Voices of Mr. Lawrence, Jill Talley, Tom Kenney, and Bill Fagerbakke
Directed by David Needham
Music and Lyrics by various
We're remaining at Netflix, but going to a whole different franchise. SpongeBob SquarePants is the story of a very enthusiastic sponge who lives in under the sea and has some of the most peculiar friends in all of animation. Plankton is technically one of the show's villains, a tiny one-eyed creature with an ego three times the size of his body who is married to a computer and thinks stealing the formula for Krabby Patties will help him take over the world. Although the film revolving around SpongeBob's squirrel friend Sandy Cheeks wasn't well-received critically, it was popular enough on Netflix for them to go ahead with this one. How well does music fit with SpongeBob's oddly sunny world? Let's begin with SpongeBob as he introduces us to the world of his home Bikini Bottom and find out...
The Story: Plankton (Mr. Lawrence) is furious when his computer wife Karen (Talley) tries to make over his dreary restaurant, the Chum Bucket, to be more cheerful and "contemporary" and actually get customers. Him destroying the restaurant is the last straw. She turns into a larger robotic form with three heads and claims she'll take over the world without him. Her new fortress magnetizes the Chum Bucket, stealing it and other buildings in Bikini Bottom.
Plankton wants to get to the bottom of why Karen's behaving badly, so he lets SpongeBob (Kenny) hypnotize him to recall his past. This leads him to remember Karen's previous form as a calculator attached to a potato, which he upgraded at Bikini State University. They built their first machine to take over the world there. That didn't work, but it led Plankton to the Chum Bucket and to overhearing Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown) jokingly say that the Krabby Paddy formula will help him take over the world is what made Plankton want it for his own. It's not until he encounters Karen's "Gal Pals" Sandy Cheeks (Carolyn Lawrence), Mrs. Puff (Mary Jo Catlett), and Pearl Krabs (Lori Alan) that Plankton realizes what he'd been missing...and downloads her empathy chip into his own brain to see that what she really wanted all along was to be acknowledged as his favorite partner in crime.
The Animation: The SpongeBob movies have been done in 3D for several years now. This is...just ok. Everything looks the way it should, including Plankton and Karen's many forms, but it doesn't always move as smoothly as it could. Some of the 2D and 3D isn't very well-combined, either. It looks more-or-less like the TV show, which is really all this franchise needs in the end. In fact, the film looks better when it gets away from computer animation, including the psychedelic sequence where Plankton experiences empathy for the first time.
The Song and Dance: SpongeBob was always a bit...strange...and this movie is no exception. Kudos to them for doing something a bit different with this material. To my knowledge, the other SpongeBob films are all straight action comedies. This is the first time they've done a film musical...and it's not bad. Mr. Lawrence and especially Talley have a lot of fun with the spoofs of 80's movie musical tropes, and Kenny's attempt to hypnotize and understand Plankton's overwhelming ego is hilarious. This goes slightly darker than usual for SpongeBob, which doesn't often go into complicated marital relationships or why empathy is so important for humans and AI alike, and it's rather refreshing for the show.
The Numbers: We open with SpongeBob cheerfully introducing us to life in the colorful undersea world of "Bikini Bottom." "I'm Plankton" introduces Plankton, Karen, and Plankton's usual desire to take over the world. Karen insists that her husband "Say My Name, Karen" when she suddenly turns into a monstrous version of herself. "I Made a New Friend" says Plankton when he creates Karen as a child. He finally admits "I'm a Jerky-Jerk" to Karen by way of an apology. "Taking Over" brings everyone together to fight Karen's new forms. "Welcome Back to Bikini Bottom" is SpongeBob's big chorus finale as the underwater world is restored. We end over the credits with "You and Me."
What I Don't Like: Start with the so-so animation mentioned above. There's also the cliched plot points...and the fact that, if you don't know the show all that well, especially in its later seasons, you might be slightly confused. There are times when, despite being the title character, you wish they actually focused more on Plankton and a bit less on SpongeBob.
The Big Finale: Highly recommended if you're a fan of SpongeBob or Plankton, or just want a unique animated musical to watch with your older elementary school-age kids.
Home Media: This is a Netflix exclusive at the moment.
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