Gunther Hessenheffer

Gunther Hessenheffer is a main character on Shake It Up in which he dances on the local teen dance show, Shake It Up, Chicago!. He is the son of Kashlack and Squitza Hessenheffer, and the fraternal twin brother of Tinka Hessenheffer. He lives in an apartment with his family in Chicago, Illinois and attends John Hughes High School with fellow Shake It Up, Chicago! dancers Rocky Blue and CeCe Jones. He has been an exchange student since the first grade and was born in a European country that has never been addressed by name, but referred to many times. Gunther is portrayed by Kenton Duty.
==History ==
Gunther was born in a small unnamed mountain country in Eastern Europe with his fraternal twin sister, Tinka. His mother, Squitza Hessenheffer, was a princess in their country until her father dethroned her for marrying a commoner, Kashlack. Gunther came to America with his family when he was a child. In "Add It Up", Tinka revealed that they flew to Chicago on a business class flight. He and his twin sister were enrolled as exchange students since the 1st grade in elementary school, where he met CeCe Jones and Rocky Blue. He moved on with his sister and classmates to John Hughes High School. When he was 13-years-old in the 8th grade, he auditioned for the local teen dance show, Shake It Up, Chicago! and passed, becoming one of the newest teen background dancers. In the third season, Gunther goes back to his unnamed country so Kenton Duty is leaving the show but he will continue to be a guest star.
==Personality==
Gunther is described as a flamboyant, fashionable, unique, weird, theatrical, and ambitious dancer on Shake It Up, Chicago!. He is from a fictional country that has not been mentioned by name, but is often referred to by the twins as they differentiate American traditions from their own. His taste in attire is loud and catchy and celebrates his love of performing. No matter how popular he thinks he is, he doesn't have many friends and most of them are frenemies. It is revealed in "Show It Up" that he and his sister have musical abilities as they performed two popular songs from their country with Gunther on the guitar. It is shown that he and Tinka both have sock puppets they make outfits for and call "Little Gunther" and "Little Tinka", first introduced in "Hot Mess It Up". Even though he is shown to be arrogant, he can be bothered by the opinion of others, as shown in "Show It Up" when Candy and Randy made fun of their accents, and in "Shrink It Up" when Gary Wilde calls them out for always being mean. They attempt to be nice and pick Deuce to try it out on. In "Vatalihootsit It Up", he and Tinka invite CeCe and Rocky to their home to celebrate Vatalihootsit Day, a holiday where you celebrate your enemies. There are many strange rituals they perform. Their parents turn out to be even more strange than Gunther and Tinka and they are revealed to be royalty; their mother was a princess until she was dethroned for marrying a commoner. Their parents tell CeCe and Rocky, that they know Gunther and Tinka are not "well liked at school" and that their coming "meant the world" to the twins.
==Relationships With Other Characters==
===Tinka Hessenheffer (Twin Sister)===
Gunther and Tinka are fraternal twins and best friends who spend most of their time with each other. They are also dance partners on Shake It Up, Chicago. In "Add It Up", Tinka feels lonely, wanting a boy to like her after always seeing couples act affectionately towards each other. Gunther offers to take her out on a date, but Tinka states that she wants a "real date". Gunther looks shocked and horrified when Tinka points out that "it's not like we're going to grow up and get married!" The first time they are not seen together is in "Heat It Up". They often wear flashy matching clothes, sided with Glitter and Sequins, and they are shown to have musical abilities, singing two songs (A Goat for Christmas and Your Uncle is a Werewolf) together for the school talent show in "Show It Up". It is revealed that they take care of their little cousin Klaus Hessenheffer in "Auction It Up" and "Judge It Up". In Made in Japan, their closeness is formally revealed when Tinka is arrested and almost deported. Gunther is extremely upset over it and seems like he was having anxiety at the thought of being separated from his sister for even a couple of days.
===Rocky Blue (Frenemy)===
Rocky is a "frenemy" of Gunther's, fellow Shake It Up, Chicago! dancer, and schoolmate. They don't often get along and like to throw insults at each other, but they can be friendly at times. Rocky agreed for her and CeCe to go to his house for Vatalihootsit Day ("Vatalihootsit It Up"), where he says he thinks she's the smartest girl in their school. In "Show It Up", she asks him and his sister Tinka to join her team to defeat Candy Cho, until he leaves to join Candy's group. In "Break It Up", they are seated together and her cast shows Gunther's signature. He thinks she is some sort of "witch" in "Kick It Up". He helps her with her modeling in "Model It Up". In "Split It Up", Rocky is jealous of CeCe and Gunther dancing on Good Morning Chicago and initially accepts Tinka's help to get CeCe sick so she can't dance on the show.
