The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (2004)

Review:

I admire and respect the show “Spongebob Squarepants” because it harkens back to a time when cartoons were pure energy and silliness. The actions of those old cartoons needed no explanations because they defied any plausible elucidation – bugs bunny could pull that mallet out of nowhere simply because he can pull mallets out of nowhere. To understand and enjoy “Spongebob Squarepants,” you must approach it with the same logic. Spongebob is a sea sponge that looks like a kitchen sponge because that’s how it is. He lives in a pineapple under the sea because that’s where he lives. His pet snail meows because that’s the noise it makes.

If you can wrap your head around all that, accept its weirdness and laugh at its absurdity you are ready to enjoy Spongebob and you’ll likely enjoy “The Spongebob Squarepants Movie.”

Set in the fictional aquatic settlement of “Bikini Bottom,” the film begins with Spongebob believing he will soon be promoted to manager of a local fast food chain, the Krusty Krab. When his neighbor Squidward receives the promotion instead of him, Spongebob is devastated. His boss Mr. Krabs tells him that he didn’t get the promotion because he’s just a kid. This leads Spongebob to go on a hilarious ice cream bender with his best friend, a starfish named Patrick.

Meanwhile, Plankton, the evil owner of a competing fast food restaurant, steals the crown of King Neptune, king of the sea, as part of a much larger evil scheme. When King Neptune realizes his crown has been stolen, he is furious. Lo and behold, Spongebob and Patrick set off on a mission to find the crown to prove that they’re more than just kids.

This is silly stuff but its good fun and I found myself laughing a lot, sometimes in spite of myself. There are also a plethora of famous names providing voices in this film including Scarlett Johansson, Alec Baldwin, and Jeffrey Tambor. David Hasselhoff has one of the biggest laughs in a cameo appearance that could serve as a shining example of why Spongebob is so weird but also why it works.

I do think the film suffers a little in comparison with its source material. The television show “Spongebob Squarepants” is comprised of 11 minute episodes, a time duration that suits aquatic pandemonium well. At 87 minutes running time “The Spongebob Squarepants Movie” sometimes struggles to keep up its frantic weirdness and defaults into recycled material. Ah, but if you’re going to have a Spongebob movie, this one’s pretty good.


Rating:

On a scale of one to “Casablanca” this film is a “The Great Muppet Caper” (1981)

Rationalization:

This is fun stuff but it is by no means the height of its franchise. I’m not sure material like “Spongebob Squarepants” can be transformed into feature length. It relies so heavily on its energy and whimsy, both of which are hard things to keep up in a full-length movie. But to be fair, many kids movies lack energy and whimsy and have no originality. “The
Spongebob Squarepants Movie” has a relative abundance of all those things and so should be cherished.