Stop me if you know this, Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Yeah, I figured you knew the answer, but hey can’t help myself. Welcome to another review, and this one is my final one this weekend. Nickelodeon’s cash cow is ushering into a new age, trying to keep its lifeline going so that more money can be funneled into their studios with the least amount of effort. As Paramount + launches and several other shows are to be redone in a new style, SpongeBob’s third movie is there to be the first step to get the next generation of kids hooked. Sponge on the Run is the third movie to move past T.V. and it hopes to bring success with it. What are my thoughts? As always read on to find out as I scope out:
Movie: SpongeBob: Sponge On the Run (2021)
Platform: All rental movies and Paramount+
- Tim Hill(directed by)
- Tim Hill(voice)
- Clancy Brown(voice)
- Bill Fagerbakke(voice)
LIKES:
Fun
Voice Acting Still Good
Scenes Are Good At Times
Cameos are Surprising
New Animation Style is Okay
Some good Music Moments
Sweet Nature That Is Charming
DISLIKES
Predictable
A Rehash of A SpongeBob Episodes
Rewrote History Again
Not using characters all the way
Not A Lot Of Impasse or Composure
Levels of Stupid Continue to Decline
Did not need to be a movie
REVIEW:
It’s a SpongeBob movie, and so there are not too much expectations if you’ve been watching the decline of the series like I have. However, one thing that remains true of SpongeBob is the fun, childish nature of the show and that has not changed in this movie. The latest run in adventure keeps the same charms of the series, goofy adventures due to some careless, conceited, and simplified mistake the group has made, in this case Gary is missing. And like everything else, Sponge and Star run into trouble once again due to the naivety and stupidity they both have, only saved by fortune and some turn of fate. Amidst the usual flavor of their adventure, the voice acting remains as strong as ever as all OGs bring their A game to making the simple lines come to life. Tom Kenny has the same energy of the yellow sponge, Fagerbakke’s deep voice adds the perfect level of stupid to Patrick, and everyone else reprises the same elements of the characters we have seen in all those cartoon episodes. The familiarity should be welcomed by younger audience members, and does not push the envelope too much given all the changes this movie does bring. Surprisingly, the cameos are higher profile than I imagined with people like Danny Trejo, Tiffany Haddish, and Keanu Reeves lending their talents to the film. The variety to which their used is interesting, but it would be Reeves who gets my vote given how much they used him and the dialogue his simple acting brought.
In regards to the other changes that came into play, the movie’s big one is the new animation style. Nick’s choice of going into what I call 2.5 CGI seems to be the new trend from the research, and while not my favorite style is not bad. The Claymation look is diverse and popping to have the same energy of the cartoon, but not as clunky as the stop motion they did on a few episodes. Given how much real world integration they did with this movie, the style works well to blend the world together and from the editing seemed to have better flow than another recent animation franchise had for me. Music moments have evolved a little more in SpongeBob, at least compared to the Sponge Out of Water movie whose numbers were strange and felt out of place. Sponge on the Run brings more choreographed moments that are again entertaining, has some fun montages that feel like a SpongeBob hybridized with numbers, and a good finish with a Journey song to wrap things up. It works and though I still enjoy the songs from the first movie the most. And as for the ending, well it is the sweet, adding a layer that soft hearts like me like to dive into from time to time.
As for the limitations, well it starts with predictability of the plot that I had expected, but still find a limitation. Most of the plot is exactly what you expect, each point going A to B, B to C, and so on and so forth. Even sadder is that the movie plot is a rehash of at least one episode, but really more of two so the originality points were lost even further given how much better these episodes were. I’ll applaud the random tangents that make no sense to spice things up, but the movie’s linearity needed extra work to help with keeping it feeling fresh. Even worse, the movie makes a big flaw in how little it uses all of its characters, throwing several favorites into the background for about 90% of the film and making their pertinence into the plot quite limited compared to other films. On the Run’s poor use of much of its characters meant that the comedy styles dropped to lower levels and given the limitations already facing this movie it needed everything it could in its corner to respark interest to many.
What’s even worse is how dumbed down this movie feels compared to the other films in the franchise. One thing is the impasse/dangers that they face, and how diluted they have made it in this new age of censorship. The first film had big monsters, bounty hunters, and a time limit with mind controlled zombies. Second film was anarchy, an all-powerful book, and a battle with goofy pirate equipped to fight super powered creatures. This movie, had none of that, turning to corny characters with potential into just goofy living props whose bark is certainly worse than it’s bite. I was bored with the overall “danger” of the film, and the adventures I had come to love had, like the show, taken a turn down the idiotic and silly compared to the clever stupidity the early seasons held. This brings me to the next point, how lazy the comedy has become in the film. I know, Bikini Bottom is not a place of genius, but how much it has fallen is below Rock Bottom in how lazy it has gotten. SpongeBob needs writers to come back and sneak some clever jokes back into the mix, add some impasses and adult humor to bring viewers like me back, and even more curtail the blatant stupidity they seem to hit over and over again. If you enjoy that great, but then why make this film a movie and not a three part series on paramount +? That’s the last weakness of mine is how it does not feel like a movie to me and given the new camp coral coming, felt more like an introduction for it. Therefore, some of the magic I was looking for needed to come back.
What’s even worse is how dumbed down this movie feels compared to the other films in the franchise. One thing is the impasse/dangers that they face, and how diluted they have made it in this new age of censorship. The first film had big monsters, bounty hunters, and a time limit with mind controlled zombies. Second film was anarchy, an all-powerful book, and a battle with goofy pirate equipped to fight super powered creatures. This movie, had none of that, turning to corny characters with potential into just goofy living props whose bark is certainly worse than it’s bite. I was bored with the overall “danger” of the film, and the adventures I had come to love had, like the show, taken a turn down the idiotic and silly compared to the clever stupidity the early seasons held. This brings me to the next point, how lazy the comedy has become in the film. I know, Bikini Bottom is not a place of genius, but how much it has fallen is below Rock Bottom in how lazy it has gotten. SpongeBob needs writers to come back and sneak some clever jokes back into the mix, add some impasses and adult humor to bring viewers like me back, and even more curtail the blatant stupidity they seem to hit over and over again. If you enjoy that great, but then why make this film a movie and not a three part series on paramount +? That’s the last weakness of mine is how it does not feel like a movie to me and given the new camp coral coming, felt more like an introduction for it. Therefore, some of the magic I was looking for needed to come back.
The VERDICT:
Sponge on the run delivered much of what I was expecting from the trailers and the recent episodes of the show. It’s a lot of the same things, but with a new animation style that isn’t horrible, but also not the same level of quality that the original animation held. The theme is fun, the antics silly, and the voice acting is still top notch even though the writing needs work. Thus, the target audience of young and die hard should enjoy what they serve out in this linear tale. However, seeing the original writing, I know that SpongeBob can be better, and the age of censorship and lazy stupidity needs to be pulled back in order to maximize the series once more. Rehashed episodes, poor use of all characters, a toned down adventure make this film seem less impactful and this could have been a three part episode for the new series. As such, a viewing at home is perfect for this one, but not worth the 20 dollar rental fee, so either try out paramount + or wait for it to have a cheaper rental price. Factoring all this in, my scores are:
Animation/Adventure/Comedy: 6.5
Movie Overall: 6.0
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