Chowder (TV series)

Premise

Episodes

Characters

Main

• Chowder : A chubby purple cat-bear-rabbit hybrid who serves as an apprentice under the chef Mung Daal, Chowder lives with him 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 scatterbrained and often gives in to his urges. He has a large appetite and eats anything, even a customer's order. Chowder can also regurgitate objects, and he is used as a storage container by the other characters. 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 called "Chowder Grows Up".
• Mung Daal : The elderly chef who runs the catering company at which Chowder works. He serves as his cooking master. 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. He likes to impress ladies to the point where as a child apprentice, he prepared a dish incorrectly due to becoming distracted. He is a light blue-colored humanoid with an oversized nose, ears, and a white mustache. He is named after the Indian dish mung daal. Greenblatt had originally planned to give Mung an Indian accent, but later decided against it.
• Truffles : A mushroom pixie/fairy and Mung Daal's wife who handles the business side of Mung's catering business. She is an extreme choleric. 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.
• Shnitzel : A taupe rock monster and professional chef who works at Mung Daal's Catering Company. His vocabulary consists almost entirely of "radda", although he sometimes says other simple words. 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 heavy lifting because he is incredibly strong.
• Panini : A pink rabbit who has a crush on Chowder and reminds him at every opportunity. Chowder does not return her feelings and responds with "I'm not your boyfriend!" whenever she greets him. Panini is an apprentice to Ms. Endive and is also possessive of Chowder. Panini gets jealous when she sees Chowder with another girl, which causes Chowder to try to avoid her. 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". Grey DeLisle voiced her adult self in the last episode called "Chowder Grows Up".
• Kimchi : Chowder's pet stink cloud, who lives in a cage next to his bed. Kimchi is an anthropomorphic fart cloud. He likes things with odors unpleasant for the other characters, and he "talks" by making fart sounds. Kimchi is usually shown with a blank personality but in "Stinky Love" it is shown that he has an opinion.
• Gazpacho : A woolly mammoth storekeeper who sells strange produce at his fruit stand at a farmer's market. Gazpacho is Chowder's best friend. He does his best to offer advice to Chowder when needed. In "The Spookiest House in Marzipan" it is hinted that Gazpacho has no mother, and that he actually suffers from dissociative identity disorder, but creator Greenblatt says this was merely to "pay homage to Psycho". 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 gazpacho; Greenblatt said that he did not know why, but the name suited the character immediately.
• Ms. Endive : An intelligent, snobbish and large orange humanoid who teaches cooking to Panini with strict discipline. She regularly berates Mung, whom she considers a rival. The creator describes her as Martha Stewart with Oompa-Loompa colors. Greenblatt chose to name her after the endive since endive is bitter and Belgian endive is fancy; hence the character is bitter and fancy. Ms. 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 Ms. Endive looks down at other characters. It was revealed in later episodes that Ms. Endive is in love with Shnitzel. Greenblatt said that her evolution throughout the series was fun to observe, especially when William Reiss wrote plots involving Ms. Endive.
• Gorgonzola : A young green rat apprentice candle holder. He shows jealousy towards Chowder because Chowder has a better job than him. Because blue cheese was one of the few foods Greenblatt disliked, he decided to use the name "gorgonzola" for a character who did not get along with Chowder. Gorgonzola wears tattered brown clothes and no shoes and has a partially melted candle on his head. He is desperate to get cash and will do almost anything to get it. Despite his unpleasant and boastful attitude to Chowder, Chowder sees him as a close friend, which irritates him even more. Gorgonzola is an apprentice to Stilton, who is a candle holder, hence why both characters have burning candles on their heads.

  Recurring

• Ceviche : A young yellow goat apprentice to Paté and Panini's best friend. He practices aerobic-style dancing and is very charitable and kind to others. Because of his admirable attitude, amazing talents, and good looks, he is well-liked. He is good friends with Panini and will make unwanted advances upon her, which are either refused or unnoticed. Ceviche is also a close friend to Chowder. He speaks in a monotone voice and serves as deadpan humor for the show.
• Paté : A tall, well-sculpted humanoid ballet dance master and operatic singer with a deep voice, grass-green hair, a small black hat, and exaggerated lips who is the mentor of Ceviche.
• Chestnut : A tiny, blue-horned imp with a beard. He has a deep, gravelly voice and, to many character's surprises, is physically very strong. Because of his size, he uses everyday objects as other things. He sings small songs to himself, usually consisting of his catchphrase of "Dinka-loo, Dinka-lee." He is the teacher of the BLTs, a parody of the SATs. He always refers to himself in the third person when speaking.
• Ancho : A dog with a heavy accent, big hat, and a tie-shaped growth on his neck which he is offended by whenever someone jokes around with it. Chowder tends to run into him whenever he appears.
• Reuben : A rather vulgar pig who is a con man and likes to steal from others. He has a large liking for sandwiches, most likely taken from the fact he is named after a type of sandwich.
• Mr. Fugu : A sentient floating balloon who is said to be Mung's most frequent and affluent customer. He is proven to be more greedy than Chowder and never shares any food with him. He is often seen with his valet, Foie Gras, a Maneki-neko holding Mr. Fugu's string as he cannot control his flotation due to his kind being a balloon.
• Sgt. Hoagie : He is a dog who is a police officer in Marzipan City. In "The Hot Date", he was going out on a date after several years and asked the other cops for advice.
• Kiwi is a photorealistic pink creature who sometimes gives usually useless advice to Chowder and other characters and occasionally provides interstitial narrations, especially at times where particularly corny humor is displayed.

  Production

Development