The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water

SpongeBob SquarePants is an absurdist red herring of a children's television show. Sure, it has the requisite fart and poop jokes and the warm, treacly center common to the format, but it also has something else. Maybe it's the titular character's manic—nay, demented—laugh. Or maybe it's the cavalier way the writers sneak in references to Mad Max and The Shining amid the wholesomeness. Let's just say there's a reason The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water will still be showing after your kids' bedtime. Using the pirate (Antonio Banderas) from the show's opening sing-along as a framing device, Sponge Out of Water turns its focus, as so many of the TV episodes do, on the villainous Plankton (Mr. Lawrence) trying to steal the Krabby Patty Secret Formula. One problem: The secret formula has disappeared. "It's the apocalypse!" declares Mr. Krabs. "I hope you like leather." The ensuing search by SpongeBob (Tom Kenny) and Plankton spans time and space—including a magical, cape-wearing dolphin named Bubbles. Bubbles, voiced by the parodical thespian Matt Berry, shoots laser beams out of his blowhole because why the fuck not? In what feels somewhere between an extended episode and a half-baked animated feature, the movie loses steam (and nostalgic appeal) once the titular sponge gets out of the water and into three dimensions. SpongeBob's nautical nonsense, it turns out, belongs in a pineapple under the sea. 

Critic's Grade: B

SEE IT: Sponge Out of Water is rated PG. It opens Friday in most major Portland-area theaters.

WWeek 2015