Two early animations by SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg

Stephen Hillenburg, the late creator of SpongeBob Squarepants, made the cartoons Wormholes and Green Beret in 1992, when he was attending CalArts. In Hillenburg's experimental films, you can find rough ideas that were further developed in SpongeBob. For example, the little creature sitting next to the guy watching TV in Green Beret seems like an early version of Gary, SpongeBob's pet Snail.