===CeCe Jones (Frenemy; Ex-Girlfriend; Main Love Interest; Crush) ===
CeCe is a "frenemy" of Gunther's, fellow dancer on Shake It Up! Chicago, and classmate at John Hughes High. The two don't often get along and like to throw insults at each other although later in the show (mainly Season 2) they seem to be more comfortable around each other. Rocky forced CeCe to ask him to the school dance. In "Hot Mess It Up" when they thought that he was about to move back to the "old country". Though he acted very sweet to her, in the end, Gunther dumped CeCe. They can be friends at times, as seen in "Model It Up" when CeCe had been working with Gunther (off-screen) as her modelling coach. In "Split It Up", they are selected by Gary Wilde to be guest dancers on Good Morning, Chicago. Kenton Duty, who plays Gunther, has acknowledged the pairing in his interviews and has given away hints for a GeCe centric episode, "Split It Up", before it aired. In Reality Check It Up on True Teen Life, they made it seem like CeCe likes Gunther. It is also shown in this episode that Gunther has a crush on CeCe as he kept on flirting with her. InSurprise It Up he and CeCe go to a mailman's funeral together, and later on in the episode Gunther shows up at her birthday party. Seeing as Tinka and CeCe are now friends, Gunther and CeCe may become friends and get closer.
===Deuce Martinez===
They have talked several times, but are not apparently close. In "Add It Up", Deuce bets Gunther that he can beat him in arm wrestling, but to his and Ty's surprise Gunther slams Deuce easily. Gunther beats him in all the re-matches Deuce demands, winning all his clothes (when Deuce is seen walking home, he glares at Rocky and CeCe, who were mocking him, and states "You're just lucky I won back my underwear.") Gunther and Tinka like to pick on Deuce, as seen in "Shrink It Up". Gunther calls him "Deucey". Gunther tried being nice to Deuce in "Shrink It Up".
===Ty Blue===
Ty is a schoolmate and frenemy of Gunther's. Sometimes they don't get along, due to Ty thinking Gunther is weird and unusual. For the most part, they are friends and Ty gets along with Gunther more than anyone else on the show besides Tinka. In "Age It Up", they were involved in a subplot similar to "My Fair Lady", where Ty tried to make Gunther more "hip" after seeing him get rejected by Gunther's crush, Danielle. He succeeded, turning Gunther into a "cool" guy called "G" by making over his appearance and attitude. When Danielle accepted Gunther's offer for a date, Ty offered to get a pizza with him to celebrate, which Gunther didn't accept because he thought he was too good for Ty. They made up by the end of the episode. They also played a few friendly games of ping pong in "Camp It Up" and got back at Flynn together in "Egg It Up".
===Flynn Jones===
Gunther was introduced to Flynn when he babysat him with Tinka in "Meatball It Up". Flynn takes advantage of the fact that they come from a foreign country, making up many things babysitters do in America. He watched him again when they were left behind by everyone else while Rocky was rushed to the hospital ("Break It Up"), and also in "Egg It Up" when Flynn fired Ty as his babysitter. They appear to get along well while Gunther takes over as his babysitter, dressing up like rock stars and performing together. Gunther and Ty worked together to get back at Flynn for using the both of them in the same episode.
===Danielle===
Danielle was Gunther's crush in "Add It Up". Gunther followed Ty's advice to change everything about himself to impress her. He succeeded in asking her out, but she dumped him when he defended Tinka after Danielle called Tinka a reject and said she couldn't hang out with them unless she changed like Gunther did. He refused and ditches her, changing back to how he was and making up with Tinka.
==Episode Appearances==
===Season 1===
*Start It Up: In this episode, Gunther and his twin sister and best friend, Tinka, are revealed to be weird, sparkly, and irritating people with funny accents from an unnamed European country. They audition forShake It Up, Chicago! and are accepted as two new back up dancers on the show.
*Meatball It Up: Gunther and Tinka babysit CeCe's little brother Flynn. Flynn tricks them into many different things, telling them these are the American ways of babysitting.
