Honest Slug
Ink Lemonade hurts me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHOLFZnFa0wEmployeeAMillion said:
Re-Evaluating my opinions on SpongeBob Season 1-8
- Thread starter EmployeeAMillion
- Start date
SpongeBronyPH
Giant Clam
Season 6 looks decent to me.
EmployeeAMillion
Season 12 Time!
No Hat for Pat (Season 6, Episode 20a)
Original Airdate: July 19 2009
Episode 234 in standard order, Episode 240 in airing order
Plot: Patrick gets a job at the Krusty Krab as a comedy prop, constantly getting hurt
Written by Casey Alexander, Zeus Cervas and Derek Iversen
[titlecard]120A[/titlecard]
Title Card Music: Cream Pie
Patrick getting a job at the Krusty Krab isn’t a new concept. Aside from the obvious Big Pink Loser, which contains many of his most famous scenes, he’s been hired roughly once a season (Arrgh! for a joke, Squilliam Returns for taking hats, Bummer Vacation (and later Two Thumbs Down) as SpongeBob’s replacement and Grandpappy the Pirate as a mock pirate, plus more I can’t remember right now). It’s gotten to the point where it doesn’t even seem like a big deal, but for some fans, this episode could be one of the best portrayals of him taking up a Krusty Kommitment. I just hope I can see what it is that makes others so happy about it.
The opening of the episode is brilliant. Patrick waits outside SpongeBob’s house for playtime, but it saddened when he realises he’s wearing his Krusty Krab hat. It feels like a dog being glum about his owner going to work, but there’s a joke on top of it of Patrick then deciding to go over to Squidward, only to realise he’s going to work aswell. Patrick takes it upon himself to get a job so he can get a hat like his neighbours. For much of the episode, he values the prospect of owning a hat more than hard work and service, but it’s shown clearly that owning a hat means he can hang out with SpongeBob more, and that’s a good motivation.
Later that day at the Krusty Krab, Mr Krabs seems to have a hard time grabbing tourists. You can tell the people he wants are tourists because they wear Hawiian shirts and take photos of everything. Patrick, wanting to become an employee, takes the job of holding a sign. Like Pat No Pay, this small part enjoys giving Patrick the simplest task possible and seeing him screw it up, which in this case means he accidentally points the sign towards the Chum Bucket and takes Mr Krabs’ advice of blowing the tourists away too literally. All in all, not a particularly good scene, but things pick up again when Mr Krabs finally gives Patrick his hat.
It seems when Patrick wears the hat, the top side of his body becomes heavy and he falls flat on his face. Mr Krabs sees an opportunity to turn him into entertainment to get even more customers, and Patrick agrees to become an attraction. This is one of the reasons people love this episode so much, in that Patrick is useful in aiding the Krusty Krab by just being himself (and a hat). Him managing to make Mr Krabs money is good and all, but the episode soon presents a problem with his act, which is the pain he suffers from it. Even better? SpongeBob shows concern regarding Patrick’s health, despite the starfish wanting to be good at something. This briefly presents a tough question- entertain dozens by hurting yourself, or go back to living the life of a big, pink loser?
The latter option doesn’t seem so bad when Mr Krabs tries to spice up the act by having him dive into a bucket of sea urchins. When Patrick takes his hat off to prepare for the act, he and Squidward (up there supervising I guess) realise the kinetic reason for him falling is because of the hat, as hatless, he can’t fall over. After the act fails due to Squidward, hat on head, accidentally takes the fall for Patrick, Mr Krabs fires him for fouling it up and takes his hat away, which is a bit hard to understand considering pain still happened (on Squidward’s part), but it’s good to know there’s an epliogue where SpongeBob decides to give Patrick his own hat anytime he wants. For a slapstick-heavy episode, an ending like this is the first thing an audience would need to wind down and see the heart behind it.
This episode doesn’t just have comedy, it knows what comedy is about, which I think makes it one of the smartest episodes of the season. Take for instance the Krustomers’ reaction to Patrick’s act getting stale, and how they remain unimpressed with Mr Krabs’ attempts to spice it up until something new (a cream pie) is added to the routine. Not to mention, there are funny jokes in this episode, like how SpongeBob’s hat flies back onto his head after getting thrown off, and Squidward’s enthusiasm when Patrick asks him to push him off the diving board. They’re small moments, but they keep the episode funnier than most others in a long time.
I can’t really say the same about the animation. It has a severe case of Seasona Sixitis, with some scenes with visible veins and bodily fluids (saliva and snot, but it’s still gross). Ironically, the image that’s supposed to be the sickest, Patrick being worn down and beaten after numerous falls on a nailed floor, looks just horrible enough to warrant the audience’s intended reaction, while still being suitable for the kind of show it’s on. There are definitely worse things shown in this season, but these stand out for being in such a well-written episode. I’m not saying they detract from its rewatchability, but it’s something you’ll have to get past.
The characters are all in good form, even Patrick. He isn’t a jerk to anyone, just seeming like a dumb kid who wants to hang out with his older(?), more mature friends. SpongeBob’s really dialled back here, feeling nothing but concern for his friend and serious compassion when he sees what Mr Krabs’ ideas have done to him. No screaming, no running around with their arms flailing, they seems like real people, and in SpongeBob’s case, fantastic role models. That said, Squidward still remains a rather funny second eye into how to percieve the show, willing to push Patrick off a diving board and all. If there’s one problem, it’d be Mr Krabs and how little he cares for Patrick’s safety once he starts making money, but that’s SpongeBob’s role, and he gets robbed for it in the end.
Not since Not Normal has there been an episode so down-to-Earth with its messages and storytelling. It’s just a good idea that’s presented in a good way, with characters that all have a real purpose and jokes that hit their mark better than they should. While the animation can be a bit gross, and if you were deaf this would look like any other Season 6 episode, it’s the writing that saves this one from being part of the crowd. I feel like this goes up there with the episodes that take what this season has in a great direction.
Question of the Day: If you had a job at the Krusty Krab, what would you want it to be?
Hopefully the next episode’s breakneck pace won’t toy with my concentration.
:sbthumbs:
Original Airdate: July 19 2009
Episode 234 in standard order, Episode 240 in airing order
Plot: Patrick gets a job at the Krusty Krab as a comedy prop, constantly getting hurt
Written by Casey Alexander, Zeus Cervas and Derek Iversen
[titlecard]120A[/titlecard]
Title Card Music: Cream Pie
Patrick getting a job at the Krusty Krab isn’t a new concept. Aside from the obvious Big Pink Loser, which contains many of his most famous scenes, he’s been hired roughly once a season (Arrgh! for a joke, Squilliam Returns for taking hats, Bummer Vacation (and later Two Thumbs Down) as SpongeBob’s replacement and Grandpappy the Pirate as a mock pirate, plus more I can’t remember right now). It’s gotten to the point where it doesn’t even seem like a big deal, but for some fans, this episode could be one of the best portrayals of him taking up a Krusty Kommitment. I just hope I can see what it is that makes others so happy about it.
The opening of the episode is brilliant. Patrick waits outside SpongeBob’s house for playtime, but it saddened when he realises he’s wearing his Krusty Krab hat. It feels like a dog being glum about his owner going to work, but there’s a joke on top of it of Patrick then deciding to go over to Squidward, only to realise he’s going to work aswell. Patrick takes it upon himself to get a job so he can get a hat like his neighbours. For much of the episode, he values the prospect of owning a hat more than hard work and service, but it’s shown clearly that owning a hat means he can hang out with SpongeBob more, and that’s a good motivation.
Later that day at the Krusty Krab, Mr Krabs seems to have a hard time grabbing tourists. You can tell the people he wants are tourists because they wear Hawiian shirts and take photos of everything. Patrick, wanting to become an employee, takes the job of holding a sign. Like Pat No Pay, this small part enjoys giving Patrick the simplest task possible and seeing him screw it up, which in this case means he accidentally points the sign towards the Chum Bucket and takes Mr Krabs’ advice of blowing the tourists away too literally. All in all, not a particularly good scene, but things pick up again when Mr Krabs finally gives Patrick his hat.
