SpongeBob SquarePants -The Movie
HJ Links
—Overview
—Review by Maurice Broaddus
—Review by Kathy Bledsoe
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections
In a nutshell, if you like the cartoon show that this movie is based on, then you will be almost pleased with the movie. The movie touches on all the things you love about the show (or hate about the show, depending on where you fall on the topic of all things SpongeBob), but doesn’t quite deliver.
For those new to this universe created by Stephen Hillenburg (hard to believe anyone is, considering the millions that the Nickelodeon show brings in via merchandising) SpongeBob SquarePants is a sponge. “Absorbent and yellow and porous is he.� Along with his best friend Patrick, a starfish, they live in the underwater town of Bikini Bottom. SBSP works as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab, alongside his neighbor Squidward Tentacles, for their money grubbing boss, Eugene H. Krabs. Mr. Krabs’ long-time arch nemesis, Plankton, runs the rival restaurant, the Chum Bucket. The plot centers around Mr. Krabs opening up Krusty Krab II, next door to the first one, and making Squidward the manager instead of SpongeBob (“It’s not called kid-ager�). Plankton has framed Mr. Krabs for the theft of King Neptune’s crown, as part of his convoluted scheme to get the secret formula for Krabby Patties. And SBSP sets off with Patrick on the hero’s journey to the forbidden Shell City to retrieve the crown and prove himself man enough to be manager.
Still with me?
A lot of the show’s cracked sensibility is still here -the animation mixed with the jarring live-action digressions- but it doesn’t always come together. For example, you want the theme song to be there, expecting a grand audience sing-a-long. Instead it is delivered hilariously by live-action pirates. This is typical of the almost-perfect frustration of the movie. There is still plenty of the crass humor and frantic animation that makes the show great. The copious amount of Patrick nudity prompted this exchange between my son and me:
“I see his butt.�
“What did daddy tell you?�
“Butts are funny.�
Sure, there’s an early scene of SpongeBob in the shower with Squidward, but the topper for disturbing imagery can be expressed in four words: David Hasselhoff’s flexing pectorals.
There are two problems with the movie. One, I never thought that as a writer I would say this, but this movie suffers from too much plot. Most cartoon-to-movie leaps suffer from not having enough plot, after all, we’re talking about stretching an 11 minutes per episode cartoon into an hour-and-a-half affair. But plot is not quintessential to the SpongeBob experience: non sequitur dialogue combined with gratuitous looniness is.
The other problem is one that strikes far too many cartoon movies: THE CELEBRITY VOICE. This movie should have been a road movie with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy Cheeks, a “Fellowship of the Crown.�
Instead we get a tale -without Sandy, except by cameo- distracted by the introduction of a new character (and not character so much as merely celebrity voice) Mindy (Scarlett Johansson). King Neptune, a character introduced on the show, is now bald and voiced by (and modeled after) Jeffrey Tambor. Though, admittedly, Dennis (Alec Baldwin) worked, but this was because his character was more in tune with the pop-culturally-aware-yet-random spirit of the show.
The show has always been about the power of friendship and community. Sure, SBSP and Patrick get blitzed on Goofy Goober Sundaes after SpongeBob is overlooked for promotion, but they are there for each other. It is SpongeBob’s eternally optimistic, innocent obliviousness, that is not only the secret to his charm, but that also gets him through life. In short, his is the faith of a child. Though the plot is supposedly about the duo’s desire to prove themselves to be men, since men have facial hair and are “invincible� what we learn is that it is important to be who you are. And it is their child-like faith that sees them through.
“If nautical nonsense be something you wish� . . . then this movie doesn’t quite hit the mark. The closer it sticks to the television show the better it is. But despite its flaws, it does prove to be a highly entertaining venture.
