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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 20.25%
Worth A Look: 45.57%
Average: 24.05%
Pretty Bad: 3.8%
Total Crap: 6.33%
6 reviews, 43 user ratings
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| SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, The |
by Peter Sobczynski
"Why is a sponge working in a burger joint-an underwater burger joint?"
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To paraphrase a joke from the Marx Brothers, “The Spongebob Squarepants Movie” is so simple that even a four-year-old child could understand it-not being a four-year-old child, I couldn’t make heads or tails out of it. Of course, this is not a film aimed at my particular demographic-it is designed solely for little kids and little kids alone, although I understand that it does enjoy an older fan base as well, following in the tradition of Bullwinkle and Ren & Stimpy. For them, this film is sure to be a delight. However, if you are like more like myself and are finding yourself exposed to it for the first time, watching this film will prove as bewildering an experience as “Lost Highway”.Perhaps someone who was more familiar with the hit Nickelodeon TV show could make sense of the character, a talking sponge who yearns to manage an underwater burger joint. Perhaps someone more attuned to the nuances of the show could explain the plot, in which the evil Plankton devises a plan that frames Spongebob’s boss for the theft of the crown of King Neptune, allows him to steal a secret burger recipe and may allow him to take over the world unless Spongebob, aided by starfish pal Patrick, undergoes a perilous journey to retrieve the crown. Perhaps someone with a bedroom crammed with Spongebob trinkets could understand the details of the quest, including a burger car, a biker bar where the patrons really hate bubbles, a fight scene atop David Hasselhoff’s hinder and, inevitable in a contemporary animated film, celebrity voice appearances (here, Jeffrey Tambor plays the execution-happy King Neptune, Scarlett Johansson is his far-more-reasonable daughter and Alec Baldwin plays a vicious enforcer out to stop Spongebob from completing his mission.Myself, I didn’t hate the film, but while it is certainly more appealing than the likes of “The Polar Express”, it doesn’t really offer anything to anyone who isn’t already a devoted fan of the show. To these fresh eyes, the visuals weren’t striking enough (it just looks like a jumbo-sized TV show), the jokes weren’t clever enough (hasn’t the hilarity of a self-spoofing Hasselhoff cameo worn out its welcome by now?) and the celebrity guest voices weren’t distinctive enough (although I’m guessing that Johansson’s reading of the line “I’ll just have to turn you into men” will be permanently enshrined in the mental iPods of many audience members) to make much of an impact. However, the kids at the screening I saw it with seemed to enjoy it and as light family entertainment, I suppose it is passable enough on its own. However, compare it to a work of all-inclusive genius like “The Incredible”, which works on all levels regardless of age, and “The Spongebob Squarepants Movie” shrivels up like a sponge in the sun.
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=11159&reviewer=389
originally posted: 11/19/04 16:12:13
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USA
19-Nov-2004 (PG)
DVD: 01-Mar-2005
UK
N/A
Australia
06-Jan-2005
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