A staunch SpongeBob stan who follows the traditional viewpoint that the series lost its mojo when OG creator Stephen Hillenberg made his first departure after the OG movie watches a SB movie that she probably won\u2019t particularly enjoy but is nonetheless intrigued to give it a watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s right. Goin\u2019 from a high spec Pluribus review to a look at the most recent SpongeBob movie. Outstanding. ( \u02f6\u00b0\u3141\u00b0) !! Even before the film started, they already slotted in some promotional material by advertising a SpongeBob film-related game. Fair enough, I suppose. But at the end of said trailer, there was an appearance from none other than David Hasselhoff. The Hasselhoff. I know what you\u2019re doing, Nickelodeon. Trying to get some cheap nostalgia points by pandering to the OG fans who remember his appearance in the first movie? Disappointing. (\u2022\u0300\u2919\u2022\u0301 )<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, right off the bat, I hate the new SpongeBob animation style. I believe they did the same style with spin off series Kamp Koral, a horrifying creature that messed up the SpongeBob canon and was cynically produced following Hillenberg\u2019s premature death. I get it on some level, the product belongs to Nickelodeon at the end of the day, but I still can\u2019t help but see all of the dollar signs filling executive\u2019s eyes knowing they\u2019d get no pushback by contorting the happy sponge into whatever shapes they desired. I\u2019m a big old nostalgia gal for the original hand drawn stuff, and this new style\u2019s just hollow and babyish. What\u2019s that? SpongeBob was made for babies, you say? Nah, there was so much creative and surreal energy injected by Hillenberg back in the day *nostalgia cloud proceeds to float over author\u2019s head*. My first introduction to Nosferatu at the end of \u2018Graveyard Shift\u2019, that weird ass anthropomorphic drop of hot sauce in \u2018Karate!\u2019 or that vivid close-up of the horsefly in \u2018Wormy\u2019. That stuff was awesome, weird and wonderful. In the best way. A lot of this crazy newfangled tomfoolery of trying to make pop culture references is just weird and off-putting. *proceeds to grab walking stick* Like doing that Ferris Bueller \u2018chica chica\u2019 song (no, I can\u2019t be arsed to quickly google the song\u2019s name) when SpongeBob wakes up instead of using some homemade original tunes from the series itself. And turning SpongeBob\u2019s alarm clock into a music speaker as well? Wrong. The borrowed music is lazy, and not particularly funny. I did a decent jolt when I saw the real-life Mr Krabs voice actor (Clancy Brown), at the beginning though and I still can\u2019t fully wrap by bigass head around the fact that he\u2019s also the lead nasty prison guard in The Shawshank Redemption. Perhaps I never will.\u00a0\u00a0(\u3186_\u3186)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh, and some more nitpicking. Gary meows too much in that scene. In previous years *another nostalgia cloud appears* all Gary would need to convey his feelings to SpongeBob were a few simple meows and that\u2019d be it. Not now, apparently. I guess an original song called \u2018Big Guy\u2019 plays on the alarm clock\/speaker (eughh). Oh, and the Jaws joke isn\u2019t funny. Unamused frown face from yours truly. So the main bit of drama from the off seems to be SpongeBob growing one inch, which now apparently makes him the \u2018big boy\u2019 of the song\u2019s title. And the dramatic classical music tune which is played in the X Factor plays too (no, I\u2019m not looking it up). (\u00ac_\u00ac”)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another thing I\u2019m gonna have to be a major league Squidward about is the lack of originality at certain points, some of which just translates into downright plagiarism from the first movie. Mr Krabs repeatedly demeans SpongeBob as a \u2018bubble-blowin\u2019 baby boy\u2019. Take a hike back to the OG film and you\u2019ll probably remember similar language coming from the goons in the Thug Tug, all of whom recite the establishment\u2019s slogan: \u2018All bubble-blowing babies will be beaten senseless by every able-bodied patron in the bar\u2019. Beyond the half-assed language copying, the idea of Mr Krab\u2019s character saying this insult to SpongeBob is just\u2026completely out of character. In the first film, Mr Krabs makes Squidward the manager of The Krusty Krab 2 instead of SpongeBob. He puts an arm around SpongeBob after stating he didn\u2019t get the job and lauds his fry cook skills. After shouting down insults from the crowd who are mocking SpongeBob, he states matter of factly and without scorn, that