—Overview
—Review by Maurice Broaddus
—Review by Kathy Bledsoe
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections
In a nutshell, if you like the cartoon show that this movie is based on, then you will be almost pleased with the movie. The movie touches on all the things you love about the show (or hate about the show, depending on where you fall on the topic of all things SpongeBob), but doesn’t quite deliver.For those new to this universe created by Stephen Hillenburg (hard to believe anyone is, considering the millions that the Nickelodeon show brings in via merchandising) SpongeBob SquarePants is a sponge. “Absorbent and yellow and porous is he.� Along with his best friend Patrick, a starfish, they live in the underwater town of Bikini Bottom. SBSP works as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab, alongside his neighbor Squidward Tentacles, for their money grubbing boss, Eugene H. Krabs. Mr. Krabs’ long-time arch nemesis, Plankton, runs the rival restaurant, the Chum Bucket. The plot centers around Mr. Krabs opening up Krusty Krab II, next door to the first one, and making Squidward the manager instead of SpongeBob (“It’s not called kid-ager�). Plankton has framed Mr. Krabs for the theft of King Neptune’s crown, as part of his convoluted scheme to get the secret formula for Krabby Patties. And SBSP sets off with Patrick on the hero’s journey to the forbidden Shell City to retrieve the crown and prove himself man enough to be manager.
Still with me?
A lot of the show’s cracked sensibility is still here -the animation mixed with the jarring live-action digressions- but it doesn’t always come together. For example, you want the theme song to be there, expecting a grand audience sing-a-long. Instead it is delivered hilariously by live-action pirates. This is typical of the almost-perfect frustration of the movie. There is still plenty of the crass humor and frantic animation that makes the show great. The copious amount of Patrick nudity prompted this exchange between my son and me:“I see his butt.�
“What did daddy tell you?�
“Butts are funny.�
Sure, there’s an early scene of SpongeBob in the shower with Squidward, but the topper for disturbing imagery can be expressed in four words: David Hasselhoff’s flexing pectorals.
There are two problems with the movie. One, I never thought that as a writer I would say this, but this movie suffers from too much plot. Most cartoon-to-movie leaps suffer from not having enough plot, after all, we’re talking about stretching an 11 minutes per episode cartoon into an hour-and-a-half affair. But plot is not quintessential to the SpongeBob experience: non sequitur dialogue combined with gratuitous looniness is.
The other problem is one that strikes far too many cartoon movies: THE CELEBRITY VOICE. This movie should have been a road movie with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy Cheeks, a “Fellowship of the Crown.�
Instead we get a tale -without Sandy, except by cameo- distracted by the introduction of a new character (and not character so much as merely celebrity voice) Mindy (Scarlett Johansson). King Neptune, a character introduced on the show, is now bald and voiced by (and modeled after) Jeffrey Tambor. Though, admittedly, Dennis (Alec Baldwin) worked, but this was because his character was more in tune with the pop-culturally-aware-yet-random spirit of the show.The show has always been about the power of friendship and community. Sure, SBSP and Patrick get blitzed on Goofy Goober Sundaes after SpongeBob is overlooked for promotion, but they are there for each other. It is SpongeBob’s eternally optimistic, innocent obliviousness, that is not only the secret to his charm, but that also gets him through life. In short, his is the faith of a child. Though the plot is supposedly about the duo’s desire to prove themselves to be men, since men have facial hair and are “invincible� what we learn is that it is important to be who you are. And it is their child-like faith that sees them through.
“If nautical nonsense be something you wish� . . . then this movie doesn’t quite hit the mark. The closer it sticks to the television show the better it is. But despite its flaws, it does prove to be a highly entertaining venture.
4 Comments:
I'm sure it's a lovely movie. But tell me, do you THINK SpongeBob and Patrick are gay? Because they hold hands?
What is your position on this?
If they were, would it matter?
(No laughing matter here! After all, they near-enough banned Buster the rabbit because of such a notion!!)
you could make a stronger argument that (king) david and his best friend jonathon were gay from the amount of man-to-man touching that they do.
and they weren't either.
(that would be a "no, they aren't gay". if nothing else, they are a sponge and a starfish. there's a whole lot of other issues involved.)
Sorry Maurice! (If I were a dog I'd wag my tail and rub my muzzle with my front paw!)
By the way, Maurice! Sponges in nature, are hermaphrodites! (I just found that out on someone else's blog on the internet!)
I thought you were a biologist?
And why is your major in English "undeclared"?
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