December 5, 2004

Movie Review: SpongeBob Squarepants: The Movie

I have always been curious about the show, but have never seen more than little bits and pieces of episodes. Then the movie came out, so I decided to use this as my introduction to the wacky undersea world. I wasn't disappointed.

I went to see this the night it opened. I was a little leery about going so early in it's run, fears of maniacal ankle biters on sugar highs filling my head. I was only partially right, the theater was absolutely filled with young kids and their parents, while a smaller number of people like me, sans kids, searched for the lone seats scattered around the theater. I was worried that all of those kids were going to be a nuisance, but as soon as the screen flickered on and the movie started, they watched with their complete attention. It was a sight to see, unlike the fidgety kids at Shark Tale.

Anyway, it has been a few weeks since I've seen it, and my memories are not completely clear as I hadn't planned on writing this review. Not sure what changed my mind, but sometime between then and now, my thoughts on writing this changed.

The tale follows SpongeBob and his faithful companion Patrick on a mission to save all of their hometown of Bikini Bottom from the evil plan of the diminutive Plankton. Everyone has been caught in the crossfire of a restaurant war between SpongeBob's employer, Krusty Krabb and their famous krabbey patties, and their nemesis Plankton, who runs the Chum Bucket. Plankton hatches a plot to steel King Neptune's crown and steal the recipe to the krabbey patty. SpongeBob, with Patrick in tow, arrives just in time and vows to regain the crown.

This leads our intrepid sea sponge to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. An adventure which will bring them face to face with the Cyclops, a hitman, a gang that doesn't like babies, and David Hasselhoff, yes, that David Hasselhoff. That is really all the plot description you need, this is a movie of crazy situations, of sight gags, of friendship, and of just plain wackiness.

I don't feel anything I can say will really do this movie justice. There are many out there who will write it off as just some cartoon for kids, others will go despite what anyone says, others will feel obligated to take their kids. Whatever the case may be, I found the movie to have moments of laugh out loud absurdity, mixed in with moments of innocent sweetness, all of it painted bright colors and placed on the screen for our enjoyment.

Bottomline. The end result is goofily funny, high concept adventure worthy of the SpongeBob name. It has increased my desire to actually watch the show, and maybe it will do the same for you. This is a fun diversion that the whole family can safely watch and enjoy.

Recommended.

0 comments:

Post a Comment