*Give It Up: Gunther and Tinka partner up for a Dance Marathon held by Shake It Up, Chicago!. They were supposed to be the last pair left dancing in order for them to win money for their charity, their charity being the Mousse Foundation. Tinka wanted to give up when they were one of the last two pairs left (Rocky and CeCe being the other pair), but Gunther encouraged her to carry on. Eventually they became too tired and fell asleep, letting Rocky and CeCe win.
*Add It Up: Tinka wants to find a date and Gunther offers to take her on one. He realizes that the two would not be able to get married when they grow up and Gunther seems heartbroken. He eventually pays Ty to take Tinka out and arm wrestles Deuce for the rest of the episode, winning all but one of the matches.
*Kick It Up: Gunther thinks Justin Bieber is the special guest on Shake It Up, to which CeCe implies it will never be. He also thought Rocky was a witch, and ran out screaming with Tinka. After a day of hanging out with Tinka and later on, Gunther, CeCe realises she learned something from Gunther and Tinka.
*Age It Up: Gunther wants to ask out a cheerleader, so with the help of Ty, he changes his entire personality, creating a new alterego called "G."
*Hook It Up: Gunther and Tinka start kissing Gary's butt for no reason.
*Show It Up: CeCe and Rocky ask Gunther and Tinka to join them in the talent show, but they ditch the girls for the cheerleading squad.
*Hot Mess It Up: Gunther and CeCe go out because Rocky thinks he's about to leave the country because of some stupid advice she thought CeCe gave to Gunther.
*Vatalihootsit It Up: Gunther and Tinka invite CeCe and Rocky to celebrate Vatalihootsit Day, a day when you break bread with your enemies.
*Model It Up: Gunther is revealed to be CeCe's modelling coach and helps her and Rocky with modelling.
*Break It Up: Gunther, CeCe, Ty, Tinka, Deuce, Rocky, Flynn, and Georgia go on a camping trip together. Later on, the Hessenheffers babysit Flynn and scare him with monster stories.
===Season 2===
*Shrink It Up: Gunther and Tinka decide to start being nice to people, beginning with Deuce.
*Shake It Up, Up & Away: Gunther and Tinka plot to get CeCe and Rocky kicked off Shake It Up, Chicago! when they see the two of them get on a different bus.
*Auction It Up: Gunther and Tinka give CeCe and Rocky money to pay for their old school, if they babysit their evil little cousin, Klaus.
*Camp It Up: Gunther and Ty have a ping-pong match.
*Split It Up: Gunther and CeCe are selected to dance on Good Morning, Chicago.
*Egg It Up: Gunther and Ty compete to see who is the better babysitter for Flynn. When they both find out that Flynn tricked them to do his essay, they write his essay with false information to get back at him.
*Judge It Up: Rocky and CeCe sue Gunther and Tinka after they claimed that they didn't get paid for dancing at Klaus' party, but Gunther and Tinka say they didn't deserve to be paid. They all end up in Teen Court and say their points of view of what had happened in completely different versions.
*Whodunit Up?
*Protest It Up
*Reality Check It Up
*Rock and Roll It Up
*Slumber It Up
*Surprise It Up
*Made In Japan
==Trivia==
*His catchphrase is "Hello Bay-Bee!"
* He has a sock puppet he calls Little Gunther. ("Hot Mess It Up" and "Break It Up")
*He has many knitted goats that Tinka made him. ("Age It Up")
*He used to model sweaters on the "Home Sheeping Network" back in the old country. ("Model It Up")
*He owns at least two Betwinklers. ("Age It Up")
*He can cook, clean, and sew.
*He is a huge butt-kisser. ("Hook It Up")
* He can't shave. ("Heat It Up")
* His charity for the Dance-a-thon was The Mousse Foundation, which provides hair care products to children in need. ("Give It Up")
*He went to the dance with CeCe. ("Hot Mess It Up")
* He thought Rocky was a witch. ("Kick It Up")
*He wakes up at 3 a.m. to plan his outfit with Tinka. ("Protest It Up")
*He learned Russian. ("Protest It Up")
*He thinks he looks "magnificent on a horse." ("Hot Mess It Up")
*He reads other people's emails. ("Model It Up")
*CeCe and Gunther have more moments together than anyone else. ("Hot Mess It Up") ("Split It Up") ("Reality Check It Up") ("Surprise It Up")
*He can put on a realistic American accent. ("Age It Up"), "Auction It Up")
*His socks match his underwear. ("Age It Up")
*He can play the guitar and the ukulele and can sing. ("Show It Up")
*He is CeCe and Rocky's modelling coach. ("Model It Up")
*He thinks Rocky is the smartest girl of their school. ("Vatalihootsit It Up")
*His best friend is his fraternal twin sister, Tinka.
