SpongeBob: Sponge Out of Water Movie Review

By Lynn Barker

Pirate Booty

On the live-action shore, pirate Burger Beard (Antonio Banderas) treks through a jungle to get a storybook which he starts to read to friendly seagulls. The story is about Bikini Bottom and the strange little folks who live there underwater including SpongeBob Squarepants (voice of Tom Kenny) who hangs out with not-too-bright best buddy starfish Patrick (Bill Fagerbakke) while working for Mr. Krabs (voice of Clancy Brown) as a fry cook at the fast food haven The Krusty Crab.

Burger Beard consults a map to the storybook

Missing Secret Formula

One day the magic secret formula for the beloved Krabby patties goes missing and of course the main suspect is Plankton, who owns the Chum Bucket, the yucky restaurant across the street that nobody likes. SpongeBob tries to get it back but it literally disappears right in front of him.

Superhero SpongeBob and Squigley

Krabless Apocalypse

Without their Krabby burgers, the whole town plunges into wrecked withdrawal chaos! Patrick is so wacked out after not eating a burger for days that he joins the bad guys blaming SpongeBob for stealing the secret burger formula. Nobody believes it just disappeared.

Patrick is ready for story time

Strange Teammates

SpongeBob teams up with Plankton (who actually didn’t steal the formula) to find out what happened to it and get it back. The duo invents a time machine hoping to go back and get the formula before it disappears but the machine goes awry, popping them to outer space where a humanesque dolphin named Bubbles tediously watches the planets to keep them safe. When they accidentally free Bubbles from his long duties, he is grateful and… are you ready?

Superheroes from Bikini Bottom to the rescue!

Blown to the Real World

Bubbles scoops up the gang (including Patrick who has rejoined his best bud) and blasts them out his blowhole to the shore where, after several weird interactions with humans, they collide with the pirate Burger Beard who has used the formula to open his own popular Krabby burger stand!

Patrick, Sandy and SpongeBob on land

Superheroes to the Rescue

Morphing into superheroes, the gang chases and finally catches up with the pirate, the storybook accidentally burns and it’s up to them to write a new ending in which pirate ends up on an isolated island and they all return to Bikini Bottom with the secret formula in tow. Of course Plankton, who was their buddy during the chase, is back up to his old tricks.

The gang will write a new ending to their story

Wrapping Up

This new SpongeBob movie moves at a crazy lightning pace with jokes for both little ones, teens and adults and is just as ridiculous as the series is and that’s just fine.

A little girl wonders what has invaded her sand castle

We do wait a very long time to get to the cute CG-animation/live action combo part of the story that is really just a big chase in the last act of the movie. While Antonio Banderas, whom you might know best as “Zorro”, does a great job camping it up as crazy pirate Burger Beard, the filmmakers intercut between him telling the Bikini Bottom story to a bunch of seagulls and the cartoon action taking place below a bit too much. The undersea action is funnier so these cuts are just jarring.  It would have been better to get the gang on land sooner.

Burger Beard reads the Bikini Bottom tale to seagull pals

Will fans of the show be disappointed? Nope. Newbies might be a bit confused and, although there are plenty of jokes older teens and adults only will get, the movie gets tedious for all ages until the end action. There are messages about teamwork galore and a little nod to the fact that our crazy burger consumerism may one day not only make us fatter but destroy us.  For the fans of the square, yellow, porous one however, we will go eat a Krabby burger and give the imaginative tale 4 stars.

Hey, let's build a time machine, says SpongeBob

SpongeBob: Sponge Out of Water Movie Rating:

SpongeBob: Sponge Out of Water PosterCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

SpongeBob: Sponge Out of Water is in theaters now!

Have Your Say

Are you excited to see SpongeBopb and Squarepants hit the big screen?  Comment below and let us know what you think of the new movie!