With a clever piece of marketing Spongebob pulls a fast one on his fans.
There’s no denying Spongebob’s popularity as a Nickelodeon institution, but this is blatant PR – as the movie only provides about 15-20 minutes of computer-generated animation in the ‘real world’.
The rest is regular 2D animation set in the familiar setting of Bikini Bottom – in basically an extended episode format – that really stretches fan service to the absolute limit.
For die-hards it isn’t necessarily unentertaining fare, but the clever trailer indicates much more ‘above the sea’ action than is actually present, and for your hard-earned cinema cash is a bit of an ‘underhand’ curveball that just doesn’t sit right.
The movie takes the tried-and-tested formula of Plankton (Mr Lawrence) attempting to steal Spongebob’s (Tom Kenny) secret ‘Krabby Patty’ formula from greedy fast food restaurateur Mr Krabs (Clancy Brown) – and then throws in Antonio Banderas’ nefarious pirate Burger Beard.
In the ‘human world’ Burger Beard has located the formula to use for his own beach-side cash-making means – via a legendary story discovered in a treasure-like book – which eventually leads to Spongebob hitting dry land with Patrick (Bill Fagerbakke) and co.
Fortunately the book is re-written to add superhero powers to the crew, and they then attempt to stop Burger Beard from escaping with the ingredients – which has led to an apocalypse in Spongebob’s undersea domain.
Throw in a few bizarre twists – like an intergalactic dolphin leader (yep, that’s right) – and you’ve got an animation that is truly ‘bonkers’ – and not necessarily in a good way.
It does have a few trademark Spongebob humorous moments that will surely appease some fans – but it just can’t hide the fact there’s too little 3D on show.
And when that finally kicks in during the finale, the action set-pieces are so generically predictable that Banderas just takes the ‘paycheck’ and runs.
Visit www.showcasecinemas.co.uk for the latest up-to-date showtimes for movies at Peterborough Showcase. You can also join the chat on Twitter @showcasecinemas or on Facebook by searching for ‘Showcase Cinemas UK’.
[youtube id=”TGjbpO1toTc” width=”600″ height=”350″]
Cast: Antonio Banderas And The Voices Of Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Clancy Brown, Carolyn Lawrence, Rodger Bumpass, Thomas F Wilson & Mr Lawrence
Running Time: 1 Hr 32 Mins
Director: Paul Tibbitt
Gavin Miller
Comments