It seems when Patrick wears the hat, the top side of his body becomes heavy and he falls flat on his face. Mr Krabs sees an opportunity to turn him into entertainment to get even more customers, and Patrick agrees to become an attraction. This is one of the reasons people love this episode so much, in that Patrick is useful in aiding the Krusty Krab by just being himself (and a hat). Him managing to make Mr Krabs money is good and all, but the episode soon presents a problem with his act, which is the pain he suffers from it. Even better? SpongeBob shows concern regarding Patrick’s health, despite the starfish wanting to be good at something. This briefly presents a tough question- entertain dozens by hurting yourself, or go back to living the life of a big, pink loser?
The latter option doesn’t seem so bad when Mr Krabs tries to spice up the act by having him dive into a bucket of sea urchins. When Patrick takes his hat off to prepare for the act, he and Squidward (up there supervising I guess) realise the kinetic reason for him falling is because of the hat, as hatless, he can’t fall over. After the act fails due to Squidward, hat on head, accidentally takes the fall for Patrick, Mr Krabs fires him for fouling it up and takes his hat away, which is a bit hard to understand considering pain still happened (on Squidward’s part), but it’s good to know there’s an epliogue where SpongeBob decides to give Patrick his own hat anytime he wants. For a slapstick-heavy episode, an ending like this is the first thing an audience would need to wind down and see the heart behind it.
This episode doesn’t just have comedy, it knows what comedy is about, which I think makes it one of the smartest episodes of the season. Take for instance the Krustomers’ reaction to Patrick’s act getting stale, and how they remain unimpressed with Mr Krabs’ attempts to spice it up until something new (a cream pie) is added to the routine. Not to mention, there are funny jokes in this episode, like how SpongeBob’s hat flies back onto his head after getting thrown off, and Squidward’s enthusiasm when Patrick asks him to push him off the diving board. They’re small moments, but they keep the episode funnier than most others in a long time.
I can’t really say the same about the animation. It has a severe case of Seasona Sixitis, with some scenes with visible veins and bodily fluids (saliva and snot, but it’s still gross). Ironically, the image that’s supposed to be the sickest, Patrick being worn down and beaten after numerous falls on a nailed floor, looks just horrible enough to warrant the audience’s intended reaction, while still being suitable for the kind of show it’s on. There are definitely worse things shown in this season, but these stand out for being in such a well-written episode. I’m not saying they detract from its rewatchability, but it’s something you’ll have to get past.
The characters are all in good form, even Patrick. He isn’t a jerk to anyone, just seeming like a dumb kid who wants to hang out with his older(?), more mature friends. SpongeBob’s really dialled back here, feeling nothing but concern for his friend and serious compassion when he sees what Mr Krabs’ ideas have done to him. No screaming, no running around with their arms flailing, they seems like real people, and in SpongeBob’s case, fantastic role models. That said, Squidward still remains a rather funny second eye into how to percieve the show, willing to push Patrick off a diving board and all. If there’s one problem, it’d be Mr Krabs and how little he cares for Patrick’s safety once he starts making money, but that’s SpongeBob’s role, and he gets robbed for it in the end.
Not since Not Normal has there been an episode so down-to-Earth with its messages and storytelling. It’s just a good idea that’s presented in a good way, with characters that all have a real purpose and jokes that hit their mark better than they should. While the animation can be a bit gross, and if you were deaf this would look like any other Season 6 episode, it’s the writing that saves this one from being part of the crowd. I feel like this goes up there with the episodes that take what this season has in a great direction.
Question of the Day: If you had a job at the Krusty Krab, what would you want it to be?
Hopefully the next episode’s breakneck pace won’t toy with my concentration.
:sbthumbs:
dmandaboi
I love SBM
Was this supposed to be a pun lolEmployeeAMillion said:
EmployeeAMillion
Season 12 Time!
I’ll either reference the next episode or make a pun out of one of its elements, to give people a guess at what it could be.
EmployeeAMillion
Season 12 Time!
Toy Store of Doom (Season 6, Episode 20b)
Original Airdate: March 17 2009
Episode 235 in standard order, Episode 227 in airing order, Episode 228 in order of general release
Plot: SpongeBob and Patrick sneak into a toy store after closing time
Written by Luke Brookshier, Nate Cash and Dani Michaeli
[titlecard]120B[/titlecard]
Title Card Music: Horror House of Wax Retro 2
I’m now 235 episodes into this activity, meaning I’m only 105 episodes away from my year-end goal of getting to Season 8, and that there are now more Post-Movie episodes than Pre-Movie ones. It’s well and truly been a downward slope with no signs of stagnating, with this episode in particular always being one of the reasons I didn’t like Season 6. I hear that it’s similar to a Rugrats episode which was also about the two main characters staying in a toy store after closing, but it’s hard for me to judge considering I haven’t watched Rugrats in a long time. Let’s get on to the episode, you can tell it’s not one that I’ll spend a long time talking about.
The thing that always strikes me about the start of the episode is just how boring it is. All it is is SpongeBob and Patrick laying around in Squidward’s house, sick and tired of all their toys. There are a few things I like about this and a few I don’t. I like how Old Man Jenkins is in the toy chest for some reason, and I enjoy the reveal that they’re in Squidward’s house. You see a shot of the whole street, but first-time viewers (or those not paying attention to the spotted wallpaper) would think they’re in SpongeBob’s house. It’s clever, but not enough to make the episode enjoyable.
That changes when the two are kicked out and find out via conveniently placed billboards that a new toy store is coming to town, called “The Toy Barrel”. They manage to get there a few seconds before it’s placed and opened, so you get a rather unimportant crying scene, before the guy operating the crane theraputically throws Patrick in (with SpongeBob following). Once inside, they gawk at the large, colourful interior and spend the rest of the day singing and playing. This would be slow and annoying, but they skip most of the singing and cut to a few toy-based gags, such as SpongeBob wearing what he calls a “man-tu” and Patrick winding up a robot well beyond its limit.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and the store closes. Patrick rather easily persuades SpongeBob to stay in after closing, using the fact that they get to own the toy store as a reason. Usually I wouldn’t like Patrick doing something illegal and roping SpongeBob in, and I don’t here, plus they’ve already spent “several song-filled hours” in the store, but it leads to the actual crux of the episode and makes the rest of it entertaining. As the guards close up shop, SpongeBob and Patrick hide in a dollhouse and come out when the coast is clear. Finally, 60% of the way into the episode, the lights go off and the two realise they’re afraid of the dark.
The rest of the story (in other words, what a majority of the story should’ve been) is them viewing all the toys as evil and even forming a resistance against them. I have to say, it’s all a very fun show of animation, tone and action, and it’s a smart idea to give the toy store a dark and gritty look. Heck, I even like the gag of Patrick’s windup robot coming back to give them a scare, and him winding it back up not realising the threat it bestows. I also feel like they could’ve spent more time on their reaction to the store finally opening again, instead of focusing on their eyes burning and Patrick not learning anything, going back inside. It’s certainly not a bad story, as it has some fun ideas that are executed in an okay way, but it suffers from pacing problems.
It’s a shame too because this is one of the funnier Season 6 episodes. I’ve already mentioned some rather funny things, such as Old Man Jenkins being in a toy chest and SpongeBob throwing himself into the toy store, not wanting to be forced in like Patrick. They’re the tip of the iceberg to a collection of neat gags. The art direction both before and after the toy store is locked is pretty good. Seeing the toys become evil is one thing, but SpongeBob and Patrick hiding in a pile of them for cover only to be met with dozens of evil faces is taking artistic advantage of the story and I like it.
