SpongeBob SquarePants is arguably one of the most infamous shows of all time. Though it clearly has this clear image of being either too childishly annoying or weirdly gruesome, as well as taking inspiration from other trippy nightmarish imagery animated shows like Ren and Stimpy, it’s hard to ignore the impact that SpongeBob has left on a global basis, from kids and adults alike. With memorable characters, lines, scenes and locations, it’s a show that hasn’t been thrown out to dry up yet. With main creator Stephen Hillenburg’s recent death, it only makes sense to talk about the feature-length cinema film that was created in 2004 simply titled, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. In the familiar location of Bikini Bottom, positivity hungry SpongeBob (voiced by Tom Kenny) is quickly turned into a depressed sponge when he discovers he isn’t going to be the manager at the newly opened Krusty Krab 2. Things quickly escalate when King Neptune (voiced by Jeffrey Tambor) accuses Mr Krabs (voiced by Clancy Brown) of stealing his crown, which was actually formulated by Plankton (voiced by Mr Lawrence) and his nefarious plan Z. Given instructions to retrieve the crown from the deadly Shell City, SpongeBob and Patrick (voiced by Bill Fagerbakke) journey to save Mr Krabs all the while Plankton unfolds his master plan to take over Bikini Bottom once and for all. Whenever cartoons have their own movies, particularly ones that are meant for the cinema, it usually never makes the transition from show to film very effectively. Against all odds, however, The SpongeBob SquarePants movie does it surprisingly well, with enough changes and upgrades from its source to make it feel worthy of a cinema release, but with the right people behind the screen so that it never feels like a different creature altogether.

The story for this movie is understandably silly and also really lacking in anything that grand or something that puts it on the levels of other animated movies like Disney or Pixar. Fans going in to see this movie are most likely not going in to see something that has dramatic twists and strong themes, they’re going in to see their beloved TV show shown off on the big screen, and it does that pretty well. The tone is appropriately similar, the humor both visual and verbal has the same timing and bizarreness, and the story itself is a fairly decent set-up for a movie version of the TV show; it’s simple and nothing that different, but allows for some fairly funny moments and even a few scary moments for children. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, of all movies, actually deserves its PG rating; its use of dirty and even deathly intense visuals along with a few tongue and cheek lines makes it at least understandable if a young child might need an adult to watch. Despite its almost B-Movie side-plot along with a pretty standard journey movie, the film does take itself seriously enough for its subject material to feel less childish than it can across as, and that direction as well as enough dedication and thought put into its narrative to make it feel an appropriate length without feeling drawn out, the movie feels like an actual movie and not just an overly long episode, it bizarrely works with whatever its trying to do.

Since most of the show’s character are such familiar faces and fans of the show are really the target audience for this film, it doesn’t try to give many of them proper introductions that normally would occur in movies introducing characters, and even the lessons taught in the movie aren’t anything that special, just a simple easy to grasp message that works with what it’s doing but nothing much else. Though some of the characters aren’t given much screen time, the ones that do are done fairly well and done in a faithful and not too annoying way. SpongeBob and Patrick work fine, Plankton’s a pretty fun villain and the others though pretty pointless overall, are used fine enough for their limited time. Some of the new faces are also okay; seeing King Triton is a nice touch and he’s adequately pathetic, his daughter Mindy, voiced by Scarlett Johansson, is pretty forgettable overall and seems to waste Johansson’s talent with nothing that memorable, there’s a bounty hunter named Dennis voiced by Alec Baldwin whose also pretty okay, and even a bizarre cameo by David Hasselhoff as himself strangely works in this film’s tone. Most of the voice cast are already perfectly comfortable in these roles and therefore know the exact delivery and timing for each of their lines and all of them are pretty good throughout the whole film.

The film’s animation has an odd back and forth throughout the movie between looking cinema worthy to normal tv worthy. A lot of the shots in the film have very nice background work that’s not only fairly creative and colorful, but also features decent enough variety and even a fairly average use of mixing live action, but the character outlines themselves can look a bit too simplistic for something that came to the big-screen. While they’re still expressive and can be drawn in pretty crazy ways at times, the moments that lack movement highlight the sometimes weak character outlines and almost picture-book esque movements, nothing bad but noticeable enough. But at other times, the colors are pretty vibrant and some of the 3-dimension depth on some of the character, practically on Plankton, looks really good. The visuals aren’t bad in any way, but it doesn’t always look cinema worthy most of the time. The writing is silly and not ashamed of its own style, yet strangely never feels too annoying or stupid, there’s even a few genuine laughs that could work for older audiences. Calling back to the warranted PG rating, the added touch of a new level of intensity is strangely appreciated in this movie; its taken to an area where its threatening and slightly scary, but nothing overly traumatic other than a few choice skeletons and a surprisingly intense almost death scene.

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is not going to appeal to everyone and will not sway anyone who isn’t a fan of the show, but for actual fans and even those who are completely indifferent to it, this movie may surprise people with how much it doesn’t suck. Instead of easily captivating children with simplistic material and drilling large amounts of high-pitched annoyance into adults’ ears, the movie took itself seriously enough that it can keep kids captivating and leave adults feeling at worst mildly disapproving. Nothing in the film really stands out as anything that special of different as movies goes, especially animated movies, but there’s really nothing harmful or outwardly wrong with what the movie does either, it offers exactly what people would expect and even slightly more, genuinely surprising people to the point where even a rock song about a singing sentient peanut mascot somehow works for a climax. It has a decently told story, the characters work fine, the animation is average quality with some nice moments, there’s a fun intense edge to it in moments and some of the lines are actually not that bad. Not a sponge-tastic movie, but at least worth one gold star, The SpongeBob Movie serves itself up with enough nostalgia batting and respect given that it feels like a nice warm meal ready to be eaten. Check out this strangely good kids’ movie.