Hear “Take Two Movie Reviews” every Saturday and Sunday at 11:45 a.m. and 1:45 and 5:45 p.m., on WHAV.
This week, Sponge Bob bigger, faster, dryer.
It’s been over a decade since the inhabitants of Bikini Bottom last graced the big screen, even as their small screen series has continued. This time out, the celebrity voices are gone, the plot is more –shall we say ‘flexible’—and the entire affair more ragged…but in a good way. And, see the title, “The Sponge Bob Movie: Sponge Out of Water,” we get to see Bob, Mr. Krabs, Plankton, Patrick, et. al. on land!
The plot revolves around the disappearance of the formula for Bikini Bottom’s favorite food, Krabbie Patties. Actually, this is a sub-plot since pirate Burger Beard, brought to life as a live-action character by Antonio Banderas, can affect the other plot by writing in a magic book. Enter a time machine, invented to go back to before the formula disappeared, but which ends up casting them into the future where they meet Bubbles, a Shakespeare-spouting dolphin, who repays a favor by allowing the undersea folks to breathe on land, and you have a pretty good idea of the off-the-wall, stream-of-consciousness hilarity that’s in store. There are some wonderful sequences of the fun-with-fast-food variety we’re used to from the show, and one inside Bob’s brain. The live action scenes on land work, you’re kept waiting for them, and if you’re a“franchise purist” you might think they are a leap too far.
You can probably take the kids. “The Sponge Bob Movie: Sponge Out of Water” is lighter on the double-entendre and politics than the TV episodes, maybe even too light. However some of the early scenes depicting the apocalyptic consequences in the Bottom associated with the sudden lack of Krabbie Patties are heavy and dark. Adults will get the farcical aspect here, it may scare the very little ones.