Stephen Hillenburg, the flesh-and-blood mastermind behind the world of SpongeBob Squarepants, knows what it’s like to be a kid. Harnessing a rare understanding of what children want to watch, he oversees the big-screen translation of his uber-successful cartoon show with the advisable ethic of “bigger! faster! better! more!” The end result is an unapologetic joy ride through the anarchic seas of lunacy, one that will please both child and adult alike.
By now you’re probably familiar with SpongeBob, a bizarre little square who lives in the underwater community known as Bikini Bottom. The film picks up where any of the last five year’s worth of TV episodes might, as Bob (voiced to perfection by Tom Kenny) gets himself ready for the grand opening of the second Krusty Krab restaurant, a chain that he has worked at for years with the hope of an eventual management position. When his boss Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown) has other ideas, it sets off a chain of events that gets Squidward (Rodger Bumpass) promoted, has SpongeBob quitting, Patrick (Bill Plankton) predictably confused and Plankton (Mr. Lawrence) deciding to unleash his final evil plan, hilariously titled Plan Z.
This all leads to the theft of a crown belonging to the all-powerful, all-narcissistic leader of Bikini Bottom, the hot-headed King Neptune (Jeffrey Tambor, introducing a new character to this universe). When Mr. Krabs is framed for the theft, SpongeBob and Patrick are forced to take a vehicle shaped like a giant hamburger on a quest to find the crown and bring it back. Along the way they’ll encounter a ruthless assassin (Alec Baldwin), a love interest for Patrick (Scarlett Johansson), more than a few musical numbers, and lots of shots of cartoon character’s bare bottoms.
This is a SpongeBob adventure that certainly feels bigger than your typical episode, but does it without violating the basic framework of Hillenburg’s world. In a storyline that feels more than a bit like Tim Burton’s Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, SpongeBob and his best friend learn valuable but subtle lessons about appreciating their youth, supporting each other, and that sometimes the first step of a journey is far more important than the results.
But if you’re worrying that SpongeBob is getting preachy, don’t. There are also sequences where the boys gets “drunk” on ice cream, Patrick discovers the joys of pantyhose, and the friends get in trouble for blowing bubbles in a biker bar. All the while, Hillenburg continues to walk the fine line between adult humor and kid-appropriate self censoring that makes the material appealing to audiences of all ages. No kid, for instance, is going to get the reference when SpongeBob breaks into David Lee Roth’s scat solo from Just a Gigolo; they will laugh, however, and that’s all Hillenburg cares about.
Actually he also cares about making people laugh and creating complete, utter, gleeful mayhem. When SpongeBob showers, he sticks a bar of soap in his mouth and a hose in his head; when he needs to fight off an army of zombies, he delivers a shredding guitar solo; a creature tries to attack by using a tongue that can disguise itself as an old lady giving away free ice cream. Then our two heroes finally get to their destination and these cartoon characters intersect with a real world that offers David Hasselhoff and his robotic pectorals, in what might be the best cameo of the year.
Unfortunately, this also brings us to the biggest complaint about the SpongeBob movie: a lack of truth in advertising. For a movie whose posters scream “Sponge meets world”, the get-together is all too brief. The promise of a true Roger Rabbit-type adventure that would have Hillenburg’s world meshing with ours is so full of promise, so tantalizingly presented in the ads, that it will likely be quite a disappointment to most of the audience to learn that roughly ten minutes are spent interacting with our world.
Similarly disappointing is a glaring lack of face time for many of SpongeBob’s most beloved friends, including Sandy Cheeks, SpongeBob’s pet snail Gary and others who are noticeably left out. Other complaints could include such questions such as why the bad guy would disclose the location of the crown, but c’mon, how much do you want to nitpick a movie detailing the life of a talking sponge?
In the end, The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie is a fun flick that will keep a smile on your face. If you’re a Spongebob fan, you won’t be disappointed; if you aren’t, now’s a good time to jump on the bandwagon. As SpongeBob would say, we’re all goofy goobers deep down inside, and it’s great news that there’s finally a movie that allows us to embrace it.
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