Product: Spongebob Squarepants: Movie
Rating: 5.0
THE LIFE AQUATIC...WITH SPONGEBOB!
As a 40-something animation freak who still thinks Looney Tunes are the greatest, I somehow ignored SpongeBob SquarePants until I got my hands on this movie. Now, I think these just might be the greatest cartoon characters since Bugs, Daffy and company. The movie's different from the TV cartoons, as I'd learn after seeing a few of the latter, but the whole package is unique, colorful, imaginative and laugh-out-loud funny. Unlike the wacky sketches that make up the TV version, the movie brings SpongeBob and Patrick (Squidward's relatively quiet here) out of Bikini Bottom and on the road to someplace called "Shell City", where no sea creature ever gets out alive. They have to recover King Neptune's crown, which the evil Plankton has stolen- and pinned the blame on a now-frozen Mr. Krabs.See SpongeBob cry his eyes out and get drunk on ice cream cocktails! See Plankton put Chum Buckets on everyone's head and electrocute them into zombies! See Shell City- a beach knick-knack shop- and watch what happens when a crying SpongeBob lets his tears hit the light bulbs (fantastic sequence)! These and more imaginative bits make up the fast-moving adventure (although, as some have noted, the rock n'roll climax is a bit lame), an expanded- not weakened- take on the original TV cartoon concept. Even David Hasselhoff, who swims the boys back home, looks like he's really enjoying himself instead of playing the surfing pretty boy.All the regular characters and voice cast are joined by pompous, balding Jeffrey Tambor as pompous, balding mer-man King Neptune; the gifted young Scarlett Johansson as his kindly crown princess daughter, Mindy the Mermaid; a growling Alec Baldwin as the biker hit-man Dennis; and, as noted, David Hasselhoff in both human and 15-foot model form. They're all introduced, along with creator/director Stephen Hillenberg, on one of several featurettes included; my favorite voices are Tom Kenny (SpongeBob) among regulars and Johansson among the guests.There's one great extra here, which is also a reminder that Hillenberg is also a trained oceanographer. He's part of a film with none other than Jean-Michel Cousteau, who initially asks (in his thick Gallic accent) "we have a new species of sponge called- Bob Square Pants?" (Too funny?) Then, Cousteau shows off the real aquatic counterparts to the animated characters. It's a treat to see genuine sponges, squids, sea stars (not "starfish", thank you), and even the rare frog fish (that's the thing which almost devours SpongeBob and Patrick after offering them a phony ice cream cone). If you haven't seen a Cousteau film in a while- or if you're a kid and have never seen one- you'll get a kick out of this."The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie" is the real "Life Aquatic", and a lot funnier- and less pretentious- than that pompous Bill Murray vehicle. Now, I'm ready to plunge into the TV/DVD compilations!