It must be tempting to take a long-running show, especially an animated one, and make a movie or two from it. The potential profits can certainly be greater, but the work in making, at the minimum, a 90-minute movie is daunting. From the studio’s perspective, if the show has been on the air for a decade or so then audiences, especially those younger ones will forgive an hour and a half that’s subpar. While it might be a slog for parents, they should know better and simply allow the kids to experience some ‘big kid’ time as they see said film for themselves. That’s the way that audiences should look at The Spongebob Movie: Sponge On The Run. Those in the audience who are six to eight years old will be mildly amused and those who are nine and up will find a couple of things to laugh at but will be bored overall.
I found it surprising that the film didn’t resonate with our nine-year-old, who is a huge Spongebob fan. The reason for that is due to the fact that the film has CGI characters, which are more vibrant and fuller than he’s used to seeing on television. The caliber of the animation is much higher, but the difference in how the characters look might leave some viewers yearning for the shortened, television variety.
He also didn’t laugh a lot during the movie. He grinned during the film and looked like he wanted to laugh. However, it was a hot summer day and he happily sat there for 90 minutes, so mission accomplished.
His older brother gamely enjoyed the first 20 minutes, but then took out his cell phone and started doing something. I was mildly amused at times but welcomed a business call on my telephone about halfway through the film.
The problem with The Spongebob Movie: Sponge On The Run lays entirely with its story. The voiceover actors are just as awesome as they are on any episode, but in that format, they’re constrained by a hard run time. In this film, it feels like they’re trying to add minutes so that it can somehow tie things together or build new worlds underwater.
In the film, Plankton has hatched a plan to steal the Crabby Patty formula by getting rid of Spongebob. Coincidentally, Poseidon has put fliers all around the sea searching for a sea snail so that it can provide moisturizing fluid for his face. Plankton steals Gary (Spongebob’s sea snail), which causes Spongebob to go on a quest in order to find him. Patrick jumps in to help Spongebob go to the Lost City of Atlantic City to confront Poseidon and bring Gary back home.
There are many things that explain why the film fails to entertain. Primarily for me was that the characters and how they all met when they were children at Camp Koral. It was Muppet Babies, but in this case, the camp that they met at has already been turned into a television show for Nickelodeon. Had the film been released when it was supposed to, then the camp would’ve been introduced in the film. However, now it feels crass and commercial. I know, how dare an entertainment company introduce a new stream to their intellectual property! I get it and it happens all the time, it’s just that the release schedule has pulled back the curtain and made consumers warier of entertainment that doesn’t measure up.
This is happening with lots of movies that are trying to build worlds or show off their studios’ IP. In this case, it’s an insular world under the sea that is building upon itself but ends up scrapping the Bikini Bottom. In the case of Space Jam, it’s a Warner Bros world that uses classic animation under the guise to load as many unlike characters into the bus as possible. What Harry Potter and King Kong have in common with Bugs Bunny is something that audiences just don’t care about. Unfortunately, this is a two-horse race to see who wins the worst animated film of the year. Thankfully, for Spongebob, Space Jam is narrowly winning that one, but it’s only by the skin of their plankton.
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