YMMV / Toonatopia: The Animation Initiation

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: It wasn't made up for the gag, there actually is a SpongeBob thermometer.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • One actually from the time of the comic's original publication: Apparently, the artist decided to make Michael Eisner a hurricane before Katrina even hit New Orleans.
  • SpongeBob being presented as a tyrannical ruler of Nickelodeon is pretty apt, even he is Plankton's Puppet King — Nickelodeon has screwed over multiple shows simply because they were not as popular as SpongeBob SquarePants.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Half the reason why the comic's archival was highly demanded for so many years; some of its jokes and plot points were positively prophetic. Makes you wonder if Plankton was running things behind the scenes during Spongebob Squarepants's infamous Audience-Alienating Era of Seasons 6-8.
  Plankton: "SpongeBob, SpongeBob, SpongeBob... you're a celebrity now. You can be as mean as you want and everybody will still love you."
  • Cosmo saying that SpongeBob is busy working on the sequel to his movie. Guess we can just assume it took a whole decade to finish.
  • On one page, Mickey Mouse quotes Star Wars. A few years later, Disney would acquire Lucasfilm.
  • The brief whiteboard gag about Plankton wanting his own spinoff became extremely prophetic with the releases of Kamp Koral and The Patrick Star Show.
  • At one point, the characters attend the hooking-up/retirement party of Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable following the release of their movie, since everyone knows that a show ends after the main couple finally hooks up. Kim Possible ended up getting a Post-Script Season later on. Even more amusing is that the comic portrayed them as Sickeningly Sweethearts when said season portrayed them behaving just about the same in spite of their new relationship status^note with some thinking there could've been a touch more romance in it.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The story was written in 2005, and reflects the state of the animation industry that year, with many shows that were prominent at the time being heavily featured— some of which are no longer as well-known as they once were, such as Catscratch.

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