The worst thing about this episode is the characters. This is another case where SpongeBob’s dumbed down exponentially, to the point where there’s no line between him being a man and a child, he just acts like a straight child throughout the entire episode. (Speaking of which, wasted opportunity to reference the giant piano in Big!) Sure Patrick gets some great lines like “I can’t hear you, it’s too dark in here” and “It was nice knowing you buddy”/“I know, I’m a very interesting person”, but he just seems bratty. I’m getting sick of episodes where Patrick tempts SpongeBob into doing something wrong. Even though the side characters beat down on or ignore them for their stupidity, they don’t provide much else.
Well, the good news is this episode isn’t all that bad. The comedy and animation keep the episode fun, especially in the time of action towards the end. The bad news is that the story doesn’t go anywhere for a long time, barely feeling like it has a strong narrative, and the characters are weak here. If jokes and presentation are what you value in an episode, then watch this and see if you like it. If you care more about the characters and plotting, this won’t be your cup of tea. Still, I don’t get why this was Tom Kenny’s third-favourite episode by the end of Season 6 (I’ll talk more about the “Tom Twenty” when I finish every episode on it).
Question of the Day: What was your favourite toy growing up?
I’ve always considered tomorrow’s episode a bit overrated, but that hopefully changes when I see it again for the first time in over two years.
:stbhumbs:
Original Airdate: March 17 2009
Episode 235 in standard order, Episode 227 in airing order, Episode 228 in order of general release
Plot: SpongeBob and Patrick sneak into a toy store after closing time
Written by Luke Brookshier, Nate Cash and Dani Michaeli
[titlecard]120B[/titlecard]
Title Card Music: Horror House of Wax Retro 2
I’m now 235 episodes into this activity, meaning I’m only 105 episodes away from my year-end goal of getting to Season 8, and that there are now more Post-Movie episodes than Pre-Movie ones. It’s well and truly been a downward slope with no signs of stagnating, with this episode in particular always being one of the reasons I didn’t like Season 6. I hear that it’s similar to a Rugrats episode which was also about the two main characters staying in a toy store after closing, but it’s hard for me to judge considering I haven’t watched Rugrats in a long time. Let’s get on to the episode, you can tell it’s not one that I’ll spend a long time talking about.
The thing that always strikes me about the start of the episode is just how boring it is. All it is is SpongeBob and Patrick laying around in Squidward’s house, sick and tired of all their toys. There are a few things I like about this and a few I don’t. I like how Old Man Jenkins is in the toy chest for some reason, and I enjoy the reveal that they’re in Squidward’s house. You see a shot of the whole street, but first-time viewers (or those not paying attention to the spotted wallpaper) would think they’re in SpongeBob’s house. It’s clever, but not enough to make the episode enjoyable.
That changes when the two are kicked out and find out via conveniently placed billboards that a new toy store is coming to town, called “The Toy Barrel”. They manage to get there a few seconds before it’s placed and opened, so you get a rather unimportant crying scene, before the guy operating the crane theraputically throws Patrick in (with SpongeBob following). Once inside, they gawk at the large, colourful interior and spend the rest of the day singing and playing. This would be slow and annoying, but they skip most of the singing and cut to a few toy-based gags, such as SpongeBob wearing what he calls a “man-tu” and Patrick winding up a robot well beyond its limit.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and the store closes. Patrick rather easily persuades SpongeBob to stay in after closing, using the fact that they get to own the toy store as a reason. Usually I wouldn’t like Patrick doing something illegal and roping SpongeBob in, and I don’t here, plus they’ve already spent “several song-filled hours” in the store, but it leads to the actual crux of the episode and makes the rest of it entertaining. As the guards close up shop, SpongeBob and Patrick hide in a dollhouse and come out when the coast is clear. Finally, 60% of the way into the episode, the lights go off and the two realise they’re afraid of the dark.
The rest of the story (in other words, what a majority of the story should’ve been) is them viewing all the toys as evil and even forming a resistance against them. I have to say, it’s all a very fun show of animation, tone and action, and it’s a smart idea to give the toy store a dark and gritty look. Heck, I even like the gag of Patrick’s windup robot coming back to give them a scare, and him winding it back up not realising the threat it bestows. I also feel like they could’ve spent more time on their reaction to the store finally opening again, instead of focusing on their eyes burning and Patrick not learning anything, going back inside. It’s certainly not a bad story, as it has some fun ideas that are executed in an okay way, but it suffers from pacing problems.
It’s a shame too because this is one of the funnier Season 6 episodes. I’ve already mentioned some rather funny things, such as Old Man Jenkins being in a toy chest and SpongeBob throwing himself into the toy store, not wanting to be forced in like Patrick. They’re the tip of the iceberg to a collection of neat gags. The art direction both before and after the toy store is locked is pretty good. Seeing the toys become evil is one thing, but SpongeBob and Patrick hiding in a pile of them for cover only to be met with dozens of evil faces is taking artistic advantage of the story and I like it.
The worst thing about this episode is the characters. This is another case where SpongeBob’s dumbed down exponentially, to the point where there’s no line between him being a man and a child, he just acts like a straight child throughout the entire episode. (Speaking of which, wasted opportunity to reference the giant piano in Big!) Sure Patrick gets some great lines like “I can’t hear you, it’s too dark in here” and “It was nice knowing you buddy”/“I know, I’m a very interesting person”, but he just seems bratty. I’m getting sick of episodes where Patrick tempts SpongeBob into doing something wrong. Even though the side characters beat down on or ignore them for their stupidity, they don’t provide much else.
Well, the good news is this episode isn’t all that bad. The comedy and animation keep the episode fun, especially in the time of action towards the end. The bad news is that the story doesn’t go anywhere for a long time, barely feeling like it has a strong narrative, and the characters are weak here. If jokes and presentation are what you value in an episode, then watch this and see if you like it. If you care more about the characters and plotting, this won’t be your cup of tea. Still, I don’t get why this was Tom Kenny’s third-favourite episode by the end of Season 6 (I’ll talk more about the “Tom Twenty” when I finish every episode on it).
Question of the Day: What was your favourite toy growing up?
I’ve always considered tomorrow’s episode a bit overrated, but that hopefully changes when I see it again for the first time in over two years.
:stbhumbs:
EmployeeAMillion
Season 12 Time!
Sand Castles in the Sand (Season 6, Episode 21a)
Original Airdate: March 16 2009
Episode 236 in standard order, Episode 226 in airing order, Episode 227 in order of general release
Plot: SpongeBob and Patrick engage in a sandcastle war
Written by Casey Alexander, Zeus Cervas and Dani Michaeli
[titlecard]121A[/titlecard]
Title Card Music: Wahini Wobble
It all started when Blabbidy Dip had to blabbidy his dip about this episode. Showering it with love and his standard (at the time) mindless gushing, this almost immediately rose through the ranks as one of the most popular and well-loved Post-Movie episodes. When it came time for me to give it a watch, I couldn’t see what the big fuss was about, it just seemed like a perfectly fine episode, especially when paired with the classics. Could it be that I was just a little worn out by Season 6 at that point, and that this is actually a shining star of the era? I hoped so when I gave this a rewatch.
For some reason, the beginning of the episode feels like it’s designed to lower your expectations. SpongeBob heads over to Patrick’s rock to announce they’re going to the beach, ripping off his square pants to reveal trunks. Patrick tries to do the same, only to rip off his flesh and expose his muscles. It’s well and truly one of the most hideous images in the whole show, not improving with them going on a bus and annoying the passengers until they’re kicked off. Only after Patrick causes a ruckus trying to catch a frisbee (or a plastic disc that you toss) does the story settle and start giving us sandcastles.
To briefly be a bit negative, I don’t think Patrick’s very good here until the halfway mark. When SpongeBob tries to help him with his sandcastle, he seems to not want any help and even sees SpongeBob as dismantling his castle. Even worse, he soon attacks SpongeBob’s castles to break even. It brings me back to The Fry Cook Games, another episode where I thought SpongeBob and Patrick’s friendship was put on the line too easily. Thankfully, both episodes pick up, this one in particular for how far to goes in showing their competition to destroy each others’ territory. Once again, this is an episode that takes a while to pick up and genuinely feel exciting, but I’m glad it does.
