet & Erik Fountain Talk\u00a0Gumball\u2019s Return"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Amazing World of Gumball<\/em>\u00a0on Cartoon Network was among the biggest kids\u2019 shows of the 2010s. Emerging out of Cartoon Network\u2019s then-nascent European development studios, Ben Bocquelet\u2019s animated series about 12-year-old cat Gumball Watterson and his adoptive goldfish brother, Darwin, delivered pop-culture-infused comedy, high school antics and family shenanigans for six seasons, ending its run in 2019.<\/p>\n

Cartoon Network internationally and Hulu in the U.S. have brought the beloved Watterson clan back with the revival series The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball<\/em>, produced by Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe and with Bocquelet returning to guide the show\u2019s creative vision, this time alongside Matt Layzell and Erik Fountain. The series arrived on Hulu in July and lands on Cartoon Network and HBO Max internationally in October.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a joy to slip back into it,\u201d Bocquelet tells\u00a0TV Kids<\/em>. \u201cIt was like putting on my old slippers!\u201d<\/p>\n

The media world has changed drastically since\u00a0Gumball<\/em>\u2019s first appearance, but much of the original DNA of the series is intact, Bocquelet notes. \u201cGumball<\/em>\u2019s rhythm was always closer to doom scrolling on TikTok than a traditional, elegant approach to animation storytelling,\u201d he quips. \u201cIt\u2019s probably even more frantic. The world has changed, but people are still humans, they still have the same feelings and problems and social stuff going on with their families and friends. It\u2019s just that now we\u2019re getting new stuff to riff on, like AI, social media brainwashing, food scarcity and billionaires!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEconomic inequality, all the fun stuff!\u201d Fountain adds. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s fun and wacky, but it\u2019s also the big issues of the world seen through the lens of children. Children a decade ago are different than children now. You\u2019ve got to talk about the things that kids are affected by now. It\u2019s always been part of the DNA of the show to pay homage to the stuff we like, like pop culture, but now there\u2019s big pop culture and small pop culture and meme culture. That\u2019s become infused. And not just for the sake of referencing it\u2014it\u2019s to make the kids feel like kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show has also returned with its signature mixed-media look. \u201cI wish we\u2019d been more technologically savvy to come up with an easier way of doing it,\u201d Bocquelet says, \u201cbut we\u2019re still doing it the same way as before. We have fun with the designs and animate the old school way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of rolling up our sleeves and working on things one frame at a time,\u201d Fountain adds. \u201cThere have been a lot of advancements [in animation technology], but they\u2019re in their fledgling state. A season of animation takes a long time to produce. So, even when we started this season, AI was still at the \u2018Will Smith eating spaghetti\u2019 stage. It\u2019s not what it is today. And I like doing things. I like being able to get in deep into something and craft it. With this being seven years out from the previous one, a lot of the animators grew up with\u00a0Gumball<\/em>. This is their first job, they\u2019re working on their beloved property, and you can see their investment and their love for the show come out. They\u2019re working so hard and putting so much of their own mannerisms into scenes. It\u2019s got this quality of investment from the animators and the designers. They\u2019re fans and now they get to work on it. It\u2019s the opposite of technology\u2014you get this sense of human investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gumball<\/em>\u00a0fandom is also rooted in the show\u2019s ability to make viewers laugh\u2014whatever their age.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat kept some of the old fans watching was the fact that it could be funny for an adult to watch,\u201d Bocquelet says. \u201cIt\u2019s always been my dream that people would watch it as a family. I have very fond memories of watching old\u00a0Looney Tunes<\/em>\u00a0cartoons with my dad and the two of us laughing out loud. That\u2019s a nice thing to experience as a family. We always try to have an allegorical [message] for the adults, and then more cartoony and emotional kid-based storylines.\u201d<\/p>\n

The multiple levels of humor have helped the show endure, Bocquelet and Fountain explain, but the heart of its multigenerational appeal lies in the fact that it has always been a passion project for the team behind it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put a proper little chip of our hearts into everything we do,\u201d Bocquelet says. \u201cIt\u2019s always coming from a personal place. That is maybe the secret recipe to doing something relatable; you offer a vulnerable part of your story for others to enjoy. Or just the fact that it\u2019s so stupid that you just can\u2019t help laughing at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I always loved about it is it\u2019s a feast for the eyes,\u201d Fountain adds. \u201cIt\u2019s got so many different styles, and it all feels integrated and it makes sense.\u00a0Gumball<\/em>\u00a0has the pulse of what\u2019s going on. What are people frustrated about? How do you show that in a way that is entertaining instead of depressing? It keeps itself relevant, but instead of whipping you into a frenzy, you get to have a release. That\u2019s the way to stay relevant, right? Just keep looking at the world around you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ben Bocquelet, creator of The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball, and co-showrunner Erik Fountain on reviving the world of Gumball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":30434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,21],"tags":[4068,11432,826,10941],"class_list":["post-30433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-features","category-top-stories","tag-ben-bocquelet","tag-erik-fountain","tag-the-amazing-world-of-gumball","tag-the-wonderfully-weird-world-of-gumball","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nBen Bocquelet & Erik Fountain Talk\u00a0Gumball\u2019s Return - TVKIDS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/ben-bocquelet-eric-fountain-talk-gumballs-return\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ben Bocquelet & Erik Fountain Talk\u00a0Gumball\u2019s Return - TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ben Bocquelet, creator of The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball, and co-showrunner Erik Fountain on reviving the world of Gumball.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/ben-bocquelet-eric-fountain-talk-gumballs-return\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-12T12:50:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-15T14:42:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/09\/TheWonderfullyWeirdWorldofGumball-0925.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/ben-bocquelet-eric-fountain-talk-gumballs-return\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/ben-bocquelet-eric-fountain-talk-gumballs-return\/\",\"name\":\"Ben Bocquelet & Erik Fountain Talk\u00a0Gumball\u2019s Return - TVKIDS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-12T12:50:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-15T14:42:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/ben-bocquelet-eric-fountain-talk-gumballs-return\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/ben-bocquelet-eric-fountain-talk-gumballs-return\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/ben-bocquelet-eric-fountain-talk-gumballs-return\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ben Bocquelet & Erik Fountain Talk\u00a0Gumball\u2019s Return\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\",\"name\":\"TVKIDS\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\",\"name\":\"Mansha Daswani\",\"description\":\"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. 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