Chowder is an American
animatedAnimation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
television series which ran from November 2, 2007 to August 7, 2010 on
Cartoon NetworkCartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
. The series was created by
C. H. GreenblattCarl Harvey "C. H." Greenblatt is an American cartoon screenwriter, producer and storyboard artist. He has worked on the hit TV series SpongeBob SquarePants, and on the Cartoon Network's series The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Evil Con Carne...
, a former storyboard artist on
SpongeBob SquarePantsSpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series, created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. Much of the series centers on the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the underwater city of "Bikini Bottom"...
and
The Grim Adventures of Billy & MandyThe Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy often shortened as Billy and Mandy is an American animated television series that aired on Cartoon Network. It is also the spin-off of Grim & Evil. Having originally aired as part of Grim & Evil The show began in 2001, And went on to become one of Cartoon...
.
Production
During his time working on
NickelodeonNickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
's
SpongeBob SquarePantsSpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series, created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. Much of the series centers on the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the underwater city of "Bikini Bottom"...
, Greenblatt had been sketching various characters for his own animation series concept. Greenblatt originally based the premise on the idea of the sorcerer's apprentice style of story, such as
The Sword in the StoneThe Sword in the Stone is a novel by T. H. White, published in 1939, initially a stand-alone work but now the first part of a tetralogy The Once and Future King. A fantasy of the boyhood of King Arthur, it is a sui generis work which combines elements of legend, history, fantasy and comedy...
. The plot devices were modified so that the story revolves around a master chef who teaches his young apprentice how to cook. Chowder himself was developed with no specific species in mind, but rather with the intentions of invoking the image of a child's soft squeeze toy. Some of the inspiration comes from
Richard ScarryRichard McClure Scarry was a popular American children's author and illustrator who published over 300 books with total sales of over 100 million units worldwide....
, with other inspiration from
Saturday morning cartoonA Saturday morning cartoon is the colloquial term for the animated television programming that has typically been scheduled on Saturday mornings on the major American television networks from the 1960s to the present; the genre's peak in popularity mostly ended in the 1990s while the popularity of...
s.
Once Greenblatt pitched the concept to Cartoon Network, it was about two years before the series was approved for production with another year in production before the pilot episode aired. Greenblatt estimates he spent about seven years working on
Chowder before the show made it to air.
Episodes are produced in seasons which consist of 20 24-Minute episodes. Each episode is produced with a 30-second puppet sequence that is meant to run over the ending credits. Cartoon Network chooses not to air the puppet credit sequences, but starting on September 3, 2007, episodes have aired the puppet segments. Episodes can be purchased from the
iTunesiTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
store in the United States which are delivered with the sequences as are episodes which are available on Cartoon Network's VOD website also within the United States.
One of the unusual design features of the show is the patterns used on the clothing or players. The patterns are developed as a full screen image and then sent to the production house where the characters are modified to fill the patterns in over the character clothing. Using this technique, when a character moves, their patterns do not follow, but display as a "static" background. A similar technique was used in the
Monkey Island video game series (particulary for the Stan) and the
Mr. Bean animated series.
The show is also known for the very wide variety of media used in various episodes. These include animation using watercolors and ink-and-paint in addition to the cartoon's classic pattern style. It also uses stop motion animation with real food, action figures and clay; live-action scenes with the voice actors of the show and puppets; both marionette and hand-controlled. This was also sometimes used in
Courage the Cowardly DogCourage the Cowardly Dog is an American animated television series created by John R. Dilworth for Cartoon Network. Its central plot revolves around a somewhat anthropomorphic dog named Courage who lives with his owners, Muriel and Eustace Bagge, an elderly, married farming couple in the "Middle of...
. It boasts one of the most diverse varieties of mediums used in any single series.
Characters
Main characters
- Chowder (voiced by Nicky Jones
Nicholas Peter "Nicky" Jones is an American teen actor. He has done commercials, independent movies and music videos, as well as being known as the voice of the title character to the Cartoon Network cartoon Chowder.-Filmography:*Flower in Bambi II*Chowder in Chowder* That '70s Show Nicholas Peter...
