The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run
Starring Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, Clancy Brown
Directed by Tim Hill
Growing up in the 80s I was treated to some of the best animated shows and toys a kid could ask for - "G.I. Joe," "Thundercats," and the beginnings of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" heralded a bright time to be a kid. Most notably was the "Transformers" franchise, which graced both the small and big screens in the 80s and dominated the childhood landscape that still continues to this day. In 1986 - in between the second and third seasons of the series - the "Transformers Movie" was released, and while it was a box office bomb at the time, it's achieved cult status since then - and with good reason. The film was marketed to kids, but it was incredibly deep and even frightening (I still remember having a nightmare about it, and I was six at the time) due to the deaths of several of my most beloved Autobots, something that would've never happened on television. The movie itself was created to bridge the gap between old and new characters, and unleash a load of new toys to the market, but at the cost of most of the classic characters.
What does this have to do with "Sponge on the Run?" Honestly, I've never seen a "SpongeBob" episode, but my friend has seen them all, and I wanted to watch this movie with him to glean some information. Turns out this movie was made solely to advertise a new "SpongeBob" spin-off series called "Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years" (smartly they didn't include another K-sounding word, otherwise it could've been very bad) - something that the original creator, Stephen Hillenburg - never wanted to see happen. When he passed away in 2018, the company decided to go against his wishes and create the spin-off anyway, using "Sponge on the Run" as a springboard to the new series. You can tell that this film doesn't have the true heart of the series (something even I noticed, having never seen the show before), and while I found it enjoyable enough, it really wasn't something that needed to be made.
SpongeBob SquarePants (Tom Kenny) lives happily in a pineapple under the sea in the town of Bikini Bottom, working at the Krusty Krab under Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown), whose only desire is money. He lives next door to his best friend Patrick (Bill Fagerbakke), and is constantly an annoyance to the ever-grumpy Squidward (Rodger Bumpass). He's friends with scientist squirrel Sandy (Carolyn Lawrence), and draws the ire of rival restaurateur Plankton (Mr. Lawrence), who wants the Krusty Krab secret recipe for himself.
Through it all, SpongeBob comes home to his pet snail Gary, and the two share an inseparable bond, until King Poseidon (Matt Berry) runs out of facial cream from his snails, and Plankton conceives a plan to rid the town of SpongeBob for good - by snail-napping Gary and sending SpongeBob and Patrick on a road trip adventure to get him back. Along the way, the two friends run into quirky characters, including a wise Sage (Keanu Reeves) - who is actually a sage - and both learn the value of friendship and courage as they venture to the mysterious land of Atlantic City.
From what I gathered from my friend, the "SpongeBob" show was originally created for a teenage audience, with more adult humor and comedy geared for high school students, but as the years progressed, became more and more for the younger audiences, dumbing down the comedy to appeal to that younger demographic (much like "Teen Titans" has done). With this movie, it seems that they managed to blend the teenage humor with childish antics in a way that melds into an appropriate product, a film that's neither stellar nor stupid, but falls somewhere in the middle - and again, this is coming from someone who's never seen an episode before.
The voice actors from the show reprise their roles here, along with a
slew of big-name actors who lend their voices (and sometimes themselves)
to the project, and some of whom I was shocked and surprised to see,
but everyone knows that Keanu Reeves makes an appearance and he steals
the show as the wise sage, who's also named Sage, who offers sage advice
to SpongeBob and Patrick about the importance of keeping focus and
finding your inner courage, while continuing to patronize the heroes on
their hilarious journey.
The CGI is bright and colorful (and distinctly different than the series, from what I was told), and it's got enough juice in it to entertain the kiddos for a while as many families remain at home due to many schools not re-opening, and it provides just enough comedy for adults to appreciate, at least one time. The opening sequence is fantastic and really helped in introducing the characters for the uneducated, such as myself, and does a great job at establishing the lighthearted, slapstick mood that'll continue. Yet there's moments in the film where it seems to drag, which says a lot coming from an already-short film, and the emotional momentum fluctuates wildly from a buddy road-trip comedy to dire circumstances to a rousing "This is Your Life" moment that includes several flashbacks to summer camp that never really happened - hence the purpose of the film in the first place, to introduce audiences to the new spin-off.
The series itself is served in meaty, thirty-minute episodes that allow for the laughs and story to run wild, due to their short iterations. To transfer this type of comedy to a big-screen, longer medium is often challenging, and there were moments of pure brilliance in the movie itself, but also a slew of slower, somewhat pointless moments that dragged the movie down. Often this happens with an animated movie and can be forgiven because its target audience is younger children who don't care about anything other than colorful aesthetics and goofball humor, but "SpongeBob" has appealed to literally all age groups, and to appease everyone is virtually impossible. Here, there were more down-times than highlights, and as the new saying goes, this was something "that could've been sent in an e-mail."
While it manages to teach the importance of courage and friendship, "Sponge on the Run" serves more as a springboard for the franchises' upcoming spin-off, and once again proving that a 30-minute episodic series doesn't often translate well to a 90-minute movie.
The Score: C+
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