Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
Burger Beard (Antonio Banderas) is a pirate looking to have....the most successful restaurant ever? (you call that a villain?) He stumbles across a book that has, the story of the secret formula of the most delectable delicacy ever, the Krabby Patty. He also learns about the keeper of the formula, a fry cook sponge named SpongeBob (Tom Kenny). Meanwhile, under the sea, the Krusty Krab is under attack (for the umpteenth time) by none other than Plankton (Mr. Lawrence). The formula is nearly stolen, but just when Plankton is about to win, the formula....disappears! When Spongebob and Plankton try to make their case, everyone turns against them. With the formula gone, Bikini Bottom goes into apocalyptic haywire, while Spongebob and Plankton try to figure out what is going on. Will it possibly involve our characters surfacing?
The live-action portion of the movie is surprisingly a small amount of the overall movie, about 25 minutes or slightly longer. In that case, majority of the film is in the hand-drawn format that made Spongebob famous. And, honestly, it is a style of animation that's never seen in movie theaters anymore (with the exception of the occasional Disney or Studio Ghibli movie). By all means, its the biggest strength this movie carries. The animation is refreshingly cartoony, with a rainbow of a color palette. There's even a stop-motion segment in Spongebob's brain, and although it might be a little too bright, it still stands out for being different.
The live-action portion, directed by Mike Mitchell, is about on par with the animation. The characters are nicely-realized in this world (in comparison to the first Spongebob movie, which also had a live-action segment, but just had the hand-drawn characters in the real world for about the same amount of time [if a little shorter]). And, I must say, the superhero scene is very, very fun, with some fun superpowers.
One other major strength in comparison to the previous movie is some other major characters of the TV show get much more appreciative screentime. In the first movie, Squidward, Sandy, and Mr. Krabs were all limited from little to barely any time on screen. All three get much more to work with here, especially the latter two. Plankton, who had more screentime last time around than those three, also is given much more time here (particularly in the first 45 minutes). Gary the Snail even gets upgraded from a brief cameo to a few hilarious appearances. If there's a downside to all this, despite being Spongebob's best friend, Patrick gets surprisingly less time to work with here, as he appears as somewhat of an antagonist early on. But, maybe I am just thinking that way since Patrick had a lot of time in the first movie.
The voice actors (Kenny, Lawrence, Bill Fagerbakke, Clancy Brown, Carolyn Lawrence and Rodger Bumpass) all continue to do solid work as their characters, though Fagerbakke and Kenny may be starting to show just a tiny bit of age in their voices (they are in their 50's-60's, respectively now). The other major voices, of Burger Beard's sidekick seagulls, are very fun. Interestingly, the legendary Tim Conway (also known as Barnacleboy from some Spongebob episodes) lends his voice to one of them, as well as Billy West, the film's director Paul Tibbitt, and other minor voice actors. Being the lone live-action actor working here, Banderas works surprisingly well in his "outside the comfort zone" role. He makes for a fun and entertaining villain.
There are plenty of clever jokes here, ranging from classically cartoony sound effects (tiptoes, drum sounds, to classic lines such as "oww my leg!" or "my eyes!") to some surprisingly well-placed gags (Burger Beard trying to end the movie very early on was really funny). Some fall flat, but a lot of them work very well. There's also some very appreciative references to earlier Spongebob episodes (most notably, SB-129, Mermaidman and Barnacleboy V, and F.U.N. among several others that get brief winks). Kudos to Glenn Berger and Jonathan Aibel (Kung Fu Panda) for writing such a funny, clever and yet, surprisingly thoughtful screenplay. John Debney's music score, while not very much in focus, works for a lot of the scenes. A rap at the end is fun and hilariously mocks the very old, but somewhat catchy, theme song.
On the downside, this movie can feel a little episodic sometimes. Plankton's long effort to get the formula, plus the apocalypse and then the surface plotline. While the idea of the Krabby Patty formula's importance and teamwork keeps things tied together a little bit, the transitions to the different points of the story aren't very seamless. As a result, the overall pacing of the movie can be a little unsettled at times. In comparison, the first Spongebob movie was one cohesive story that worked more as a whole than this one.
The only other issue I have with the movie is that the apocalypse plot point does go on a little long. Spongebob's garbage-infused reaction to a negative comment wasn't exactly needed, and it seemed like the pondering of a sacrifice overstayed its' welcome. For the most part, this part of the story (including the time-traveling) is fun and hysterical, but it probably would have made the pacing less unsettled if they had cut off about 5 minutes.
In comparison to many other cartoons on television today, Spongebob Squarepants is one of the very rare ones that many believe has overstayed its welcome in general. It also is one of the rare cartoons that has not lost its appeal, thanks to more and more kids discovering it as older kids out-grow it. I was a huge Spongebob fan when I was 7-11 years old, as I enjoyed the cartoons' witty humor and creative writing. However, after season 4 and the first movie, things went downhill and I eventually lost interest.
I've come across some of those good episodes from time-to-time on TV whenever I have had the time. I remember watching the first Spongebob movie and while I really liked it when I was a kid, its not one of those movies that has withstood the test of time by any means. I've rewatched the DVD a few times in the past couple of years, and to me, its not quite as fun and enjoyable as it was years ago. Being older, I also was annoyed at the fact that there was quite a lot of suggestive humor in that movie as well (though if anyone remembers the review I gave on it a couple years ago, in the context of the cartoon, it was more innocent than risque, and while adults would pick up on it, those jokes were not meant to be taken seriously).
So I had my concerns going into this. But, to my surprise, I actually enjoyed Sponge Out of Water much better than the first movie. The humor this time around is more clever, witty, and well, cleaner and more kid-friendly. And, astonishingly, a lot of the jokes are more true to the classic humor of the first few seasons of Spongebob than the humor from the more recent episodes. Now that doesn't mean the movie has its share of jokes that fall flat and may be annoying, because there are. But, I appreciate the fact that this movie has a more-than-generous amount of respect (per se) to the original episodes.
The narrative, story and pacing could be tighter, but overall, this movie brought back quite a bit of memories from my childhood. Days of watching Spongebob with my dad, my cousins, with some of my friends, and reciting some of the funniest parts to other friends and family, trying to convince them to watch it. And, oddly enough, I found myself doing the same here with Sponge Out of Water.
Now, if you're not a Spongebob fan or if you haven't watched the show at all, it might be much more difficult to enjoy, especially since the show and its brand of humor are an acquired taste. But, young and old fans of the show and those revisiting one of their childhood favorites will find a boatload to enjoy here.
Score: 8.5/10
Language: Nothing extremely offensive. "What the corndog?", "oh shrimp!" and "time for some serious aft-kicking!" replace profanities. One odd moment in the ending rap shows a "censor" bar appear over a seagull's mouth briefly.
Adult Content: No innuendo or anything in an inappropriate context. Patrick's bare rear is shown briefly.
Violence: A lot of cartoonish slapstick violence (a la Looney Tunes). Bikini Bottom turns into an apocalyptic mess, as characters cause some destruction. Patrick smashes his face repeatedly against his rock home. Plankton is beaten and squashed repeatedly. Someone is almost smashed to death by an anvil-like object. On land, the characters are batted around repeatedly and are in a repetitive sense of danger. Burger Beard is punched and kicked high into the sky twice.
Alcohol/Drugs: None.
Other: In distress, Sandy's crazed solution to the apocalypse involves appeasing the "sandwich gods". Squidward calls himself (in superhero form) a "god". Bikini Bottom's denizens treatment of the Krabby Patty leans heavily on obsession. A few scattered bathroom jokes.