As they fight, their rivalry grows out of control, with them re-enacting Medieval and Civil War era battles, followed soon by SpongeBob in a World War II battle station and Patrick in a giant robot head. It’s well and truly crazy, with special mention going to the fact that SpongeBob even breathes life into some of the people he creates, as opposed to leaving them as models like the tiny princess doll he makes earlier in the episode, and the war general in the battle station. As their fight gets bigger and louder, the denizens of Goo Lagoon leave out of fear, just in time due to the beach eventually being blown to bits by the artillery SpongeBob and Patrick use. It all lends the message that SpongeBob and Patrick are always going to be annoying, even when they’re doing something as simple as building sandcastles. However, SpongeBob manages to deliver a hefty speech about how violent they’d been and how they both lost in the end, so at least he seems to know when to give the people around him (and therefore the viewer) a break.
As for the comedy in this episode, it’s a mixture of what you’d expect from Season 6 and some little surprises. Of course the scene on the bus is tedious, but things soon pick up when you get to see how large and intricate SpongeBob and Patrick’s sandcastles are. The main joke of the episode is good enough, but you get extra things like SpongeBob’s sand creatures being sentient and the treaty SpongeBob tries to get signed rather early on. I also noticed he used some stock phrases like “how do you like them apples?” and “all’s fair in love and war”, which makes me think the writers had been watching some war movies and wanted to incorporate as much of the charm of them into this episode as they could.
One of the things people like this episode for is its animation, and I can see what they mean. Sure on a surface level, it doesn’t seem interesting to make much of a deal out of sand. After all, it’s glorified white. When you actually see how it looks in motion, with the creatures, objects and dust clouds that cover the screen on occasion, it’s stunning how lively it makes the episode feel. The biggest drawback is the lack of colour. I can’t blame the artists, as they made sand look the best it can throughout the whole thing, but it’s clear these are designed well and would look awesome as sketchhes. Then on the downside of the animation in this episode, you have Patrick ripping his flesh off, which is unpleasant in every meaning of the word.
Onto the episode’s characters, the one thing it wants you to remember is that SpongeBob and Patrick are obnoxious. That in itself isn’t a terrible thing, as that’s been their role in the show for a while, but whether or not you have a bad portrayal of them depends on whether they’re annoying to the audience. The best thing about them here is it’s just them for a majority of the runtime, meaning you’re likely to get suckered into their shenanigans until they go too far and have to clean up their mess. As for the side characters, imagine if they were all Squidward, annoyed by their antics and wanting them to just leave them alone. Without Squidward, it’s just not a fun dynamic.
In conclusion, I found more in this episode to enjoy than I initially expected. I still wouldn’t consider it a high point of the Post-Movie seasons, but compared to Season 6, it’s quite high up there. Given how there’s always an attempts to be grand in the art direction and all the war-based atmosphere it delivers, I can see why fans craving for more action would enjoy this episode. However, it still has some pacing, character and gross-out problems, as it’s not perfect. I guess I should reaffirm that this is still good and worth your time, but I’m better off with something more thought-provoking like Not Normal or No Hat for Pat.
Question of the Day: Have you ever built a good sandcastle? Personally, I never got the hang of it.
The only thing worse than an episode that makes you angry is an episode where the whole point is to make you angry. Until then, war-based humor has come a long way.
:sbthumbs:
Original Airdate: March 16 2009
Episode 236 in standard order, Episode 226 in airing order, Episode 227 in order of general release
Plot: SpongeBob and Patrick engage in a sandcastle war
Written by Casey Alexander, Zeus Cervas and Dani Michaeli
[titlecard]121A[/titlecard]
Title Card Music: Wahini Wobble
It all started when Blabbidy Dip had to blabbidy his dip about this episode. Showering it with love and his standard (at the time) mindless gushing, this almost immediately rose through the ranks as one of the most popular and well-loved Post-Movie episodes. When it came time for me to give it a watch, I couldn’t see what the big fuss was about, it just seemed like a perfectly fine episode, especially when paired with the classics. Could it be that I was just a little worn out by Season 6 at that point, and that this is actually a shining star of the era? I hoped so when I gave this a rewatch.
For some reason, the beginning of the episode feels like it’s designed to lower your expectations. SpongeBob heads over to Patrick’s rock to announce they’re going to the beach, ripping off his square pants to reveal trunks. Patrick tries to do the same, only to rip off his flesh and expose his muscles. It’s well and truly one of the most hideous images in the whole show, not improving with them going on a bus and annoying the passengers until they’re kicked off. Only after Patrick causes a ruckus trying to catch a frisbee (or a plastic disc that you toss) does the story settle and start giving us sandcastles.
To briefly be a bit negative, I don’t think Patrick’s very good here until the halfway mark. When SpongeBob tries to help him with his sandcastle, he seems to not want any help and even sees SpongeBob as dismantling his castle. Even worse, he soon attacks SpongeBob’s castles to break even. It brings me back to The Fry Cook Games, another episode where I thought SpongeBob and Patrick’s friendship was put on the line too easily. Thankfully, both episodes pick up, this one in particular for how far to goes in showing their competition to destroy each others’ territory. Once again, this is an episode that takes a while to pick up and genuinely feel exciting, but I’m glad it does.
As they fight, their rivalry grows out of control, with them re-enacting Medieval and Civil War era battles, followed soon by SpongeBob in a World War II battle station and Patrick in a giant robot head. It’s well and truly crazy, with special mention going to the fact that SpongeBob even breathes life into some of the people he creates, as opposed to leaving them as models like the tiny princess doll he makes earlier in the episode, and the war general in the battle station. As their fight gets bigger and louder, the denizens of Goo Lagoon leave out of fear, just in time due to the beach eventually being blown to bits by the artillery SpongeBob and Patrick use. It all lends the message that SpongeBob and Patrick are always going to be annoying, even when they’re doing something as simple as building sandcastles. However, SpongeBob manages to deliver a hefty speech about how violent they’d been and how they both lost in the end, so at least he seems to know when to give the people around him (and therefore the viewer) a break.
As for the comedy in this episode, it’s a mixture of what you’d expect from Season 6 and some little surprises. Of course the scene on the bus is tedious, but things soon pick up when you get to see how large and intricate SpongeBob and Patrick’s sandcastles are. The main joke of the episode is good enough, but you get extra things like SpongeBob’s sand creatures being sentient and the treaty SpongeBob tries to get signed rather early on. I also noticed he used some stock phrases like “how do you like them apples?” and “all’s fair in love and war”, which makes me think the writers had been watching some war movies and wanted to incorporate as much of the charm of them into this episode as they could.
One of the things people like this episode for is its animation, and I can see what they mean. Sure on a surface level, it doesn’t seem interesting to make much of a deal out of sand. After all, it’s glorified white. When you actually see how it looks in motion, with the creatures, objects and dust clouds that cover the screen on occasion, it’s stunning how lively it makes the episode feel. The biggest drawback is the lack of colour. I can’t blame the artists, as they made sand look the best it can throughout the whole thing, but it’s clear these are designed well and would look awesome as sketchhes. Then on the downside of the animation in this episode, you have Patrick ripping his flesh off, which is unpleasant in every meaning of the word.
Onto the episode’s characters, the one thing it wants you to remember is that SpongeBob and Patrick are obnoxious. That in itself isn’t a terrible thing, as that’s been their role in the show for a while, but whether or not you have a bad portrayal of them depends on whether they’re annoying to the audience. The best thing about them here is it’s just them for a majority of the runtime, meaning you’re likely to get suckered into their shenanigans until they go too far and have to clean up their mess. As for the side characters, imagine if they were all Squidward, annoyed by their antics and wanting them to just leave them alone. Without Squidward, it’s just not a fun dynamic.
