The Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run (2020) Review

 The Spongebob Squarepants Movie: Sponge on the Run (2020) Review

Dir. Tim Hill

Smiley Sequel has a surprising amount of heart.

 

Straight to Netflix after the cinema industry took a hit, this third feature film instalment of the beloved children’s cartoon is a kids film with heart.

When Gary the snail is stolen, Spongebob and Patrick are sent on an adventure of discovery and courage to find the gentle pet.  

 

Words can’t describe how much we need a movie like this right now. 2020 is shaping up to be a forgettably dreadful affair. For the first time in a while, I found myself grinning and giggling like I used to watching the old series on Nickelodeon. Spongebob 3 is so much fun. 

 

The first movie in 2004 perfectly captured the magic of the show and translated into a movie. It felt grander, more cinematic, more dramatic. I found the sequel, 2015's Sponge out of water to be something of a damp squib, or damp squid if you will. It felt muddled, unfocused and all round inferior. It felt like it was made just to be made. To make a feature film of something like Spongebob, even though it’s a kids show, you kind of need to have a purpose in choosing to do 90 minutes instead of 20. This film managed that.

 

Somewhere between the perfection of the first film and the averageness of the second comes this enjoyable threequel. 

But what does it do that’s new? Good question. It completely revamps the animation style, and more surprisingly, it works. 

The animation in this film is beautiful. Crisp, textured and almost stop-motion like. It reminded me of the sort of animation popularised by The Lego Movie and Into the Spiderverse. Sandy the squirrel? Furry and fuzzy. Spongebob? Rubbery and Soft. Makes sense, and looks damn good too.

 

While the story is simple, and perhaps doesn’t flow as strongly as the first film, I found it did eventually get going. The biggest draw of this film and what makes it worth while is its surprising amount of heart. The emotional centre of this film is strong. It’s about friendship, and it takes this beloved core group of characters that everyone has grown up with and puts a real focus on the love. Cheesy as that may be, it pulls it off in perfect Spongebob style. 

 

Now the elephant in the room. Camp Coral. Many people think the upcoming prequel spin off show is a shameless and unnecessary cash-in. The recently deceased Spongebob creator Stephen Hillenburg was adamant he would never spin off or explore the Spongebob world outside of his main show. Fair enough. But when he died in 2018, Nickelodeon soon greenlit a new series starring the young Spongebob and his friends at a children’s summer camp. Shrewd business move? Almost certainly. 

This film does have a small but not insignificant focus on setting up the Camp Coral show via flashback. Some fans of Spongebob are up in arms. But not me. 

 

While these segments often contradict early episodes of the classic series; giving new introductions to characters etc, they are part of the unique selling point of this movie. They are part of that heart I talked about. For me, it successfully pulled at the heart strings when it needed to. I can’t speak for this new kids show that isn’t out yet, but I can speak for this film. I found it to be a celebration of 20+ years of Spongebob, even at times feeling like a final hurrah, though that’s unlikely. It even had a moving end tribute to Hillenburg which , while slightly undone by the move to make the spin off, still felt heartfelt. 

 

Sponge Bob 3 Sponge on the Run does lose focus slightly at times, mostly in the second act where it veers slightly to become a celebrity cameo show. But even then, I still found myself entertained throughout. Notably, the one cameo that does work is the one that made all the trailers; Keanu Reeves. Why is he here? Who knows. Is he fun and hilarious and perfectly befitting to the surreal meta-comedy of Spongebob? Absolutely.

As well as the classic voice lineup of the cartoon, Matt Berry puts in a characteristically bombastic performance as King Poseidon. He feels a worthy successor to Jeffrey Tambor's King Neptune from the first film. That similarity is one of many visual and stylistic callbacks that make this film more in line with 2004's Spongebob movie than the slightly astray sequel. 

 

If you like Spongebob and grew up with the show, check out this new movie. It’s worthwhile. I hope it isn’t overlooked now that it’s not in cinemas. It’s not a classic like the first, but it’s way better than a straight-to-streaming, third Spongebob Squarepants film has any right to be. 

 

7/10

 

Review by Elliott Thomas Griffiths