Atlantis SquarePantis

"Atlantis SquarePantis" is a special hour-length episode produced for the fifth season of SpongeBob SquarePants. It premiered on November 12, 2007, following a 12-hour-marathon of SpongeBob SquarePants episodes and attracted an estimated 8.8 million viewers.Tom Shales: 'SquarePantis': Squeezing The Life Out of SpongeBobFOX News: Cable Nielsen TV Ratings for Nov. 12-18 Behind the Pantis, a short special telling how the special was made, followed the special.
==Plot==
The special begins with Patchy in a traffic jam, worried that he will miss the next SpongeBob SquarePants episode. Suddenly, Encino mysteriously disappears, and Patchy tells us that this reminds him of "another lost city".
The cartoon begins with SpongeBob blowing bubbles and Patrick taking pictures of them, but the bubbles pop before the picture can be taken. Patrick then destroys the camera for being unable to take the picture in time, but SpongeBob tells him that it is the very nature of the fragile bubble. He then sings a song about bubbles, then accidentally blows a larger bubble than expected, which lifts SpongeBob and Patrick off the ground. Then, a broken coin (half of the Atlantean Amulet) pops the bubble. Patrick assumes the amulet belonged to SpongeBob's ancient ancestors. They take it to the museum. There, they meet Mr. Krabs (who set up his own admission booth outside earlier) and Squidward (who was studying the "Neptune's Ascension" portrait before SpongeBob and Patrick ran into him). Squidward thinks SpongeBob and Patrick stole the half of the Amulet from the museum, but he soon matches it to the displayed other half of the Amulet. Squidward teaches Mr. Krabs, SpongeBob and Patrick about Atlantis. Sandy comes, and she, Patrick, Mr. Krabs and SpongeBob convince Squidward to link the two halves together.
Once they put the two halves together, a flying bus arrives to take them to Atlantis. The robotic captain tells the group (with Plankton stowing away with them) to refill fuel, but he reveals the fuel for the vehicle is song (he stated that Atlanteans found the use of fossil fuels to be "counter-intuitive"). The group sings, but Patrick "empties" the fuel by messing up the song, causing the bus to crash into a topiary garden in Atlantis. There, they meet Lord Royal Highness (voiced by David Bowie), who takes them on a tour. During the tour, Mr. Krabs, Sandy, and Squidward all leave to explore what Atlantis has to offer: Mr. Krabs wallows in the Atlanteans' treasure storage, Sandy explores their technology (and invents a machine for herself), and Squidward observes the Atlantean art (he later claims he learned more about painting in a few hours than he did in four years of community college). Meanwhile, Plankton explores the Weaponry Room.
Finally, SpongeBob and Patrick get to see the world's oldest living bubble, over 1 million years old. They take a picture of it, which causes the bubble to pop. They are afraid to speak to LRH, saying they have to go back to Bikini Bottom. Then, Patrick shouts out the truth. Lord Royal Highness is not mad at SpongeBob and Patrick for popping the bubble, saying that the one they popped was just a fake one they use as a tourist attraction. He then shows them the real oldest living bubble, but once again, when Patrick takes a picture of it, it pops. Angered over this, Lord Royal Highness and his guards chase them when Plankton comes in and tries to destroy them with a tank he found in the Weaponry Room... which turns out to just shoot ice cream. Lord Royal Highness picks Plankton up, saying that a "talking speck" would be a better replacement for the bubble. Lord Royal Highness removes the Amulet, and orders a soldier to dispose it. Sandy, Squidward and Mr. Krabs want to stay, but return home anyway, much to everyone's (except SpongeBob and Patrick's) displeasure.
The special goes back to Patchy, who is upset and desperate to get home for SpongeBob SquarePants. He then encounters a trio of aliens who shrunk Encino. Once the alien who did it is reprimanded by his mother and father (the other two), the place is restored to normal size again, but Potty is now a giant.
==Songs ==
The following songs were featured in the episode:
*"The Bubble Song" (Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke)
*"Fueling the Bus" (Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, Clancy Brown, Doug Lawrence, Carolyn Lawrence)
*"Eugene H. Krabs's Song" (Clancy Brown)
*"Sandy's Song" (Carolyn Lawrence)
*"Plankton's Song" (Doug Lawrence)
*"Squidward's Song" (Rodger Bumpass)
*"Back in Encino" (Nicholas Carr, Steve Marston)
*"Goodbye Atlantis" (Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, Clancy Brown, Carolyn Lawrence)
==Home video releases==
;DVD
*SpongeBob's Atlantis SquarePantis
*SpongeBob SquarePants: Season 5, Volume 2
*SpongeBob SquarePants: The First 100 Episodes
;iTunes
* SpongeBob SquarePants: Vol. 7
*SpongeBob SquarePants: From the Beginning - Part 2
==Cast (in order of appearance)== 
*Tom Kenny as SpongeBob SquarePants, Gary the Snail, Patchy the Pirate, Security Guard, Computer Model, Guard #1, Tank Computer
*Bill Fagerbakke as Patrick Star
*Clancy Brown as Mr. Eugene Krabs
*Rodger Bumpass as Squidward Tentacles, Artist, Guard #2
*Carolyn Lawrence as Sandy Cheeks, Old Lady Fish
*Doug Lawrence as Plankton, Pocket Dogs
*David Bowie as Lord Royal Highness
*Paul Tibbitt as Potty the Parrot
*David Glen Eisley as Singer
*Deric Battiste as Nigite
*David Steinberg as SpongeBob hallucinationTweet by Vincent Waller (uncredited)
== Trivia ==
* The special's original airing did not have the Patchy framing sequence; Patchy's scenes were first aired one week later on November 23, 2007.