In conclusion, I found more in this episode to enjoy than I initially expected. I still wouldn’t consider it a high point of the Post-Movie seasons, but compared to Season 6, it’s quite high up there. Given how there’s always an attempts to be grand in the art direction and all the war-based atmosphere it delivers, I can see why fans craving for more action would enjoy this episode. However, it still has some pacing, character and gross-out problems, as it’s not perfect. I guess I should reaffirm that this is still good and worth your time, but I’m better off with something more thought-provoking like Not Normal or No Hat for Pat.
Question of the Day: Have you ever built a good sandcastle? Personally, I never got the hang of it.
The only thing worse than an episode that makes you angry is an episode where the whole point is to make you angry. Until then, war-based humor has come a long way.
:sbthumbs:
SpongeBronyPH
Giant Clam
I love Sand Castles in the Sand! 5-stars. 
EmployeeAMillion
Season 12 Time!
Shell Shocked (Season 6, Episode 21b)
Original Airdate: June 1 2009
Episode 237 in standard order, Episode 231 in airing order, Episode 232 in order of general release
Plot: SpongeBob accidentally breaks Gary’s shell, and tries to find him a new one
Written by Casey Alexander, Zeus Cervas and Richard Pursel
[titlecard]121B[/titlecard]
Title Card Music: Tentically Speaking
When you only remember one joke from an episode, that can be seen as a sign that it’s memorable, and therefore good. Just look at how many people remember I <3 Dancing, despite it only really having one funny moment that sticks out, the “who put you on the planet? ugh!” line. However, if it’s a bad joke that’s the most remembered aspect, it could hurt your willingness to rewatch it or serve as a bad example of comedy. All That Glitters, House Fancy and Pet Sitter Pat are all episodes that are hit with this problem, and this episode is no exception.
One night, SpongeBob is woken up by a rustling sound in his house. Afraid it could be a burglar, he gets himself equipped with a helmet and sportz racket and heads downstairs, but not before the classic “tripping over something on the way down” routine. This time, it’s a firetruck that fits his foot like a...foot glove. When he gets down, he finds chattering teeth and Gary in a boot. I can’t imagine why he’d be in a boot (that doesn’t even look like it’d fit SpongeBob), but cats do stupid things, so I don’t see why snails can’t do the same. Eventually, through hackneyed slapstick and SpongeBob testing its density with a few knocks, Gary’s shell breaks, leaving him a sad slug.
SpongeBob tries to find Gary a new shell for the rest of the episode, starting with whatever he can find around the house, including a glass bowl. You’d think a glass shell would be cool, but as Gary fits into it, his skin stretches underneath horribly. Gary gives SpongeBob a shell catalogue in order to persuade him to buy an actual shell, which is one of the few times Gary’s done so successfully. The bad thing is that the shells sold at professional emporiums are far too expensive to purchase, and that’s where an Angry Jack (voiced by Dee Snider) commercial comes into play.
There are loud, in-your-face ads that urge you to change the channel, and then there’s Angry Jack’s. He plays the role of a seething salesman who’s selling shells to clear his inventory, and apprently has marital problems. He’s so cheap that while the catalogue advertised shells that were about 10 grand, he’s selling them for less than $50! Now that’s madness. SpongeBob goes to the store where it seems that Jack’s actually a nice guy away from the camera. That is until SpongeBob manages through sheer dumb luck to break every single shell in the emporium. The entire scene has no joke other than “SpongeBob is a total clutz, and is making this guy genuinely angry, but it’s wacky because he was introduced as being angry”.
The ending to the episode feels like it was made at the last minute. After SpongeBob gives all his money and a couple limbs to pay back Jack, he finds Mr Krabs in a dumpster willing to be helpful, and they eventually come to an agreement; Gary can use Mr Krabs’ shell as his own as long as SpongeBob isn’t paid for the rest of the year (which seems to he a while because of a reference earlier in the episode to Christmas being “last season”). How a crab shell would fit a snail is beyond me, but it ties together the theme of the episode, in that it’s annoying and nonsensical.
As I mentioned, the one thing I’m sure everyone remembers from this episode is the part where SpongeBob breaks every shell in Angry Jack’s empourium, which I see as a love-it-or-hate-it deal. I hate it for how obvious the punchline is from the start, and for how it’s far too played up to seem like an accident. I point to the part where SpongeBob is prancing on them, wondering why they keep breaking, as a reason for how contrived it all feels. Aside from that, many of the jokes come from how loose the story gets, like the first time SpongeBob breaks Gary’s shell, and Mr Krabs randomly being in a dumpster. I get the sense they knew the plot had holes in it, so as a joke, they poked a couple more into it.
When the episode gets gross, it shows some pretty darn gross stuff. Gary’s exposed body is rather sickening, and it sadly makes me wish they kept it a big butt like in To SquarePants or Not to SquarePants. You also get Mr Krabs in a molted state again after Shell of a Man (which is hard to believe was now half the series ago), but they put a lot more effort into making him look some sort of monster as he climbs through SpongeBob’s window, as opposed to knocking at the door like a normal person. One thing I would’ve loved was if the title card was painted with snail shells and patterns, because the ones in the episode don’t look that bad. It’s just a shame that they’re all broken to pieces by SpongeBob’s stupidity.
As for characters, they suffer from the poor story. SpongeBob flips between considerate for Gary’s health and safety, and being a distick with sweaty palms and a bad habit of breaking mint shells. It makes him feel like dumber when the best I can say about him is that he at least cares about a character sometimes. I like Snider’s performance, but Angry Jack is just one joke- make a guy angry, then happy, then angry again. Gary himself is put in a pretty bad situation, as by the end of the episode, the best he can hope for is to keep a shell fit for another creature.
Just another bad Gary episode, there’s not much to see here. If you hate the episodes where there’s one joke you dread, this is not for you. However, if you do well and truly like Angry Jack (or are a fan of Dee Snider), you have a lot to wade through before you get to your favourite moment. I guess the reason I only remember the one is because this is one of those forgettably bad episodes, where you don’t hate it so much you wish it wasn’t made, but you like it so little you question why you should rewatch it.
Question of the Day: If you were a snail, what would you want your shell pattern to be?
Is the next episode funny or fummy? I guess you just have to wait and see. Until then, something vulgar this site wouldn’t like me saying.
:sbthumbs:
Original Airdate: June 1 2009
Episode 237 in standard order, Episode 231 in airing order, Episode 232 in order of general release
Plot: SpongeBob accidentally breaks Gary’s shell, and tries to find him a new one
Written by Casey Alexander, Zeus Cervas and Richard Pursel
[titlecard]121B[/titlecard]
Title Card Music: Tentically Speaking
When you only remember one joke from an episode, that can be seen as a sign that it’s memorable, and therefore good. Just look at how many people remember I <3 Dancing, despite it only really having one funny moment that sticks out, the “who put you on the planet? ugh!” line. However, if it’s a bad joke that’s the most remembered aspect, it could hurt your willingness to rewatch it or serve as a bad example of comedy. All That Glitters, House Fancy and Pet Sitter Pat are all episodes that are hit with this problem, and this episode is no exception.
One night, SpongeBob is woken up by a rustling sound in his house. Afraid it could be a burglar, he gets himself equipped with a helmet and sportz racket and heads downstairs, but not before the classic “tripping over something on the way down” routine. This time, it’s a firetruck that fits his foot like a...foot glove. When he gets down, he finds chattering teeth and Gary in a boot. I can’t imagine why he’d be in a boot (that doesn’t even look like it’d fit SpongeBob), but cats do stupid things, so I don’t see why snails can’t do the same. Eventually, through hackneyed slapstick and SpongeBob testing its density with a few knocks, Gary’s shell breaks, leaving him a sad slug.
SpongeBob tries to find Gary a new shell for the rest of the episode, starting with whatever he can find around the house, including a glass bowl. You’d think a glass shell would be cool, but as Gary fits into it, his skin stretches underneath horribly. Gary gives SpongeBob a shell catalogue in order to persuade him to buy an actual shell, which is one of the few times Gary’s done so successfully. The bad thing is that the shells sold at professional emporiums are far too expensive to purchase, and that’s where an Angry Jack (voiced by Dee Snider) commercial comes into play.