): A 11-year-old eccentric Catbearrabbit who serves as a chef's apprentice under Mung Daal,
Chowder lives with Mung Daal and his wife, Truffles, in a room at the top of the catering business. Chowder wants to become a great chef, but he is very impulsive, and often gives in to his urges. He is always hungry and eats anything, even a customer's order. He seems to already know that he is in his own series. Chowder can also regurgitate objects, and is used as a storage container by the other characters. Chowder is black in color. According to Greenblatt, he is a composite of a cat, a bear and a rabbit, and his species was verified in at least one episode. C.H. Greenblatt voiced his adult self in the last episode.
- Mung Daal (voiced by Dwight Schultz
William Dwight Schultz is an American stage, television, film actor, and voice artist. He is best known for his roles as Captain "Howling Mad" Murdock on the 1980s action show The A-Team, and as Reginald Barclay in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager, and the film Star Trek: First...
): The elderly HumanHumans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
chef who runs the catering company at which Chowder works. Although his exact age has not been stated, he has mentioned that he has cooked for at least 386 years, and he celebrated 450 years of marriage to Truffles (see below). He is a blue-colored humanoid of indeterminate species. Mung is named after the Indian dishIndian cuisine consists of thousands of regional cuisines which date back thousands of years. The dishes of India are characterised by the extensive use of various Indian spices, herbs, vegetables and fruit. Indian cuisine is also known for the widespread practice of vegetarianism in Indian society...
mungThe mung bean is the seed of Vigna radiata. It is native to the Indian subcontinent.-Description:They are small, ovoid in shape, and green in color...
daalDal is a preparation of pulses which have been stripped of their outer hulls and split. It also refers to the thick stew prepared from these, an important part of Indian, Nepali, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, and Bangladeshi cuisine...
; Greenblatt had originally planned to give Mung an Indian accent, but later decided against it.
- Shnitzel (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson
Kevin Michael Richardson is an American actor and voice actor who currently stars as Cleveland Brown, Jr. in The Cleveland Show...
in "The Froggy Apple Crumble Thumpkin", and John DiMaggioJohn William DiMaggio is an American voice actor. A native of North Plainfield, New Jersey, he is known for his gruff, deep voice and New Jersey accent, which he uses to voice mainly villains and anti-heroes.-Filmography:...
afterward): A gray-colored rock monsterIn Jewish folklore, a golem is an animated anthropomorphic being, created entirely from inanimate matter. The word was used to mean an amorphous, unformed material in Psalms and medieval writing....
and professional chef who works at Mung Daal's Catering Company. His vocabulary consists almost entirely of "Rada", although he sometimes says other simple words. He talks in episode 'The Problem with Truffles' because he finally gets calm enough. Shnitzel is the "straight man" to the other more excitable characters, and is frequently agitated. He gets stuck with menial labor or cleanup duty, as well as the heavy lifting, because he is extremely strong. In the episode "The Lead Farfel"Shnitzel is shown to have carried him the farthest and plans to move him farther. Although usually angered by Chowder's antics, Shnitzel really has a soft spot for Chowder, as he cries when it was thought that Chowder has vanished forever. Kevin Michael RichardsonKevin Michael Richardson is an American actor and voice actor who currently stars as Cleveland Brown, Jr. in The Cleveland Show...
voiced Shnitzel for the debut episode "The Froggy Apple Crumple Thumpkin", and was replaced at the last moment by DiMaggio due to Richardson being busy with other projects at the time. He also works part-time as a comedianA comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
.
- Truffles (voiced by Tara Strong
Tara Lyn Strong is a Canadian actress, voice-over artist, singer, who is best known for her voice work in cartoons.-Early life and career:...
): Mung Daal's wife, who handles the business side of Mung's catering business. She is a mushroomA mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that...
pixiePixies are mythical creatures of folklore, considered to be particularly concentrated in the areas around Devon and Cornwall, suggesting some Celtic origin for the belief and name.They are usually depicted with pointed ears, and often wearing a green outfit and pointed...
. She is practical, but has a foul temper and easily loses patience with her husband, his staff and their customers. Greenblatt said that he based Truffles on his mother. Greenblatt said that he initially found difficulty in working on any story with Truffles since the character could be "so abrasive" that the Chowder staff had to be "a little more sensitive about finding her softer side." Greenblatt said that the staff eventually decided that "a little Truffles goes a long way." Therefore she would appear occasionally in Chowder in a manner similar to how Oscar the GrouchOscar the Grouch is a Muppet character on the television program Sesame Street. He has a green body , has no nose , and lives in a trash can. His favorite thing in life is trash; evidence for this is the song "I Love Trash". A running theme is his compulsive hoarding of seemingly useless items...
appears in Sesame StreetSesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
.
