Review of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (2015) by Jesse O — 03 Jun 2015

In some ways the promotion behind this film was a little misleading as it implies that Spongebob and his group of friends spend almost the entire film on surface in their CG interpretation, sort of like a Who Framed Roger Rabbit, only not as good.

What they don't tell you is that the film is like 65% over before they ever make it to the surface. And that's fine, I have no problem with that, and this isn't a complain about the film itself, it's mostly about the marketing team focusing on something that doesn't comprise more than half of the movie.

With that said, as far as Spongebob itself, I honestly stopped watching close to a decade ago, but the earlier seasons, when I happen to catch a re-run, are actually fairly excellent with enough cleverness, wit and surreal humor to satisfy adults.

Just because the entire franchise has made billions of dollars does not negate this fact. And neither does the fact that it is aimed at kids. I think that's something that lot of people tend to do, dismiss something because it's aimed at a specific type of demographic.

To say that this is one of the stupidest things a person can do, when it relates to media, is an understatement. With that out of the way, I honestly thought this movie was quite a bit of fun. While I thought the out of surface stuff was, surprisingly, more action-oriented than one would reasonably expect from Spongebob, it was actually quite good and the CG animation of the characters themselves was actually really good.

Maybe not as good as the standards say by, let's say, the Transformers franchise. But good enough to make it believable, in the context of this world of course, that this group could make it onto the surface.

With that said, I didn't think the surface scenes were as entertaining as the scenes under water. It's what you would typically expect from a Spongebob episode. It's surreal, it's goofy and silly, it's over-the-top.

For example, Bikini Bottom becomes a post-apocalyptic world ala Mad Max, complete with the outfits and everything, the second the Krabby Patty formula disappears. Like literally the second. I think Mr.

Krabs says something along the lines of society will collapse, being as dramatic as humanly possible, and Squidward retorts that nothing is gonna happen and that's the moment their outfits magically appear on them and then entire citizenry of Bikini Bottom.

It's so fucking silly. That's the kind of humor you can expect from this film. A lot of the film is, surprisingly, centered around Plankton and Spongebob. There's some funny bits and visual gags between the two and I would honestly say that this is where the best and most inspired stuff in the film comes from.

Just some cool stuff here. With that said, much like a lot of films, this does slow down just before they make it onto the surface. It all just felt like it was biding time until they got there. I think some minutes could've been cut out of here and it would've been better.

The pacing is quite fast, as it'd almost have to be given the nature of it, but these slower moments are a little rough around the edges. With that said, I still did think that the film is a very easy watch.

It doesn't cross the 90 minute mark, so it'll be over quicker than you think, in spite of some slow moments. I'd honestly have to watch the first film in order to compare the two but, as far as I remember, I thought the first film was better than this one.

Part of me may be the fact that the whole concept was fresher in 2004 than it is in 2015. And I mean the whole idea of a Spongebob movie. Surprised it took them over a decade to make a sequel considering this ended up making considerably more than the first film.

This is particularly impressive when you consider the fact that the show isn't as popular as it was back in 2004. I suppose part of that is also adjusting for inflation, but it can't be all of it.

I think fans of the show, and the first movie, will definitely enjoy this film. Even people who haven't watched the show in years, like myself, would find something to like here. It might not be perfect, or even close to the best animated film I've ever seen, but it's a goofy and fun diversion for almost 90 minutes, so I can't complain very much.