SpongeBob's Atlantis SquarePantis
SpongeBob's Atlantis SquarePantis is the 92nd episode of the American animated television series "SpongeBob SquarePants", and a 2007 made-for-television musical comedy film directed by Andrew Overtoom. It first aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on November 12, 2007, serving as the twelfth episode of the fifth season of the American animated television series "SpongeBob SquarePants". In the special, SpongeBob and Patrick discover a half of an ancient medallion that helps them and their friends get to the lost city of Atlantis. It was written by Casey Alexander, Zeus Cervas, Steven Banks, and  Dani Michaeli. British musician and actor David Bowie guest starred as the voice of Lord Royal Highness. Upon release, it attracted an estimated 9.22 million viewers, becoming the most watched episode of the entire series. Despite this, it received mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike, while the Patchy subplot received mixed to negative reviews. However, it has received a cult following among fans of the series. Plot. Patchy the Pirate subplot. Patchy the Pirate is stuck in traffic on US 101 near Encino and gets cross that he is going to miss the new SpongeBob episode, and his super  rare eight track also breaks down. His cell phone rings, and Potty tells him to hurry because the episode is about to start. Patchy tells Potty to record the episode, but Potty tells him that he threw the Betamax machine in the garbage, making him more mad. The traffic lines moves, but suddenly, he finds himself nowhere, and finds out that "Encino is gone", and then he cries that this is not the only time a Lost-City had occurred. He tells us that the episode is what we should watch instead of watching him suffer. Later, Patchy gets his  eight track fixed, but not for long when it explodes again and produces smoke. Later on, Patchy gets hallucinations and he finds a man dressed in a tall SpongeBob outfit (who is actually Tom Kenny, Patchy the Pirate's actor and the voice of SpongeBob himself), who tells him that he is SpongeBob SquarePants in real-life form. The SpongeBob then tells him that he will be back in Encino if he "believes". Then, Potty wakes him up after he thought he is back in Encino, which is all just a dream. Patchy begins to eat a sandwich, which Potty  brings to him, but he finds mayonnaise on it. He tries to give it to a vulture. After the end of the SpongeBob special, Patchy finds Encino shrunk to a very small size, and then, he finds three aliens, which explain that their son, Norbluck 5, was playing with his Shrink-A-Tron again. Patchy yells at them that he wants his town back in full size, and he keeps saying, "There's no place like home" (obviously parodying the scene from "The Wizard of Oz"). Sympathetic by Patchy's misery that he wants to go home because he missed  the entire story, Norbluck 5's mother gets the Shrink-A-Tron given from her son, and she presses the big red button control, making a tornado disaster to fix it up. Then, Patchy is glad to be back in Encino, but soon, a giant Potty the Parrot crushes him into the house (presumably showing that Norbluck 5 had once again used his Shrink-A-Tron to make Potty huge). SpongeBob plot. SpongeBob and Patrick are trying to take photos of bubbles they blew, but it fails. They then find a piece of a medallion to the lost city of  Atlantis, but have no idea what it is. They take it to the Bikini Bottom Museum to see if the staff there know what it is. SpongeBob and Patrick run into Squidward, who thinks they stole the missing half of the medallion. He soon matches it to the displayed other half of the amulet and tells them it was the key to Atlantis. After hearing the story of Atlantis, the only thing SpongeBob and Patrick want to see is the "World's Oldest Bubble." Squidward then proceeds to reconnect the two-halves of the amulet, opening the "path to Atlantis , which is a bus that runs on song fuel". When the characters run out of "song fuel", the bus then crash-lands into the city of Atlantis. The group is unknowingly followed by Plankton, who plans to use Atlantean weapons to steal the Krabby Patty Secret Formula. Inside Atlantis, they meet the Atlantean Emperor, Lord Royal Highness, who shows them a grand tour of the fortress. During the tour, Mr. Krabs, Sandy, and Squidward each get distracted by places in Atlantis; Mr. Krabs (unsurprisingly) by the treasury room, Sandy by the science laboratory, and Squidward by the art gallery. Meanwhile , Plankton checks out the armory vault, intent on using the city's lost weapons (the Atlanteans had abandoned the idea of warfare long ago) for his own ends, and steals a tank. Finally, SpongeBob and Patrick get to see the world's oldest living bubble. Patrick takes a picture of it, which causes the bubble to pop, horrifying the pair. As Mr. Krabs, Sandy, and Squidward relate their experiences in Atlantis to Lord Royal Highness, SpongeBob and Patrick anxiously return and attempt to conceal the bubble's destruction until Patrick blurts it out. Lord Royal Highness is not enraged at  them, and reveals that the one they popped was just a prop for the tourists. He then shows them the real oldest living bubble, which Patrick then takes a picture of, causing it to pop. Angered, Lord Royal Highness summons the Atlantean Royal Guards to attack the group, but they manage to escape. Just as they flee outside, Plankton arrives in the stolen tank and fires at them, only to discover to his fury that it shoots ice cream. Lord Royal Highness captures Plankton, and decides that "a talking speck" would be a fantastic replacement for the bubble. SpongeBob and  friends get on the bus when LRH takes the medallion from the bus and orders one of his guards to throw it away. The bus flies away with