Sunday, October 12, 2014

The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (2004)


So for a couple of weeks, I went through the earlier seasons of Spongebob Sqaurepants, in hopes of going through the entire show to find out how it went downhill as well as being ready for the upcoming sequel to this film; Sponge Out of Water. So let's take a look at the big movie that came before Spongebob's last, good season, The Spongebob Squarepants Movie.

Plot: Spongebob Sqaurepants becomes heartbroken when his boss, Mr. Krabs doesn't promote him as the manager of the second Krusty Krab restaurant because he is not mature enough. But when Plankton steals King Neptune's crown and sends it to Shell City and frames Mr. Krabs, Spongebob convinces Kind Neptune to give him 6 days to retrieve his crown and prove Krab's innocence. So the race is on for Spongebob and Patrick to retrieve the crown, unaware that Plankton has planned to use this to get the Krabby Patty formula. 

I realize just from writing the plot paragraph, that if you are not familiar with the show, you are not likely going to understand a good portion of what is happening in this film. But with that said, The Spongebob Squarepants Movie is still a fun movie to enjoy. In fact, for those of you who don't recall my review for Hey Arnold! The Movie or haven't read it, I gave examples of how theatrical movies based off animated TV shows work best if they give us a story of their characters going on a grand adventure that comes out as very epic and works unlike Hey Arnold! The Movie itself, which was bland movie and shockingly had little to no energy. And The Spongebob Squarepants Movie was one of those examples I gave. This film does give us a grand adventure that Spongebob hasn't come across before. And it pulls it off very well. We get Spongebob and Patrick going somewhere beyond Bikini Bottom, they comes across all these different obstacles, and Plankton finally gets the Krabby Patty formula. All of this at the time worked in giving us something that the characters haven't come across before. But they still give us the comedy and charm that Spongebob and his friends at Bikini Bottom have, while also expanding the world of Spongebob Squarepants. Including giving us new characters such as King Neptune and his daughter Mindy, voiced by Jeffrey Tambor and Scarlett Johansson (yeah imagine that today, Black Widow in Spongebob Squarepants), and even Alec Baldwin as Dennis, who I personally think did a pretty decent job disguising his voice. All three of these new characters have their likable moments. Although I will say that as a kid and even now that I'm grown up, I can't help but wonder why Neptune and Mindy never made any future appearances in the show. I mean sure, they wouldn't be there all the time, and they probably wouldn't be voiced by Tambor and Johansson again. But at the same time, I always felt we could've gotten more stories with those two. I mean what about Patrick's crush on Mindy? That went pretty much nowhere in this movie, so why not give a little more to that in episodes that take place after the film? But I digress. The music also has its memorable moments too...even if most of them are memorable in a love/hate kind of catchy way. There is no doubt that there are some people who really hate certain songs like Best Day Ever and especially The Goofy Goober song. But the same time, both songs come off as a lot of fun and really catchy to listen and sing to. And then there's the real focus in the film, on Spongebob and Patrick. Like I said before, they both succeed in giving us the comedy and charm that makes them likable...even if some of the jokes they pull come out as a lot more weird now that I'm grown up. Which brings the need to point of that it really depends on your sense of humor on whether or not you would like this film, or even the show for that matter. Now if there's one personal problem I have with the film that I honestly am kind of glad they will be fixing in some degree in the next movie, it would be that we don't exactly get enough of other characters in the show like Squidward, Gary, Mr. Krabs and Sandy. All of these characters are just as likable as Spongebob and Patrick in their own way, and yet neither of them have much to contribute to the film aside from Mr. Krabs' dilemma moving the plot along. 

And that's my review for The Spongebob Sqaurepants Movie. It's a fun, goofy movie with strange with mostly enjoyable humor, likable characters that are either from the show or are made just for the film, and a story that works in giving the characters a big adventure that makes it work as a movie made from an animated TV series. Now am I going to continue going through the whole show? Well...no. I mean I'll watch season 4 and some other episodes here and there that I hear are a little good, but from what I've seen from videos about the show from YouTube video reviewer; TheMysteriousMrEnter, the show really has gone to crap. In fact I think it's safe for me to say just based on what I saw from his videos, that even compared to other shows that I've seen lose its touch in later seasons, what has happened to Spongebob recently is ...atrocious. But I still hope to see Sponge Out of Water when it hits the theaters. I don't expect it to be good but...eh, it could be enjoyable in some way. So stick around to see how that turns out in a few months.

Rating: 70%

No comments:

Post a Comment