Recurring characters
- Gazpacho (voiced by Dana Snyder
Dana Snyder is an American actor, voice artist, and comedian, best known for playing Master Shake on the Aqua Teen Hunger Force show, and the film Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, both part of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim franchise.- Early life :Dana Snyder was born in...
): A woolly mammothThe woolly mammoth , also called the tundra mammoth, is a species of mammoth. This animal is known from bones and frozen carcasses from northern North America and northern Eurasia with the best preserved carcasses in Siberia...
storekeeper who sells strange produceProduce is a generalized term for a group of farm-produced goods and, not limited to fruits and vegetables . More specifically, the term "produce" often implies that the products are fresh and generally in the same state as where they were harvested. In supermarkets the term is also used to refer...
and ingredients at the farmers market. He does his best to offer advice to Chowder when needed. He lives with his overbearing mother, who never appears. Gazpacho shows no interest in moving out and improving his own life. Gazpacho's worst enemies are ninjas. Greenblatt named him after the cold soup gazpachoGazpacho is a cold Spanish/Portuguese tomato-based raw vegetable soup, originating in the southern region of Andalucía. Gazpacho is widely consumed throughout Spain, neighboring Portugal and parts of Latin America...
; Greenblatt said that he did not know why the name suited the character, but that the name suited the character immediately.
- Panini (voiced by Liliana Mumy
Liliana Berry Davis Mumy is an American teen actress and voice actress. Her most notable roles are as Jessica Baker in the Cheaper by the Dozen movies with Steve Martin, Lucy Miller in The Santa Clause sequels with Tim Allen, Mertle Edmonds on the Disney Channel original series Lilo & Stitch: The...
): A 11-year-old girl who has a crush on Chowder, and lets him know this at every opportunity. Chowder does not return the feelings, and responds with "I'm not your boyfriend!" whenever she greets him. Panini is an apprentice to Ms. Endive, and is also over-protective of Chowder. Panini was first seen in the second episode: Chowder's Girlfriend. According to Greenblatt, she is of the same composite species as Chowder, although she is pink and has large ears. Originally Panini, who was named Borlotti, had pointed ears and an outfit in which only her face was visible. Her original character concept had her bully Chowder in a manner described by Greenblatt as similar to Angelica PicklesAngelica Charlotte Pickles is a character voiced by Cheryl Chase in the Nickelodeon shows Rugrats and All Grown Up! and is among the series' original characters. She is a spoiled brat and the cousin of Tommy and Dil Pickles, serves as the main antagonist or the tritagonist of the series...
from RugratsRugrats is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain for Nickelodeon. The series premiered on August 11, 1991, and aired its last episode on June 8, 2004....
. Greenblatt removed the pointy ears since he felt this did not fit in with the rounded shapes in Chowder. Greenblatt did not like characters similar to Angelica and believed that he needed to make Panini "cuter and sweeter." Greenblatt said that the details of Panini formed when the creator decided that Panini had a crush on Chowder; since Chowder is not old enough to fall in love with females, according to Greenblatt this aspect would frustrate Chowder "in a more fun way."
- Ms. Endive (voiced by Mindy Sterling
Mindy Lee Sterling is an American actress. Although she had worked in film for over 30 years, she only began to garner attention after playing Frau Farbissina, the diminutive and domineering Germanic cohort of Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers series of comedy films, and has a recurring role as Ms...
): An obese female chef who teaches cooking to Panini with strict discipline. She's also occasionally portrayed as the show's main antagonistAn antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
or villainA villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
. She is usually depicted as gargantuan. She regularly berates Mung Daal, whom she considers a rival. In the episode "Chowder's Girlfriend", it is revealed she despises boys and boyfriends because her fiancé did not show up on their wedding day. Ms. Endive is first seen in the second episode with Panini, "Chowder's Girlfriend". The creator describes her as Martha StewartMartha Stewart is an American business magnate, author, magazine publisher, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising...
with Oompa-Loompa colors. Greenblatt chose to name her after the endiveEndive , Cichorium endivia, is a leaf vegetable belonging to the daisy family. Endive can be cooked or used raw in salads.-Background:Endive is also a common name for some types of chicory...
since endive is bitter and Belgian endive is fancy; hence the character is bitter and fancy. Endive's character stayed constant throughout the initial development. The long nose, which changed from a rectangular shape to a triangle shape for the final version, represents how Endive looks down at other characters. Greenblatt said that he felt that her evolution throughout the series was fun to observe, especially when William Reiss wrote plots involving Endive.
