The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water

Dir: Paul Tibbitt, Mike Mitchell

2015

***

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water is SpongeBob Squarepants second feature film and an indication that unlike many a cartoon from the late 90s, he's still as popular today as he was when he first hit our television screens. There is something considerably comforting about the durability of silliness and SpongeBob Squarepants is the epitome of silly. A typical TV episode of the cartoon lasts for approx twenty minutes and can be rather exhausting I find. I found the prospect of sitting through 90 minutes of SpongeBob to be quite daunting, even though I enjoy his humour. I'm sure I wasn't alone either and it's clear that Paul Tibbitt and Mike Mitchell realized that three back-to-back episodes would have been too much for any audience. Instead, you can clearly see three chapters in the structure of the film with live performances involving Antonio Banderas and a few seagulls breaking them up and supplying the film with its introduction. The first chapter is a standard twenty minute episode that starts the story with a simple (but very silly) scenario. The second chapter is an experimental time-travel psychedelic trip involving a mix of animation styles and the final chapter is the big pay off, involving SpongeBob and his friends becoming 'real' and entering the world (land) as we know it. It becomes almost impossible to follow the story as it goes at breakneck speed, becoming more and more surreal as it speeds up. However, it never really seems to matter. Highlights include; the best visual example of a sugar rush I have ever seen, Antonio Banderas as an unstoppable fast food pirate, beautiful 3D animation and the brilliant Matt Berry as a Cosmic Dolphin. It's very funny but you may need a lie down after (or half way through in my case). Easily the most original film of 2015.