Review: The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (2004)
'I'm a Goofy Goober.'
★★★★
There have been many movies based on children's TV shows. Some of which turn out to be bad and some turn out to be good. In the case of "The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (2004)," this is a rare case where a movie based on a children's TV show is amazing. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have childhood nostalgia for this, because I do. I grew up watching Spongebob on TV. The classic seasons from seasons 1-6 will always be considered by fans, myself included as the best seasons of Spongebob. Before the movie was greenlit, creator Stephen Hillenberg, rest his soul, was hesitant on adapting Spongebob into a movie. "I never wanted to do a movie because I didn't think that what we wanted to say needed to be in a movie. I like the short form for animation. Then this story idea came up that lent itself to a longer format. You can't do a road trip adventure in a short form." Hence, the Spongebob movie was born.
The movie was originally intended to be the finale to the show, but after the movie's success, Nickelodeon wanted more episodes, so Stephen Hillenberg decided to renew the show for many seasons. I only say that because the show still is going on, but I stopped watching them because all the new seasons are garabge. But back to the movie, I think it's a great finale to the show, probably after the third or sixth season.
The plot of the movie goes as follows, Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown) has been very successful with his resturant, The Krusty Krab, and decided to open another one, titled: "The Krusty Krab 2." Spongebob (Tom Kenny), who's been employee of the month for about a dozen times, believes he'll get the manager positon, but upon the grand opening, Mr. Krabs decided to give it Squidward (Rodger Bumpass), which deeply upsets Spongebob, so to cope with that depression, he gets drunk at Goofy Goober ice cream parlor with his best friend Patrick Star (Bill Fagerbakke). Meanwhile, after Plankton (Mr.Lawernce) has failed mulitple times to get his hands on the Krabby Patty secret formula, he gives up, until his computer wife, Karen (Jill Talley), tells him of "Plan Z." Which for some reason, Plankton has never heard of the letter "Z" before. Didn't he say that he went to college in the first season? It makes no sense, but at least it makes us laugh. "Plan Z" has Plankton steal King Neptune (Jeffrey Tambor)'s crown, sell it to a guy at Shell City, and frame it on Mr. Krabs. That plan works, but before Neptune kills Mr. Krabs, Spongebob and Patrick volunteer themselves to retrive the crown to save Mr. Krabs.
As a kid, I always saw this as a fun adventure film, because I was a fan of Spongebob, but as an adult, I gave this a rewatch and noticed a lot of things that I hadn't noticed as a kid. For example, unlike the show, this movie isn't afraid to play with tone. There are moments that mirror the original show with it's banter and comedy between the characters, and there are completely new moments that can be very dark, a bit scary, and intense. Spongebob and Patrick's quest to retrive Neptune's crown is not an easy task. It's very risky, especially since Shell City is on land, unlike Bikini Bottom, that's under the ocean. It's someonething new, which I appericate a lot.
One of the darkest moments is when Plankton shows that the buckets he gave away with every order has a mind controlling device inside of them and how all citizens become mindless slaves all chanting the same phrase, "All Hail Plankton." We first learn of this after Squidward finds out the truth. Although Squidward doesn't admit it, he claims it's only because of his paychecks. But I think there's a small part of him that where he actually cares for Mr. Krabs. Squidward's fear and intense music shows how scary the world of Spongebob has become under Plankton's control.
Another dark moment is when Spongebob get captured by the Cyclops man (Neil Ross), who bring them to Shell City, which turns out to be a gift shop. Cyclops plans to basically kill Spongebob and Patrick to sell them as souvenirs. That scene, when the two die is genuinely quite terrifying and so sad. No matter how many times you watch it, it's still so sad. Then it cuts back to the pirates in the cinema, sobbing, then celebrating after seeing Spongebob and Patrick come back to life. I don't know if this was intentional, but the pirates are a metaphor to the audiences' reactions, at least the way I see it.
I can spend hours talking about this movie, but that would be a lot of typing and reading. So, I'll just wrap this up. I loved this as a kid, but I appericate it more as an adult and love it more, mostly due to how well of a movie it is, and how much it takes many extreme steps, as I mentioned before, and in my opinion, the perfect finale for a beloved show. There's so much to love with this film. 20 years later, it's become a cult classic. Also, I'm pretty sure that Mr. Krabs is a cannibal. Have you noticed that he and his mother are the only "Krabs" in town? I'm sure that Mr. Krabs makes his Krabby Patties out of Krabs.