Rating
Synopsis
When the secret formula for Krabby Patties (TM) mysteriously disappears, SpongeBob must make an unlikely allegiance with Plankton in order to restore order to Bikini Bottom before underwater hell breaks loose.
MPAA Rating
Rated PG. Because it’s a cartoon. About a sponge.
Plot
Plankton, as is his way, comes up with an ingenious plan to steal the secret formula for Krabby Patties and finally get some customers over to the Chum Bucket for some lunch. Multiple condiment fights later, SpongeBob and Plankton are engaged in a tussle for the prized formula when it mysteriously vanishes. Horrified, Mr Krabs blames all on Plankton whom he believes has shoved the formula up one of his tiny sleeves (or something similar).
Plankton pleads his innocence but his cries fall on deaf ears – all except SpongeBob who rescues Plankton from the maddening, patty-less mob in a daring, bubble related escape. Without Krabby Patties to feed Bikini Bottom’s town folk, the town quickly (as in instantly) descends into an apocalyptic state.
Alienated and outcast, SB and Plankton do the only rational thing left to do – build a time machine to go back in time and prevent the formula from disappearing. While traveling through time they meet a galactic, time-wizard dolphin named Bubbles and get up to all kinds of capers (no pun intended) and shenanigans. Needless to say, things don’t go too well and they are no better off than when they started.
However, thanks to SpongeBob’s ability to smell a Krabby Patty at a thousand yards, they discover that the evil pirate Burger Beard (Antonio Banderas) has stolen the formula and SB, Patrick and some of the regular crew must all team together to recover the formula before Bikini Bottom goes all to hell.
Will SpongeBob recover the formula before it’s too late? Will Plankton finally close the Chum Bucket and open a new chain of the Krusty Krab franchise? What is in a Krabby Patty? Is it Krab… I mean crab? That would be pretty sick on Mr Krab’s part!
Pros
- Flashes of the type of madness only a SpongeBob movie can provide
- CGI towards the end of the movie is actually quite good
Cons
- Quite slow to get going
Verdict
I’ll preface this by saying – if you haven’t seen the first SpongeBob movie, then go watch that. It’s probably about as good an introduction to the SpongeBob world as you’re going to get.
It was always going to be hard to create a sequel that lived up to the first movie. That said, this movie isn’t bad but it does start off much too slow for my liking – while entertaining, it felt more like an episode of the TV show than a movie. It took 35-40 minutes to get the storyline going and in a movie that’s only 92 minutes long that’s not going to cut the mustard.
Antonio Banderas is entertaining in the role of Burger Beard and you can tell he had fun playing the part. A lot of the usual SpongeBob madness is there but at times it just failed to surprise in the way you’d expect. Some of the jokes, although well delivered, were predictable and that’s not what you’d expect from SB. It is saved at times by some excellent lines (notably “Welcome to the apocalypse, Mr. Squidward. I hope you like leather”) and a half decent rap battle.
All in all it is exactly what a sequel is supposed to be – watchable, but not quite as good as the first. 6/10