Can SpongeBob follow in Lego’s footsteps? You’re watching Beyond The Trailer’s review
of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water...
Is one tiny yellow square as good as another?
Yes one year ago, The LEGO Movie hit theaters - and made animation history. Or at least
surprised a lot of people. It earned almost five hundred million worldwide, sparked a
franchise for Warner Brothers with a sequel, a Ninjago movie and a spin-off for Will Arnett’s
Batman all greenlit by the studio, plus many fans thought it deserved the Oscar for Best
Animated Feature! But, uh, The Academy didn’t agree. Nevertheless, Paramount and its Nickelodeon
shingle would love to duplicate even a fraction of that success with their second SpongeBob
movie, another supposed “kids” flick they hope will strongly crossover into the adult
market. And odds are pretty good as a number of adults at this point grew up watching SpongeBob,
which first debuted back in 1999 - that’s sixteen years ago! And fans of Bikini Bottom
since day one will be happy to hear that creator Stephen Hillenburg, who has taken a backseat
creatively with the ongoing television series, came up back to help craft the story for Sponge
Out of Water, which finds our favorite characters rendered in CGI for the first time. Yup, Paramount
is also eyeing the success of recent CGI-Live Action mash-ups like Alvin and the Chipmunks
and The Smurfs - yet they should take note that both those franchises seem to have dried
up, at least at the box office. But have no fear, as Paramount is ALSO eyeing the current
superhero craze, and this flick will see our favorite characters power up themselves. Plus
they’ll fight Antonio Banderas who actually has an impressive kid-friendly resume with
Spy Kids and Puss in Boots. Heck, even if you saw The Expendables 3 you know that Banderas
can single-handedly energize a movie with impressive comedic skillz. Some might say
slumming for paychecks, I say altruistically doing what he can to buoy audience favorites!
Bringing SpongeBob and company to life in 3D is none other than Industrial Light and
Magic, and the cherry on this hopeful box office sundae is an original song from Pharrell
Williams, who worked his magic for Despicable Me 2 - for which he WAS nominated for an Oscar.
So, as Paramount officially launches their own animation studio with Sponge Out of Water,
have they “borrowed” enough elements to convince audiences to kick it old school?
Or at this point is Spongebob just old news?