'The Spongebob Movie: Sponge out of Water' Review

After reaching it's fifteenth birthday last year, Spongebob Squarepants' story finally goes to a new dimension.

Eleven years have passed since the underwater town of Bikini Bottom had its first screen outing in 2004's animated hit, 'The Spongebob Squarepants Movie'. Since then, not a lot has changed for the little sponge and his nautical companions. However, one thing that did seem to make a difference was behind the scenes. After taking his character to the big screen, 'Spongebob' creator, Stephen Hillenburg left Nickelodeon studios, and his beloved money making character, behind. With 'Sponge out of Water' he has made a welcomed return by proposing the story idea for the new 'Spongebob' film, and in many ways you can tell. There's an overwhelming nostalgia for classic 'Spongebob' episodes when watching 'Sponge out of Water'. Yet, Hillenburg (along with screenwriters Glenn Berger and Jonathan Aibel)  seems to have also added some very funny and bizarre twists to the animated universe that make this new 'Spongebob' outing quite unique.

The story revolves around an evil pirate named Burger Beard (played with much enthusiasm by Antonio Banderas) who wants to steal the Krabby Patty formula and bring it onto dry land.  To do this he discovers a magical book in the film's opening moments that will change anything in Bikini Bottom history just by writing in it. Once Burger Beard steals all of the Krabby Patties, Bikini Bottom falls into complete post-appocalyptic, 'Mad Max'-style anarchy. Only Spongebob Squarepants along with his buddies Patrick Star, Mr. Krabs, Squidward Tentacles, Sandy Cheeks and even the backstabbing nemesis Plankton must make their way to the shore in all of their 3D glory to stop the villainous Burger Beard.

'Sponge out of Water' is never boring. Even when its super hero inspired climax gets a bit too generic, I was still fully engaged with its enjoyably manic pace. While its hard to compare both 'Spongebob' movies, I will say that this one never truly dragged like some sequences in the 2004 flick did. Never did it feel like a twenty minute story that was stretched out into a feature film, but rather a big, yet simple story that uses all of its hour and a half runtime to its advantage. The jokes come fast and furious from the start. Sometimes so fast it's hard to keep up with them all, yet when a joke lands it REALLY lands. Some of the humor is what'd you come to expect after fifteen years with 'Spongebob', but a lot of the visual humor relies on some very bizarre imagery, even by 'Spongebob' standards. It was sometimes a little TOO bizarre, but the viewer still can't help but admire the ridiculous imagination of the people who worked on this film.

True fans of classic 'Spongebob' will be happy to know that 'Sponge out of Water's CGI/Live Action sequences are saved until well into the third act. And while I did like a lot of the moments on dry land, the new film proves that it's comedic real talent lies deep beneath the ocean blue. The 3D is obviously great for the CGI sequences, however I loved seeing the classic 2D world converted to a 3D viewing experience. Being a fan of the show, it was really cool seeing a world I know and love on a big, 3D scale. Visually, 'Sponge out of Water' is pretty terrific. Both the underwater and on land scenes have a great amount of color and personality to them. Also, the movie features a surprisingly trippy series of time travel sequences that look like something out of a long lost Stanley Kubrick notebook. I was not expecting this at all, and it was thrilling, odd and funny all at the same time. 

Sometimes 'Sponge out of Water' is a little too weird for its own good, and sometimes you wish the live action portions had been cut shorter, but overall 'The Spongebob Movie: Sponge out of Water' delivers exactly what fans of the series want. Colorful characters, mixed with great animation, with a charming wacky sense of animated fun. 

Almost twenty years later and Spongebob is still making all ages laugh.

                                                      

Grade: B

Review by: Josh McCormack