LRH waving goodbye and saying, I thought Sponges were supposed to make life easier. The entire gang except Spongebob are upset they are leaving as they wanted to stay in Atlantis, the group sing their final song for the episode about how they want to stay but Spongebob sings how happy he is that they are going home, ending the episode. Production. "Atlantis SquarePantis" was written by Casey Alexander, Zeus Cervas, Steven  Banks and Dani Michaeli, with Alexander and Cervas serving as storyboard directors, and the animation was directed by Andrew Overtoom. Although it was promoted by Nickelodeon as the first made-for-television film of the series, "Atlantis SquarePantis" is an extended episode, running 45 minutes. "["Atlantis SquarePantis" is] an adventurous quest kind of a story," said Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob, "about SpongeBob and his friends journeying and discovering the lost continent of Atlantis, which is ruled by a character voiced by David Bowie." The film stars the series main cast members including Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, Clancy  Brown, Carolyn Lawrence, and Mr. Lawrence. In addition to the regular series voice cast, famed British musician and artist David Bowie guest starred as the voice of the Atlantean King, Lord Royal Highness. Writing on his blog, David Bowie said: It's happened. At last. I've hit the Holy Grail of animation gigs. Yesterday I got to be a character on ... tan-tara ... "SpongeBob SquarePants". Oh Yeah!! We, the family, are thrilled. Nothing else need happen this year, well, this week anyway. My character in this special longform (I think a half-hour special) show is called 'Lord Royal  Highness'. Alrighteee!! Tom Kenny said "the people who [watch] are often surprising to me and unexpected. You don't picture David Bowie, the Thin White Duke, sitting on the couch in his pajamas eating Cheerios watching SpongeBob cartoons. [With] our little basic-cable budget we could never afford to pay a legend like David Bowie what he's worth, but the fact he wants to be in something his kid likes is what gets the ball rolling." The film includes 33 minutes of animation. Its animators at the Nickelodeon Animation Studios at Burbank, California sketched the outlines of the story  in a year. Paul Tibbitt, the show's supervising producer who also serves as the showrunner, explained "We're one of the last shows that does it the old-fashioned way, like they used to do it back in the Warner Brothers days." Release. "Atlantis SquarePantis" originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on November 12, 2007, preceding a 12-hour "SpongeBob" marathon. After the premiere, the "Behind the Pantis" special aired featuring the production of the film from story pitch and animation to voice-recording sessions. It was proclaimed "the most special special that's ever been called  a special." Jim Blake's music track "Food Fight" was used for promotional material such as the aforementioned special and the teaser trailer for the movie that aired on the American network. On November 13, 2007, the episode was released on the DVD compilation of the same name in the United States and Canada, and on October 27, 2008 in region 2. It also became available in the "SpongeBob SquarePants: Season 5, Vol. 2" DVD on November 18, 2008. On September 22, 2009, "Atlantis SquarePantis" was released on the "SpongeBob SquarePants: The First 100 Episodes" DVD, alongside all the episodes  of seasons one through five. Marketing. The film begun production in May 2006, and was delivered to Nickelodeon roughly a year later, allowing time for the network's marketers to promote it. A "SpongeBob" marathon is a key part of the channel's effort to stave off increasing competition from Disney Channel, Cartoon Network and other rivals. Cyma Zarghami, then president of the Nickelodeon networks, said "We do know that kids like events as much as adults do [...] There's a certain amount of water-cooler talk that goes on among kids." The video game of the same name that  was based on the film was released for PlayStation 2, Wii, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS. It was released on November 12, 2007 for Wii, and on October 27 for the PS2, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS. The game was developed by Blitz Games and Altron, and was published by THQ. Reception. Ratings. "Atlantis SquarePantis" was broadcast on November 12, 2007 on Nickelodeon, and was preceded by an "Z-A" countdown of "SpongeBob SquarePants" episodes picked by viewers. It attracted 9.22 million viewers, the largest audience of a series broadcast at 8:00 p.m. show on November 12, 2007 , with the exception of "Dancing with the Stars", and currently the highest audience in the series' history. Critical response. Ian Jane of DVD Talk said "[the season five DVD] is a fun selection of solid episodes and [the film] is excellent [...] Paramount has done a nice job on this release and "SpongeBob SquarePants: Atlantis SquarePantis" comes recommended." In her review for About.com, Nancy Basile's review was mixed and gave it a score of 2.5 out of 5. She wrote "Kids will enjoy this, but adults, who love the crazy antics, tongue-in-cheek humor and naive blunderings of early  SpongeBob will be disappointed." Jerry Vonkramer of ToonZone gave the episode a score of 7/10 and wrote ""Atlantis SquarePants" is not a masterpiece, but neither does it deserve the awful reputation it seems to have." Tom Shales, a television critic of "The Washington Post", lambasted the film in a November 11, 2007 review. In his review, Shales 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 musical numbers in "Atlantis SquarePantis", calling them "numbing." He concluded the review saying that  the special was "flat" and "unimpressive".