Tag: Stephen Hillenburg

The Spongebob Movie – Sponge out of Water (2015) Review

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Sponge out of Water is the second Spongebob film that was released in theatres, in brought back the original voice cast and starred Antonio Bandares as a new villain. Stephen Hillenburg returned to write this film as well as future episodes of the television series before his untimely death in 2018.

Similarly to the previous Spongebob film this opens with a live action Pirate sequence but instead of going to see the movie this Pirate played by Antonio Banderes actually plays a major role in the film when he steals the Krabby Patty formula using a magic book.

Because of the Formula disappearing food production at the Krusty Krab is put on hold causing the citizens of Bikini Bottom to go into an apocalyptic meltdown, leaving Spongebob and Plankton to try and save the town and recover the secret formula.

What I really like about this movie is that it showed a different side to Plankton that I feel hasn’t been shown before this. In the movie he and Spongebob are forced to work together to retrieve to formula and while at the beginning his plan is to take the formula for himself throughout the movie he starts to see the benefit of team work and friendship ultimately giving up what he has always desired for the benefit of others.

I really appreciate the the various styles of animation used in the movie but my favourite was during the time travels scenes where the animation got really silly and creative, every time that the machine was used a different idea was used for animation styles so each time there was something new to look forward too.

Another part I really enjoyed was when Plankton climbs into Spongebob’s brain, this highly animated scene shows to the full extent how sweet and innocent Spongebob’s mind is, of course the sweetness is too much for Plankton to handle which ends in a few good laughs.

The third act of the movie focuses on live action animation hybrid which puts CGI versions of the Spongebob characters into the real world above the ocean where they eventually gain super powers to take on the Antonio Banderes pirate.

When I first saw trailers for this movie I was concerned that it was going to use the cliche of characters from an one world come to our world and thats where all the jokes would come from. While this does happen and some jokes are at this expense I was pleased when the main goal of the film remained the focus and the comedy was more clever than easy to write humour to keeps the kids happy.

The entire film does a great job of explaining who the Spongebob characters are along with their personalities and goals so that new comers can understand whats happening without making this come across as a forced narrative.

Sponge out of Water is a really fun movie, there is a lot of different plot points going on which I think a younger audience might struggle to follow but overall its a very funny and entertaining film that is sure to keep the attention of both children and adults and shows that Spongebob is still relevant enough to make a film good enough for a theatrical release.

My favourite Spongebob episodes – F.U.N

Whats a better time than now to talk about the very famous Spongebob episode F.U.N?

After once again having his plans foiled Plankton is sent back to his computer wife Karen utterly defeated. After seeing him so sad Spongebob decides to show Plankton the power of friendship and change his evil ways.

At first Plankton is against the idea of befriending Spongebob but is convinced by his computer wife Karen that it’s the perfect chance for him to learn the formula so he ultimately agrees.

This leads into one of the most famous songs in the shows history where Spongebob tries to teach plankton how to have fun with plankton eventually fooling Spongebob into thinking he has changed.

One of the more silly episodes of the show which has more random moments than clever comedy but I feel it works really well and flows nicely as a simple story. I really love the song F.U.N and I often sing it to myself and have never forgotten the lyrics.

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Spongebob Squarepants: Plankon’s Robotic Revenge (2013) Review

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Spongebob Squarepants: Plankton’s Robotic Revenge is a 2013 third person shooter based in the Spongebob universe. It was developed by behaviour interactive and was published by Activison for the PS3,Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo DS and the Nintendo 3DS.

I played through the Wii U version but after further research I realised that all versions are practically the same with small gameplay and graphical changes.

A military ship accidentally drops live batteries into the ocean causing them to land outside of the Chum Bucket where they are collected by Plankton. Plankton uses these batteries to power a robot army in order to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula and take over Bikini Bottom.

So before I rip into this game I want to say that to have multiplayer co-operative play is a really great idea for a kids game and I love that Mr Krabs and Squidward are both playable as they are often not playable in the Spongebob games.

The game is a third person shooter, players are able to collect gears by killing robots and then they use those gears to purchase new weapons and upgrades. This may sound fun but it’s not very well designed I found that if you fully upgrade the standard pickle blaster you can take out most enemies with a few shots and because the game gives you auto aim and auto fire as a standard this makes the journey to completion very easy.

