Bob Esponja: O Filme

This is a movie about an animated sponge that wears square cardboard pants. So there you go, you can't go to the movie and claim you didn't know what kind of humor to expect. It's goofy, it's silly, and it can be downright strange. But I can't call those negative attributes considering the fact that all of the above can also be used to describe me at times.

I've never seen the SpongeBob TV show, so I went into the movie without much of an idea of what I was in for. I must say that while I won't rush out and buy the DVD, I walked away fairly entertained. Expectedly, a lot of the humor is directed towards children, but there's enough here to keep the adults snickering. I may be nearing 30, but I'm not ashamed to laugh at a sponge wearing square whitey tighties! Oh, and for those of us who never cease to mock David Hasselhoff - he has a cameo. I've gotta give the guy credit - he's very aware that the entire country is laughing *at* him, yet he's completely willing to join in.

The children at the screening loved the movie, singing along to songs and everything. One of the funniest things was when Patrick the starfish first appeared on screen and the kids erupted in applause. It was like watching an episode of Seinfeld when Kramer makes his first appearance of an episode and the studio audience goes crazy. I briefly thought about booing just for the fun of it, but the thought of a bunch of tiny little hands pattering me upon my face didn't sound too fun.

But let's go back to the whole "singing along to songs" bit. I think it's only fair to warn parents that this may start to drive you crazy after the movie. Good luck trying to keep your kid from singing, "I'm ready, promotion! I'm ready, promotion!" or "I'm a goofy goober, you're a goofy goober, we're all goofy goobers" over and over and over again. I had to bribe my 9-year-old brother with cold hard cash to knock it off with the "I'm ready, promotion!" song.

Speaking of my brother, I asked him after the movie which he preferred -SpongeBob or The Polar Express. To my surprise, he said SpongeBob because it was "funnier." I suppose this is a lesson that children aren't quite as impressed with fancy animation as adults are.

But he's right, SpongeBob is a funny movie in it's own quirky, original way. I'm not dying to see it again, and I don't think I'll be glued to the TV set every time it's on, but I enjoyed it, and I'm not gonna waste my time or yours by picking apart what I didn't like. The target audience should be pleased with the end result, so mission accomplished.

THE GIST

If you're a fan of the TV show, then you should definitely get a kick out of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. This movie isn't exactly for everybody though. If you've never heard of SpongeBob, then there's quite a bit here that may humor you. But if you hate all things silly, goofy, and immature, then this isn't for you.

I didn't quite know what to expect when I walked into the theater to watch the movie of one of my favorite cartoons. Nickelodeon has a really nasty habit of "big-budgtizing" movies of their shows (changing the look, etc.). However this is not the case with SpongeBob. Whew, one less thing to worry about.

Next was the story. Could Steve Hillenburg live up to what had been laid down by the series? Yes. Basically it's like watching a 1 1/2 hour episode of SpongeBob (and who couldn't like that). Lot's of visual gags and typical Sponge brainless-ness. I was quite impressed.

If you're a SpongeBob fan, you'll love this movie. If you're not, eh, watch it anyways, it'll do you good ;-).

I went to see Spongebob because my kid has pretty sophisticated taste, and I couldn't imagine how a cartoon sponge could be interesting. But it was interesting. I wasn't bored for a second, and actually laughed out loud numerous times. Parts of it were definitely off color, but that made it more adult....not just a cartoon kid movie. I loved the David Hasselhof bit. I also liked the other real people and locations that weren't cartoon. This movie would be scary for real little kids, which may help explain why middle school kids like it. I'm not going to watch the TV show every week, but I do think a parent could do worse than going to see Spongebob with his kid...a pleasant afternoon, and insight into what they are watching...

Take the funniest things about Spongebob Squarepants (wacky-anarchist environment and extremely funny animated drawings) and make it an hour-and-a-half long. It's non-stop laughs and plenty of color and all-out craziness. Spongebob and Patrick go off-model so much that it's an eyegasmic delight for the cartoon maniacs out there.

Sooo many entertaining moments. It's literally a laugh-a-minute film... lots of stuff that flies right over the kiddies' heads.

The one thing I didn't like about the movie - the character Mindy (King Neptunes princess daughter). She didn't fit in well with the rest of the character designs - she looks more like a character you would've seen on the Daria animated series.

Also keep an eye out for the big sea creatures' wrestlin' scene with the evil diver... such smooth and precise animation of so many characters at once that I just sat there in pure awe.

Fans of SpongeBob and its special humor will certainly enjoy this movie, although it's not as good as the television show. But at least the story is bigger and more adventurous than an average SpongeBob episode.

The movie, the story and its humor mostly relies on its randomness. The randomness works good and fun in the television series but its not quite good enough to fill an entire movie with, even though the movie is only 90 minutes short. It falls flat, especially toward the ending, that is disappointingly simple and ridicules. No big finale, just a simple conclusion.

Many new but also many pointless characters are introduced. King Neptune has become a different character from the show and is this time voiced by Jeffrey Tambor. The Mindy character (Scarlett Johansson) is a pointless one. She could had worked in the movie and its story if she perhaps had been someone's love interest (Patrick's). Probably the only good new character is the assassin Dennis (Alec Baldwin). He is a cool and dangerous character.

Luckily the fun main characters are also present. SpongeBob and Patrick form a great stupid comical duo and Mr. Krabs and Squidward are also present but unfortunately a bit underused in the movie, especially Squidward, who always is such a fun, grumpy and dry character to watch in the television show.

You would normally expect from a featured animated movie to be better and more detailed than its television show. There however is hardly any difference notable in terms of style and quality of the animations. Only thing that looks better is the life action. But of course when you have David "The Hoff" Hasselhoff as a character, you can't get any better life action, except when you have Chuck Norris maybe. Not sure if the pirates were completely necessary, they made a pointless and unfunny impression on me.

This movie will probably divide the fans of the television show into two groups. One group will love this movie for its fun, simple adventurous movie and others will find it disappointing that the typical SpongeBob humor doesn't work out quite as well as in the television show. I personally am somewhere in the middle. I enjoyed watching the movie but also have to admit that watching the television show is more fun and overall better to watch.

7/10

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