- Kiwi (voiced by C. H. Greenblatt
Carl Harvey "C. H." Greenblatt is an American cartoon screenwriter, producer and storyboard artist. He has worked on the hit TV series SpongeBob SquarePants, and on the Cartoon Network's series The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Evil Con Carne...
) is a photorealistic pinkPink is a mixture of red and white. Commonly used for Valentine's Day and Easter, pink is sometimes referred to as "the color of love." The use of the word for the color known today as pink was first recorded in the late 17th century....
creature who always gives advice to Chowder and his friends. His name is only pronounced in the episode "Brain Grub", where it is known that after Chowder alterates the animated universe, Kiwi is reduced to selling used carsCars, or automobiles, motor cars, are wheeled motor vehicles used for transporting passengers.Cars or CARS may also refer to:-Entertainment:* Cars , a Disney/Pixar film series...
.
- Kimchi (voiced by C. H. Greenblatt
Carl Harvey "C. H." Greenblatt is an American cartoon screenwriter, producer and storyboard artist. He has worked on the hit TV series SpongeBob SquarePants, and on the Cartoon Network's series The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Evil Con Carne...
): Chowder's pet, who lives in a cage next to his bed. Kimchi is a brown-colored cloudA cloud is a visible mass of liquid droplets or frozen crystals made of water and/or various chemicals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of a planetary body. They are also known as aerosols. Clouds in Earth's atmosphere are studied in the cloud physics branch of meteorology...
(an anthropomorphized flatus). He likes things with odors unpleasant for the other characters, and he "talks" by making flatulent sounds. Kimchi was first seen in the episode "Stinky Love". Kimchi is usually shown with a blank personality but in an episode were he gets married it is shown he has an opinion.
- Gorgonzola (voiced by Will Shadley
Will Shadley is an American child actor, perhaps best known for his role in the 2010 film The Spy Next Door.Shadley was born in Winter Park, Florida to Shari and Rick Shadley, a landscape architect. He has an older sister. Shadley's first acting role was in a play of A Christmas Carol in which he...
): A young green mouseA mouse is a small mammal belonging to the order of rodents. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse . It is also a popular pet. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are also common. This rodent is eaten by large birds such as hawks and eagles...
apprentice candle holder with a surly attitude. He resents Chowder due to Chowder having a better job than him. He will occasionally use Chowder, and if forced, will partner with him in games. Since blue cheeseBlue cheese is a general classification of cow's milk, sheep's milk, or goat's milk cheeses that have had cultures of the mold Penicillium added so that the final product is spotted or veined throughout with blue, blue-gray or blue-green mold, and carries a distinct smell, either from that or...
was one of the few foods Greenblatt disliked, he decided to use the name "gorgonzolaGorgonzola is a veined Italian blue cheese, made from unskimmed cow's and/or goat's milk. It can be buttery or firm, crumbly and quite salty, with a "bite" from its blue veining.- History :...
" for a character who did not get along with Chowder. Gorgonzola resembles a green opossum. He wears tattered brown clothes and no shoes, and has a partially-melted candle on his head (for traditional reasons). He is desperate to get cash, and will do almost anything to get it. Gorgonzola also loves to play Sniffleball, where he meets Chowder in an episode. Gorgonzola is an apprentice to Stilton, who is a candle holder, hence why both characters have burning candles on their heads.
- Ceviche (voiced by Elan Garfias): The goat
The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...
apprentice to Paté and Panini's best friend, Ceviche was introduced in the episode "The Apprentice Games". Ceviche was framed for stealing Chowder's dice cycle and is revealed to be a boy instead of a girl, which is shocking to some viewers. Ceviche also helps old people and donates to the poor. He practices aerobic-style dancing and is very charitable and kind to others. He is good friends with Panini and will make unwanted advances upon her, which are either refused or unnoticed. He speaks in a monotonous voice and serves as deadpanDeadpan is a form of comic delivery in which humor is presented without a change in emotion or body language, usually speaking in a casual, monotone, solemn, blunt, disgusted or matter-of-fact voice and expressing an unflappably calm, archly insincere or artificially grave demeanor...
humor for the show.
