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He's yellow, he's cheeky, and he's a sponge. Nickelodeon's underwater cartoon character gets his very own movie
A household object turned household name, SpongeBob is the unlikely star of Nickelodeon's television show 'SpongeBob SquarePants', the most watched kids show in television history. Despite being a huge hit Stateside, the movie arrives in the UK with little fanfare. That means it's likely to take the uninitiated by surprise since this is no common or garden animated adventure. Ignoring the standard set by Pixar and DreamWorks, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie ditches the glossy CGI and big name leads in favour of traditional 2D line drawn animation, a smattering of stars in supporting roles (Alec Baldwin and Scarlett Johansson) and a manically-paced plot that's full of off-the-toilet-wall-humour and surreal flights of fancy. SpongeBob (voiced by Kenny) is a lowly yellow sponge who lives far below the ocean wave in the aquatic town of Bikini Bottom. He dreams of managing the local Krusty Krab fast food joint and so when the crown of King Neptune (Tambor) is stolen and Mr Krabs (Brown) is framed for the crime by evil Plankton (Lawrence), SpongeBob decides to save the day with a little help from dim pink starfish Patrick (Fagerbakke). Setting off on a road trip in a car shaped like a burger, the pair endures all manner of bizarre adventures, while Plankton starts enslaving the inhabitants of Bikini Bottom through his very own Krabby Patty fast food franchise called The Chum Bucket. Weird does not begin to describe the sheer delirium of this caper. Abandoning all sense and sensibility it takes place in a mad, mad world of undersea peanuts, bubble parties and an honorary appearance by David Hasselhoff in Baywatch trunks. Existing in an alternate reality that owes more to Surrealism than the The Simpsons, it's possibly the most hallucinogenic animated tale since The Yellow Submarine and it owes more than a nod to cult animated series 'Ren And Stimpy'. The goofiness never lets up. The film opens with a group of live action actors dressed as pirates bundling into a cinema to watch the movie and spirals out of control from there. The gags are fast and funny, illogical but smart enough not to talk down to the kids in the audience. When King Neptune reveals his hairless head, onlookers shriek "Bald! Bald!" while one unlucky soul's eyes turn to mush from the glare. Patrick spends most of the movie either baring his buttocks or showing off his underpants; a trip to Shell City sees the animation switching into live action as SpongeBob turns into a real life sponge. To top it off, the film even delivers a subversively skeptical take on fast food culture as Plankton turns burger eaters into mindless zombie slaves. How many Disney movies could get away with something as radical as that? Verdict Brilliantly funny, inventive and delirious. Nemo can stay lost, the real hero of the deep is a sponge named Bob. Soak it up. |
