Like virtually every kid of my generation, I grew up watching SpongeBob (the very first few seasons). Also like most people from my generation, I stopped watching SpongeBob after a time. As time went on, I felt that the quality of the show had started to degrade, and I lost interest in it. As such, when I heard that another SpongeBob movie was being made, I was not exactly excited. The trailers, showing a bizarre fusion of live-action and CGI animation, only confirmed my suspicions that the movie was going to be a disaster (in actuality, probably only about a fourth of the movie is live-action, and it doesn’t actually look that weird). After seeing the movie, it turns out that SpongeBob: Sponge Out of Water is surprisingly entertaining, even to someone like me who turned away from the show ages ago.
In the idyllic undersea town of Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob and the gang are up to the same tricks they’ve been doing for… wow, it’s really been on for nine seasons now? Sorry, as I was saying: everyone’s up to their old tricks, which means of course that Plankton is trying to steal the Krabby Patty Secret Formula. During his latest attempt, the Formula mysteriously vanishes from his and SpongeBob’s hands. Deprived of its favorite burger, Bikini Bottom’s social order completely collapses and its people degenerate to barbarians (Welcome to the Apocalypse: I hope you like leather). It’s up to SpongeBob and Plankton, sworn arch-enemies, to work together to find the Secret Formula and save Bikini Bottom.
In the idyllic undersea town of Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob and the gang are up to the same tricks they’ve been doing for… wow, it’s really been on for nine seasons now? Sorry, as I was saying: everyone’s up to their old tricks, which means of course that Plankton is trying to steal the Krabby Patty Secret Formula. During his latest attempt, the Formula mysteriously vanishes from his and SpongeBob’s hands. Deprived of its favorite burger, Bikini Bottom’s social order completely collapses and its people degenerate to barbarians (Welcome to the Apocalypse: I hope you like leather). It’s up to SpongeBob and Plankton, sworn arch-enemies, to work together to find the Secret Formula and save Bikini Bottom.
This movie is really bizarre. It’s totally random, off-the-wall, and completely unpredictable. It throws everything it possibly can into its 93 minute runtime; it has time travel, a post-modern narrative, superheroes, a Mad Max-esque post-apocalyptic Bikini Bottom, and even a magical talking dolphin that shoots laser beams from its blowhole (his name is Bubbles). It feels less like an episode of the TV show (or at least the TV show as I remember it) and more like the filmmakers throwing every weird thing they could possibly think of at you interspersed with fart jokes and other humor for the kid audience; although what demographic this movie is targeting is anyone’s guess. Right at the end it even has a… no, I can’t spoil it; half of the fun is the fact that it comes completely out of left field with no warning and has absolutely no reason to be there. Let’s just say there’s a very, VERY funny gag involving a popular YouTube channel.
What many people will say about this movie is that it’s completely unfocused and has no idea what it’s doing. And those people will be right; this movie is completely bonkers and has no idea what it’s doing at least most of the time. And because it throws everything it can think of at you, some of the jokes just don’t stick; in particular I remember a song sung by SpongeBob and Plankton about Teamwork. It’s reminiscent of the infamous F.U.N. song, but it feels really awkward and just falls flat. Still, it’s also amazing how much of its indiscriminate humor actually hits the mark and ends up being genuinely funny, even if it’s only from sheer surprise.
I really enjoy random, wacky comedy, and this movie fits the bill. In fact, it’s so irregular that I was completely unable to predict anything about it and was constantly surprised by where the film went. It got to the point where it felt almost Monty Python-esque with its eclectic mixture of highly juvenile comedy, highly surreal comedy, the occasional really dark joke, and standard SpongeBob shenanigans. It appealed to my sense of nutty, zany comedy, and for that I have to give this movie props. It’s one of the weirdest movies I’ve seen in a long while, and I must say I thoroughly (and surprisingly) enjoyed it.
Grade: B
What many people will say about this movie is that it’s completely unfocused and has no idea what it’s doing. And those people will be right; this movie is completely bonkers and has no idea what it’s doing at least most of the time. And because it throws everything it can think of at you, some of the jokes just don’t stick; in particular I remember a song sung by SpongeBob and Plankton about Teamwork. It’s reminiscent of the infamous F.U.N. song, but it feels really awkward and just falls flat. Still, it’s also amazing how much of its indiscriminate humor actually hits the mark and ends up being genuinely funny, even if it’s only from sheer surprise.
I really enjoy random, wacky comedy, and this movie fits the bill. In fact, it’s so irregular that I was completely unable to predict anything about it and was constantly surprised by where the film went. It got to the point where it felt almost Monty Python-esque with its eclectic mixture of highly juvenile comedy, highly surreal comedy, the occasional really dark joke, and standard SpongeBob shenanigans. It appealed to my sense of nutty, zany comedy, and for that I have to give this movie props. It’s one of the weirdest movies I’ve seen in a long while, and I must say I thoroughly (and surprisingly) enjoyed it.
Grade: B
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