The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie: Search for SquarePants Review
What have they done to our boy, Spongebob! Our boy!!
SpongeBob has grown over 36 clams high, meaning he is now a big guy and can ride the rollercoaster. But despite his new height, he is still terrified of the ride! Teased by Mr Krabs and Squidward, he summons The Flying Dutchman and - partnering with his friend Patrick - travels with the nefarious pirate to The Underworld to try and earn his swashbuckling certificate and prove his ‘big guy-ness’.
The SpongeBob Movie: Search for Squarepants doesn’t come in a vacuum. It arrives on the back of decades of an incredible TV show, and who can forget the original SpongeBob Movie. It’s this history that makes this new iteration such a vastly interminable product for adults and fans of the OG.
For make no mistake, our young fry cook has been destroyed in this modern era. Gone are the wonderful plotlines and nuances of the original, where SpongeBob was an adult fry cook not some child looking to grow a few clams. Gone too are the incredibly smart asides, the real life cameos from insane pickups like David Hasselhoff. And most egregiously, gone too is the 2D animation, in its place the hollow, lifeless 3D shell of itself in this new modern adaptation.
Now look, this movie had the kids in the theatre laughing. It was fine. The plot was fine. If you take your kids, they’ll probably have a blast.
But if you’re an OG SpongeBob fan, then put this one right on the fire of modernity and commercialism where it belongs. The 3D versions of these characters lose all the uniqueness, passion, and sly comedy of them. Much like this film, the edges are sanded off to an extreme degree, and while they sometimes make a play at the humour that made the original series and film sing, they never match it.
So 3 stars, because it’s a fine kids movie that your kids will enjoy. But the kid in me wanted out the second I saw that 3D SpongeBob.
