Spongebob Sponge out of Water: Movie Review

As a fan of both the Spongebob Squarepants Series and the 2004 Spongebob Movie, I was really looking forward to see this new movie that came out. After watching it, I do have to say that I wasn't as thrilled with it as I thought I would be. But then again,how could you possibly follow the last movie that was made. That movie was fricken awesome!

Having written all that, I'm giving Sponge Out of Water a moderate recommendation. It's got some golden moments of weird, surreal glee, but there are also parts that are a huge mess. I know, it's weird to criticize something like SpongeBob for being too unorganized or wacky, but when it prevents the story from telling the way it should you wind up with a movie that sort of feels like a bunch of separate SpongeBob episodes all tacked together in a row.

The first movie was meant to be a bit of a primer for viewers who may not have been all that familiar with the series. It focused mostly on SpongeBob (Tom Kenny) and his thickheaded starfish friend Patrick (Bill Fagerbakke) as they went on a quest to retrieve King Neptune's crown (and adventure that also took them up out of the sea and onto land). The rest of the SpongeBob regulars took a backseat to a more streamlined tale and (filled with guest stars like Jeffrey Tambor, Scarlett Johansson, and more) and it worked out really well. Despite sort of being "SpongeBob for Beginners," it turned out awesome.

Sponge Out of Water instantly sheds all notions of exposition at the door and dives into an insane story that contains magical tomes that can alter reality, singing seagulls, time travel, and inter-dimensional omniscient rapping dolphins. It's meant to just be a big madhouse with ever-so-slight signs of a story.

Sponge Out of Water brings all the series characters together for a movie that feels like a true ensemble, complete with a handful of truly golden moments of goofy hilarity. But it's also dragged down by an "everythingand the kitchen sink" approach that makes it feel like a bunch of good separate ideas thrown together in haste.