- “Meow”
- ―Gary (mostly for SpongeBob and his friends to understand him better)
Garold "Gary" Wilson, Jr., better known as Gary the Snail, is a major character in the SpongeBob SquarePants animated series, a minor character in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, and the deuteragonist of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run. He is a sea snail and the domesticated house pet of SpongeBob SquarePants. He generally only verbally communicates by meowing like a cat. Despite his limited speech, he is highly intelligent and has versatile interests including music and literature, though he is frequently depicted as being content with watching television and awaiting his next meal.
Overview[]
Gary the Snail (vocal effects provided by Tom Kenny) is SpongeBob's pet sea snail who lives with him in their pineapple home and vocalizes like a cat.[1] Other snails and SpongeBob can understand and talk to him. Depicted as a level-headed character, Gary often serves as a voice of reason and a foil to SpongeBob and solves problems that his owner cannot. He has a pink shell that is impossibly spacious on the inside.
Personality and habits[]
- Gary hates taking baths, as seen in "Gary Takes a Bath," "Shellback Shenanigans," and "Pet Sitter Pat."
- Gary has been known to exhibit bouts of anger.
- In "Gary Takes a Bath," Gary snatches a ladder away from the tree that SpongeBob is stuck in, eliminating his option to escape safely. However, this did not cause any true harm to SpongeBob, who simply fell in the mud.
- In "Once Bitten," he becomes aggressive and bites several of the Bottomites as a result of the pain that a splinter is inflicting. Even after said splinter is removed, Gary bites Mr. Krabs. However, this was done completely out of pain.
- In "The Thing," Gary viciously attacks Squidward despite him having done nothing wrong. However, this is common for pets to do.
- In "Grooming Gary," Gary joins the other pets in rioting against their respective owners for fancying his personality, which he did not want in the first place. However, this was done out of respect for himself and the other pets, who were being mistreated and shown off against their wills.
- In "House Worming," Gary kicks SpongeBob out of his own home, although this was done out of self-defense.
- In "Chatterbox Gary," Gary throws a walkie-talkie in Squidward's throat in retaliation for interfering with his translation collar. However, it was Squidward's fault in the first place.
- He has a passion for animal rights and is not attached to things he does not want to do.
- Gary is known to be quite gluttonous. He is seen eating absurd amounts of food and sometimes inedible objects in multiple episodes, notably "Have You Seen This Snail?"
Abilities and talents[]
As seen in "Culture Shock," Gary writes his own poetry. Gary helps SpongeBob tie his shoes in "Your Shoe's Untied," revealing that he wears brown shoes on his feet that are hidden under his body.
As seen in "Gary Takes a Bath," Gary can levitate and teleport.
In the episode "Tutor Sauce," Gary is shown to be a good driver, as he can drive a boatmobile through the most dangerous road in Bikini Bottom with no issue whatsoever, except the cops stopping the boat.
Gary is shown to know how to throw parties while SpongeBob is gone, as seen in "Atlantis SquarePantis" and "What if SpongeBob Was Gone? (Gary)." Gary is also quite a sublime musician. In "The Paper," he plays Squidward's clarinet very well, and Squidward gets confused. In "Procrastination," Gary plays the trumpet, and in "Something Smells," he plays the violin to make SpongeBob cry while chopping onions.
Gary can become a floor buffer, as shown in "Sentimental Sponge."
Gary knows how to read, as seen in "Gary Takes a Bath," "Rock-a-Bye Bivalve," "Pet Sitter Pat," "Pineapple Invasion," and "Library Cards."
In "Pat-a-thon," after multiple failed inventions by Sandy to help snails dance, she comes up with tap spray. Gary ends up getting dozens of little tap-dancing feet underneath him, enabling him to dance.
In "The Cent of Money", It is shown If Gary was to swallow a fridge magnet, he is able to conduct a strong magnetic pull, bringing in any metal within range of him.
Behind the scenes[]
- In the first two films based on the series, Gary only plays small background roles. He plays a much more prominent role in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run compared to the first two films, where he is snailnapped and it is up to SpongeBob and Patrick to go find him.
- Concept art from scrapped storylines of Sponge on the Run also confirm that Gary was always planned to play a major role in the movie. One of these storylines would have focused on Gary's origin where he originally was the son of the rulers of a planet inhabited by snails.
- In KKSUY, Gary's role is significantly reduced since he does not live directly with SpongeBob. He has only made four physical appearances in Kamp Koral thus far.
- The episodes "Your Shoe's Untied" and "Earworm" show Gary having a record player under his shell.
- Gary, along with SpongeBob, are the only two main characters to be voiced by the same actor.
- SpongeBob sometimes nicknames Gary "Gare Bear" or just "Gare."
- Because he is a mollusk, Gary should actually be sexless, as all mollusks are.
- In "Karate Island," when SpongeBob is waxing Gary's shell, he finds his favorite novelty T-shirt that says, "I love Krabby Patties" in a pile of junk inside his shell.
- His favorite food is Snail-Po, and later Snail Bites.
- In the Adventures in Bikini Bottom LEGO set, Gary's shell is orange.
- In the first teaser trailer for The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Gary is shown enjoying taking a bath with SpongeBob as the latter plays with his water toys, even though Gary is shown to hate taking baths.
- It is revealed in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water that Gary hates mayonnaise.
- Gary has arms, as seen in "Have You Seen This Snail?," "The Gift of Gum," "Grooming Gary," and "House Sittin' for Sandy."
- In addition to this, "Your Shoe's Untied" and "SpongeBob's Last Stand" reveal that he has feet.
- The scene from "Help Wanted" in which SpongeBob wakes up and greets Gary originally ended with Gary taking a bite from a cactus, about garden snails' tendency to feed on succulent plants. The book Not Just Cartoons: Nicktoons! features the original storyboard of this scene.
- He is the only major character in the series who has yet to appear in Sandy's treedome.
- In the Croatian dub, his name is "Slavko."
- In the Dutch dub, his name is "Gerrit."
- Gary has many things hidden under his shell: a house, SpongeBob's Krabby Patty T-shirt, a record player, a diamond, and many other pieces of junk.
- In "Help Wanted," Gary's pupils are small red dots and his meow is much squeakier.
- He has only spoken full sentences in "Sleepy Time" and "Chatterbox Gary." However, it should be noted that Gary's speech in "Sleepy Time" occurs during a dream sequence.
- In "The Way of the Sponge," when SpongeBob leaves, Gary's meow sounds like he is saying "farewell."
- Gary appears as a cameo in both Snail Bob 2 game installments.
- On older Lego SpongeBob sets, Gary had less detail, especially on the eyeballs.
- In the Russian Dub of some episodes of Season 1, Season 6, Season 7 and the SpongeBob and his Friends magazines, Gary is named as Harry.
References[]
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