Movie Review: 'The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water'
By Bill Wine
KYW Newsradio 1060
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- All together now: Who lives in a pineapple by the sea? Why, SpongeBob Squarepants, of course.
And the popular cable television character makes a return to the big screen in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water in the hopes that young viewers who are already fans want to spend additional time with SpongeBob Squarepants in a larger format.
SpongeBob SquarePants, the film's predecessor, was based on the sharply designed, family-friendly, enormously popular television cartoon comedy on Nickelodeon about underwater life in a place called Bikini Bottom, featuring colorful characters and a hipster veneer.
The humor was -- and is -- silly, goofy, and decidedly upbeat.
And it now turns up on the movie screen for a second time after years on the tube.
The TV series offers episodes of just over ten minutes each, however, while the story arc of the second big-screen feature, like the first, approaches an hour-and-a-half.
When the first movie emerged from the television series in 2004, it had been on the air for three seasons. It was produced and directed by series creator Stephen Hillenburg and was originally intended to be the finale of the TV series.
But it turned up on the big screen and now we get the sequel, executive produced by Hillenburg but directed by Paul Tibbitt, who writes and executive produces the TV series, and Mike Mitchell (Shrek Forever After).
The big-screen followup, like its predecessor, combines animation and live action. But this time it offers computer-generated imagery in 3-D – a technical wrinkle that adds absolutely nothing to the experience. So save yourself the surcharge.
There's a patched-together unevenness about the whole enterprise that should not be much of a surprise, given that the creators are used to working with eleven-minute narratives. The stretch marks are clearly showing here.
The first few minutes of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water are witty, inspired, and energetic: a festival of sight gags and wordplay. But very quickly the level of inventiveness dips precipitously, and the filler starts piling up.
Young children may be forgiving or oblivious, but chaperones will notice that this one runs out of gas real early.
Antonio Banderas joins the fray this time as Burger-Beard, narrating this tale to a gallery of talking seagulls. He has fun playing the narrator of this tale and the villainous pirate in search of the final page of a magical book that makes any evil plan he writes in it come true.
And what's on that page? Why, the Krabby Patty secret formula, that's what, a lineup of the ingredients in those delicious and desired snacks that SpongeBob fries up at the Krusty Krab restaurant where he works and that no one in Bikini Bottom can live without.
And with the formula missing, the entire city of Bikini City is in danger. So SpongeBob, voiced by Tom Kenny, and his friends head for the surface on a quest to retrieve the crucial recipe, even if it means coming up against Burger-Beard and his fierce crew.
There are sporadic laughs throughout, most of them sly puns that may get past the kids and land in the ears of the grownups with them. But a premise this thin, which may hold muster in a short subject, wears out its welcome long before the finish line is within sight.
So we'll fry up 2 stars out of 4. If The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water gives the underserved family audience a theatrical viewing alternative that excites the little ones in advance, great. But let's just say that this sequel is out of a lot more than just water.
