The Spongebob Squarepants Movie? I'm Ready to Watch It!
The film, The Spongebob Squarepants Movie, is an animated comedy/adventure film. The two main characters, Spongebob and Patrick, embark on a great adventure to save their friend, Mr. Krabs. The odds are stacked against them, yet in the end they succeed. The mise en scene element, lighting key, is heavily used throughout the film. The use of different lighting keys in different scenes makes identifying the tone and theme very easy. For example, this technique is utilized in the scene at the Thug Tug, a sunken tugboat that has been retrofitted into an undersea bar. Spongebob and Patrick find themselves between a rock and a hard place: They either need to steal the key for the Patty Wagon from an intimidating thug in the bar or walk the rest of the way to Shell City. They formulate a plan to steal the key from the thug and start to enact this plan. As they do this, the lighting key becomes much darker. This makes the intensity of the situation easily interpreted by the audience. Spongebob and Patrick, by entering the Thug Tug, have entered a very dangerous place and the lighting key makes it obvious. Being that this is a childs’ film, making tones/moods obvious is very important as it is likely that children will not get it themselves. Another instance where the lighting key is dramatically changed to make a point is during the first scene of Plankton’s mind control. At the Chum Bucket, Squidward confronts Plankton and reveals that he knows Plankton’s plan. Plankton then activates his mind control helmets and all of his customers are ordered to attack Squidward. However, as soon as the customers are under Plankton’s control, the lighting key leaps to high-contrast. Plankton had done something very evil by taking control of all his customers, but the high-contrast lighting key highlights the theme of Good vs Evil. Overall, the film did a great job of appealing to the majority of the audience: Kids.
Personally, I loved this film. Even though it was only published in 2004, I consider it a classic. I’ve watched spongebob all through my early childhood and appreciate it because of the silly humor. There are many scenes that just make me laugh out loud because of the stupidity. For example, the car stealing scene. In this scene, Spongebob and Patrick drive the Patty Wagon over the county line. Visually, the scene is funny because the county line is a physical red line that extends across the land and on the other side is a barren wasteland. This is ridiculous. However, the best part is the dialogue. The gas station employees say, “You won’t last ten seconds over the county line!” Spongebob and Patrick then cross over the line and immediately their car is stolen. They ask how long that was, to which the employees respond, “twelve.” Spongebob and Patrick then proceed to celebrate about lasting more than ten seconds for the rest of the day. This scene is so stupid that it is funny and the whole film is filled with moments like these. The combination of all of these ironic and satirical scenes in the film makes it very enjoyable.
Official Rating: Good-Good
Great review, Hunter! There is a noticeable difference between your objective evaluation (which focuses entirely on the film) and your subjective evaluation (which brings YOUR TASTE into the equation). Great title and effective tone. The ONLY thing that I would consider before you post your next one is to extract even more evaluative flavor from that first paragraph. Positive embrace with your description of audience accessibility, but consider how you can push even further away from that neutral tone.
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