Today’s Prayer Focus
MOVIE REVIEW

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water

also known as “SpongeBob SquarePants 2,” “SpongeBob: Sponge Out of Water”
MPA Rating: PG-Rating (MPA) for mild action and rude humor.

Reviewed by: Alexander Malsan
CONTRIBUTOR

Moral Rating: Average
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience: Kids Teens Family Adults
Genre: Animation Family Action Adventure Comedy 3D Sequel
Length: 1 hr. 33 min.
Year of Release: 2015
USA Release: February 6, 2015 (wide—3,500+ theaters)
DVD: June 2, 2015
Copyright, Paramount Picturesclick photos to ENLARGE Copyright, Paramount Pictures Copyright, Paramount Pictures Copyright, Paramount Pictures
Relevant Issues
Copyright, Paramount Pictures

What’s wrong with greed, cheating and stealing to get ahead in business?

Kid Explorers™
Adventures in the rainforest! Learn about the Creator of the universe by exploring His marvelous creation. Fun for the whole family with games, activities, stories, answers to children’s questions, color pages, and more! One of the Web’s first and most popular Christian Web sites for children. Nonprofit, evangelical, nondenominational.
Featuring Antonio BanderasBurger-Beard
Seth Green … Police Officer Robert
Clancy BrownMr. Krabs (voice)
Tom Kenny … SpongeBob SquarePants / Gary the Snail (voice)
Thomas F. Wilson … Ben Tweedy
Jesica Ahlberg … Tanning Woman
Bill Fagerbakke … Patrick Star (voice)
Slash … Jerry Vandergeld
Christopher Backus … Captain Burger-Beard Sr.
See all »
Director Paul Tibbitt
Mike Mitchell
Producer Paramount Animation
Nickelodeon Movies
United Plankton Pictures
Distributor Distributor: Paramount Pictures Corporation. Trademark logo.Paramount Pictures Corporation, a subsidiary of ViacomCBS

Prequel: “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie” (2004)

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? SpongeBob SquarePants! It’s a typical day at the Krusty Krab in Bikini Bottom for SpongeBob and his friends. Squiward works the cash register, Mr. Krabs runs the management, and SpongeBob happily works behind the grill. Even Plankton attempts to, once again, steal the Krabby Patty formula! During his failed attempt, as he and SpongeBob are wrestling over the formula, the formula vanishes into thin air!

As it turns out a pirate/fast-food owner named Burger Beard (Antonio Banderas) is the culprit. It’s up to SpongeBob, Patrick, Mr. Krabs, Sandy, Squidward, and, yes, even Plankton, to team up to recover the Krabby Patty before life in Bikini Bottom ceases to exist as we know it.

Over 15 years ago, the first episode of “SpongeBob Squareparnts” aired on television. The concept might have seemed a very silly at the time, but it grew and withstood the test of time. It gathered a huge following, tuning in to watch the latest episode, glued to the adventures of SpongeBob and his pals.

But time wasn’t always beneficial for SpongeBob. In fact, “SpongeBob SquarePants” became “less-than-kid-friendly” for some parents. Some felt that SpongeBob presented themes that parents didn’t want their children exposed to: themes of homosexuality, greed, etc.

What really hurt the franchise’s public image though, and to some extent crossed a fine line, was the first “SpongeBob SquarePants Movie” back in 2004. Without going into much detail, the questionable content the SpongeBob series had become known for in the later years had gone too far. Was this the end of SpongeBob? It would seem so.

HOWEVER, with this recent installment in the SpongeBob franchise, I am happy to report that Stephen Hillenburg (the creator), Nickelodeon and the crew have learned from the past and have presented a much cleaner (but not PERFECT) movie than its prequel. Having seen both movies, I was able to note the difference within the first 30 minutes of the sequel. Yes, there is some potty humor that parents may have to deal with and discuss. But considering how problematic the first movie was, I was actually impressed by what I saw in this sequel. I saw a sense of redemption for a franchise that had seemed to end when it aired its final episode a year or two ago.

Content for Concern

While “…Sponge out of Water” is cleaner than it’s predecessor, as I said, it’s not perfect.

Mr Krabs, in order to get Plankton to talk, tortures him by making SpongeBob laugh (for those who are unfamiliar with the show, it’s a shrill annoying laugh). SpongeBob and his friends, as they arrive at the surface, are shot into the air and are seen bouncing around off of people, umbrellas, and other beach items. There are some action sequences, some involving cannons, including a long, but cartoonish, battle sequence with Burger Beard. Patrick has a cannon ball land on his face. A character is kicked in the buttocks hard at the end (sending him flying through the air).

Most of the language is in the form of name calling (“Oh, shrimp!”, “Aw, nuts!”, “idiot,” “jerk,” “moronic”). What more offensive, though I understood WHY they did it, was a scene where Sandy (usually the rational character) goes crazy during the Patty apocalypse and shouts, “We must appease the Sandwich gods. We must offer a sacrifice!” Squidward also states, “I’m a god.” (It’s just goofy cartoon humor, not meant to be taken seriously.)

