Spongebob the Movie – Sponge Out of Water – Review
He’s absorbent, he’s yellow, he’s porous and now he’s 3D! Everyone’s favourite trouser-wearing sponge is back on the big screen and this time you’ll have to pop on your 3D shades and immerse yourself in all his cuboid glory.
That’s right, SpongeBob the Movie – Sponge Out of Water hits the screens this week and what a surreal treat it is. Set in the ever-peculiar town of Bikini Bottom, the residents are quietly going about their lives stuffing their fishy faces with more crabby patties than their gills can handle. Plankton is trying his best to ruin everything as usual and steal the secret patty formula when suddenly, as if by magic, the formula disappears leaving the residents horrified and Bikini Bottom patty-less. Anarchy quickly builds and the town is instantly bought into an apocalypse due to the collapse of all things good in the world. It’s left to our old friends, SpongeBob, Patrick, Sandy, Squidward, Mr Krabs and even Plankton to save the day. Here things get interesting – a surreal meeting with a fishy overlord changes their form and sends them above water to find out who’s responsible for stealing the formula.
In a film that is brimming with the strange (Gary, King of snails, fishy overlords, Mr Krabs dressed in bondage) this film retains all the surreal oddities that we all came to love about the SpongeBob SquarePants series. The movie begins in the real world, following Pirate Burger Beard (Antonio Banderas) as he tries to find the magic formula to creating the best burgers around, The Crabby Patty. Banderas plays a very convincing, ‘Jack Sparrow’-esque character, with the opening five minutes seeming more like a Pirates of the Caribbean movie than anything else.
Antonio Banderas as Burger-Beard.
His comedy is on par with the exaggerated performances of the animated characters and when their worlds collide you really can’t see the join. It is a bold move bringing SpongeBob to the 3D world but one done smartly, showing that this has not just been bunged together to please execs. The characters are rendered to almost look like plastic toys, therefore fitting nicely into the live-action world; The way the live film is shot and graded also really helps to marry the two together.
While the film is called Sponge Out of Water, the Bikini Bottom gang only really spend a third of the film on the surface, the majority spent in the 2D world under the sea. This beginning section is however still cleverly rendered in 3D and for once you actually get proper depth of field within a 2D cartoon. The film can seem frustrating at times – just as you think they have solved the riddle, another twist appears stretching time out again before we surface and start the 3D action, which I would guess is what most have come to see. Even with these many twists, the pay-offs are usually justified with something totally surreal coming out of left-field to satisfy your confusion and frustration.
Patrick Star (as Mr. Superawesomeness), Mr. Krabs (as Sir Pinch-A-Lot), Squidward Tentacles (as Sour Note), and SpongeBob SquarePants (as The Invincibubble)
Centered around the idea of teamwork and love for your friends, I can’t think of a better film to see over the Easter break. Full of laughter, surrealism, clever jokes – and obviously its SpongeBob, so you can’t really go wrong.
SpongeBob the Movie – Sponge Out of Water is released in the UK on 27th March 2015