*He is significantly stronger than others expect. ("Add It Up")
*He possibly thinks of CeCe in a romantic way, due to his flirting with her and his attempt to kiss her. ("Reality Check It Up")
*He flew to America in Business Class with his sister, Tinka and their parents. ("Give It Up")
*He may have feelings for CeCe. ("Hot Mess It Up") (Split It Up) ("Reality Check It Up") ("Surprise It Up").
*His height has been a gag twice. The first in Slumber it up when he was going to listen in from the vent but instead put Flynn on his shoulder, the second in Made in Japan when Ty propped the iPad on Gunther's shoulder.
*It takes him an hour and a half to do his hair ("Split It Up").
*He is officially a prince.
*He is probably rich.
*Since he is a prince, he can become king in his country.
*He is the tallest main character, the second being Rocky.
*He is off Shake it Up, Chicago.
* He is living in the old country to take care of the farm and his grandparents. ("Fire It Up")
==Memorable Quotes==
===Start It Up===
*﻿Gunther: "I am Gunther-"Tinka: "and I am Tinka-"Gunther: "And we are-"Both: the Hessenheffers!"
*"Don't be loony-nutty!"
===Age It Up===
*"But G calls everybody bro."
*"Okay so I add sparkles, so glad I brought my betwinkler!"
*"Yes I got it! I speak like the dudes who enjoy coolness!"
===Meatball It Up===
*(To Rocky) "It's called Shake It Up, Chicago, not I Just Ate You, Chicago!"
* (To Flynn) Gunther: "I am Gunther-"Tinka: "and I am Tinka-"Gunther: "And we are here to sit you, baybee!"
* Geogia: "Who the heck are you?"Tinka: "I'm Tinka-"Gunther: "And I'm Gunther, and we are-"Both: The Hessenheffers!"Gunther: "We were hired to sit on your baby!"
===Whodunit Up===
*(To CeCe) "Your sleuthing is worse than your dancing."
=== Model It Up===
*"Witness the panther! I'm stalking my prey (gasps) I pause, am I ready to pounce?"
===Add It Up ===
* (To Tinka) What is wrong sister twin? You look like you have the boo-hoos.
===Reality Check It Up===
*(To CeCe) "I see you've managed to get rid of everybody so you can be with Gunther."
*(To CeCe) "Oh CeCe, I love it when you play hard to get."
*(To Cece) "The camera doesn't lie, baybee."
===Hot Mess It Up===
*"Yes, I do get it and by the way I look magnificent on a horse."
===Made in Japan===
*"Our suitcases are silver, covered in sequins and they glow, we would be able to find them in a water landing."
===Split It Up===
*"And I'll need an hour and a half for hair-what? This doesn't just happen people."
===Egg It Up===
* "Well I was going to take him (Flynn) out for Chilli cheeseburgers too and whatever else you might say, but double."
*"You think I'm just going to stand here and let you write lies? The title of his essay will read 'Oh Captain My Captain, My Hero, Gunther Hessenheffer'."
===Slumber It Up===
*Dina: "Sorry Gunther, girls only."
*Gunther "Yes, girls only and Gunther."
==Gallery==
Fgffff.png
Gunther-and-Tinka-shake-it-up-18376220-400-300.jpg
Vatalihootsit_It_Up_47.jpg
Show_It_Up_06.jpg
0Surprise95.png
0Surprise85.png
0618gh.png
0621gh.png
0287GuntherSurprise.png
IMG_0443.PNG
Vatalihootsit_It_Up_44.jpg
Shake It Up - 2x22 - Reality Check It Up - Photography - Viewing Party.jpg
==Notes==
*Given his and Tinka's accents, it sounds like their homeland is somewhere around Germany.
*Although it was initially said that Gunther was going to be a recurring character in Season 3, in the end he never appeared on the show again and was only mentioned a few times.
==References==
#↑ Shake It Up: Season 3 is a Go! But OH, NO!
Category:Characters
Category:Shake It Up characters
Category:Teenagers
Category:Males
Category:Dancers
Category:Lovers
Category:Live-action characters
Category:European characters
Category:Disney characters
Category:Students
Category:Disney Channel characters
Category:Siblings
Category:Twins and Triplets