THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SPONGE ON THE RUN (2021)

THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SPONGE ON THE RUN (2021)

Tagline: This movie is going to be a total trip

(Animation, Adventure, A Pineapple Under The Sea ) [PG]

Which is why, even though I can't stand SpongeBob, but at the same time... well, I love him. I love him. And I hate him. He's like ice cream with salt on it, because he's sweet and super annoying. He's nice and nails-on-a-chalkboard annoying! Okay, fine, he's mostly super-freaking-annoying. But this little nattering noodge... is my friend. And he doesn't deserve to die.

In this one, Poseidon decides his face just isn’t smooth enough and all of the snails he uses for underwater moisturizing have run out. Apparently, however, Plankton feels it’s time for SpongeBob to leave Bikini Bottom (an underwater sea community) because he is the source of all Plankton’s problems. The next thing we know Gary (SpongeBob’s snail) is missing and now Patrick and SpongeBob must journey to The Lost City Of Atlantic City to find him. Along the way, they will be aided by a mysterious helper named Sage and encounter everything from the lures of gambling to pirate zombies. 

First off, I haven’t watched much of SpongeBob anything since my son was a kid. I do remember thinking it was a bit funnier than I expected and got an odd sense of enjoyment out of watching it. So when this movie popped up on Paramount’s streaming service I decided to check it out.

I had no idea that freakin Keanu Reeves was deeply involved in this film and doesn’t have just a cameo. Keanu is literally one of the main characters (Sage) and he gets tons of lines. We do get actual cameos from people like Danny Trejo and Snoop Dogg, but Keanu’s part was actually pretty surprising. He put a bit of effort into it as well and it made me like him more than I already do as a person and as an actor. A couple of other notes on the cast. Awkwafina voices a robot named “Otto” and I finally looked up who does the voice of Mr. Krabs. I never would have guessed it was Clancy Brown who is most famous for being the bad guy in HIGHLANDER. 

Storyline wise I guess this thing was loosely based on a SpongeBob TV special and was made to be a set up for a Paramount show called “Kamp Koral”. For me, that didn’t ruin anything, because I had no idea that was even a thing till I started to do the research for this review. I actually enjoyed the simplicity quite a bit because more than anything this is a kids movie aimed at kids. It doesn’t need to be a brain-melter like TENET or anything like that. 

Where this movie was really strong was in the casting and cameos, but the animation also really stood out. The textures in the 3D animation were top-notch throughout and make this thing visually very impressive. I also liked the characters and how as much as SpongeBob might be annoying, his friends always seem to have his back.

Where this thing kind of missed the mark is in the Sage and zombie pirates portion of the film. While this did kind of add some cool stuff and Sage as a “tumbleweed” character was epic, it felt like this was all part of a completely different movie. Nevertheless, I say, “kind of missed the mark” because while it did feel out of place, it ruined absolutely nothing for me. 

Personally, this is probably a solid 4 out of 7 for me. The humor for the most part was just okay, but for kids, I can see this being a 6 out of 7 even given some of the more haunting sequences. So keep that in mind if you are reading this as a parent. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF PARAMOUNT ANIMATION AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

Please check out the link below by clicking on the picture. Because no one should die buttonless.