I've been rewatching this episode lately, and I really like it! I enjoy the usage of much of the main cast here, the guest characters are fun, and I like the story a lot. And yeah it has a dance party ending, which I actually really like those haha. Also can we talk about that Bee Line For The Treeline song? It's really nice and calming. The episode is very rewatchable, which is one of the reasons why it earns a solid 9/10 from me.
Time to expand on this relatively recent review!
I’ve been so freaking excited to review "SpongeBob SquarePants vs. The Big One", because I already know I’m in the minority when I say that I both love this special, and that it’s one of my favorite specials in the show. And I’m so excited to explain why I feel the way I do, and I hope I can convert some people to the light side.
The beginning of this episode is kind of like the inverse of “Krabs a la Mode”, with SpongeBob and Squidward dying of heatstroke (vs. freezing), and Mr. Krabs being at fault because of his cheap ways. There’s also some neat visual gags in here, like SpongeBob’s melted shoes. And the power bill joke was pretty brilliant. I just really like how this episode evokes the feeling of the dog days of summer, especially once we move over to Goo Lagoon (man, this season really said we’re bringing Goo Lagoon back, didn’t it? Well you’re not hearing any complaints from me). I love how this episode is actually somewhat realistic about the issues with having a restaurant out on the water, because who carries their wallet with them when they go swimming?? Anyway, I love how this section at Goo Lagoon really gets the episode set up, introducing all of our key players with Sandy and Patrick’s sudden entries. I’m just glad Sandy is being included here. I mean she’s usually in specials like these but I’m just saying. And then I love how the plot of this episode kicks off, with Patrick acting as a propeller for the surfboard in some funny-looking visuals and voice-acting, and then all of them crashing into Sandy. The pacing in this special is really good, in my opinion, so that’s a strength of this episode.
From here, the episode kinda splits itself along 3 plotlines, so for ease of reviewing’s sake, I’ll cover each of the 3 in their own paragraph (or possibly multiple for the main plot). I’ll start with Sandy and Mr. Krabs since they technically occupy the sideplot spaces.
So for Mr. Krabs’ section of the episode, I love the mock horror elements of his scenes, and especially for the first little bit with him, there’s great trade-off between horror and humor and dramatics. Perfect for being stuck out in the middle of the ocean. And not just the middle of the ocean, but Dutchman’s Triangle. Because yep, guest appearance by my boy The Flying Dutchman, so that’s yet another win for me. I love the interactions between The Flying Dutchman and Mr. Krabs, and it feels so much like “Born Again Krabs”. I also love the way their little conflict is resolved, with the Flying Dutchman being stuck in Davy Jones’ locker, that was hilarious. And then I love Mr. Krabs’ attachment to his cash register, giving it a whole name and everything.
As for Sandy, I’ll admit that I am a little saddened that she’s the character we clearly spend the least time with. And I know exactly why that is but I won’t say it because I’m not going to get into that. So I’ll just say that I do enjoy the time with her that we do get, as short as it is. It’s always nice to see her being queenie (even though I wish we got to actually
see it…one day I will discuss this show’s misogyny problem, because at least in this era of the show it most definitely had one. That day will not be today). I like how she literally crashes into Mr. Krabs’ plot, but not for long.
And then of course we’ve got the main plot of the episode with SpongeBob, Squidward, and Patrick. I like all the new characters they meet, from Twitch and his friends to JKL. And I also just really like the plot of their section, with SpongeBob, Squidward, and Patrick being forced to learn how to surf if they want to get back to Bikini Bottom, I think it’s an interesting plot and really helps this episode lean further into the island and surf aesthetics. The montage of everyone learning to surf is also great, and I really liked the narration that went along with it. So fun fact, the voice of this narrator is Bruce Brown, a documentary director who apparently is known as the pioneer of surf film, so that’s super cool. From here, we move to SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward being forced to seek out the tutelage of JKL, as they’re just so inept.
After a nice montage that I’ll discuss later, we finally meet JKL. This
scene is probably one of the ones I remember most clearly, and honestly I don’t know what it is, but it’s also hysterical to me and makes me laugh. I think it’s the combination of the music, the anticipation, the reactions, and then the comically long board…just something about how all that’s put together makes this scene almost perfect for me. And I love how Squidward is so completely over the guy’s pretentiousness. This whole section of the episode brings to mind “Club SpongeBob”, with Squidward being a justified skeptic vs. SpongeBob and Patrick enthusiastically embracing what appears to be asinine advice. I love how both pretentious and freaking weird JKL is, and how he never gives a straight answer for anything ever.
Then the episode starts pulling out its “this is a special” cards by suddenly getting quite intense, with a storm showing up out of nowhere (although it was seen at the end of Sandy’s segment, so it wasn’t completely unexpected). I love how until this point the episode was very lowkey, but now we’re standing on top of a temple talking about planets aligning and prophecies and perfect waves and sacrifces and lol I just love it. I mean, we needed to see why this episode was called “SpongeBob SquarePants Vs. The Big One” right?
And then we reach the episode’s climax, which also brings Mr. Krabs back into the fold of the main plot. The whole segment of SpongeBob and co. trying to surf on this wave is pretty entertaining to me. And I love how JKL appears out of nowhere to save Mr. Krabs, and then Cashy lol. It’s all so hilariously dramatic. I also think it’s kind of interesting that Sandy, who see saw surfing earlier, gets back to Goo Lagoon via her helicopter, and not riding the Big One. She’s very separate from everyone else in this episode in a way I really am not a fan of. Well, whatever, because now we’re at the ending of the episode, which has one of my favorite kind of endings, even if it is a notorious type and quite overused, a dance party ending. And JKL is revealed to be okay, so it’s just happy all around. A great ending to this special.
One thing that I really like in this episode is the music, it’s especially strong here. I mean first off, there’s so many pieces of original music here that we don’t see played much beyond this episode, like
Surf Swami (which sadly has no clean rips) or
Endless Summer Spoof or
Monster Wave (which didn’t actually originate in this episode, and is used outside of it, but I’m still including it). And all of JKL’s bongo bits were nice to listen to. And there’s also plenty of good surf rock songs in this episode too. And I’ve mentioned this somewhere on the forum before but I love love love the “
Beeline For The Treeline” song. And I know that no one ever talks about it, and most people have probably forgotten it, but I just love it. And that song is accompanied with such beautiful visuals too, so that’s a double win! Honestly, this episode is full of gorgeous backgrounds. Pretty much every scene taking place on and island is beautiful beautiful beautiful. Also, this is unrelated, but I really liked the detail of SpongeBob keeping his Krusty Krab hat for the entire episode, while Squidward loses his. Goes to show both of their characters.
As you can see, I really like "SpongeBob SquarePants vs. The Big One". It's just such a fun episode, and it feels like it's been too long since I've had such fun watching an episode. I like that as a special, it doesn't end up taking itself too seriously, really leaning into the absurdity of their concept. And more episodes need to do that. Not that I think this show ever takes itself seriously, but it doesn't lean into the absurd enough sometimes, which is one of the reasons why this season has had so many dull episodes (as you'll be seeing over the next few reviews).
Episode Tier: Amazing
Episode Score: 9.5/10
