Reviews WesternAnimation / The Spongebob Movie Sponge Out Of Water

A Bad Movie

Sponge Out of Water's cons outweigh its pros. When it comes to borrowing substance from the TV show to adapt to the big screen, it does an okay job at steering clear of the completely wrecked material after season four. Unfortunately, it manages to reintroduce and re-trash the same characters within its relatively short running time. SpongeBob himself is admittedly okay, and Squidward is fine, but Patrick and Mr. Krabs stain my view on them after Bikini Bottom goes into chaos and they both are very quick to turn away from SpongeBob for petty reasons behind their generally unfunny overreactions (Mr. Krabs in particular comes uncomfortably close to downright murdering SpongeBob, stopping only for a minor reason and never acknowledging his extreme behavior). Sandy also becomes annoying through her forced Sanity Slippage in the beginning, which was both unfunny and unnecessary.

If the movie had simply tried adapting the typical "SpongeBob" formula to the big screen, I feel as if it would have been more solid. Most of the movie's best moments come from the beginning, particularly prominent in the sequence depicting Plankton once again trying to steal the Krabby Patty formula (except actually kind of funny this time). Unfortunately, we see very little of this, as the movie quickly takes off in every direction it can by trying to combine SpongeBob with Doctor Who and The Avengers, which creates much more of a mess than a "fun-filled, zany adventure". What little of a plot there is experiences even less exploration, and most of the wandering story tangents end up serving as fuel for hit-or-miss jokes with very bad aim.

Then there's Plankton, who is actually treated to a decent character arc, but of course, it had to be tossed out the window by the end due to proper maintenance of the status quo. It's rather unfortunate, considering that he might've been the most likable character in the film.

All in all, there are a few decent moments in Sponge Out of Water, and the CGI novelty was done well enough for me not to complain. The rest of the movie, however, was unfocused and just utterly ridiculous. I don't understand why people keep praising it, and I don't understand why people like Bubbles.