Like movies based on video games, movies based on TV shows are notoriously difficult to pull off, and there are a lot more bad examples (CHiPs, Baywatch, Dark Shadows, Lost in Space, Wild Wild West, Charlie’s Angels, Entourage, The Last Airbender) than good ones (The Simpsons Movie, The Naked Gun, 21 Jump Street). But the creative team behind SpongeBob SquarePants managed to defy the odds and satisfy their fanbase with a big-screen translation that was suitably cinematic while retaining the absurdist spirit of the series.
There have since been two additional SpongeBob movies, but neither of them came close to matching the lightning-in-a-bottle greatness of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.
10 Its Story Belongs On The Big Screen
The problem with a lot of TV-to-film adaptations, like Entourage, is that they can feel like a mega-sized episode of the show, so it seems pointless to buy a ticket to see something on the big screen that’s already available at home on the small screen. The best ones, like The Simpsons Movie, raise the stakes and scale from a regular episode and use the extended runtime to give the characters and their conflicts more depth.
This is exactly what The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie does right. It starts off like a regular episode as SpongeBob is passed over for a promotion, but turns into a cinematic adventure when he and Patrick set off on a quest to save Mr. Krabs.
9 SpongeBob Goes On A Traditional Hero’s Journey
The quest to find King Neptune’s crown and save Mr. Krabs gives SpongeBob a traditional Joseph Campbell-style “hero’s journey” in his first movie outing. At the beginning of the movie, SpongeBob’s obstacle is made clear: he’s “just a kid,” so he isn’t taken seriously.
Over the course of the movie, SpongeBob faces a ton of challenges that no one thinks he’ll be able to overcome, and using what he’s learned on the journey, he manages to overcome them all.
8 The Script Is Tight And Filled With Jokes
The first SpongeBob movie marked a turning point for the series. After satisfying fans with a big-screen adaptation, the show began a steady decline in quality that can be attributed to the departure of creator Stephen Hillenburg and several other writers.
But before leaving SpongeBob to become yet another cash-cow Hollywood franchise, Hillenburg and his team cooked up a screenplay for the first movie that is tightly structured and crams in as many jokes as possible onto each page.
7 It’s Faithful To All The Characters
In the original SpongeBob movie, SpongeBob acts like SpongeBob, and Patrick acts like Patrick, and Plankton acts like Plankton because it’s faithful to the characters. The same can’t be said for the sequels, which kept SpongeBob’s characterization intact, but changed everyone else’s to suit the whims of the story.
At the end of Sponge on the Run, everyone gives an impassioned speech about why they love SpongeBob (including Squidward, who couldn’t be more out of character), revealing information that was already revealed in subtler and more character-specific ways on the series.
6 The New Characters Fit Right In
All three SpongeBob movies introduced new characters into the universe, but the new characters in the sequels have often fallen far short of the legendary status of the core ensemble. Burger Beard seems like he wandered in from the wrong movie, King Poseidon is a rip-off of King Neptune, and Awkwafina gives a fine performance as Otto, but Sandy building a robot didn’t make sense.
On the other hand, the new characters introduced in the first movie fit right in, from the balding Neptune to the plucky Mindy to the villainous Dennis.
5 It Appeals To Kids AND Their Parents
The problem with a lot of recent SpongeBob episodes — and the recent movies — is that they pander to kids in a way that the early seasons and the first movie never did. It doesn’t matter how old you are, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is hilarious.
Like Pixar’s best movies, it’s a child-friendly animation that appeals to both kids, their parents, and childless adults who happen to be huge SpongeBob fans.
4 It’s Totally Unpredictable
Although there’s an air of familiarity in the writers’ decision to make the first SpongeBob movie about a road trip, the narrative is anything but predictable. The movie constantly subverts its audience’s expectations with each passing plot point.
From the theft of the Patty Wagon to SpongeBob and Patrick’s near-death experience in the gift shop to David Hasselhoff arriving to save the day, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is wildly unpredictable.
3 David Hasselhoff Gives One Of The Best Cameo Appearances Of All Time
While the SpongeBob movie sequels would feature an abundance of cameos by celebrities like Snoop Dogg and Keanu Reeves to stretch out the runtime, the first movie features one celebrity cameo appearance that ranks among the best of all time.
The fact that David Hasselhoff has superhuman speed and robotic pecs places him firmly in the absurdist reality of SpongeBob, while his triumphant rescue is pivotal to the plot.
2 The “Goofy Goober Rock” Finale Is Spectacular
When SpongeBob returns to Bikini Bottom and finds that the whole town has been enslaved by Plankton, he breaks into a flashy musical number, “Goofy Goober Rock” (a play on Twisted Sister’s “I Wanna Rock”), and frees everybody with the power of rock ‘n’ roll.
After the ride on David Hasselhoff’s back gives The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie a perfect climax, the “Goofy Goober Rock” number gives it a spectacular finale.
1 It’s Endlessly Rewatchable
The SpongeBob sequels don’t hold up on rewatches. There are long, dull stretches in each movie where a single joke is beaten to death — or there aren’t any jokes at all — and they really slow down the viewing experience. As a result, these movies won’t really stand the test of time.
The original movie, on the other hand, has stood the test of time because there are no dull stretches and every scene is true to the characters, so fans can watch it endlessly without getting bored.
from ScreenRant - Feed https://ift.tt/3h2eTPp
0 Comments