Still a bit early there, SpongeBob. If only I was reviewing this season in December, then this would be perfect!
If there’s one thing that SpongeBob Christmas specials know how to do (”Goons on the Moon” notwithstanding, still not sure if that’s even a special or not), it’s build that Christmas atmosphere. The opening
shot of this episode is quite lovely, I must say. And I love how the second shot is a painting of Gary. They did that for me, fun fact.
What I really like about this episode is that it seems like it’s going to be all about Christmas or whatever, and then we get the sudden “Seven Months Later” title card. So while this episode is still a Christmas special, it immediately differentiates itself from previous specials by having the plot not even take place on Christmas. Nah, the Christmas part of things is SpongeBob and Patrick traveling to the North Pole to give Santa his forgotten present. SpongeBob’s dramatics about this whole thing are entertaining, and I like how Patrick kinda lampshades the melodrama of it all by thinking that SpongeBob is acting. Some shenanigans later, and SpongeBob and Patrick are on their way to the North Pole. At first I was going to talk about why is Patrick even coming along, but you know what, Patrick is a ride or die best friend. I can appreciate that.
And then surprisingly Plankton enters the episode, and once he realizes where SpongeBob and Patrick are going, he wants in. I like this continuation from “It’s A SpongeBob Christmas!” of Plankton having beef with Santa. And just like in that episode, he wants to use Santa to get the Krabby Patty secret formula. Bold of him to assume that Santa runs this entire operation through computers, considering Santa existed before computers. But I suppose that doesn’t mean he can’t evolve with the times.
SpongeBob, Patrick, and Plankton traveling together is as chaotic as you’d expect. I gotta admit, when the three end up at Christmas Land Theme Park, I was very distracted by the fact that the background is REAL CLOUDS. I’m so used to the flower clouds. It’s also funny seeing Plankton in a water helmet. Is this the first time? He looks funny to me lol. For some reason I didn’t register the fact that SpongeBob and co. would be going above the surface until I saw the real clouds. Maybe I’m more tired than I thought.
Y’all when SpongeBob not only name dropped Patchy the Pirate, but then we SAW PATCHY THE PIRATE ANIMATED, my jaw was on the floor. I literally said “what the ****” out loud. Like huh???? WHAT???
W H A T????????? This…this breaks so many laws of SpongeBob. But in the best possible way. I have absolutely no qualms with this whatsoever. We already got Patchy meeting SpongeBob in the 20th anniversary special, so why not have SpongeBob on a first name basis with him, and have Patchy show up in an animated way. His animated design is very fun. I like the way that this show has decided to seemingly turn white people pink LMAO. Potty’s animated design is also super cool.
Finally, SpongeBob, Patrick, and Plankton make it to the actual North Pole. And I guess the show didn’t commit to the bit because the first elf we see is pasty…boo. Commit or don’t do it, smh. I’ve explained in detail (kind of) why I don’t like when human, or human-like characters, are in the show (other than Patchy). I did that during my review of “Sun Bleached” (again, kind of. It's basically close to the same logic as my tangent in that review). So let’s just say that I don’t care about this because I am above all a hater. I also don’t care about this plot with SpongeBob and Patrick because it’s not super funny or entertaining to me. Mostly because I don’t care much for the elves. Plankton’s plot is a lot more entertaining to me. Like the ripped reindeers are hilarious.
Suddenly, Santa shows up, freshly returned from Aruba. Thankfully, he’s not a jerkwad like in a previous appearance of his, and he’s actually pretty cool with SpongeBob having tracked him down to his house lol. At first I was a little annoyed that SpongeBob’s present turned out to be the formula, but then it wasn’t so I was much less annoyed and actually entertained, especially when Plankton was forced to read what it
actually was, which was a heartfelt letter to Santa.
I like the little “epilogue” we get in the form of a time skip to the next Christmas. It gives us more Christmas atmosphere so I can’t hate it. SpongeBob’s gift to Plankton is both hilarious and adorable. I love how it really inspires Plankton to get his robot that I guess was just sitting in the corner running so that it can destroy everyone.
“SpongeBob’s Road to Christmas” was a decently fun episode. I think my biggest problem with this thing is that a lot of it could’ve been cut. I think this episode would’ve worked better as a 16-minute long episode, and then it could’ve been paired with a short 6-minute episode that was also Christmas-themed, so that we wouldn’t remove the half-hour Christmas block. But like a lot of the build-up in the Christmas theme park was boring to me, and so were a lot of the events in the North Pole. And yet again we have a situation where Patrick just kinda disappears. That seems to happen with his character specifically a lot. It was something that I was going to mention in my season 12 overview, but I decided against it. But it seems like this is still happening here in season 13.
Episode Tier: Good
Episode Score: 7.3/10