There are loud, in-your-face ads that urge you to change the channel, and then there’s Angry Jack’s. He plays the role of a seething salesman who’s selling shells to clear his inventory, and apprently has marital problems. He’s so cheap that while the catalogue advertised shells that were about 10 grand, he’s selling them for less than $50! Now that’s madness. SpongeBob goes to the store where it seems that Jack’s actually a nice guy away from the camera. That is until SpongeBob manages through sheer dumb luck to break every single shell in the emporium. The entire scene has no joke other than “SpongeBob is a total clutz, and is making this guy genuinely angry, but it’s wacky because he was introduced as being angry”.
The ending to the episode feels like it was made at the last minute. After SpongeBob gives all his money and a couple limbs to pay back Jack, he finds Mr Krabs in a dumpster willing to be helpful, and they eventually come to an agreement; Gary can use Mr Krabs’ shell as his own as long as SpongeBob isn’t paid for the rest of the year (which seems to he a while because of a reference earlier in the episode to Christmas being “last season”). How a crab shell would fit a snail is beyond me, but it ties together the theme of the episode, in that it’s annoying and nonsensical.
As I mentioned, the one thing I’m sure everyone remembers from this episode is the part where SpongeBob breaks every shell in Angry Jack’s empourium, which I see as a love-it-or-hate-it deal. I hate it for how obvious the punchline is from the start, and for how it’s far too played up to seem like an accident. I point to the part where SpongeBob is prancing on them, wondering why they keep breaking, as a reason for how contrived it all feels. Aside from that, many of the jokes come from how loose the story gets, like the first time SpongeBob breaks Gary’s shell, and Mr Krabs randomly being in a dumpster. I get the sense they knew the plot had holes in it, so as a joke, they poked a couple more into it.
When the episode gets gross, it shows some pretty darn gross stuff. Gary’s exposed body is rather sickening, and it sadly makes me wish they kept it a big butt like in To SquarePants or Not to SquarePants. You also get Mr Krabs in a molted state again after Shell of a Man (which is hard to believe was now half the series ago), but they put a lot more effort into making him look some sort of monster as he climbs through SpongeBob’s window, as opposed to knocking at the door like a normal person. One thing I would’ve loved was if the title card was painted with snail shells and patterns, because the ones in the episode don’t look that bad. It’s just a shame that they’re all broken to pieces by SpongeBob’s stupidity.
As for characters, they suffer from the poor story. SpongeBob flips between considerate for Gary’s health and safety, and being a distick with sweaty palms and a bad habit of breaking mint shells. It makes him feel like dumber when the best I can say about him is that he at least cares about a character sometimes. I like Snider’s performance, but Angry Jack is just one joke- make a guy angry, then happy, then angry again. Gary himself is put in a pretty bad situation, as by the end of the episode, the best he can hope for is to keep a shell fit for another creature.
Just another bad Gary episode, there’s not much to see here. If you hate the episodes where there’s one joke you dread, this is not for you. However, if you do well and truly like Angry Jack (or are a fan of Dee Snider), you have a lot to wade through before you get to your favourite moment. I guess the reason I only remember the one is because this is one of those forgettably bad episodes, where you don’t hate it so much you wish it wasn’t made, but you like it so little you question why you should rewatch it.
Question of the Day: If you were a snail, what would you want your shell pattern to be?
Is the next episode funny or fummy? I guess you just have to wait and see. Until then, something vulgar this site wouldn’t like me saying.
:sbthumbs:
SpongeBronyPH
Giant Clam
Shell Shocked is meh.
EmployeeAMillion
Season 12 Time!
Chum Bucket Supreme (Season 6, Episode 22a)
Original Airdate: July 19 2009
Episode 238 in standard order, Episode 241 in airing order
Plot: Patrick becomes Plankton’s marketing director after giving the Chum Bucket a catchy slogan
Written by Sean Charmatz and Dani Michaeli
[titlecard]122A[/titlecard]
Title Card Music: Chum Bucket Rhumba
Patrick teaming up with Plankton has been done before in The Fry Cook Games, but this is the first time they do so as actual workers at the Chum Bucket. Of all the main characters Plankton could take under his wing, Patrick’s the easiest choice, not only because he’s dumb and will most likely mess things up without annoying the viewer (after all, Plankton’s the villain), but because he doesn’t have any ties to the Krusty Krab. Sure he’s an average customer and has even worked there a couple times, but this episode is a good example of him being an average schmo. Then again, I wouldn’t call this episode genius.
The episode starts, appropriately enough, with Plankton making some decisions about the design of the Chum Bucket’s napkins. It sets up neatly that the point of the episode is about trying to make the Chum Bucket look good as opposed to be good. After a little more salt in the wound for Plankton’s failure, in the form of a few Krusty Krab customers coming to park because the KK’s too full, Plankton puts up a sign that reads “Chum is metabolic fuel”. Patrick goes over and tries to read it, which results in a double-edged sword. On one hand, Patrick burning his brain just trying to say “metabolic” is slow and annoying, but on the other, it proves that the slogan isn’t working if Patrick, the everyman for this episode, isn’t able to understand it.
Wanting to help Plankton’s business out, as he sees him as a friend after an apology for spilling soda on his burning head, Patrick comes up with a new slogan in order to attract customers, “Chum is Fum”. It’s simple and punny, and I think that’s what makes it such an eye-catcher for Plankton’s customers. Heck, a couple of the customers only eat the food for the slogan, I’m not sure whether to call that dedication or consumerism, but these days they both mean the same thing. Sure this episode taps into my pet peeve of Plankton managing to get customers, and there’s a relatively pointless side-plot of SpongeBob and Mr Krabs trying to figure out what’s going on, but at least it’s presented in a snappy, exciting way.
After a while, customers start leaving because the slogan’s magic touch wears out, forcing Plankton and Patrick to come up with a new hook. Patrick simply suggests to switch the words around to “Fum is Chum”, and that manages to make the Chum Bucket even more famous than ever. It just goes to show how much Patrick can read the mind of the common fish. However, Plankton’s luck takes a sharp turn when Patrick announces his retirement from severe burnout, quite literally. Plankton yells at him for thinking his job is hard work, saying loud and clear over the intercom that Bikini Bottom is full of suckers who can eat anything, essentially insulting all his customers. This causes everyone to leave, the Canadian hockey team from Krabs á la Mode to intimidate him, and Patrick to start working at the Krusty Krab. Although I like how the bad ending is Plankton’s fault for not respecting his customers, I don’t like how Patrick immediately begins working for the Krusty Krab after complaining about burnout. Other than that, the story has its moments of clever satire, and moments of lame crud.
This episode doesn’t really rely on jokes, rather it serves them on the side next to its story. An example of this is the return of the hockey players, where once we get some plot with them learning how little Planktom values them, we get a joke of them getting ready to use him as a puck. For much of the episode, you get a scene, then a joke, rinse and repeat. The general focus of the episode, and what it banks on as being funny, is the interaction between Plankton and Patrick, and watching Mr Krabs lose business. These dynamics definitely work, but as I said, the story could use some fine tuning if it wanted to be great.
Now onto the animation, there’s some standard Post-Movie gross-out and the occasional genuine slapstick. We’ve already seen the jokes about how chum is disgusting and possibly unhealthy for Bikini Bottomites, but the slightly grosser part comes from them having to eat it because of good advertising. We also haave a pretty long gag of SpongeBob going down a long air chute into a secret cubbyhole to meet with Mr Krabs, slowly stretching more and more as the pressure does a number on him, but it’s lightened by the eventual slapstick where he’s pulled into the cubbyhole with a rope-like appearance, which I find to be rather funny.
