Things Got Weird at Cresta Shopping Centre Today

Jaz has talked before about how much he loves cartoons, especially at the expense of real life (whatever that is), but even he’s willing to believe that the stuff he loves can’t transcend the limitations of the medium, a la Who Framed Roger Rabbit? or Space Jam (although, yeah, teaming up with Bill Murray to win a basketball game against aliens still seems feasible to me). However, today at Cresta Shopping Centre, we may have come one step closer to the cartoon world bleeding into our own. Spontaneously shaking bushes and runaway trolleys were just the beginning of what went down.

Take the jump to find out what we’re talking about.

Cartoon Network decided to push the boundaries of reality a bit with what they’re calling a “Normal just got a little weird” stunt. Folks shopping at Cresta were exposed to some pretty weird stuff, from synchronized swimmers just straight-up sunbathing in the middle of the mall to people bouncing around on pogos through the mall, it sounds like it was cartoon-level chaos. The series of ludicrous events was punctuated with the appearance of a flash mob who helped reveal that all the weird stuff going on was to celebrate and promote the launch of the second season of The Amazing World of Gumball on local TV screens.

The Amazing World of Gumball is an award-winning show that takes a unique approach to animation, mixing up 2D and 3D stuff with live action backgrounds. It follows the adventures of Gumball and his family, including Darwin, a goldfish with legs, and his crush Penny, a peanut with antlers. The minute I told Jaz there was going to be a second season, his immediate response was “What did you just say? Don’t joke around here. This is serious business. Gumball is the biz!”

The new season of the show launches on DSTV channel 301 next Wednesday December 5th at 17:25, with new episodes debuting every week at the same time. There’ll also be a Christmas episode of Gumball on Friday the 21st of December at 18:15.

You can check out some of the reactions on Cartoon Network Africa’s Youtube channel on Friday. A preview of the show can also be found right here.