The Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run is Grim

 Written by Shiggins

Grim Adventures of Spongy and Patrick.

I haven't watched Spongebob Squarepants in a long time. I used to as a kid, and I loved the first movie when it came out in 2004, but then I faded away from it until I checked out the second movie a few months ago, Sponge out of Water, which was surprisingly fun. So earlier this week, I was on Netflix and got quite a surprise when I saw the newest film, Sponge on the Run, was there! I watched it and... It might be the most depressing film experience I've had all year.

The original cast all return in this brand new movie, which is all about Spongebob (Tom Kenny) needing to travel to Atlantic City to rescue his beloved pet snail Gary from King Poseidon (Matt Berry). His best friend Patrick Star (Bill Fagerbakke) comes along for the ride, while the evil Plankton (Mr Lawrence) is using this situation to try and steal the Krabby Patty secret formula from Mr Krabs (Clancy Brown). Oh and Squidward (Rodger Bumpass) and Sandy (Carolyn Lawrence) are there too.

So yeah, this is essentially the same road trip structure from the first movie but with a few more celebrity cameos and bits added on, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The writers have added a more emotional motivation to Spongebob's quest, which I think is smart, and they also went for a brand new animation style that looks... bizarre. 

The animation is very unique, almost looking like stop-motion with figurines or plastic, but keeping the cartoony movements and expressions that the series is known for. I don't know if I particularly like it, but it's something different and I admit that it helps the movie at least feel different from anything else. On top of that, some of the characters look amazing in this new format, like Krabs and Sandy. Especially Sandy actually, with her new furry design. 

Actually, you know what? I think the best way to explain why I disliked this film so much is to just go through it and tell you how I felt as I watched it.

So at first I was doing alright, getting used to the animation and reliving childhood memories of old Spongebob episodes I used to love as a wee lad while also appreciating how perfect these voice actors are at the roles they've been playing for over a decade, but then the story started proper and the road trip began. At one point, Spongebob and Patrick somehow got away from their car driven by a robot voiced by Awkwafina (just go with it) and they ended up in a western saloon. This is when we met the best part of this film, a Sage made of saga played by the head of Keanu Reeves. I don't understand what's going on but I'm okay with it so far... 

Then the scene continues inside the saloon itself. Snoop Dogg has a singing cameo, there are pirate zombies or something, Danny Trejo appears as a minor villain for two scenes, there's a bunch of moving around and screaming, then the scene is over and literally nothing about the plot itself has been resolved. 

What a load of nonsense that was!

I'm literally confused at this stage on what the film is trying to do, whether it wants to feel like several episodes smashed together, or if it's trying to do that "lol random means funny" style of comedy, but either way it didn't work and it just came across like the film didn't know what it was doing with it's runtime. And no, it wasn't funny. None of it was. It was just random and somehow boring. 

There's a bunch of stuff that happens in Atlantic City's casino area next, most of which you could probably guess and again, it's fairly boring. With the exception of Keanu "Sage" Reeves rolling his head in and getting more and more annoyed by everything going on. He really is the highlight, and his rising anger is the best gag the film has to offer. Such a strange performance, yet it manages to work well. Anyway, the duo get captured and Squidward, Sandy, Krabs and Plankton (who is good now because plot) rush off to help him. 

So due to a bunch of contrived events, Spongebob must now prove to a crowd and Poseidon that he is not a bad person and doesn't deserve to be executed for trying to steal the king's new snail. Throughout this scene, each of the characters appear one-by-one to tell the crowd how they met Spongebob during summer camp, Kamp Koral. Yes, despite them all being different ages and I'm pretty sure Sandy was a brand new friend back in season 1 but I might be remembering wrong... they all met at this summer camp as kids. 

And as I saw these scenes, as I watched these predictable flashbacks of Spongebob being this amazing sweetie who brought everyone together with the power of friendship, I realised what this film was and why it existed, and why if often felt like the actual story of the film was an afterthought they were working on to pad the runtime. It's to sell and promote the upcoming spinoff series, Kamp Koral: Spongebob's Under Years, and everything else in the film only serves to make sure these scenes exist.

What makes this uncomfortable however is that this was announced two years ago, along with several other spinoffs all centered around the Spongebob franchise, including shows centered purely on Patrick and Squidward going solo, and all of these were announced just a couple of months after the passing of the series' creator, Stephen Hillenburg. All of them. In fact, Kamp Koral was 3 months.

Hillenburg was a man dedicated to his work, and whether you care about the franchise or not, it will always be his work, and he was known for being against any spinoffs pitched to him, including attempts to turn Spongebob into a child because he never felt they worked or had any heart to them. In fact, according to Hillenburg's successor, Paul Tibbitt, "Steve would always say to me, 'You know, one of these days, they’re going to want to make SpongeBob Babies. That's when I'm out of here.'

Well, they did it. They're making the show he always feared. The studio and the executives got to work immediately after his passing and, with glee in their black hearts, rushed off to make what he didn't want and get as much cash and sell as many toys as they can. I didn't even care about the Spongebob Squarepants franchise before watching this movie, and I still feel disheartened by it.

Grim is the word I keep going back to. And so when I saw the "In memory of Stephen Hillenburg" message at the end, I disagreed. This film is not in memory of him. If you want to remember him, watch the first two films. He worked on both of them, and it shows.

Also, this film isn't funny. So it would suck regardless of everything I said anyway. 

Side note: I don't blame the actors, producers or writers for any of this. They need a job, they enjoy doing their job, and the studio would replace them no matter what they did. This is entirely a studio situation here.