A Sponge in Tremorton

***A Sponge in Tremorton*** is a 2006 American animated short film. Featuring the voices of Tom Kenny and Janice Kawaye, the short film is based on *SpongeBob SquarePants* by Stephen Hillenburg and *My Life as a Teenage Robot* by Rob Renzetti. It was directed by Hillenburg and Renzetti and produced by Paul Tibbitt and Fred Seibert and written by Hillenburg, Renzetti, and Derek Drymon.

In the short, SpongeBob SquarePants (voiced by Tom Kenny) was working at the Krusty Krab, serving Krabby Patties for hungry customers, when a portal mysteriously opened up in the kitchen. In an attempt to not get sucked into the portal, he runs for the meat locker, though gets dragged into the portal, and ends up in the mechanical town of Tremorton, where he encounters a young teenage robot named Jenny Wakeman (voiced by Janice Kawaye).

The short film premiered on December 20, 2006 in the United States with the release of *Charlotte's Web*. It received praise for its animation, voice cast and music by John Powell, though criticized the writing.

## Plot

At the Krusty Krab, it was busy. Busier than ever before. SpongeBob SquarePants, the fry cook for the restaurant, was busy making Krabby Patties for hungry customers. As he was serving the food to the customers, a small blue spark was seen and heard behind the sponge. Turning back, he sees nothing, and shrugs. He turns back, and more blue sparks appear behind him. Opening a portal, it made a loud whooshing noise, but SpongeBob couldn't hear it due to the boiling frying oil. But when he shut it off, he keeps hearing the whooshing noise. Then, he turns back, and sees the portal, standing right in front of him. In an attempt to get away, SpongeBob runs for the meat locker where the frozen patties are stored. But, the portal got stronger, and sucked more air through. The sponge held onto the door hinge, but lost his grip from the force of the portal. He gets sucked through, and lands on rough pavement. Groaning, he gets up, and looks around. He's wondering where he ended up. Then, there were sounds of mechanical scraping and grinding. The sky was bright yellow with teal clouds, and there was a female voice up the street. But as SpongeBob got up, his skin started to dry up, due to him having no water, and due to the sun's rays. He had no choice but to crawl down the road.

As he continues crawling, he passes a sign that says "Welcome to Tremorton", which had SpongeBob curious, despite being weakened by the sun. A teenage robot girl named Jenny Wakeman from up ahead noticed the dried up yellow sponge, and flew up to him with her rocket-powered legs. The robot was seen in white with turquoise blue for her hair (plus pigtails) and clothes, as SpongeBob weakly looks up at her. He tries to say something to her, but ends up collapsing due to the heat. In a panic, Jenny picks SpongeBob up and blasts off back to where she was originally. She brings him to her mother and scientist, Nora, and asks for help. She agrees to help him, and supplies the sponge with water. But even a glass full of water couldn't help, as Nora grabs an empty glass fish bowl with two openings, and fills it with water. With a loud gasp, SpongeBob opened his eyes in shock, relieved to be of hydration. Jenny, out of curiosity, asks the sponge his name. SpongeBob tells her his name, and Jenny, in a friendly manner, smiles at him, as with her mother. Nora asks SpongeBob how he ended up in Tremorton, and he explains how a portal opened up in his kitchen and sucked him through. Nora, after listening to it all, figures out how it happened. A remote teleportation mechanism created by Nora herself was used for malicious intentions, and opened a portal from Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob's home town, to Tremorton. There was only one person who would've done something exactly like this.

Back in Bikini Bottom, Squidward, the cashier of the Krusty Krab, was growing impatient of waiting for SpongeBob, while unbeknownst to him, he was nowhere in the kitchen. Fed up, he looked through the window, and SpongeBob wasn't there, which made him concerned. He reported SpongeBob's absence to Mr. Krabs, the owner of the Krusty Krab, which alerted him. At the exact same moment, Patrick, SpongeBob's best friend, walked into the restaurant, and asked for a quick Krabby Patty. But Mr. Krabs and Squidward inform him that he's nowhere to be found. This ended up being alerted across Bikini Bottom about his whereabouts, with some assuming he left the town for good. Back in Tremorton, SpongeBob and Jenny were trying to find out who caused the portal incident to happen. They first headed to Sheldon Lee, one of Jenny's friends, to ask if he knew anyone related to the incident. He mentions Brad Carbunkle, Jenny's best friend, who was at the scene of the incident, and noticed the remote on the pavement. This made the teenage robot curious, and assumes it was Brad's younger brother, Tuck, who is known to be mischievous. Visiting Brad by the Tremorton High School, he asks if Tuck had anything to do with the incident, to which Brad said he did.

In Bikini Bottom, Squidward had to be in place for SpongeBob until he got back, which made customers angry that their food wasn't ready. Fearing that the business would be closed for the day, Squidward had to work hard to get the food ready. And when he did, they came out perfect, which was something that was unexpected from someone like Squidward, as he's usually known for messing up Krabby Patties when he's in for SpongeBob. Back in Tremorton, SpongeBob and Jenny confronted Tuck, with SpongeBob the most upset on why he even decided to open a portal from Bikini Bottom to Tremorton in the first place, thus having him stuck there. Tuck, knowing he can't get away with it, felt guilty, and apologized. Jenny looked to SpongeBob and offered to take him back to Bikini Bottom, to which SpongeBob smiles and nods at her.

At Nora's workshop, she's seen programming her teleportation remote to help SpongeBob get back. Testing it out as a test, she opens a portal back to Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob thanks Nora, and also thanks Jenny for helping him, as the teenage robot smiles. But before he left, he gave one quick hug to Jenny out of gratitude, as the teenage robot hugged him back. Breaking the hug, SpongeBob walks through the portal and back to his home, much to everyone's relief. Jenny looked at her mother and smiled, knowing that the day was a great day, especially for helping someone get back home. In Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob is seen back to work, flipping burger patties and serving customers, while in Tremorton, Jenny was seen flying across the beautiful orange sky, stopping crime in her city.

## Voice cast

* Tom Kenny as SpongeBob SquarePants
* Janice Kawaye as Jenny Wakeman
* Candi Milo as Dr. Nora Wakeman
* Bill Fagerbakke as Patrick Star
* Rodger Bumpass as Squidward Tentacles
* Clancy Brown as Mr. Krabs
* Mr. Lawrence as Plankton
* Jill Talley as Karen
* Carolyn Lawrence as Sandy Cheeks
* Mary Jo Catlett as Mrs. Puff
* Quinton Flynn as Sheldon Lee
* Chad Doreck as Brad Carbunkle
* Audrey Wasilewski as Tuck Carbunkle

## Production

### Writing

The storyboard was planned by Tom Yasumi, Scott Peterson and Fred Seibert, and was written by Stephen Hillenburg, Rob Renzetti, and Drymon.

### Animation

The animation, like *SpongeBob SquarePants* and *My Life as a Teenage Robot*, was produced by Rough Draft Studios at their Korean animation division in Seoul, South Korea. The animation process spanned 5 months, before being sent to Paramount's feature animation department in Los Angeles, California.

## Soundtrack

The score for the short film was composed by British composer John Powell.

## Release

### Theatrical

*A Sponge in Tremorton* was released on December 20, 2006 by Paramount Pictures, with the release of the Nickelodeon film *Charlotte's Web*. The short was rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for "some mild language".