- Chestnut (originally voiced by Tone Loc
Anthony Terrell Smith , better known by his stage name Tone Lōc, is an American rapper and actor.-Early life and career:...
, then John DiMaggioJohn William DiMaggio is an American voice actor. A native of North Plainfield, New Jersey, he is known for his gruff, deep voice and New Jersey accent, which he uses to voice mainly villains and anti-heroes.-Filmography:...
): Like the food, Chestnut is small and tough. He is a tiny, blue horned devilThe Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
-like creature with a deep, gravelly voice and, to many character's surprise, is physically very strong. Because of his size, he uses everyday objects as other things (e.g. using a briefcase for a hydrofoil, or a hat as a vacation home). He sings small songs to himself, usually consisting of his catchphrase of "Dinky lee dinka loo." He is teacher of the BLTs, a parody of the SATThe SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
s. He always refers to himself in the third personGrammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
when speaking.
- Reuben (voiced by Paul Reubens
Paul Reubens is an American actor, writer, film producer, and comedian, best known for his character Pee-wee Herman. Reubens joined the Los Angeles troupe The Groundlings in the 1970s and started his career as an improvisational comedian and stage actor...
): A pigA pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives...
who is a conman and steals from others. He was Mung's "Inspector" when he needed to renew his cooking license but he just used that to fail Mung and pass Endive. He later made the group, minus Truffles, used his boat for their fishing trip but just spent the trip annoying Mung and keeping the other passengers on board so he can get more money out of them. At the end of the episode, it turned out that the ship was stolen and Reuben abandoned ship when the real owners came and left the group to be arrested.
Episodes
A total of 49 episodes were aired in the series. Season One, which consists of 20 episodes, started on November 2, 2007, with "The Froggy Apple Crumble Thumpkin/Chowder's Girlfriend", and ended on July 24, 2008 with the special "The Apprentice Games". Season Two also is 20 episodes long and started on October 1, 2008, with "The Arborians/The Garage Sale", and ended out with "A Faire to Remember/Tofu-Town Showdown" on September 29, 2009 and October 6, 2009. Season Three, which is the final season, consists of only 9 episodes and began on October 12, 2009 with "The Blast Raz". The series finale aired August 7, 2010. It was entitled "Chowder Grows Up". It was a double-length episode.
Reviews
After its premiere, the show was given mixed reviews by most newspapers and online animation websites. Some of the reviews were positive, two raising questions as to whether
Chowder can entertain with its occasional bathroom style humor, or sometimes recycled material.
Barry Garron of
The Hollywood ReporterFormerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
thinks that the show will appeal to both children and adults alike, using exotic artwork, unusual settings, and a zany cast of characters. On Toon Zone, Ed Liu expands on the animation and crazy antics of the characters, pointing that the humor of the show is kid-friendly without being juvenile. Liu reminds his readers that
Chowder is still in its early phases, and with just a little more time to develop, he feels that the show will be successful. Aaron H. Bynum on
Animation Insider also mentions the animation, settings and crazy characters of the show, ending with the comment that
Chowder is one of the biggest projects Cartoon Network has undertaken in recent times.
Awards and nominations
| Year |
Association |
Award Category |
Notes |
Result |
| 2008 |
Annie Award The Annie Awards have been presented by the Los Angeles, California branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood since 1972...
s |
Best Animated Television Production for Children,
Writing in an Animated Television Production |
C. H. Greenblatt and William Reiss for the episode "Burple Nurples" |
|
| 2008 |
Emmy Award An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
s |
Outstanding Special Class — Short-format Animated Programs |
Episode: "Burple Nurples" |
|
| 2009 |
Annie Awards |
Production Design in an Animated Television Production or Short Form |
Dan Krall for the episode "The Heavy Sleeper" |
|
| 2009 |
Annie Awards |
Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production or Short Form |
Dwight Schultz for the role of Mung Daal |
|
| 2009 |
Emmy Awards |
Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation |
Joe Binggeli |
|
| 2010 |
Annie Awards |
Voice Acting in a Television Production |
Dwight Schultz, Nicky Jones |
|
External links