It’s interesting to note that when the first major film
adaptation of ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ was being made, it was originally intended
to be the official series finale. This was because series creator Stephen
Hillenburg didn’t want the show to ‘jump the shark’, the case where a TV show
begins to drop in quality as a result of an incredibly gimmicky moment (the
most infamous example being the classic series ‘Happy Days’ when the main
character Fonzie literally jumped over a shark, hence the phrase ‘jumping the
shark’). But, because of the film’s success both critically and commercially,
Nickelodeon decided to renew the series for another season and the show is
still on today, currently in its ninth season. Though of course as we all know,
the show ultimately has declined in quality ever since the film was released so
in hindsight maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for Nick to renew the series
after all. Thankfully that’s not the case with ‘The SpongeBob SquarePants
Movie’. Like the three seasons of the show that came before it, this film maintains
the same great comedic writing and surrealist nature that the series was known
for while also effectively transitioning the show to the big screen. This
results in a solid animated film that’s not only full of excellent animation
but also a lot of heart as well to the point where it could arguably stand
toe-to-toe with the likes of Disney and Pixar.
The film begins as SpongeBob (Tom Kenny) eagerly awaits the
opening of the new Krusty Krab restaurant (simply titled the ‘Krusty Krab 2’)
in the hopes that his boss Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown) will appoint him as the new
restaurant’s manager given his stellar track record as an employee of the
original Krusty Krab. However, on the day of the grand opening ceremony, Mr.
Krabs ends up giving the job to Squidward (Rodger Bumpass) instead due to the
fact that SpongeBob is ‘just a kid’. Meanwhile, Mr. Krabs’ long-time business
rival Plankton (Mr. Lawrence) comes up with a new plan to steal the formula to
the Krabby Patty. He steals the crown of King Neptune (Jeffrey Tambor), has it
sent far away to the mysterious ‘Shell City’, and has Mr. Krabs framed for the
theft. When Neptune plans to execute Mr. Krabs for the crime, SpongeBob
intervenes and offers to go to Shell City to get the crown back. So with the
help of Neptune’s daughter Mindy (Scarlett Johansson), SpongeBob and Patrick
(Bill Fagerbakke) head out for Shell City as they face many obstacles, including
a hit man named Dennis (Alec Baldwin) hired by Plankton to stop them from
completing their mission and a giant Cyclops (in reality a human diver), on
their quest to get back the crown and return it to King Neptune in six days so
that they can save Mr. Krabs, all the while Plankton begins to take complete
control of Bikini Bottom now that he has finally acquired the secret formula.
Fans of the show will no doubt appreciate that this film retains
the same overall style of the show, especially in terms of its surreal nature.
Simply put, ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’… is a very weird show and the film is just
as bizarre. How weird, you ask? Well there’s one scene where SpongeBob and
Patrick are on dry land and they meet none other than David Hasselhoff, who
ends up transporting them back to Bikini Bottom as he literally turns into a
human speedboat. So yes, this film, like the show itself, is fairly weird but
if you can accept that then you’ll enjoy this film fine enough. The animation
is pretty top-notch, which makes sense given the fact that the animators had
more time to work on the animation for this film as opposed to the much more
limited timeframe they had while working on the show. And of course, the
comedic writing is as spot-on as it was during the first three seasons of the
show, resulting in a film that is full of memorable moments, from SpongeBob and
Patrick trying to steal the key to their car back from a biker bar to the
aforementioned scene with Hasselhoff. Not only that, but the film also has a
good amount of heart as well, with a strong message about being yourself, as
shown through SpongeBob’s overall character arc here as he tries to prove to
everyone that he’s not ‘a kid’ but eventually that it’s okay to be ‘a kid’ at
times.
The main members of the series’ voice cast all return to
reprise their roles in the film, and they all do a great job here. Unlike later
episodes of the series, the script doesn’t try to over-emphasize their own
unique character traits to an annoying degree. SpongeBob may be naïve and
childish and Patrick is just plain stupid but the writing doesn’t over-play
those characteristics in any way here and they are both very endearing
characters as a result. By comparison, more recently the show has over-played
these traits, making SpongeBob very annoying and, in some cases, rather creepy
and Patrick so dumb to the point where a lot of times he’s a total prick to
everyone around him, even his ‘best friend’ SpongeBob at times. So nowadays
this movie serves as a great example of when the writing was smarter compared
to what we see on the show today. The new additions to the voice cast are
excellent as well. Alec Baldwin is clearly having a lot of fun camping it up in
the role of Dennis, Scarlett Johansson provides a sweet persona to the role of
Mindy, who’s clearly shown to be nicer and in many cases smarter than her
father, and Jeffrey Tambor is perfectly cast in the role of King Neptune, with
the majority of the character’s humor coming from his struggle to hide the fact
that he’s balding. I don’t even care that the Neptune in this film looks
nothing like the Neptune in the show. The scene where Neptune reveals his ‘thinning’
hairline, which results in everyone yelling ‘Bald! Bald! Bald!’ (even one guy’s
eyes start to burn), is one of the funniest moments in the entire film.
While Stephen Hillenburg didn’t want ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’
to ‘jump the shark’, in a way its first film adaptation actually does kind of
serve as its ‘jumping the shark’ moment because at the moment it is currently the
last really great thing to come out of this franchise. So because of this, it
probably would’ve been better for this film to be the series finale so that it
would go out on a high note instead of a low one, which given the current track
record of the series it’s highly likely to be. Still, ‘The SpongeBob
SquarePants Movie’ is not only a well-done animated film adaptation of this
once-great show but it also now serves as a solid piece of nostalgia for anyone
who grew up with this show like I did. Like the original first three seasons,
the movie maintains the series’ trademark style of humor, its tone, and its
admittedly weird and bizarre atmosphere. Again, only in this series would you
see something like David Hasselhoff turning into a speedboat. But what also
makes this movie so great is its heart and its strong message to kids about
being yourself. ‘The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie’ is easily one of the best
non-Pixar animated films of the last decade or so and even though the show in
recent years hasn’t been up to par in terms of it quality, I’m hopeful that the
upcoming sequel film, ‘Sponge Out of Water’, will at least be a step up from
the show’s run as of late.
Rating: 4.5/5
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