In a couple instances, we see Patrick’s bottom. Women are seen in bikinis and swimsuits (some are revealing), and SpongeBob asks Plankton about why he’s naked.

Other Content: When the patty formula goes missing, we see Bikini Bottom turning into an apocalyptic setting, with buildings burning and characters wearing some… interesting… apocalyptic outfits. Squidward also “inks,” and as I stated, there is some potty humor.

Positive elements contained in this sequel are themes of friendship, sacrifice, and teamwork. SpongeBob stands by Plankton when he is wrongly accused, even if it might cost him his life. I was reminded of how the Bible speaks of the reward, not Earthly, that waits for us when we stand for Christ in the face of adversity. When we stand for Him, even if the world hates us. Jesus said,

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” —Matthew 5:11-12 (ESV)

Before I went in, I got into a conversation with a concession stand employee. He saw my clipboard and wished me good luck for what I was about to endure. At first, I laughed, thinking the same thing. It’s rare when a movie surprises me, and I have to say I did not expect to actually enjoy “…Sponge out of Water” as much as I did (even parents were laughing at the corny humor, at times). “…Sponge out of Water” is somewhat cleaner than the series and DEFINITELY an improvement from the first movie, but it still has its moments of caution (potty humor and some language issues to deal with). As for a recommendation, it gets a thumbs up from me and the PG rating is correct. Parents, should read the comments and reviews, first, before taking kids. In my opinion, it is okay for most children 8 and up. Well done, Nickelodeon. This is a step in the right direction.

Violence: Moderate / Language: Mild (no profanity) / Sex/Nudity: Mild

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.


Viewer CommentsSend your comments
Positive
Positive—This was surprisingly very funny! Of course you have to like SpongeBob and his innocent, dorky humor and if you do, then you will probably enjoy this film. I was surprised how it kept me interested, and I laughed out loud many times. It was also pretty clean. I don't have children and I even went to see this with my 66 year old mother and she loved it!

I compare it to a few recent regular movies I have seen where I was totally bored but this was funny and the story line was so stupid it was actually humorous.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Better than Average / Moviemaking quality: 5
Stephanie, age 40 (USA)
Positive—It’s not bad, not offensive, although the writing does suffer a bit at times… Anyway, the animated series has not been enjoyable for quite some time, but this film managaes to be a step in the right direction for the Spongebob franchise.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Better than Average / Moviemaking quality: 4
Just Some Guy, age 22 (Mexico)
Negative
Negative—Besides being the most boring movie possibly ever (my husband and I fell asleep - and I really like Spongebob on TV) but even our kids ages 14, 12, and 9 were bored out of their minds. The movie theatre was dead silent throughout the movie, what does that tell you? In addition, my kids found the constant Illuminati references offensive (the eye in the pyramid for one) as well as the association with alien intelligence. Overall—boring and strange and not at all clever.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 1
Karen, age 49 (USA)
Negative—I strongly advise for those in Christ and teachers of Christ NOT to watch this movie!!During the movie as soon as I saw things that did not seem right, such as the space travel machine that had confusing weird music and images, then the dolphin robed up in outer space saying he is watching over the planets and when he turns around his robe collar has a giant illuminati eye symbol with the triangle CLEARLY seen. I mean why didn’t they put a crabby patty emblem or something?! See all »
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 1
Ruby, age 25 (USA)
Negative—This movie has to have been the most stupid, worst, and idiotic movie of the whole year! I wouldn’t even encourage kids to watch it! But my younger siblings and cousins did, and it looked they were in a trance of pure stupidity on TV. I think even my intelligence shrunk when I watched this movie. It was okay in the beginning, but it started getting stupid, stupider and stupider (yeah “Stupider” is probably not a word, but you get it).

You have everyone in riot, looter, bandit, and possessed mode, when there are no krabby patties. Sandy is by far the creepiest. Not to mention, these TV shows and movies try to brainwash kids by putting in subliminal messages and Illuminati cr*p in their heads. I kid you not, the music when they were going through the time machine looked very hypnotizing and sounded creepy. I felt like I was going in a trance. The stupid part in future time is of a dolphin, Bubbles, in an Illuminati cape with an All-Seeing Eye clasp under his neck, who is the “protector of the galaxy” giving out orders and talking crazy about watching over the universe of Jupiter and Saturn so they don’t crash, then leaves for the bathroom, so Sponge bob and Plankton can watch it for a bit. You can see the triangle shape of the entrance when Sponge Bob takes watch when Illuminati Bubbles goes to bathroom. Then you see Jupiter and Saturn crashing for some stupid reason. Bubbles becomes murderous when the 2 planets crash trying to kill plankton and Sponge bob. Then it gets more confusing and stupid. See all »
My Ratings: Moral rating: Very Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 1½
Annabell, age 22 (USA)
Comments from non-viewers
Negative—Warning. Sponge Bob promotes the homosexual agenda and has messages in it. Do not be fooled by their subtle messages. Run away from this. There are many Christian movies which glorify the Father in heaven.
Michael, age 57 (USA)

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