The biggest props I have to give the episode are that the main two leads are likeable. You have Plankton actually succeeding in managing to get customers, though he loses it all as he takes the success for granted, which is something mean that I’m fine with a villain character doing. As for Patrick, he’s clearly an idiot, but so is the rest of Bikini Bottom, so he looks like an everyman by comparison. He’s the best possible guy for advertising and understanding what the average consumer wants, even if he’s a one trick starfish in his strategies. Unfortunately, the Krusty Krew suffers from not really benefitting the story or giving many good jokes, which is a shame because I feel they’d make more of a deal out of Mr Krabs getting upset over Plankton’s fame.
In short, when Chum Bucket Supreme chooses to be good, it can be a great episode. The teamwork and chemistry between Plankton and Patrick makes complete sense, and they don’t make that big a deal out of Patrick being able to do things. However, there are a couple things holding it back from being as good as something like No Hat for Pat, namely a subpar ending and how Mr Krabs and, ahem, SpongeBob feel inconsquential. Although my rating may seem relatively low after all the things I’ve said I like about it, don’t forget that I still think this episode has some neat stuff going for it.
Question of the Day: What’s your opinion on company slogans?
Goodness, oh my goodness, the song in the next one is rather catchy.
:sbthumbs:
Original Airdate: July 19 2009
Episode 238 in standard order, Episode 241 in airing order
Plot: Patrick becomes Plankton’s marketing director after giving the Chum Bucket a catchy slogan
Written by Sean Charmatz and Dani Michaeli
[titlecard]122A[/titlecard]
Title Card Music: Chum Bucket Rhumba
Patrick teaming up with Plankton has been done before in The Fry Cook Games, but this is the first time they do so as actual workers at the Chum Bucket. Of all the main characters Plankton could take under his wing, Patrick’s the easiest choice, not only because he’s dumb and will most likely mess things up without annoying the viewer (after all, Plankton’s the villain), but because he doesn’t have any ties to the Krusty Krab. Sure he’s an average customer and has even worked there a couple times, but this episode is a good example of him being an average schmo. Then again, I wouldn’t call this episode genius.
The episode starts, appropriately enough, with Plankton making some decisions about the design of the Chum Bucket’s napkins. It sets up neatly that the point of the episode is about trying to make the Chum Bucket look good as opposed to be good. After a little more salt in the wound for Plankton’s failure, in the form of a few Krusty Krab customers coming to park because the KK’s too full, Plankton puts up a sign that reads “Chum is metabolic fuel”. Patrick goes over and tries to read it, which results in a double-edged sword. On one hand, Patrick burning his brain just trying to say “metabolic” is slow and annoying, but on the other, it proves that the slogan isn’t working if Patrick, the everyman for this episode, isn’t able to understand it.
Wanting to help Plankton’s business out, as he sees him as a friend after an apology for spilling soda on his burning head, Patrick comes up with a new slogan in order to attract customers, “Chum is Fum”. It’s simple and punny, and I think that’s what makes it such an eye-catcher for Plankton’s customers. Heck, a couple of the customers only eat the food for the slogan, I’m not sure whether to call that dedication or consumerism, but these days they both mean the same thing. Sure this episode taps into my pet peeve of Plankton managing to get customers, and there’s a relatively pointless side-plot of SpongeBob and Mr Krabs trying to figure out what’s going on, but at least it’s presented in a snappy, exciting way.
After a while, customers start leaving because the slogan’s magic touch wears out, forcing Plankton and Patrick to come up with a new hook. Patrick simply suggests to switch the words around to “Fum is Chum”, and that manages to make the Chum Bucket even more famous than ever. It just goes to show how much Patrick can read the mind of the common fish. However, Plankton’s luck takes a sharp turn when Patrick announces his retirement from severe burnout, quite literally. Plankton yells at him for thinking his job is hard work, saying loud and clear over the intercom that Bikini Bottom is full of suckers who can eat anything, essentially insulting all his customers. This causes everyone to leave, the Canadian hockey team from Krabs á la Mode to intimidate him, and Patrick to start working at the Krusty Krab. Although I like how the bad ending is Plankton’s fault for not respecting his customers, I don’t like how Patrick immediately begins working for the Krusty Krab after complaining about burnout. Other than that, the story has its moments of clever satire, and moments of lame crud.
This episode doesn’t really rely on jokes, rather it serves them on the side next to its story. An example of this is the return of the hockey players, where once we get some plot with them learning how little Planktom values them, we get a joke of them getting ready to use him as a puck. For much of the episode, you get a scene, then a joke, rinse and repeat. The general focus of the episode, and what it banks on as being funny, is the interaction between Plankton and Patrick, and watching Mr Krabs lose business. These dynamics definitely work, but as I said, the story could use some fine tuning if it wanted to be great.
Now onto the animation, there’s some standard Post-Movie gross-out and the occasional genuine slapstick. We’ve already seen the jokes about how chum is disgusting and possibly unhealthy for Bikini Bottomites, but the slightly grosser part comes from them having to eat it because of good advertising. We also haave a pretty long gag of SpongeBob going down a long air chute into a secret cubbyhole to meet with Mr Krabs, slowly stretching more and more as the pressure does a number on him, but it’s lightened by the eventual slapstick where he’s pulled into the cubbyhole with a rope-like appearance, which I find to be rather funny.
The biggest props I have to give the episode are that the main two leads are likeable. You have Plankton actually succeeding in managing to get customers, though he loses it all as he takes the success for granted, which is something mean that I’m fine with a villain character doing. As for Patrick, he’s clearly an idiot, but so is the rest of Bikini Bottom, so he looks like an everyman by comparison. He’s the best possible guy for advertising and understanding what the average consumer wants, even if he’s a one trick starfish in his strategies. Unfortunately, the Krusty Krew suffers from not really benefitting the story or giving many good jokes, which is a shame because I feel they’d make more of a deal out of Mr Krabs getting upset over Plankton’s fame.
In short, when Chum Bucket Supreme chooses to be good, it can be a great episode. The teamwork and chemistry between Plankton and Patrick makes complete sense, and they don’t make that big a deal out of Patrick being able to do things. However, there are a couple things holding it back from being as good as something like No Hat for Pat, namely a subpar ending and how Mr Krabs and, ahem, SpongeBob feel inconsquential. Although my rating may seem relatively low after all the things I’ve said I like about it, don’t forget that I still think this episode has some neat stuff going for it.
Question of the Day: What’s your opinion on company slogans?
Goodness, oh my goodness, the song in the next one is rather catchy.
:sbthumbs:
SpongeBronyPH
Giant Clam
Chum Bucket Supreme is a good episode to me.
QOTD: All slogans are fine, especially the new ones. I don't care.
QOTD: All slogans are fine, especially the new ones. I don't care.
EmployeeAMillion
Season 12 Time!
Single Cell Anniversary (Season 6, Episode 22b)
Original Airdate: June 3 2009
Episode 239 in standard order, Episode 233 in airing order, Episode 234 in order of general release
Plot: SpongeBob helps Plankton out with a wedding anniversary gift for Karen
Written by Luke Brookshier, Nate Cash and Richard Pursel
[titlecard]122B[/titlecard]
Title Card Music: Wahini Wobble
Two Plankton episodes in a row? That seems a little excessive, at least before you realise he started to get more stories around this time. It helps that this episode taps more into his sentimental side, in particular towards his computer wife Karen. The thing with Karen is, although she’s a well-defined, funny character, it’s hard to wrap a whole story around her and Plankton’s love for her. It’s a good thing this episode manages to be considered one of Season 6’s best, and it’s only now I’m starting to realise just how many good episodes come at the end of this season.
The story kicks off with a slow bit of gross-out. Plankton comes to from work, to the Chum Bucket (just roll with it), only for Karen to complain about how smell and give him a loving wash. With how much they dwell on the stench, a gross close-up of Plankton’s face as he explains how it’s the smell of failure, and how horrifically he’s washed, the scene has Richard Pursel written all over it. The only thing it has to do with the rest of the episode is showing how much Karen cares about Plankton, but I guess that’s enough to get the real plot going.
