Friday, February 6, 2015

 

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water official site If First Lady Michelle Obama's campaign to fight the epidemic of childhood obesity made any progress in children's mind during the past few years, it might all evaporate when these kids flock to theaters with salt and butter soaked popcorn in hand watching "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water" (USA 2015 | 93 min.). This time-travel 3D adventure is about how sugar brained SpongeBob and his ice-cream addicted pals try hard to get back a stolen recipe for making heart-attack friendly but delicious burgers. The film is probably more effective to advertise burgers to the kids than anything Michelle Obama has been preaching.

The burger is called Krabby Patty, named after a restaurant owner Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown). Although it sounds like crappy patty, it's a fond delicacy to residents living in Bikini Bottom, an undersea utopia. Krabby Patty's success is due to its secret recipe which is closely guarded by SpongeBob (Tom Kenny).

When Mr. Krabs's rival Plankton (Mr. Lawrence) attempts to steal the secret recipe, SpongeBob fights back, but soon they realize that the recipe is missing. Without Krabby Paddy, the entire Bikini Bottom enters a stage of apocalypse. To save the "world," joined by a starfish Patrick (Bill Fagerbakke), an octopus Squidward (Rodger Bumpass), a squirrel Sandy (Carolyn Lawrence), and Mr. Krabs, SpongeBob comes out the sea into human's world to recover the recipe. To do so, they have to fight a pirate Burger Beard (Antonio Banderas) who may be responsible to the recipe's disappearance.

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water Official Site

I admit that I have not done my homework, because I have never seen anything about SpongeBob prior to this film. Thus, I certainly don't qualify as a fan of director Paul Tibbitt's bizarre creation of a square faced yellow block, and I can't recognize other strange looking characters either. Yet, the film's humor is amusing, its charm is undeniable, and its animation is dazzling. Obviously, not all jokes is geared toward young children. For example, how many children would smile at a food truck that sells burgers made from the Krabby Patty recipe for $6.99? Things like that distinguish the film from being a 3D version of TV's Saturday-morning cartoon program, so the film can be enjoyed by adults who take the kids to a theater as well.

However, this is still a children's film no matter how many subtle adult jokes are sneaked in. Therefore, its overly structured plot has more layers than a Krabby Patty for a child to consume. Luckily, most kids couldn't care less about it because they are certain to be enchanted by the kindergarten cuteness and lovely animation. It's like a Krabby Patty, even it's loaded with many strange ingredients, kids are going to love it.

That makes me wonder why the First Lady didn't think of making a cartoon film like this to spread her idea about healthy diet. Now it's too late—like the residents living in Bikini Bottom, kids who watch this film might think that a burger is the most delicious food in the world because they believe in SpongeBob more easily than the First Lady. Ops.

"The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water," a Paramount Pictures release, opens on Friday, February 6, 2015.


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