he\u2019s \u2018just a kid\u2019. The Mr Krabs in this film, however, is just a bit of a jerk. And sure, Hillenberg played up to that persona in previous episodes, but not to the extent of nastiness. Likewise with Patrick, once Hillenberg departed from the series, his character started becoming needlessly mean as well as dumb (see: \u2018I\u2019m With Stupid). And not to any great comic effect, either. Even SpongeBob\u2019s character\u2019s all out of shape. He spends most of the movie being scared and anxious, and that\u2019s just not the sponge I know. Oof. (\uff61\u2022\u0301\ufe3f\u2022\u0300\uff61)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The voice acting seems off for a few characters too. Mark Hamill takes over voice acting duties from Brian Murray, which is fine. Hamill\u2019s already proved his credibility in that field with iconic roles like The Joker, but I still found it a bit odd. Mr Krab\u2019s vocal cords felt a bit off from time to time too. But SpongeBob and Patrick are on fine form as usual, I can\u2019t deny that. There\u2019s just so much riffing on the OG movie that it gets kind of embarrassing. (\u3063- \u2038 – \u03c2) Squidward and Mr Krabs use a vehicle called the Patty Blaster to get to the underworld. Hello? The Patty Wagon SpongeBob and Patrick use from the OG movie, anyone? It also doesn\u2019t feel like correct SpongeBob canon for the sponge not to recognise The Flying Dutchman after multiple episodes with him in the TV series. C\u2019mon guys. You\u2019ve got to keep the chronology intact somehow. Even if you royally screwed it up in Kamp Koral. Also, I very much didn\u2019t appreciate reading the Rotten Tomatoes consensus (82% certified fresh my arse) when it said that the joint had \u2018a sweet message embedded in its goofy goober-ness\u2019. HOW DARE YOU REFERENCE THE OG MOVIE AND TRY TO SHOVE IT INTO YOUR CRAPPY CONSENSUS? THE OG MOVIE IS ROLLING IN ITS GRAVE AS YOU TAKE YOUR CHEAP COPY FROM ITS GENIUS CREATIVE BONES- \u1559( \u15d2\u15e3\u15d5 )\u1557<\/p>\n\n\n\n
*The author was pulled away from her chair at this point and reminded that she\u2019s just reviewing a movie primarily aimed at children, and that this current film probably isn\u2019t going to live up to her experience of watching the original movie back in primary school since she\u2019s now a hell of a lot older. Well, old enough to maybe not be critiquing this movie so harshly*<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pfft, what a load of barnacles, these head honchos telling me what to think. Anyway, on with the criticism. The phrase \u2018bubble-blowin\u2019 bubble boy\u2019 gets rammed through the dialogue so much that it\u2019s impossible not to think of how weak this line is, and what an artificial copy it is from the original message of the original film. In the OG, SpongeBob\u2019s on an odyssey to save Mr Krabs despite being rejected from the promotion, cheered on by Princess Mindy (Scarlett Johansson\u2019s finest role to date alongside Under The Skin; the more you know, eh?) in the particularly iconic \u2018Now That We\u2019re Men\u2019 musical sequence. SpongeBob\u2019s on this journey out of the goodness of his spongy heart. With this flick, it\u2019s Squidward and Mr Krabs going to save SpongeBob because of his misguided obsession with becoming a \u2018big boy\u2019 based on Krab\u2019s taunt. The real SpongeBob wouldn\u2019t give a damn about Krab\u2019s mockery, nor would he be so full of hubris about getting one inch taller. These characters are just all out of joint. (\u2256_\u2256 )<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are more moments that are literally stolen from the OG. I\u2019m not a fan of overusing \u2018literally\u2019, you know that, but it is what is. That moment where Patrick falls down with his underwear around his legs? Taken from the OG. That moment where SpongeBob plays guitar? Way too evocative of the denouement in the OG. Do something original, guys! Stop playing with the OG nostalgia. Heck, even seeing \u2018The SpongeBob Movie\u2019 prefaced before \u2018Search For SquarePants\u2019 seems like nostalgia baiting. This film\u2019s just not the SpongeBob spirit. Pretty weeny. (\u21c0\u2038\u21bc\u2036)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A staunch SpongeBob stan who follows the traditional viewpoint that the series lost its mojo when OG creator Stephen Hillenberg made his first departure after the OG movie watches a SB movie that she probably won\u2019t particularly enjoy but is nonetheless intrigued to give it a watch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1866,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865\/revisions\/1866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}