Spongebob Squarepants Movie reviews

[WizarDru]

Because media tells the kids it's cool... and therefore it is.

Or, and this is a crazy theory I'm just gonna throw out there, maybe they actually enjoy it.

My family, including my wife and I, enjoyed the Spongebob movie quite a bit. I think it wasn't consistently as funny as a couple of the best episodes (and frankly didn't get enough use out of some of the characters)...but it was still a very good movie. I think Thorntangle's right in that there were some parts that broke the pace up a little...but there David Hasslehoff's cameo was nothing short of inspired. The fight scene ON David Hasslehoff was just plain wrong.

The movie wasn't made for adults, but it was made so adults could enjoy it. I can guarantee you that my 7 year-old wasn't getting the 'NPR' reference, for example.

And for reference, medabots isn't popular, and Digimon only slightly so, in the overall kids lexicon. DBZ and Power Rangers are huge for young boys because they have cool vehicles and lots of fighting, and don't get bogged down in, to their core audience, unnecesary plot. Here's what Rotten Tomatoes thought, with a 68%.

 

[Thanee]

Or, and this is a crazy theory I'm just gonna throw out there, maybe they actually enjoy it.

Or that.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Kesh]

I've tried to watch Spongebob on TV a few times. It just seems... well, not funny. Most of the characters are rude, egocentric jerks. Then again, that's modern comedy it seems (*cough* Adam Sandler *cough*)

 

[Klaus]

Or, and this is a crazy theory I'm just gonna throw out there, maybe they actually enjoy it.

My family, including my wife and I, enjoyed the Spongebob movie quite a bit. I think it wasn't consistently as funny as a couple of the best episodes (and frankly didn't get enough use out of some of the characters)...but it was still a very good movie. I think Thorntangle's right in that there were some parts that broke the pace up a little...but there David Hasslehoff's cameo was nothing short of inspired. The fight scene ON David Hasslehoff was just plain wrong.

The movie wasn't made for adults, but it was made so adults could enjoy it. I can guarantee you that my 7 year-old wasn't getting the 'NPR' reference, for example.

And for reference, medabots isn't popular, and Digimon only slightly so, in the overall kids lexicon. DBZ and Power Rangers are huge for young boys because they have cool vehicles and lots of fighting, and don't get bogged down in, to their core audience, unnecesary plot. Here's what Rotten Tomatoes thought, with a 68%.

Well, while growing up I loves (and collected toys) for Star Wars (the original Kenner collection! All 79!), He-Man, Thundercats, GI Joe, Starblazers, Centurions... Later on I watched a lot of Saint Seya (when I was 20), Batman: TAS, Superman: TAS, Lodoss War, Pirates of Dark Water. More recently I've enjoyed Samurai X, Inu Yasha, Justice League, Kids Next Door, Samurai Jack, Dexter's Lab, Batman Beyond, Static Shock...

But Spongebob I can't seem to fathom (pun unintended, but hey, it's there!).

But hey, I didn't like Ren & Stimpy or Cow & Chicken either, so...

 

[Lucky Number]

This movie is definitely for fans of the series... a newcomer will be mystified.

I actually thought it was fairly funny (not the best i've seen, but amusing), and it seemed to me to be catering more to adult audiences than to children- most of the little kids i know have heard of David Hasslehoff, but aren't familiar with him, so most of the jokes with him (other than the ridiculous imagery of him zooming through the water like a motorboat, and launching Patrick & Spongebob) will fall flat. Additionally, the imagery of Patrick waltzing around in fishnet stockings and high heels did definitely not suggest to me that this was only a movie for small children... from my observations, Spongebob's inanity enjoys signifigant popularity among teenagers and young adults, and the movie is a reflection of that.

As for people who say that the humour in the series-- or any of a number of other contemporary cartoons --is based on rudeness and/or violence (i'm not directing this at you, Kesh, i've heard it from many parents), i'll point to the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, the big stars of these cartoons, are constantly trading insults("What a maroon! What an ignora-moose!") and subjecting their antagonists to bludgeonings, detonations, slicing, dicing, shootings, seduction, goring, and any number of other injuries. Villains such as Yosemite Sam are portrayed as violent, murderous sociopaths who constantly (albeit unintelligibly) curse, and are even shown being tormented in hell when they finally pass on. Characters in the Road Runner cartoons are routinely impacted by speeding vehicles, dropped off of cliffs, or reduced to cinders, and this is meant to be the "punchline".

Spongebob doesn't have half the violence- most of the physical humour is based on the absurdity of Spongebob's aborbent nature, such as visiting an underwater beach, or taking a bath (the movie was notably more violent than the series, which of course may be attributed to more lax censorship). The rudeness of the characters fails to compare to not only older cartoons, but contemporary ones: there are fewer insults in an entire episode of Spongebob than in the first five minutes of Family Guy or the Simpsons. This is not to say there is no rudeness, but it is not on the same level... Squidward's apathetic, mocking disdain for his work and neighbors hardly compares to Bugs Bunny's belittling of his antagonists, often so maliciously engineered that it leads his foes to injury.

 

[WizarDru]

People tend to forget how topical and often biting some of the Looney Tunes were, in context. Part of that was because it was written with an equal amount of material for adults and children, not just exclusively one audience or the other. Think about how many references in your average Looney Tunes cartoon went over your head, or you just took at face value.

For example: "At the end of Hurdy Gurdy Hare (McKimson, 1950), as Bugs and Gruesome Gorilla are raking in a fortune from a hurdy-gurdy, Bugs says I hope Petrillo doesnt hear about this! Bugs is referring to James C. Petrillo, the imperious head of the American Federation of Musicians, the musicians union. Petrillo lead numerous strikes, one of which prohibited the members of the AFM from performing live music on television between 1944 and 1948. From 1942 to 1944, Petrillo banned all AFM members from making records, the record companies eventually capitulating and giving musicians royalties on every record sold or broadcast in radio. Petrillo did not hesitate to take on the movie studios as well; the studios, in the switch to sound, threw a lot of former movie theater orchestra members out of work, and Petrillo fought the studios for years over the use of recorded music in theaters. Hence the concern expressed by Bugs over using hurdy-gurdy music."


That sort of thing is completely lost to us, but was very topical for the audience, then. You can get all sorts of references like this from this site here.

 

[Lucky Number]

Yes, mainstream american cartoons tend to rely on topical and cultural references for much of the humour, even now. Of course, that sort of reference is most visible in the numerous caricatures- not only of actors and major political figures, but staff at the studio. You can see these really well in any cartoon that needed to show large numbers of characters, such as shoemaker elves, gremlins (from the Kremlin, i recall), or guests at a club.

Look at wartime cartoons- patriotic, yes, but most contained horrendously racist portayals of foreigners. I remember an old Superman cartoon wherein Lois Lane was kidnapped by Japanese soldiers. Supes went around beating up every Japanese person he could find until she was safe.

I imagine my generation's grandchildren will feel the same way about Family Guy, the Simpsons, Futurama, et cetera.