The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

This article is dedicated to Stephen Hillenburg (1961-2018).

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is a 2004 American animated adventure comedy film based on the popular Nickelodeon animated TV series SpongeBob SquarePants. The movie is written and directed by Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of the show, and stars the regular voice actors from the TV series along several guest stars. Despite being an animated movie, the movie also features live-action scenes, both standalone and blended with the animated sequences.

Plot
In this lively animated adventure, undersea oddball SpongeBob SquarePants and his starfish friend, Patrick, embark on a quest to clear the name of Mr. Krabs, the owner of the Krusty Krab restaurant, who has been framed for stealing the crown of ocean deity King Neptune. Leaving the familiar confines of Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob and Patrick venture out towards Shell City, where they hope to find Neptune's crown, but numerous obstacles stand (or float) in their way.

Why It Goofy Goober Rocks

 * 1) Unlike some other movie adaptations, this movie stays completely faithful to the TV series and is very welcoming to newcomers of SpongeBob SquarePants, both the series and the character himself, as it sets up the series' signature tone, presents who some of the characters are and explains all that is happening in Bikini Bottom.
 * 2) Well done animation that tops that of the series.
 * 3) * It plays more with the characters' facial expressions, often for comedic effect.
 * 4) * It takes advantage of the lighting and colors to set up a strong mood, especially whenever there is a presence of danger.
 * 5) * The backgrounds also function in a way that visually explains the scenario that is going on.
 * 6) Action-packed adventure scenes.
 * 7) Talented voice acting both from the same voice actors of the cartoon and from guest stars, most notably Alec Baldwin and David Hasslehoff (the former portraying a convincing villain and the latter as himself).
 * 8) Continuing on with the previous pointer, instead of using stunt casting, it picks up nearly the same cast as the source material.
 * 9) The new characters created for the movie are great additions to the SpongeBob series, such as Princess Mindy, King Neptune's daughter, who is a reasonable lady who helps SpongeBob and Patrick on their journey, and Dennis, an intimidating hitman hired by Plankton to kill SpongeBob and Patrick before they can reclaim King Neptune's crown.
 * 10) Plankton is at his absolute best in terms of villainy as he’s more villainous than ever before in this movie, as he not only successfully manages to frame Mr. Krabs for stealing Neptune's crown so that he could steal the Krabby Patty Formula unhindered, but he also manages to subsequently enslave all of Bikini Bottom in the process.
 * 11) SpongeBob and Patrick are also at their absolute best in this movie, as they go on an adventure together, get past all the danger they’ve faced, brought King Neptune’s crown back, saved Bikini Bottom and their loved ones, and defeated Plankton.
 * 12) Amazing cinematography.
 * 13) Several recurring musical numbers from the show are used in the film, including Pua Puaokalani (b), Marching to Honolulu, Drowsy Reef, SpongeBob Theme I, Steel Sting, Airs and Graces (a), among others.  The new songs are also incredibly amazing, like "Goofy Goober Rock", and "Ocean Man" (which would later go on to become a meme).
 * 14) The scene where Spongebob and Patrick get captured by The Cyclops is one of the darkest and edgiest moments in the movie.
 * 15) There are funny and hilarious moments and jokes that don't contain gross-out humor.
 * 16) An epic climax where SpongeBob frees the people of Bikini Bottom from Plankton’s control via the power of rock.
 * 17) Excellent writing with an engaging plot that fits well with the series' standard humor while providing extra material for a movie.
 * 18) It hands you a great message, saying that "it doesn't matter if you are a kid".
 * 19) Pleasant soundtrack by the London Metropolitan Orchestra, Gregor Narholz.
 * 20) The end credits are beautiful.
 * 21) The Nick Movies intro in this installment is probably the best intro, as many of the frames are very interesting and fit Nickelodeon's picture of being rather quirky, but somewhat cool.
 * 22) This could've been an excellent way to end the series (as originally intended) with SpongeBob finally becoming the manager, which shows the hard work he has done to earn it.
 * 23) The scene where SpongeBob and Patrick dry up is memorable, even making the audience pirates cry!
 * 24) * And them getting rejuvenated along with the rest of the dried up sea creatures is also memorable, with the latter hilariously attacking the cyclops with the glue and googly eyes he was using on them!
 * 25) ** Also hilarious in this scene are fish that are dressed up as a mariachi band, who casually play their music as the action unfolds!

Bad Qualities

 * 1) There is plenty of gross-out humor, including one shot showing a nude Patrick's rear end with a flag showing SpongeBob’s name wedged between his buttocks, which is kinda gross.
 * 2) As Hillenburg had largely focused his attention on the movie, the show had been in hiatus from late 2002 (after production of season 3) to 2004, with only the final 9 episodes of season 3 as well as the final 3 episodes of season 2 being released during that time, (despite the final 3 being made in 2001, which aired from Late 2002 to Late 2003). While Stephen's intention to focus on the film is understandable, the series was at the height of its popularity when this decision was made, and in some ways hurt the series in the long run.
 * 3) The movie overuses deus ex machinas in order to progress the plot.
 * 4) SpongeBob and Patrick are seen drying up under a heat lamp, although they turn out okay in the end, the scene is nonetheless a bit dark and depressing for young as well as even some adult fans of the show.
 * 5) Several popular characters had little to no role in the film, notably Pearl, who only has one scene with one line; Mrs. Puff and Sandy Cheeks, each having 3 brief scenes and two lines throughout the film; and Larry the Lobster, who only briefly cameos.
 * 6) While still likable, this movie started the "SpongeBob's High Pitched Voice" era, as SpongeBob's voice becomes high pitched from this movie up until season 7, and is kind of annoying.
 * 7) The "Goofy Goober Rock" scene has some strobe lighting, which can be pretty risky for viewers with photosensitive epilepsy.

