Review of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004) by Steven S — 24 Jan 2015

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is a rare jewel that deserves recognition for its greatness. Movies based on TV shows, as rare as they are, usually need to be handled with caution. Some attempt to get by with flashier visuals or bigger stakes, but this film utilizes these elements while maintaining the essence that it is a movie based off of SpongeBob SquarePants.

The adult jokes in this film are rather plentiful, but not so much that it's lacking in children's humor, or even that it should be deemed inappropriate. This film embraces it's childlike silliness and runs with it from beginning to end.

How did Plankton have a helmet ready for King Neptune in the ceiling of the Krusty Krab? How did Dennis get the boot that squished him to operate as a motorboat and catch up to David Hasselhoff? All of these are important plot relevant questions, and yet you don't find yourself asking them.

Instead, you end up asking yourself what over the top way our heroes will get out of an over the top problem that occurs. These gaps in the narrative don't even feel like narrative gaps, and are enjoyable because they're played completely straight with the awareness that they're ridiculous without acknowledgement.

Everything is as zany as it is in the original show, and yet it's handled with just the correct amount of precision to know how seriously to take itself for a climax that is so outrageously awesome, downright preaching how glorious it is to be a kid.

That being said, this silliness, while still being the general atmosphere of the movie, gets some minor disregard in relation to it's surprisingly well-handled character depth. Yes, SpongeBob and Patrick act like kids, and that's amusing, but put into the situation they face, their immaturity and blind ambition is put to the test, and while everything seems so light and fluffy because, you know, it's The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, the fact that they would even consider turning around would be completely necessary drama.

In the end, a childhood-like ignorance is what causes them to proceed to the end of their journey, which would be yet another credulous instinct that kids want to see lead our heroes to success because they relate to it and might not even know.

Practically every element in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie works, and even the flat, movie exclusive characters throw in a lesson about putting faith and compassion into others that doesn't come across as distracting.