For our first episode of the day, we've got another anthology installment in "Mooncation". This is an epsidoe that I admittedly did not remember very well, like at all, before rewatching it. Which is actually surprising, because you'd think I'd remember an episode like this.
Finally, another Sandy episode. I always await these with bated breath because I anticipate them so heavily. Despite being one of the core 5, Sandy is easily the main character of that specific grouping with the least appearances, so I’m really glad that she got focus in this anthology, and not Squidward, who conspicuously didn’t have an episode devoted to his vacation. I really love how the beginning scene of this episode makes Sandy appear to be an international criminal…that’s a girlboss. The title card
music for this episode is also very cool, interesting, eerie, and atmospheric. I like it!
This episode is a spiritual successor to “Sandy’s Rocket”, and I’m fine with that. Again, I do not throw around the term rip-off…basically ever. And the reason this episode definitely isn’t a rip-off is because the only real similarity is that Sandy makes a rocket to go to the moon. That’s it. The rest is different considering our characters actually
go to the moon.
Now getting into the actual content of the episode, it’s a pretty mixed bag. This beginning of the episode, like once SpongeBob gets to the bakery is…alright. At least it uses that same worker from “Party Pooper Pants”. But other than that it’s not very funny and drags on quite a bit. And the scene of the rocket blasting off is also kind of long for no reason. The episode plays out quite predictably with SpongeBob totally messing up Sandy’s rocket and vacation, but of course he does so with no malicious intent. At this point it’s like everything is made to be messed up by him, like the Reverse Spatial Linearity Drive. And at least Sandy is able to girlboss her way out of the situations too. Sorry I keep using that term I’d like everyone to know that I do mostly ironically.
As for the actual vacation, I do like that the episode abandons the “SpongeBob messing everything up” plotline (well, it only kind of does, more on that in a bit), as that would get old quickly, and shows SpongeBob and Sandy having some real fun on the moon. The moon background also looked really cool, I love when this show mixes artstyles. I also love when they ignore physics, like this episode does. The moonboarding scene is really entertaining for me, it feels a lot like “Prehibernation Week”. I’m also a lover of any and all action sequences no matter how weird or even boring to be honest. The cutaway gag to Patrick was great too.
Of course, the SpongeBob messing everything up plotline wasn’t fully abandoned, as at the end of this scene SpongeBob punctures the fuel tank. But the reason why I said the episode abandoned the plotline is because it’s not like other episodes (usually it’s Patrick who occupies this role) where SpongeBob might mess up many things in succession, but rather just a few things at certain moments, so it’s much better to watch this way. And this last scene of SpongeBob and Sandy trying to get back home with basically no fuel is a pretty fun watch. It’s just under a chaos ending, since I wouldn’t call it chaotic, but it is very action-packed and tense, and I love that. Sandy literally wranging the rocket is actually amazing. And the bit with Nickelodeon studios was a great touch too.
And then I love the ending of this episode, because where a lesser episode might have Sandy actually mad at SpongeBob, which would be unpleasant, this episode actually has her thrilled with the results of SpongeBob’s interference, which is a great, positive note to end this episode on, and it makes me feel pretty happy inside. Now I wanna see SpongeBob and Sandy head to Mars.
"Mooncation" is a great, action-packed episode that I feel like I've been needing for a long time. The only reason I'm putting this episode in my Great tier is because of the couple of dull parts at the beginning. Other than that, I loved every part of this episode.
Episode Tier: Great
Episode Score: 8.9/10
