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The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water

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The SpongeBob Movie:Sponge out of Water (Facebook)
The SpongeBob Movie:Sponge out of Water (Facebook)
What's it about:

SpongeBob SquarePants, the world’s favourite sea-dwelling invertebrate, comes ashore to our world for his most super-heroic adventure yet.

What we thought:

I have been a Spongebob Squarepants fan since it first appeared on my TV set. As a child the silliness of a character that’s as innocent as they come appealed, and as an adult the more innuendo-type jokes made me chuckle. With the first Spongebob movie, it felt like one long extended episode with an awesome David Hasselhoff cameo and I loved it. It was as ridiculous as they come, but it kept to the spirit of the series. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for its sequel, Sponge Out of Water, which seems to have completely shed the last little bit of depth it had for a nonsensical mish-mash of ludicrous hullabaloo.

The famous Krabby Patty formula is once again under threat as not only Plankton wants it, but an idiotic pirate (idiotically played by Antonio Banderas) finds some random magical book that can rewrite reality (and, of all the things he could have written, he decides to steal the KP formula…). In typical underwater fashion, Bikini Bottom’s social fabric becomes undone and the sea dwellers start wearing some risqué S&M outfits to fit with the whole anarchy theme.

Then there are some singing seagulls, time-travelling picture booths and cosmic futuristic dolphins.
Not that I expected something like How To Train Your Dragon 2 or Big Hero 6 from the creators of Spongebob, but I kinda just wanted some of the old. The top-world 3D graphics didn’t really inspire me, and they were more interested in action-packed antics than witty (or, witless) banter, for which I love the series for. I can honestly say I hated the hapless pirate, Burger-Beard. Banderas’ performance was corny as hell, and not the good kind. You know it’s bad when the singing seagulls make for a more entertaining act than your attempt at some throwback kid-friendly seafarer.

What I can say is that music score was pretty rad. Besides the infamous “Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?” chorus, the music was both trippy and epic, and would make for an awesome soundtrack. And for anyone who frequents the YouTube cyber world, Epic Rap Battles of History make an awesome big screen debut right at the end before credits, with a beat down between the seagulls and the cosmic time travelling dolphin.

Despite being utterly disappointed by this, Spongebob still is a children’s show, and alas, although I try very hard to deny it, I might be more adult than I anticipated. The younger kids at the screening found the stupid spoofs way funnier than the adult audience, so I am anticipating many grumbling parents begrudgingly taking their little bundles of joy to appease their Spongebob madness. As for the older crowd, don’t ruin your fond memories with this dumbed down sequel, otherwise you’ll feel more like a grown up than feels comfortable.
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