Around twenty years ago, an absorbent and yellow and porous sponge made his big screen debut. About 2,700 years ago (roughly, nobody knows), Homer wrote the Odyssey. There’s a lot more in common between these dudes than you might think.
Two decades on, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie represents a landmark in the famous animated franchise. It was the first attempt to expand the episodic format into a feature film, something that Hillenburg was initially reluctant to participate in until he settled on the ‘hero’s journey’ plot structure which holds numerous parallels to Homer’s Odyssey. The film marked his final significant venture with the series, and stands today in many fans’ minds as the end point of the vintage SpongeBob era.
It seems like only yesterday that SpongeBob and Patrick were zooming off on the patty wagon to save Mr Krabs from the fiery fate of King Neptune. It was a brave venture into cinema, and one that paid off in the box office, making over four times the amount of its original budget. Beyond its financial success, however, the film holds a more important role in the SpongeBob canon for its dedicated followers. Series creator Stephen Hillenburg felt that the series had run its course, and that the movie would be the final project. Unfortunately, Nickelodeon were motivated by dollar signs, deciding to refuse Hillenburg’s wishes and carry on the series without him. Even though he would later return to consult in a minor capacity, it was widely maintained among diehard that the series was in its greatest era with the first three seasons and the debut movie. From this point of view, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie provides a summary of some the late, great director’s finest work, acting as a fitting swansong to Hillenburg’s legacy.
But a movie about the iconic talking sponge wasn’t always on the cards. It took Hillenburg over a year to finally accept Nickelodeon’s offer following numerous refusals. The creator voiced concerns about the jump from television to film, citing Toy Story and The Iron Giant as two films that made him consider how to create a movie on a larger scale while keeping a sense of wonder. An initial draft (one which SpongeBob voice actor Tom Kenny subsequently claimed to be a joke) involved SpongeBob saving best buddy Patrick from a fisherman in Florida, a plot that appeared remarkably similar to Finding Nemo, which had been released during The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie’s production. The key to the narrative eventually arrived, however, when the writers decided to settle on the oft-used hero’s journey structure to form the story. Thus, a legend was born.
The hero’s journey follows a simplistic narrative that can be found in some form throughout most works of narrative art. Essentially, the pivotal hero departs from their home to complete a mighty task, encountering various barriers along their journey, sometimes physical, sometimes supernatural. Eventually, the decisive battle is fought and won, and the hero returns from their travels adorned in glory and gold.
A basic premise, but one that’s been repeated throughout storytelling history. It’s been around for quite some time, with the Odyssey creating an essential storytelling template for centuries to come. Homer’s Greek literary and oral epic follows the escapades of hero Odysseus as he makes his long journey home from war. Why mention an ancient work in the same space as a children’s film about a talking sponge? Because the two guys share a surprising number of similarities. Hillenburg himself made the connection amusingly clear when he described ‘having these two naïve characters, SpongeBob and Patrick, a doofus and an idiot, on this incredibly dangerous heroic odyssey with all the odds against them’. So, let’s get started on our SpongeBob adventure by looking at a few clear-cut influences from Homer’s epic.
Getting Help From a Goddess
Sure, Odysseus is the hero (is he though? Lots of room for debate on that one, let me tell ya), but he wouldn’t have got anywhere without some hefty help from the gods, Athena in particular. She helps the dude get away from Calypso, she helps direct Phaeacian Princess Nausicaa to aid him, and she even dresses him up nicely sometimes so he doesn’t look like a wet old rag. But to be fair, she’s also good at dressing him up as a wet old rag when he needs to be disguised as a beggar. And that disguise becomes particularly useful when he returns home and prepares to open a fresh can of whoop ass on all those suitors trying to make moves on Penelope. A bit like the ‘Funk Dancing for Self-Defence’ class led by The Simpsons’ Moe Sizlack, but instead of a shotgun to protect your fly girl, Odysseus uses the raw power of arrows and the sword. He even goes to the trouble of fumigating his house one everyone’s been massacred. Clean. Odysseus gets help from plenty of other gods on his way, but Athena’s his main fangirl.
