The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run
paramountThe SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run marks the first time the Captain doesn’t ask “Are ya ready kids?” and that is just one of many things wrong with this film. After coming home from a long day’s work at the Krusty Krab, SpongeBob SquarePants (Tom Kenny) discovers that his beloved pet snail, Gary, (also Kenny) has gone missing. He goes on an adventure with his best friend Patrick Star (Bill Fagerbakke) to the Lost City of Atlantic City, where Gary is being held hostage by King Poseidon (Matt Berry), who uses Gary’s snail slime as a skincare product.
Fortunately, the characters still have their original personalities from the television show. SpongeBob is still loveably annoying, and Patrick is still a loveable dimwit. Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown) still loves money, Squidward (Rodger Bumpass) still hates the world, Sandy (Carolyn Lawrence) is still into science projects, and Plankton (Mr. Lawrence) is still trying to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula. Other classic characters, such as Mrs. Puff and Larry the Lobster, also make cameos in Sponge on the Run. The animation is quite well done, as the new 3D look fits well with the live-action sequences, but it does feel unneeded, since live-action sequences have already been included in the original 2D SpongeBob series.
SpongeBob SquarePants has always been random, but the problem with Sponge on the Run is that the randomness is incredibly lazy. There are several tangents that amount to nothing and are only there to stretch out the plot. SpongeBob and Patrick wind up a live-action saloon filled with cowboy pirate zombies that they have to free from Danny Trejo at the request of Keanu Reeves’ Sage, a wise tumbleweed. There’s also a rap number here by Snoop Dogg. The scene is overly bizarre and unneeded. SpongeBob continuously keeps getting distracted from rescuing Gary, which doesn’t make sense because Gary is the most important thing in his life.
So much of SpongeBob SquarePants’ lore is completely retconned for the sake of Sponge of the Run’s incoherent plot. Memories of Camp Coral recur throughout the film, which also happens to be the concept of a rejected spinoff, as Hillenburg adamantly refused to approve any sort of SpongeBob spinoff. At Camp Coral, SpongeBob meets all of his friends – Patrick, Squidward, Sandy, and even Mr. Krabs serving Krabby Patties out of a food stand in his pre-Krusty Krab days – but they meet in completely different ways in the original television show.
Not only has the lore been retconned, but so much of the story is also just a rehash of past episodes. The concept of Gary going missing already happened in the episode Where’s Gary? and the road trip mission is snatched from the original SpongeBob SquarePants Movie from 2004. King Poseidon is also a slightly different version of King Neptune. For older fans, Sponge on the Run will be especially frustrating to watch, but children will probably take to the excessive randomness. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run has nothing making it worth seeing unless you happen to be a massive Keanu Reeves fan. The film feels like a slap in the face to SpongeBob’s original creator, Stephen Hillenburg, who passed away in 2018 from ALS complications. Just watch the old episodes, you’ll thank yourself.