==Reception==
Atlantis SquarePantis was given generally negative to mixed reviews from both critics and fans.TV.com: Atlantis SquarePantis: Reviews , a television critic for , lambasted the movie in his review, titled Squeezing the Life Out of SpongeBob; he wrote that "the funniest thing about the film is its title" and "a typical episode has about as many laughs as this inflated version does". Shales also criticized the amount of musical numbers, calling them "numbing". He concluded the review with the statement that the show was "flat" and "unimpressive". However, Atlantis SquarePantis recorded nine million viewers, beating every 8pm show on broadcast television that night except .
==Z to A countdown==
Preceding the premiere of the episode, Nickelodeon aired a marathon of episodes that went in the reverse order of the alphabet, starting with Z and ending with A, for "Atlantis SquarePantis".
Letter	Winner 	Other candidates 	Time
Z 	The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie	None 	9:00 am - 10:45 am
Y 	"Your Shoe's Untied" 	"Shanghaied", "Mrs. Puff, You're Fired" 	10:45 am - 11:00 am
X 	"Arrgh!" 	"Pre-Hibernation Week", "Sandy's Rocket" 	11:00 am - 11:15 am
W 	"Have You Seen This Snail? 	"Wishing You Well", "Walking Small" 	11:15 am - 11:45 am
V 	"Valentine's Day" 	"Squidtastic Voyage", "Bummer Vacation" 	11:45 am - 12:00 pm
U 	"F.U.N." 	"Artist Unknown", "Squidward the Unfriendly Ghost" 	12:00 pm - 12:15 pm
T 	"To Love a Patty" 	"Texas", "Tea at the Treedome" 	12:15 pm - 12:30 pm
T 	"Texas" 	 	12:30 pm - 12:45 pm
S 	"SpongeBob B.C." 	"Sailor Mouth", "Squid on Strike" 	12:45 pm - 1:15 pm
R 	"Rock Bottom" 	The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, "Rock-a-Bye Bivalve" 	1:15 pm - 1:30 pm
Q 	"Krusty Towers" 	"Pickles", "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V" 	1:30 pm - 1:45 pm
P 	"Party Pooper Pants" 	"The Pink Purloiner", "Plankton!" 	1:45 pm - 2:15 pm
O 	"The Original Fry Cook" 	"One Krab's Trash" 	2:15 pm - 2:30 pm
O 	"Opposite Day" 	 	2:30 pm - 2:45 pm
N 	"Nasty Patty" 	"Naughty Nautical Neighbors", "Nature Pants" 	2:45 pm - 3:00 pm
M 	The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie	"MuscleBob BuffPants", "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy II"	3:00 pm - 4:45 pm
L 	"Life of Crime" 	"Dunces and Dragons", "The Lost Mattress" 	4:45 pm - 5:00 pm
K 	"Krusty Krab Training Video" 	"Karate Island", "Krab Borg" 	5:00 pm - 5:15 pm
J 	"Jellyfish Hunter 	"Jellyfishing", "Jellyfish Jam" 	5:15 pm - 5:30 pm
I 	"I Was a Teenage Gary" 	"Imitation Krabs", "I'm Your Biggest Fanatic" 	5:45 pm - 6:00 pm
H 	"Hooky" 	"Help Wanted", "Hall Monitor" 	6:00 pm - 6:15 pm
G 	"The Gift of Gum" 	"Grandma's Kisses", "Graveyard Shift" 	6:15 pm - 6:30 pm
F 	"Friend or Foe" 	"Frankendoodle", "Fools in April" 	6:30 pm - 7:00 pm
E 	"Employee of the Month" 	"Chimps Ahoy", "Enemy In-Law" 	7:00 pm - 7:15 pm
D 	"Dying for Pie" 	"Doing Time", "Dumped" 	7:15 pm - 7:30 pm
C 	"Chocolate With Nuts" 	"The Chaperone", "Culture Shock" 	7:30 pm - 7:45 pm
B 	"Band Geeks" 	"Bubble Buddy", "Bossy Boots" 	7:45 pm - 8:00 pm
A 	"Atlantis SquarePantis" 	"All That Glitters", "The Algae's Always Greener" 	8:00 pm - 8:45 pm
==References==
==External links==
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Category:Nicktoon specials
Category:Musical episodes
Category:Multi-part episodes