The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water

It's been a little over 10 years since SpongeBob Squarepants, Nickelodeon's absorbent little cash cow, has graced the silver screen.  That seems like a long time to wait for a sequel, but the character remains incredibly popular with kids.  But, something has happened to the funny yellow guy during that decade.  The original SpongeBob Movie was funny, buoyant and had jokes aimed squarely for the adults, such as the 80s hair metal climax.  The latest movie, Sponge Out of Water, is still cute, but strictly kiddie fare, and doesn't have much to offer for adults.

If you've seen the ad campaign, you would think that this movie is about SpongeBob and his aquatic friends (plus one squirrel who chooses to live underwater) going up to the surface and becoming superheroes to battle an evil flesh and blood pirate, played by a very game Antonio Banderas.  However, this sequence only takes up about 20 minutes or so of the film.  The remainder of Sponge Out of Water is a fairly typical episode stretched out to 90 minutes, and not that memorable of an episode to start with.  I'm certain that the legions of young fans of the long-running TV cartoon won't mind.  After all, this movie gives them everything they love, just more of it.  If you're the parent of a young SpongeBob fan, take them to this movie without any hesitation.  They'll have a great time, and you'll probably enjoy seeing them having a great time.  Adult SpongeBob fans (and yes, they are out there) will probably find this a step down from the sometimes inspired insanity of the first film.

As the film opens, it's a typical day for the residents of the underwater city of Bikini Bottom.  The Krabby Patty, a sandwich that is the preferred snack of all Bikini Bottom residents, is once again in danger, as the diabolical Plankton (voice by Mr. Lawrence) sets his latest scheme into motion in order to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula from its rightful owner, Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown).  Loyal Krabby Patty fry cook, SpongeBob (Tom Kenny), foils this latest plot, but before anyone can celebrate, the secret formula magically vanishes seemingly into thin air.  With the formula gone, no more Patties can be made, and so Bikini Bottom falls into total post-apocalyptic anarchy, with all of its residents instantly becoming leather-wearing outcasts from a Mad Max film.  The formula's disappearance is initially blamed on Plankton, but SpongeBob knows that the crafty villain is actually innocent this time.  And so, the two are forced to team up in order to find the real thief.

SpongeBob and Plankton convert an old photo booth into a time machine so that they can find out what really happened to the secret formula.  They hit a few bumps in their trip through time, including a brief but odd encounter with a magical dolphin named Bubbles who controls time and space.  Eventually, their efforts leads them to the real thief - a human pirate named Burger Beard (Banderas) who has stolen a magical book that somehow allows him to change his own destiny and the destiny of others by writing within the pages of the book.  He's used the power of the book to get his hands on the Patty formula, and now he's selling Krabby Patties to hungry humans out of his pirate ship that he's converted into a food truck.  SpongeBob and his friends must travel to the surface and retrieve the formula, becoming superheroes in the process with the power of the magical book.

Sponge Out of Water has two credited directors, with long-time veteran of the show, Phil Tibbitt, handling the animated underwater scenes, and Mike Mitchell (Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked) in charge of the live action segments.  For a majority of the film, the two halves don't gel very well.  The animated story in Bikini Bottom keeps on being interrupted by live action sequences of Antonio Banderas telling the story to a bunch of talking seagulls.  It's cute, but also kind of pointless, and the Banderas character doesn't really play any part until his role is revealed in the last 20 minutes or so of the film.  It makes the film feel padded at times.  And once the animated underwater characters do finally make it up to land (which is what the audience has been waiting to see), the end result is hurried and rushed, and sometimes feels more developed in the trailer than it does in the final film.

The movie also has a habit of mistaking being weird for being funny.  There are a number of sequences that can only be described as "trippy", and that's putting it mildly.  Such sequences include SpongeBob and Plankton traveling through time (which is accompanied by warping colors and music), or their encounter with the previously mentioned space-time dolphin who is introduced, and then pretty much forgotten until he randomly shows up again to give SpongeBob and his friends the ability to walk on land without harm.  Now, the TV show has always had a warped sense of humor, and I have often found it enjoyable in the past.  I mean, I don't think I could ever bring myself to hate a kid's show that once made a reference to the 1922 silent horror classic, Nosferatu.  But here, the filmmakers simply seem to be trying to be weird just for the sake of being weird.  They forget to add the laughs into the mix.

Sponge Out of Water is not unwatchable in any way, but it seems as if the "nautical nonsense" that the show is famous for has overtaken any need to tell a coherent or interesting narrative.  Not like it will matter to the core fanbase.  They'll eat it up the same way SpongeBob's friends devour those Krabby Patties.  The movie is cute and all, I just wanted a little bit more of the smart humor aimed at adults that the show is sometimes known for.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

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