Just when I thought I was home free…boom a special. Listen, I love me some SpongeBob, but I’m dying here y’all!! Do you know how long it takes me to write just one review?? 30 minutes, typically. A special like this? Man I’m gonna be here for an hour. I’ve got essays to write and coding to do, let’s get this done now.
Well, the title of this episode, “Escape From Beneath Glove World”, immediately makes me think of Around the Clock at Bikini Bottom. Quite an excellent fan-game, if I say so myself. It also makes me think of the Glove World level in the Cosmic Shake. I wonder if that level got any inspiration from this episode. I suppose we’ll see. Anywho, as you might expect, this episode begins with SpongeBob and Patrick having quite the fun time at Glove World, to the point where their bodies are horrifically altered by the rides. I like how they use those glove slaps to fix their faces.
SpongeBob and Patrick go to watch what is clearly an animatronic show…are we about to get Five Nights at Freddy’s in here??? After a glove song that I don’t really care about (it’s hard to get me to care about random songs like this, full disclosure). SpongeBob and Patrick really want to meet the animatronic, who they think is the real Hieronymous Glove. And they end up breaking him. This bit with Patrick is actually pretty funny. Anyway, SpongeBob and Patrick end up causing chaos and horror, starting the next animatronic show with a decapitated animatronic. This whole scene is actually a lot funnier than I expected. I love how absolutely absurd this is, especially once SpongeBob and Patrick get sent to Glove World jail (which The Cosmic Shake for sure took from this episode).
Glove World seems to be quite fond of animatronics. Patrick’s beef with them is hilarious. Patrick’s in very good form so far this episode. The two then meet a bunch of kids who’ve also been jailed. Something about this seems unethical…but hey it’s all for comedic value. Everyone decides to break out of jail once SpongeBob accidentally does so, and SpongeBob being the little snitch he is pulls on the escape alarm. Oh SpongeBob, never change.
As this is a special, we of course have to have a B-plot going on. This episode’s B-plot has to do with the animatronic Hieronymous Glove that SpongeBob and Patrick broke earlier. We cut to some workers clearly going to fix him up. I’m telling you, I’m calling it now, we’re getting some Five Nights at Freddy’s stuff in here. The workers are quite rude to the animatronic, who has an attitude. And a vendetta against Patrick. Told y’all! Back to SpongeBob and Patrick, they end up in a very Atlantis-looking part of Glove World. Something tells me this theme park partakes in very illegal activities. This part is pretty entertaining, with some good jokes here and there, like the guy getting fried, or the other guy getting pulled away by one of the Glove Guards.
SpongeBob and Patrick end up losing the little kid again, and so they have to chase after him through the facility. And what do you know, he ends up taking control of the Hieronymous Glove animatronic’s body. And when SpongeBob and Patrick head in, they’re a bit too distracted by the “robot morgue” to realize what happened. At least until the kid covers them with water. I feel like this section could’ve been a lot more chaotic than it actually was. I mean there is a good amount of chaos here…but not the kind I like. I know I’m making no sense, but I don’t know how else to describe it. Also, I think the presence of this kid is wholly unnecessary. After a few minutes of events I only marginally care about, eventually the Hieronymous Glove animatronic gains full control over his body, and he keeps the kid as ransom so that he can decapitate Patrick.
I actually like how anticlimactic this bit is, with Patrick simply taking off his own head. It was a good subversion of expectation. And then Patrick ends up taking over Hieronymous Glove’s body, while Hieronymous Glove takes over Patrick’s. So now we get some fighting. See, this is why I think Patrick’s been at top form this episode—he’s not totally oblivious to what’s going on, which means he actually gets angry. It’s just more entertaining this way. Eventually, the real Hieronymous Glove shows up and denies the animatronic’s personhood (lol). And then because this episode did have some Charlie and the Chocolate Factory nods, Hieronymous Glove gives all of Glove World to SpongeBob and Patrick…just kidding. And then we get another random song. And…no explanation for the kid. Also the other kids just kind of disappeared…hm.
“Escape From Beneath Glove World” was alright. The best part of the episode for me was easily Patrick, which is saying a lot because y’all know that I typically don’t care for Patrick very much. But he was written excellently in this one. I just wish the rest of the episode followed suit. Between a dragged out plot, a pointless kid, and disappearing characters, most of the writing in this episode is rather poor. This episode would’ve been better as a 16-minute affair, or maybe even 11 minutes. But 22 minutes? Absolutely not. Unless they wanted to lean into a horror aspect or an “Atlantis SquarePantis” type plot. Then I could’ve seen it. But as it is, it feels too shallow to justify the 22 minutes we spent here. And again, the random kid that acted like an animatronic the whole time but turns out they were just a random kid I guess? Boring. So boring. Ugh, I hate when episodes have really good stuff and really not-so-good stuff, it makes it hard to rate them. I just think that I wouldn’t personally rewatch this episode, so Okay-tier it is.
Episode Tier: Okay
Episode Score: 6.5/10