The third SpongeBob SquarePants feature film, and the first released since the death of SpongeBob's creator, Stephen Hillenburg, I am still trying to decide why I didn’t enjoy this as much as the two previous movies. Did I watch all three too close together, or is it a marked drop in quality when it comes to the silliness and the gags. I am leaning towards the latter, but people should know that the former may be a contributing factor.
Everything is going along as usual in Bikini Bottom, which means that Plankton is still scheming to steal a coveted recipe and cause trouble. He thinks that he is constantly being thwarted by the owner of the Krusty Krab, but he is shown the error of his ways soon enough. The person who most often thwarts Plankton is, you may have already guessed, SpongeBob. To get him out of the picture, Plankton comes up with a plan involving SpongeBob’s pet snail, Gary. This leads to a dangerous road trip to Atlantic City for SpongeBob and Patrick, where they hope to retrieve Gary. Unfortunately, Gary has already been claimed by King Poseidon.
Written and directed by Tim Hill, a pleasingly constant key figure throughout the SpongeBob show and movies, there’s still some fun to be had with this underwater adventure. Hill heads up a group of creative people who have strived to craft a new tale that was worthy of the feature runtime, but they haven’t managed to avoid a certain feeling of diminishing returns. Seeing our characters head along to Atlantic City just doesn’t feel interesting enough, and the animation makeover (which may have started on the show, I am still only a movie SpongeBobber at the moment) gives the whole thing a sheen that works against it. I cannot be the only one who appreciated the paradoxically beautiful ugliness of the classic SpongeBob look, surely.
Thankfully, the voice performers remain as good as ever. Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, Clancy Brown, and Mr. Lawrence are all a lot of fun, Carolyn Lawrence gets to enjoy a bit more screentime for her character, Sandy, and newcomers Matt Berry (well, newcomer to his role of King Poseidon) and Keanu Reeves, onscreen in a live-action role that allows him to deliver sage advice and a full Keanu experience, are fantastic additions to the cast, as is Tiffany Haddish in the role of Tiffany Haddock.
I enjoyed this. There were times when I chuckled, and a gag-filled montage at the very end ensures that I was smiling as the end credits rolled. I just didn’t love it. Something is missing, a spark of anarchic lunacy that made the previous two movies so much fun, and I was ultimately disappointed. I wouldn’t rule out revisiting this one though, and a repeat viewing might well lead to me rating it slightly higher. It’s never going to rival the first two movies though.
6/10
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I like the idea of Matt Berry as Poseidon, though not enough to actually watch the movie.
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