Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie

The CGI is really bad and unsettling at some moments like Kamp Koral but the writing is also lazy with some weird foot fetish moments despite people who work on the show being involved on this. The villain is also boring and it's just a generic diverse female Ernst Stavro Blofeld type villain who's mostly a ripoff of Burger Beard from Sponge Out of Water but without any of the charm that character had. The musical stuff were unnecessary and the CGI animation didn't help unlike the musical scenes from the previous films like i'm a goofy goober which were catchy and the new characters like the robot horse and Sandy's family are extremely forgettable. Better wait for The Search for Squarepants instead of watching a low budget TV film ripoff.

...it really took a turn for the worse. The first half of the movie wasn't that bad. This movie was initially like putting on a comfortable pair of pajamas, comfortable and familiar. But at the specific point where my family all turned to each other and said, "That's just like Shark Boy and Lava Girl" (if you've seen this movie, you'll know exactly the moment), that was the point of no return. It was all downhill after that.

All of the familiar characters were well performed. As for the human element...geez. One of the characters at one point asks, "Wait...we get a paycheck?". Yes, and that's clearly all this was for.

The lackluster performances and abysmal CGI drag the movie down to the point of not being enjoyable. 4/10 is maybe generous, but that's where I'll land.

Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie is proof that some characters are supporting for good reason. It's a zany, colourful, sugar rush of a film that's clearly made for an extremely young audience that constantly moves between being occasionally funny and constantly awful in a way that has its own rewards. Even at just under 90 minutes it's pushing its luck.

All the returning cast members have played these characters for so long that they're naturals at this. Any intentional laughs come from how loveable these characters are and Tom Kenny in particular remains endlessly endearing as SpongeBob. However, the performance that's the most memorable is easily Wanda Sykes, who is just awful from her first moments and manages to overact whilst phoning it in.

Liza Johnson's direction is bad, especially when compared to previous entries. It's very easy to see why this one has been sent to streaming since it looks noticeably cheaper than all of its predecessors with live action and animation blended in such a terrible way, some of which has to be intentional but that doesn't excuse it. The only part that looks competent is the opening set in Bikini Bottom.

Out of the blue, Bikini Bottom gets scooped out of the ocean by BOOTS (Bureau Of Official Texas Science) Laboratory and Water Park. Sandy and SpongeBob avoid capture. Sandy knows them. The duo sets off to rescue everybody.

I actually like the first part of the movie up to the first drop to BOOTS. I didn't understand the low rating and then I saw the rest of the movie. I hate the family. They are just annoying chaos for annoying chaos' sake. I never really needed a back story for Sandy. It was always better to leave it up to the imagination. The infinite worst part is Wanda Sykes and her two minions. This is a bad version of Spy Kids. I like the original Spy Kids for what it is and it is not the same as SpongeBob SquarePants. Somebody do not understand why SpongeBob is good. It is not being a wacky kids show.

I'll be honest, I'm one of those people that were patient enough to wait until it comes on Netflix rather than to ruin it for everyone else by watching the leak. Now that I have officially watched this movie, I have began to understand the people saying it's terrible. In fact, it came out worse than I thought. Saving Bikini Bottom is hands down, the worst SpongeBob movie so far. I can name a little bit of positives like a decent addition with Sandy's family and how the designs try to stay true to the series, but they're just small ones compared to a good chunk amount of problems this movie has to carry. The writing didn't even try to make this a proper Sandy Cheeks spin-off, the story is very little, the humor is painfully unfunny, the animation is mediocre and sometimes look more fitting for a video game, the characters have barely a development for the movie, and the pacing for this is so rushed that it felt more of an extended special of the show. If there's one SpongeBob movie I recommend to skip, it's got to be this one. There are plenty of stuff from SpongeBob that are more better than this, whether if it's other of the movies or even episodes of the series. It honestly feels a real shame that Sandy Cheeks was unable to live up the potential for her spin-off and was a complete waste of time. I don't think I should even call this wasted potential. It's more in the levels of a soulless product. Also, I've heard that the next movie, Search For SquarePants, is going to involve producers from the first season of the series. If that's the case, then I should hope that next movie will be better. I'm rooting for you, Flying Dutchman.