There have been a few complaints that Mindy helps SpongeBob and Patrick too much in their venture and doesn’t allow them to grow on their own, but heck, did you see all the assistance that old Odysseus got on his travels? Mindy’s assistance is more than fair, imo. First off, there’s the bag of winds (more on that in the final comparison). But her biggest move comes when the heroes are down on their luck after coming across a scary hazardous trench (this film’s version of the Odyssean underworld? Perhaps, albeit in musical format). She provides them with ‘moustaches’, essentially bits of seaweed, leading into the power ballad ‘Now That We’re Men’, encouraging the sea monsters in the trench to sing along with them too as they make their way through the underbelly and over into safe territory. Well, safe until the next bit. Read on.
The Cyclops
During his adventures, Odysseus comes across terrifying cyclops Polyphemus when his boat washes ashore the coast of Sicily. Once they have entered a cave, the cyclops traps the hero and his twelve companions within. After some grisly deaths, with some of his men eaten alive, Odysseus eventually manages to save the day with a burning stake and a fair amount of alcohol. With Polyphemus suitably drunk and blind, Odysseus manages to escape with the remaining six members of his crew by holding onto the bellies of the cyclops’ sheep. But not before being an ass and taunting Polyphemus and being a general fool of a Took, mind you.
Near the end of their adventure, where SpongeBob and Patrick have conquered the trench and avoided a dark fate at the hands of devious hitman Dennis. But luckily they’ve been saved by a foot, which conveniently squashes the villain. However, they soon discover that said foot belongs to none other than the evil cyclops. Well, in this case, it’s a guy wearing a big diving suit, but the cyclops symbolism is load and clear. He grabs the sponge and star with ease, taking them to the feared Shell City, which turns out to be a souvenir shop. But it’s a souvenir shop filled with the dead bodies of sea critters. While Odysseus manages to escape Polyphemus with a bit of tricksy wordplay, SpongeBob and Patrick escape using the power of friendship, as their tear of happiness/sadness after belting out the Goofy Goober song breaks the electric lamp whose heat nearly caused their demise. They get on their back to the sea, while the revived sea creatures wreak a terrible revenge on the cyclops for their suffering.
The Bag of Winds
So, in Homer’s version, our pal Odysseus is gifted a bag of winds by Aoelus. He’s a human here, but he’s later described as a minor god. The more you know. Anyway, Aoelus provides Odysseus with favourable winds so he can leave the island of Aeolia quickly and head on home to Ithaca after a long era of warfare. Odysseus leaves the bag of winds strapped to the boat. Does he bother to inform his men what’s in said bag? No. That probably would’ve helped save a lot of trouble, wouldn’t it? After sailing his ship for 9 days, Odysseus sees home in the distance and decides to take a celebratory nap. Bad idea, mate. Odysseus’ men start getting suspicious about the bag and think treasure might be inside. They open it, and it sets them pretty much all the way back to Aoelia. Nice.
The titular bag appears once more in The SpongeBob Movie, gifted to the yellow guy not by Aoelus, but by Mindy before SpongeBob set off on their odyssey to save Mr Krabs. When SpongeBob and Patrick have found King Neptune’s crown and are ready to go, they’ve got the bag in hand and even have a handy list of instructions to help. As SpongeBob starts reading them out as a practice test, Patrick interprets his words as the real thing, and before you know, the bag’s blasted off into the distance. But while Odysseus has to go through a number of gruelling ventures to return to his kingdom, SpongeBob and Patrick ultimately discover a secret weapon of their own. The Hasselhoff. You know, David Hasselhoff. He’s even kind enough to give them an extra boost down to Bikini Bottom with the power of his abs. Great stuff, Hoff.
Hillenburg didn’t get the sendoff he deserved at the Superbowl with Sweet Victory (the song that played at the end of fan favourite SpongeBob episode ‘Band Geeks’) despite millions of fans signing a petition, but it doesn’t matter. We know Hillenburg’s the greatest Goofy Goober of them all, and that’s what’s important. ROCK.