As I’ve previously mentioned quite a few times this past
week, the show ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ has been in a fairly steep decline in
the years since the series’ first film, ‘The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie’, was
released in 2004. Ultimately the biggest reason for this has been due to the
increasingly stale and mediocre writing, from the overly drawn out personality
traits that have begun to make most of the main characters fairly unlikable to
rehashed plot-points and characters to imagery that’s far too grotesque,
graphic, and disturbing for a kids’ show… and in the case of this show, that’s saying
a lot. I haven’t watched any of the newer episodes of the series in quite some
time, so I had my fingers crossed when it came to the series’ second major film
release, ‘Sponge Out of Water’, in the hopes that, if anything, it would at
least be better than what we’ve seen from the show these past few years. And
thankfully, I’m pleased to say that, for the most part, this film is a step up
in quality from the show’s recent run. I say ‘for the most part’ because admittedly
there are some cases where this film veers toward the show’s recent habits but
overall this does feel much more in line with the show’s original ‘pre-movie’
run, and considering what has come from this series in recent years, that’s a
good thing.
The plot of the film is fairly simple; everything’s all
hunky-dory in Bikini Bottom until Plankton (Mr. Lawrence), as usual, tries to
steal the Krabby Patty formula from the Krusty Krab. And of course, SpongeBob
(Tom Kenny) and Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown) keep Plankton from getting the
formula. But this time, the formula suddenly disappears while SpongeBob and
Plankton are fighting over it. Despite the obvious fact that Plankton had
nothing to do with it, Mr. Krabs accuses Plankton of stealing it. SpongeBob
ends up protecting Plankton from Mr. Krabs’ wrath and as a result, he becomes a
social pariah amongst the people of Bikini Bottom, which then causes everything
in Bikini Bottom to fall into complete turmoil and anarchy due to the fact that
Krabby Patties aren’t being made. This results in SpongeBob and Plankton having
to team up to try and find the formula. Eventually, they learn that the formula
was stolen by a pirate named Burger Beard (played by Antonio Banderas), with the
aid of a magical book that makes anything that is written in it come true, in
order to set up his fast food restaurant. This leads SpongeBob and his friends
to have to travel up to the surface and, with the help of the magic book as
well, become superheroes so that they can get the formula back from Burger
Beard.
Like I said in my review of the first film, ‘SpongeBob
SquarePants’ is a weird show, plain and simple. And the same can be said for
both of these films as well. But of course the writers just go with it and that’s
part of the franchise’s charm. Like the first film, ‘Sponge Out of Water’ does maintain
the show’s visual style as well as its humor and on a positive note, the
writing feels more in line with the show’s original run. The writing is smarter
and there aren’t as many annoying or aggravating moments similar to what we come
to expect from the show nowadays. But even with that said, there admittedly are
some instances where the current poor trends of the show tend to slip in, namely
some mean-spirited character moments. A line spoken by Mr. Krabs in a scene
where SpongeBob is about to be ‘sacrificed’ (if you see the film, you’ll know
what I’m talking about) is particularly cringe-worthy. Thankfully, there are
only a few instances in the film where stuff like this occurs. Obviously not
all of the jokes hit (that and this is aimed towards kids so I have the feeling
adults won’t get much out of this unless they were already fans of the show)
but for the most part, the film has a solid amount of funny moments and visual
gags.
However, something that’s also worth noting is that the film
does have one rather noticeable flaw and that comes from the writing. While it is
stronger than what it has been on the show, the overall story is rather
scatterbrained. One of the biggest elements of the film’s promotional material
is that the characters come to the surface and become superheroes. But guess
what? That’s only in the final act of the film and not only that, but if you’ve
seen most of the trailers, then you’ve already seen the majority of this part
of the film. Because of this, the live-action sequences do feel a little tacked
on. But on the bright side, because of this, the film actually does stick with
the traditional animation the show has been known for most of the 93-minute
runtime. It’s not a case where most of the film was done with computer animation,
which is what I feared it would be going in. The computer animation is actually
really good here but as I noted earlier, this part of the film doesn’t really
play that big a part in the overall plot. The film really could’ve benefitted
from having a tighter script that did a better job at balancing out these two
parts of the story.
Unlike the first movie, which had some notable celebrity
voices including Scarlett Johansson and Alec Baldwin, just to name a few, there
aren’t any major ‘cameos’ in this film when it comes to the voice cast. It’s
just the main stars of the show but they all do a solid job as usual as they’ve
been doing ever since the show first debuted back in 1999 (boy writing that
just made me feel so old). In fact, if this film does have one advantage over the
previous film, it is that it gives some of the other main characters, like
Squidward and Sandy, more to do whereas in the first film it was mostly from
SpongeBob and Patrick’s perspective. The only major ‘cameo’ in this film comes
in the form of Antonio Banderas as the main villain Burger Beard. As I noted
earlier, the live-action sequences felt a little tacked on to a film that had a
story that was, for the most part, all over the place. As a result, and without
really giving anything major away, Burger Beard admittedly isn’t that much of
an intimidating villain in this. Despite this, it’s clear that Banderas is
having a lot of fun in this fairly campy and over-the-top role and his charisma
and energy, if anything, do make up for the fact that the character is a rather
weak villain.
‘The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water’, as a whole, is a
noticeable improvement over the show’s recent run, though admittedly it’s not perfect.
This is mainly due to the fact that the overall story is a bit of a mess and the
major selling point of SpongeBob and the gang becoming superheroes actually
doesn’t play as big a part in the film as the trailers suggested. Still, despite
the occasional veering into the show’s recent bad habits, the writing does at least
feel more in line with the show’s original run with a lot more clever humor and
visual gags. Plus, if you’re a fan of traditional animation, then you’ll be
pleased to know that most of this film is done in this style of animation
rather than computer animation, which is only reserved for the final act of the
film. In short, while I can’t say that this film is as good as the first film,
it does serve as a nice little ‘return to form’ for this long-running series that
will more than likely satisfy anybody who felt that the show hasn’t been as
good as it was before the first film, which for the record it was. Heck, in
some cases it might even induce some nostalgic memories from the past. This
film was mainly worked on by the series’ original creative team (including
series’ creator Stephen Hillenburg) and the final product shows that they gave
it their all, resulting in a silly but also very fun little animated film.
Rating: 3.5/5
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