A fictional cartoon character from the animated series SpongeBob SquarePants, Plankton owns a restaurant called the The Chum Bucket that makes the only competition of Mr. Krabs’ business in Bikini. It is only in an episode like Plankton’s Army that viewers learn the full name of the character: Sheldon J. Plankton. Not even his computer wife Karen knows the full name of her husband. When she finds out together with the rest of us, she is terribly amused by it, making Plankton feel really embarrassed. All throughout the series Plankton will try to get his hands on Mr. Krabs’ secret recipe.
Sheldon Plankton plays the smallest of the characters in SpongeBob SquarePants, being able to fit into SpongeBob’s hand. This one-eyed zooplankter is easy to recognize by his voice too, that will surprise the first time viewer with its deep tonalities. In a funny episode, within an equally funny context, Plankton is very close to becoming Mr. Krabs’ stepfather: now, picture that! Plankton’s lifelong wish to get his hands on the Krusty Krabs’ secret recipe is fulfilled only in the movie version of the production, because in most cases when Plankton gets close to fulfilling his dream, SpongeBob ruins all his claim of world domination.
There is a lot of contradiction between Plankton’s humble tiny appearance and his aspirations and goals. This small, jelly, green bean-shaped creature with long antennas is 1% good and 99% evil. The flaws of his nature keep him away from getting hands on the Krabby Patty formula, because he makes stupid mistakes out of impatience and too much haste. Jealous and sneaky, Plankton ignores the fact that he and Mr. Krabs used to be friends, with Krabs as his only protector against those who bullied him. His anger is often directed towards SpongeBob that looks to Plankton as both silly and babyish, and who on top of everything knows the ingredients of the Krabby Patty recipe.
Plankton is the only villain and antagonist character in SpongeBob SquarePants. He creates all sorts of major plans to achieve his goals and usually gets to work with characters that are much stronger in terms of physical appearance; actually, the fact that he is so small does not prevent him to have a huge ego and a really self-deceptive perception. From a certain perspective, Plankton wins viewers over by his miserable failures at getting something that seems so important for him. Plankton really makes the animation series a lot spicier.