It doesnt help that you fight ths same handful of enemies throughout the 15 levels in the game, there is no variety between worlds and apart from the final world of Bikini Bottom the game looks boring and uninspired.

Even the three boss battles in the game feel very similar again there is no variety and the game is very repetetive, the only saving grace is that its so short, I beat the entire game in less than 3 hours and with no side content there was nothing else to it, I was happy that the game ended because of how boring it was but I’m still annoyed with home much I got ripped off in paying for it, the game should be a £9.99 e-shop title at most, it literally gives the player the bare minimum amount of effort needed for a game.

The soundtracks very good I can at least say that, it mostly uses music either from or inspired by the TV series and of course due to that the soundtrack fits perfectly into the game and I cant really complain about it.

For the first video game of Spongebob month I can’t believe the bad luck I had in picking this one, I feel that if more effort was put into the game a third person Spongebob shooter could be really fun, they could have implemented more antagonists from the show as boss fights and if they had given each world unique robots then it wouldn’t have been so boring. But for what this is regardless of its music It’s just a very bad and lazy game that should not have been released, it makes the developers, publishers and Nickelodeon all look bad for releasing such a scam a of a game that it serves as nothing more than a cash grab, there is nothing special about this and I cannot recommend it to anyone 2/10

My Favourite Spongebob episodes – Idiot Box

At the end of every review I’m going to write a very short review on my favourite episodes of the show.

Idiot Box was part of the third season of the show, in the episode Spongebob and Patrick are using a TV box to play imagination games, Squidward doesn’t believe this as the sounds coming from the box are so realistic that he is convinced that Spongebob and Patrick are playing a trick on him.

This is by far one of funniest episodes of the TV series, you really start to understand Squidward as a selfish and grumpy character here with him failing to understand to concept of an imagination and mocking those who do. The ending to episode has me laughing hysterically every time I see it, its very well directed seeing Squidward alone on the box losing his mind trying to find a sound recorder only to have one of the funniest final moments in the shows history, Idiot Box is a great episode and one of my personal favourites.

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The History of Spongebob Squarepants

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Hello and welcome to Spongebob month, throughout August we will be taking a look at all things Spongebob including the television series, two movies and four video games.

Spongebob Squarepants was created by a Marine Biologist named Stephen Hillenburg who first began development of the character in a book called the Intertidal Zone which he created to help teach his students.

Before Spongebob there was Bob the Sponge, this character was the lead in the Intertidal Zone and would tell readers interesting facts about marine life and creatures who live under the sea.

Hillenburg struggled to sell his book to publishers and eventually decided to take a masters degree in art where he created a short film named Worm Holes. This Short-film was played in many film festivals including the 1992 Otawa Festival where Stephen Met Joe Murray the creator of Rocko’s Modern Life who was so impressed with Hillenburgs work he offered him a job to direct and work on Rocko’s Modern Life.

During his time working on Rocko, Hillenburgs colleague Martin Olsen read the Intertidal Zone and encouraged Hillenburg to use his expertise in Marine Biology to create his own animated series, Hillenburg had never thought about making his own cartoon before but he decided to give it a go and wanted to focus the premise of his show on the strangest sea creature he think of and eventually decided on a sponge.

When creating a pitch of the show for Nickelodeon it was originally called Spongeboy Ahoy ! the show was accepted as long as some changes were made including name which of course became Spongebob Squarepants, the pilot episode was released in 1999 and from there it became one of the most successful animated series of all time and is still being aired today with new episodes being made after Hillenburgs passing in 2018. Hillenburg hit the jackpot with Spongebob gaining himself a net worth in the millions. Spongebob is a very important TV series in the history of animation, it had many high points and low points as many shows do.

Many would argue that the later seasons were no where near as great as the first three seasons and the first movie and I tend to agree but I still love the property even if it has over stayed its welcome a little bit.

The show is still going after 20 years and it has spawned many types of main stream media, recently there was even a Broadway musical which I may get around too on a future Spongebob Month but until then lets take a deep dive into some of Spongebobs video games and the two current movies and I will see you in the next installment Spongebob Month 2020.

If you would like to help support the website please use the donation button at the top of the page, your donations will help to improve the website by allowing me to afford products to review and to be able to execute any costly updates and changes, any amount in donations are welcome.

Thank You for all of your support.

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com