If you were asked who lives in a pineapple under the sea there are two types of people that would respond. Group A – How did the pineapple get under the sea? Wouldnt the pineapple just float? Do they switch pineapples when it starts to rot? And Group B – who would respond with SPONGE-BOB SQUARE-PANTS! The yellow sea animal of the phylum Porifera has been rocking Nickelodeon since 1999 and is no stranger to feature films with The Search for SquarePants hitting cinemas.
Special Note: SpongeBob in cinemas has a pre-show short for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles too, we will talk about that at the end
With over 300 episodes and 14 seasons + multiple feature films with at least one that co-starred Keanu Reeves as a tumbleweed spirit guide (also including one direct to Netflix starring SpongeBob’s ‘very close friend’ a scientist squirrel who lives under the ocean also in Bikini Bottom), SpongeBob is a little more than a show to some with it ranging from core childhood memory to source of soooo many memes.
For the uninitiated SpongeBob (and his best friend Patrick the Starfish) are animated characters who live in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob works at the local burger establishment as a fry cook under his boss Crab Lex Luthor, has a pet Snail named Gary and is… not bright, but he tries REALLY hard. And that is really what is important.
The new film, much like the series, is about SpongeBob growing up… but just a little as he reaches a new height – literally. He grows tall enough to achieve his dream of riding on a rollercoaster. While excited at first he quickly reconsiders his live choices and covers by saying he promised that he would ride the Rollercoaster with Kurgan from Highlander to avoid having to ride it today.
This leads to learning about a secret swashbuckling backstory for his crustation employer which SpongeBob wants to follow in the footsteps of. One quick diehard vent crawl later SpongeBob (and Patrick) summon the cursed Ghost Pirate Le Skywalker who promises to help him achieve his swashbuckling license, and leaving Mr Krabs, Squidward Q. Tentacles and Gary on their own quest to retrieve SpongeBob (and Patrick) before they meet their end.
As a movie you can already tell this is aimed for a particular age bracket with the bright colours and subject matter. While the original series was animated 2D this like all SpongeBob feature films to date have adopted a 3D CGI approach but retaining the original voice cast. If we were to try to pick on this film visually over the first SpongeBob film we would possibly say it actually has a little less in the way of animation with the first film having more ‘live action’ and a heavier focus on a detailed background making the new film dimplier in comparison.
But for SpongeBob fans this is more true to the original series as you are not here to admire the shadow shading of a talking starfish in an old western town, you are here for SpongeBob on a pirate adventure sailing through the underworld. And dammit if that is not exactly what you are going to get.
So should you go see it? Well, this is definitely one for either those who are familiar with the subject matter or are taking those not old enough for more mature endeavours for a holiday trip to the cinemas. While enjoyable enough, with a mixture of meta and lucky bricks it good enough for anyone who is a fan of SpongeBob because SpongeBob is not always about the story, sometimes it is about the memes we make along the way.
Oh before we forget, even if you are not a fan of SpongeBob and are going under protest there is an animated short ahead of the feature film for the latest version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles doing some Christmas shopping, rifting on the overuse of AI and making plenty of references that likely most of the rest of the SpongeBob audience would miss. But it was really good and worth a watch if you liked the Seth Rogan Ninja Turtles reboot. A+++ pre-feature film viewing, would watch again.
The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants is in cinemas from Boxing Day across Australia
