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Back to the Theaters! The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run

Well, I feel like I should welcome everyone back! It's been a long time since I've reviewed a film, you know, this little thing called COVID closing movie theatres and such. But, with that said, let's get down to the serious business at hand: how was The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run?

OK, so a little history. I like SpongeBob the show. I always have. That show is like many others that were designed for kids but sprinkle enough adult humour to keep me entertained, and this movie did the same thing. For the most part, I really enjoyed the movie. It felt like the SpongeBob TV show. So much that my girl-friend said it had felt like a really long episode to her too. As an extension to the TV show, the movie shines well. The characters are on par with what you would expect, the humour is exactly the same and SpongeBob himself does all kinds of weird things with his body unlike some of his other movies. 

However, when viewed as a movie and not an extension of the TV show, the movie falls a bit flat. Very few of the characters had actual arks in their stories, which year I know, this is for kids, but still. Who doesn't want to see these crazy characters grow in some ways? Actually, I'm mistaken. The characters actually do grow and do have arks, but there's no curve or build-up to their finished products. Most of the characters have knee-jerk changes rather than facing some kind of problem and working through it to eventually overcome it.

The plot moved along but had very little spice to it. As seen in the trailers, Gary, SpongeBob's pet snail, gets snail-napped. This sends SpongeBob and Patrick on their adventure, but unlike the other movies, they don't really face that much trouble. They come across some zombie-pirates for little to no reason and move on from them with about the same amount of care. There were a lot of scenes in the movie that really seemed to be there specifically to make the movie longer, and this wasn't a long movie. It could have easily have been a TV episode, but I digress.

My last point is a stickler point. I don't know if SpongeBob has what is called "Canon" story, but if it does, it didn't hold to any of it. Star Wars, for instance, has a long going narrative that all interconnects being called "Canon". What counts towards the story vs what doesn't. In this movie, SpongeBob and Patrick meet King Triton, who looks completely different than he did in the first movie he appeared in with the gang, and they don't seem to recognize him. Triton also doesn't seem to have a daughter anymore. There was a lot of little things like that where they contradicted either the TV show or the past movies. Maybe it's not supposed to have a through-line narrative though.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie but was still left with some puzzles.

Overall score: 6.5 out of 10 stars

Pros:
- The humour is good and almost spot-on for SpongeBob Squarepants
- All main characters are accounted for
- SpongeBob acts like he does in the TV show, which is awesome

Cons:
- Jerky character arcs
- Characters sometimes act out of character completely IE: Mr Crabs
- The story didn't make sense when put together with other movies before it
- Very weak plot
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