Chowder is the titular main protagonist of the series of the same name. He is an apprentice under the learning of Mung Daal. In several episodes, there is a gag that Chowder is fully aware he is in a cartoon (commonly called "breaking the fourth wall"). However, this does not seem to bother him, except for the episode "Brain Grub".

Appearance

Chowder is a cat-bear-rabbit like Panini, but he has a feline appearance in contrast to Panini's lagomorphic appearance.

Chowder has violet fur, a small pink nose, a striped raccoon-like tail and short bear-like ears that are usually covered by his purple beanie.

He generally wears a purple hat with two points and a purple long sleeve shirt with fuchsia/magenta trim that covers his legs. He also wears purple shoes and pants that are only visible in the absence of his shirt. He has a prominent fang on his upper jaw that can be seen even when his mouth is closed. Due to his appetite, he's quite heavy and doesn't do well with sports or physical activity in general.

Personality

Chowder has the personality of a sweet, innocent, impulsive and friendly child who has a passion for being in the kitchen. An aspect of this side of his personality is that he's highly sensitive and emotional, and has been shown to cry more than once, mostly due to perceiving his mentor, Mung, of not listening to him or trusting him. He's even cried over receiving punishment, which is understandable for his age.

As his name implies, anything involving intelligence is not his strong suit. He is impulsive around food to a point where he would rather eat all the ingredients for a dish rather than wait to use them, easily distracted, especially by thrice cream, and even has a suboptimal short term memory. Anything too complicated to fit into one sentence, he will either not understand or forget almost instantly, which makes simple tasks nearly impossible. However, his creativity combined with his passion for cooking makes up for it. He has been shown on several occasions to come up with creative solutions that enable him to escape the toughest of predicaments, which more than once involve fourth wall breaks and literal jokes.

There have been times when he has a much darker side to his personality when it comes to his passion towards becoming a chef, such as in the episode "Chowder's Catering Company" when he was willing to render Schnitzel, Mung Daal, and Truffles unconscious with a frying pan and stuff them into a single pickle barrel for the sake of keeping his catering business for Kevin and the rest of his species; however, he disbanded the aforementioned business in favor of saving his friends from certain death and relinquishing fulfillment of his dreams.

Chowder has been known to go berserk if he doesn't have food within a limited amount of time and has been shown to eat anything on impulse, regardless of any etiquette that he might be required to observe and he's even done things on impulse, such as snatching the large container of Pizzazz and inserting the entire container into a dish, resulting in bodies being switched. He is very loyal to Mung and has called him "papa", showing he thinks of him as a father, and like the others, is usually scared of Truffles and pretty much girls in general.

Relationships

Chowder's ability to form bonds or relationships with other characters is often strained due to him being a nuisance to others.

Mung Daal

Chowder has clearly taken a big liking towards Mung, often seeing him as a father and going to him for advice, Mung even at times treats him as if he were his own son. As Mung's apprentice, Chowder tries his best to oblige to Mung's wishes, but will often disobey if he feels the need to do so. His enthusiasm makes up for his intelligence, which seems to amuse Mung at times. He and Daal are often seen preparing dishes together, even though Mung knows of his erratic and uncontrollable behavior.

Gazpacho

Gazpacho has taken a liking to Chowder, even referring to him as "his little buddy" at one point, they are shown to be close friends, as they often go to one another for help or assistance in their daily lives. Chowder was the one who helped Gazpacho pursue his comedy career, and Gazpacho tried to help Chowder with his problems with Panini (to an extent). Gazpacho was also chosen by Mung and Truffles to babysit Chowder.

Panini

Chowder is often given a hard time by Panini, but they are still friends who care for each other.

Because of Panini's constant harassment, Chowder is shown to be afraid of her at times, even going as far as to avoid her when out in public. Despite this, he is willing to ally with her in times of need, such as in "Hey Hey It's Knishmas!" when he asks her to help him impersonate Knish Krinkle.

In "Chowder Grows Up", he is married to Panini and has 50 kids, known as "Panchowbies".

Schnitzel

Chowder and Schnitzel are both co-workers under Mung, often seen creating dishes together. Due to his impulsive and erratic behaviors, Schnitzel views Chowder as a nuisance who only causes trouble for the catering company. Despite this, Schnitzel still cares (somewhat) about Chowder.

Chowder's Tummy

Chowder's Tummy (AKA "Mr. Tummy") is a personification of Chowder's tremendous appetite and acts as an extension of himself.

Appearances

• Chowder is the main character of the show and has made an appearance in every single episode of the series.

Trivia

• He is named after a type of soup. His name also reflects on his love for food, as "chow" is a synonym for "eat".
• He seems to be an introvert, as he is shy and prefers to spend time indoors.
• Chowder's relatives have never been shown, though he does address Mung as "papa" as he sees him as a father figure, despite the two being completely unrelated.
• The longest period of time he can go without eating is two hours.
• He has broken the fourth wall more than any other character and seems to be able to manipulate the reality of the show since he can make Truffles disappear by saying "you are not in this episode".
• He is shown to eat about anything, leading Mung and Shnitzel to sometime utilize him as various tools like grass cutters, drills, or excavators. He also can be used as a storage space.
• Nicky Jones, the voice actor of Chowder, has also voiced Gumball in the pilot episode of The Amazing World of Gumball.
• He appears similar to the Pokémon Munchlax, who is similar both visually and characteristic-wise.
• Chowder has terrible handwriting and his writing is barely legible.
• In the episode "Endive's Dirty Secret", Mung revealed that Chowder is a robot.
• In the OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes crossover episode "Crossover Nexus", Chowder is one of the many Cartoon Network heroes that was summoned and defeated by Strike.
• In the Uncle Grandpa episode ''Cartoon Factory'', Chowder and Shnitzel both appear in a portrait when Uncle Grandpa is entering the Cartoon Factory Building. in one addition, Chowder was originally gonna appear in the 224th Annual Grampies but was cut during production.
• He makes a background cameo appearance in the episode of a C. H. Greenblatt-created Nickelodeon series Harvey Beaks, "Fee & Foo's First Birthday".
• In "The Fire Breather", Chowder is shown to not know Spanish.
• Although Chowder's eyes are presented as simple white circles with dots, his eye color has been shown to be blue as seen in A Little Bit of Pizzazz and My Big Fat Stinky Wedding.
• Chowder is the only character to appear in every episode of the series. However, he only had a minor role in the episodes The Wrong Customer, The Hot Date, and Gazpacho!.
• Chowder's favorite food is Thrice Cream
  • Additionally, he is shown to hate the taste of Meviled Eggs, which is pretty much one of the few things, whether or not it’s technically edible, he is disgusted by.

Gallery

Chowder without any clothing

Chowder, Truffles, Shnitzel, and Mung Daal in the old design Escargot.

Chowder and Shnitzel making a recipe

Ditto, but with a more recent art style.

Chowder eating a sandwich that Shnitzel is carrying.

Ditto, but with a more recent art style.

Chowder in Tofu Town Showdown.

Chowder as he appears in Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion

Some sketches drawn by C.H. Greenblatt

Chowder with big eyes

Chowder Screaming

Chowder and Gazpacho is Running