Box office
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie earned $9,559,752 on its opening day in the United States, second behind National Treasure (2004) (which earned $11 million). It grossed a combined total of $32,018,216 during its opening weekend, on 4,300 screens at 3,212 theaters, averaging $9,968 per venue (or $7,446 per screen, again second to National Treasure). The film dropped an unexpected 44 percent over the Thanksgiving weekend, and 57 percent the weekend after that. The opening weekend earned 37.48 percent of the film's final gross. It closed on March 24, 2005, failing to out-gross holiday animated competitors The Incredibles (2004) ($261,441,092) and The Polar Express (2004) ($183,373,735). It was still profitable for distributor Paramount Pictures and producer Nickelodeon Movies, earning $85,417,988 in the United States and $140,161,792 worldwide on a budget of $30 million.

Critical response
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie received mixed to positive reviews from critics and received a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 6.28/10, based on 129 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Surreally goofy and entertaining for both children and their parents." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100 based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, calling it "the 'Good Burger' of animation plopping us down inside a fast-food war being fought by sponges, starfish, crabs, tiny plankton and mighty King Neptune." Ed Park of The Village Voice wrote, "No Pixar? No problem! An unstoppable good-mood generator, the resolutely 2-D [The] SpongeBob SquarePants Movie has more yuks than Shark Tale (2004) and enough soul to swallow The Polar Express whole." Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, calling it "an animated adventure that's funnier than Shark Tale and more charming than The Polar Express." Randy Cordova of The Arizona Republic said, "Like the TV show it's based on, it's a daffy, enjoyable creation." Jami Bernard of the New York Daily News gave the feature a score of three out of four: "It's not The Incredibles, or one of those animated features that spent zillions on character design, pedigree and verisimilitude. But SpongeBob is a sweet, silly thing with a child-friendly esthetic all its own."

Trivia

 * This film was originally going to be rated G by MPAA, but it received a PG rating as a result the film containing a scene where SpongeBob and Patrick appear to get drunk over ice cream and the scenes where we see Patrick naked.
 * All of the main characters have speaking roles in the movie, including Pearl and Gary, both of whom only had one real line each.
 * After its completion, the movie was intended to be the series finale, as Stephen Hillenburg didn't want the series to "jump the shark"; when Nickelodeon ordered more episodes of the series, Hillenburg resigned as the series' showrunner and appointed Paul Tibbitt, a longtime friend of his and a writer on many of the show's most well-known classic episodes ("Chocolate with Nuts", "Frankendoodle", "Ripped Pants", "The Secret Box", and "No Weenies Allowed") to replace him as showrunner. Tibbitt was the showrunner until the second half of the ninth season, when Vincent Waller and Marc Ceccarelli (crew members on Ren & Stimpy and Uncle Grandpa) became the new showrunners. Because of this, many fans and critics feel that the show's quality dropped between the first and second movie, especially during the sixth through eighth seasons when the quality hit an all-time low. The fourth and fifth season, however, were pretty well received.
 * The design on King Neptune looks incredibly different from the one on the show.
 * This was due to a firewall between Nickelodeon and Paramount content at the time. This resulted in other elements (apart from Goofy Goober's) created for the first movie not being allowed to be used in the series from 2005 to 2014.
 * "Goofy Goober Rock" is a parody of the Twisted Sister song "I Wanna Rock".
 * It was rumored to be canonically the end of the SpongeBob SquarePants timeline, but Vincent Waller debunked this and it was actually a false fan theory that this movie is set after every episode. Said theory was based on a misunderstanding: fans incorrectly thought that "Hillenburg wanted to end the show after the first movie" meant "the in-universe fictional timeline ends with the first movie" (not true and never said).
 * The film was nominated for three Annie Awards, including Best Animated Feature, but did not win any.
 * During in one episode of The Substitute, it accidentally showed the Pooh's Adventures version of the poster instead of the official version. More topic can be found here. The error was later fixed but the Nick version of the app still uses the fake version of the poster.
 * In the scenes where SpongeBob and Patrick are riding on David Hasselhoff's back, a 14-foot long replica is used instead of the real actor.
 * Originally, Sandy was supposed to appear as a real life chipmunk when Spongebob & Patrick get the crown including human versions of Patrick & Spongebob.
 * This is the final animated Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies film to be released on VHS.
 * Originally, the ending to the movie featured 'Mourning Glory' by Ween playing over the credits, but when it failed with test audiences, it was ultimately replaced with the more popular 'Ocean Man'.
 * Though not owned by Nickelodeon, Popeye and Krazy Kat can be seen in the background of Goofy Goober's in the movie.
 * At one point in an earlier draft, the cast from Rocko's Modern Life was set to make a cameo in the film and they can be seen scuba diving.
 * According to Vincent Waller, from 2005 to 2014, Paramount Pictures formerly did not allow any movie-exclusive content to be used in the SpongeBob SquarePants series. This is why Goofy Goober's was only seen in one brief, unnamed cameo appearance in the series until "Patnocchio."

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