Revivals are a big ticket item for Cartoon Network these days, as the likes of Regular Show: The Lost Tapes and Adventure Time: Side Quests are both bringing back major animated franchises. With Mordecai, Rigby, Finn, and Jake making comebacks, animation enthusiasts are hoping to see more characters from the cable network’s roster do the same. In a surprise reveal, a legendary animator for Cartoon Network has revealed that he had plans to bring back a beloved character, but ran into a speed bump. With revivals becoming more popular, we might see this animated culinary cat return to the screen.
C.H. Greenblatt, the creator of Cartoon Network’s Chowder, revealed that he had pitched a new take on the feline aimed at a younger audience. The animator revealed that the series proposal for “Chowder: First Course” was shot down by Cartoon Network, though that hasn’t stopped him from revealing his original plans, “A while back, Cartoon Network asked me to pitch them a reboot of Chowder for a slightly younger audience (for free, of course). I re-imagined it so that instead of a catering company, Chowder went to a culinary school with Panini and Gorgonzola. All the other familiar faces are faculty there, but the stories focus more on the three kids getting into trouble. Sadly, CN said they had no money to make it, so it never went anywhere. I’ll post some of the fun art I did for it here.” You can see the artwork below.
Last year, we here at ComicBook.com had the opportunity to talk with Chowder’s creator, who had discussed the possibility of bringing back the titular animated figure. During our discussion, the animator broke down how he’d approach resurrecting the series, “I think if I did, it would have to be a version that evolved it or tweaked it just a little bit so it wasn’t just more of the same thing, because with the kids having grown up, the voices are different. So it’d have to kind of be, like, not necessarily a reboot, but some twist on it that, to me, justifies it existing as a new version.
Greenblatt also noted how much he loves young Chowder, while also noting that he was able to bring back the character briefly for the major crossover episode of the animated series, Jellystone. “I like him as a kid. I think there’s a certain innocence to that, and I think there’s something fun about that idea of learning about the world. And he’s very innocent. He’s very open. I feel like I’d still like them as kids. But I’m glad we got to at least sneak him into the [Jellystone] crossover episode.” Jellystone ended last year following three seasons, with C.H. also being a driving force in creating this wild Hanna Barbera crossover series.
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