Headscratchers / The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

• How would Plankton's slaves be able to see and eat if the mind-control bucket helmets completely encased their heads?
  • For the seeing problem, he has a satellite or remote control device that controls their movements to his wishes. As for eating, this is Plankton we're talking about here. It wouldn't be surprising if he didn't give a damn about the slaves' hunger and had them give into his demands until they died of starvation. After all, he went as far as to make Gary pull a hundred-ton block of stone wall while under mind control.
  • Plus, given how he's an evil genius, perhaps he put a device in the helmets that prevented the citizens from going hungry or needing to sleep.

• What kind of slave labor did Plankton have in mind for the babies who wore the bucket helmets?
  • Just evil for evil's sake. Plankton has an inferiority complex due to his size and has had bad luck with babies. (Failing even taking candy from them.)

• How did SpongeBob miss that obviously big sign of Shell City's designation even though Patrick saw it?
  • Spongebob was a little busy having a Heroic BSoD at the time, plus they were both under a really big really bright light—Patrick probably just happened to glance at the sign at the right time.

• Who's going to be working the shifts at the original Krusty Krab if Mr. Krabs opened up a second restaurant?
  • Either Mr. Krabs will hire somebody else to fill in, or SpongeBob and Squidward are expected to run the entire place themselves.

• Sandy was one of the many who had a bucket on her head as seen in the final scene. How come it worked in the first place despite the said bucket being over her glass dome?
  • Plankton, who's a technological genius, likely accounted for that and designed a special helmet for her.

• On top of Sandy, how did she fall victim to enslavement by Plankton? Surely she wouldn't have gone for Plankton selling Krabby Patties and wearing one of his buckets.
  • Perhaps she either went to investigate Plankton, or the slaves broke into her house and similar to Squidward, got overwhelmed by all of them and was enslaved.

• The last line of the movie (not counting The Stinger) is SpongeBob telling Squidward, "I was just gonna tell you that your fly is down. Manager! This is the greatest day of my life!" Except Squidward doesn't wear pants, so huh?
  • Well, it's not meant to be literal. SpongeBob just said it to annoy Squidward.

• Does King Neptune not notice Plankton literally commanding his slaves to do his bidding? Does he just not care?
  • Either he's so focused on the loss of his crown that he's blind to everything else, or more charitably, since Plankton had a timeline of when King Neptune was set to return, he kept the slaves hidden away for his arrival.

• Why would Krabs pick Squidward? Even if it's true that Squidward is more mature, he's also lazy and rude and is a terrible cook. If anything, putting Squidward in a manager position would mean less money?
  • A large part of Squidward's lackluster job performance is that he often feels like menial cashier work is beneath him and that he's suited for bigger and better things. While fast-food manager may not be that far above that, it still does cater slightly more to his strengths and provides further incentive for him to work hard.

• When King Neptune gets brainwashed by Plankton and Plankton's slaves break into the Krusty Krab 2, what happened with King Neptune's squire? He is never seen getting one of Plankton's helmets and was playing the drums when King Neptune was preparing to execute Mr. Krabs. Shouldn't he have tried to help SpongeBob, Patrick and Mindy?
  • Maybe he did get enslaved and we simply didn't see it, or he decided it wasn't worth trying to help / he wasn't in the position to help.

• Plankton can't steal a formula from a fast food restaurant with only two employees, one of whom is completely apathetic, but he can steal a king's crown from a heavily guarded castle on the first try?
  • A few factors can be considered: Mr. Krabs keeps the formula under lock and key, and since he has a long history with Plankton, he's always prepared for his rival's next scheme. Meanwhile, Neptune leaves his crown out in the open, and while his castle is heavily-guarded, they never anticipated an enemy as small as Plankton to slip in (and he isn't on Neptune's radar like he is with Krabs, which he uses to his advantage).

• Why is King Neptune basically an entirely different character who both looks and sounds absolutely nothing like he does on the show?
  • Later seasons confirm that there is a lineage of King Neptunes. The Neptune in the film is a separate character from the one in the show, but they are implicitly related.

• Why didn't Plankton have the secret formula saved or backed up somewhere? He's literally married to a computer!
  • He could have for all we know, but since this movie is the canonical ending to the series, even if it did get several more seasons afterwards, we'll never know if he did.
  • And even assuming the later seasons take place after this, Plankton is not very smart, despite what he may claim, so he could easily have not thought it through or was too overconfident to imagine he would ever lose again.