It’s kinda hard to believe that SpongeBob has been around for sixteen years. Given that extremely long durability to its
existence, especially for a children’s show, it’s even harder to believe that
it took ten years from the first feature film for SpongeBob to get a sequel.
And in the midst of all the Oscar hype and controversy about a certain
film coming out on Valentine’s weekend (*shudder*), I thought it might be nice
to revisit a friend from my childhood.
So, does SpongeBob retain his loveable charm after all these years? The answer is most assuredly yes.
If you were afraid that your childhood would be ruined when
you saw Spongebob and pals CG animated on a human beach in the trailer, you can lay your fears
to rest as that only takes up the final third of the film, and even then is
used to great effect. The story begins,
however, in good old 2D cartoon Bikini Bottom, where Plankton is once again
trying to get his hands on the secret formula for the Krabby Patty. In mid-heist, the formula magically
disappears, leaving SpongeBob and Plankton as the only witnesses to its
disappearance. When SpongeBob defends
Plankton from the ensuing mob, everyone assumes he has teamed up with Plankton
to steal the formula. And so, SpongeBob
and Plankton must actually team up to find the formula and clear their names.
It’s a refreshing touch to see that Nickelodeon didn’t rest
on their laurels and make Plankton the villain yet again. It takes the film away from being simply an
extended episode and fits Plankton’s journey into a character arc that
compliments him nicely. And in the
process, the film also retains the humor of the show while pulling gags that
would be difficult to pull off in the show’s limited timeframe. Take, for instance, Plankton’s inability to
say the word “teamwork.” In the show,
you could fit that in maybe once or twice in an episode, but here it is reused
in various permutations to demonstrate Plankton’s character development. And it remains consistently funny throughout.
However, to say that the film is consistently funny doesn’t
mean that it hits all the right notes all the time. This is SpongeBob
after all, so the humor is going to be fairly hit or miss. For every scene featuring a time-traveling
space dolphin named Bubbles (the film’s hilarious high note), there are strings
of bad puns that only inexperienced children will think clever. And yet, the bad jokes never get so frequent
as to be tiresome; you can just groan and move on because the film is paced so
quickly. This works especially well in
the final third of the film, where the 3D animation effects enable the kinds of
gags that the show’s scale wouldn’t permit, particularly when SpongeBob and
company transform into Avengers-style
superheroes with some hilarious powers.
Overall, I enjoyed Sponge
Out Of Water, though I recognize that one’s mileage may vary given the
source material. As you consider taking
a loved one to a movie date this Valentine’s weekend, think about seeing the
wacky adventures of a talking sponge, as it will likely be better than what’s
going to top the box office.
Did the first SpongeBob
movie tickle your fancy? Leave your
thoughts in the comments below.
No comments:
Post a Comment