The reason Karen’s in an excited mood today is because it’s her and Plankton’s wedding anniversary (for clarification, Komputer Overload revealed they had a wedding). Of course because he’s the husband, Plankton’s forgotten this special occasion and hasn’t gotten Karen a gift. This is a shame because the gift Karen got for Plankton was the Krabby Patty secret formula, revealing she got a burger rather easily from Squidward. This sets up a really good reason to want to see Plankton succeed at this point, as it’s the one thing he’s wanted his whole life and the one reward he’ll get for showing his love for Karen, which makes this an anniversary episode with a nice SpongeBob twist.
Speaking of SpongeBob, the cubic cuckoo sees Plankton on his way home from work and they talk about what Karen would want as a gift. This part of the episode is rather down-to-Earth and sentimental, as the two try to work out what Plankton likes about Karen, but given how the episode later takes a turn for the more suspense-oriented, a nice calm scene like this is worth it. Plus it has some purpose for the story, them settling on performing a musical number for Karen and Plankton learning how to sing. It leads to a rather sweet musical number called “Oh My Karen”.
The lyrics of “Oh My Karen” are a combination of your standard silly love song and a couple computer jokes, all with a Mexican samba theme. I don’t get what Mexico has to do with long walks on the beach or dreams of world domination, but it provides an ethnic flavour the show hasn’t delivered yet, and the dresses SpongeBob and Patrick wear aren’t that bad either. I’d say it’s one of the best songs of the season (something from Truth or Square could beat it), but it hasn’t got much competition.
After the song is finished, Karen cries tears of joy and happily starts to load the secret formula. Not knowing helping Plankton would do this, SpongeBob frantically tries to turn Karen off, though she manages to do the job for him by somehow crying real tears and damaging her circuit board. The joke here is supposed to be more emotional than sensical, which I’m fine with for an episode about love. When Karen reboots, her emergency mother in law application opens, and her supposed mother yells at Plankton for making her daughter cry. It’s a wierd way to end the episode, but at least she delivers a really good line, “She could’ve married an ATM, someone with money”.
That finally brings me into the comedy in this episode, as there are parts of it where the jokes really shine. One such instance is when SpongeBob discovers Plankton’s problem and makes a big scene of it, declaring it a “love emergency”, and later when he tries to press buttons on Karen to get her to stop loading the formula, Plankton tells him to get his hands off his wife, which is one of the most clever adult jokes the show has ever done. Then again, there are a few things that don’t sit well with me, such as when Plankton sings a note so high it shatters Sandy’s helmet. At least it isn’t as bad as what I have to get into in 78 episodes time.
I don’t have much to say about the animation, except for the gross-out at the beginning and the song/eventual outcome of it. As I said, I like the Mexican outfits SpongeBob and Patrick wear, and one point where the three performers are in a cube computer room (I know it’s a common trope in music videos to just perform in a digital room, but it looks rather nice here). Additionally, I like Karen’s facial expressions as she reacts to the song, it’s just so funny and sweet.
As for what I have to say about the characters, they’re all in good condition here. Squidward only has a few lines yet remains pessemistic and snarky, while Patrick (one of the performers for the song) doesn’t speak at all I think. The love between Plankton and Karen, trying to strengthen it if just for one day, is where the heart of the story lies, and I’m glad they got SpongeBob in on it to do something they sorta deserve. While his public asexuality should make it clear he’s not a love expert, I see him as someone trying to get these two people to enjoy each other. I also think Karen’s voice is a little higher in this episode, because I guess Jill Talley would’ve been excited for this episode, and I couldn’t blame her.
You know how with many episodes from around this time, you’ll think of the bad stuff before the good hits you? I don’t have this problem with Single Cell Anniversary, as its good stuff sticks with me. The story is unironically fitting for a SpongeBob episode, the character interactions are fun, the performances are wonderful and the song is sweet. It has a couple problems, but I’d otherwise consider it a fun piece of entertainment. I haven’t tried to find a girlfriend yet, but when I choose to, I’ll try to write a song on every wedding anniversary we have as a gift.
Question of the Day: What would you do on your partner’s anniversary?
To date, tomorrow’s episode is the only one made to take up two whole production blocks (or 4 times that of a standard episode), so I’m in for quite a shallow, disappointing treat. Unless you’re Honest Slug, in which case tomorrow’s is your all-time favourite episode! Until then, play me out Plankton.
:sbthumbs:
Original Airdate: June 3 2009
Episode 239 in standard order, Episode 233 in airing order, Episode 234 in order of general release
Plot: SpongeBob helps Plankton out with a wedding anniversary gift for Karen
Written by Luke Brookshier, Nate Cash and Richard Pursel
[titlecard]122B[/titlecard]
Title Card Music: Wahini Wobble
Two Plankton episodes in a row? That seems a little excessive, at least before you realise he started to get more stories around this time. It helps that this episode taps more into his sentimental side, in particular towards his computer wife Karen. The thing with Karen is, although she’s a well-defined, funny character, it’s hard to wrap a whole story around her and Plankton’s love for her. It’s a good thing this episode manages to be considered one of Season 6’s best, and it’s only now I’m starting to realise just how many good episodes come at the end of this season.
The story kicks off with a slow bit of gross-out. Plankton comes to from work, to the Chum Bucket (just roll with it), only for Karen to complain about how smell and give him a loving wash. With how much they dwell on the stench, a gross close-up of Plankton’s face as he explains how it’s the smell of failure, and how horrifically he’s washed, the scene has Richard Pursel written all over it. The only thing it has to do with the rest of the episode is showing how much Karen cares about Plankton, but I guess that’s enough to get the real plot going.
The reason Karen’s in an excited mood today is because it’s her and Plankton’s wedding anniversary (for clarification, Komputer Overload revealed they had a wedding). Of course because he’s the husband, Plankton’s forgotten this special occasion and hasn’t gotten Karen a gift. This is a shame because the gift Karen got for Plankton was the Krabby Patty secret formula, revealing she got a burger rather easily from Squidward. This sets up a really good reason to want to see Plankton succeed at this point, as it’s the one thing he’s wanted his whole life and the one reward he’ll get for showing his love for Karen, which makes this an anniversary episode with a nice SpongeBob twist.
Speaking of SpongeBob, the cubic cuckoo sees Plankton on his way home from work and they talk about what Karen would want as a gift. This part of the episode is rather down-to-Earth and sentimental, as the two try to work out what Plankton likes about Karen, but given how the episode later takes a turn for the more suspense-oriented, a nice calm scene like this is worth it. Plus it has some purpose for the story, them settling on performing a musical number for Karen and Plankton learning how to sing. It leads to a rather sweet musical number called “Oh My Karen”.
The lyrics of “Oh My Karen” are a combination of your standard silly love song and a couple computer jokes, all with a Mexican samba theme. I don’t get what Mexico has to do with long walks on the beach or dreams of world domination, but it provides an ethnic flavour the show hasn’t delivered yet, and the dresses SpongeBob and Patrick wear aren’t that bad either. I’d say it’s one of the best songs of the season (something from Truth or Square could beat it), but it hasn’t got much competition.
After the song is finished, Karen cries tears of joy and happily starts to load the secret formula. Not knowing helping Plankton would do this, SpongeBob frantically tries to turn Karen off, though she manages to do the job for him by somehow crying real tears and damaging her circuit board. The joke here is supposed to be more emotional than sensical, which I’m fine with for an episode about love. When Karen reboots, her emergency mother in law application opens, and her supposed mother yells at Plankton for making her daughter cry. It’s a wierd way to end the episode, but at least she delivers a really good line, “She could’ve married an ATM, someone with money”.
That finally brings me into the comedy in this episode, as there are parts of it where the jokes really shine. One such instance is when SpongeBob discovers Plankton’s problem and makes a big scene of it, declaring it a “love emergency”, and later when he tries to press buttons on Karen to get her to stop loading the formula, Plankton tells him to get his hands off his wife, which is one of the most clever adult jokes the show has ever done. Then again, there are a few things that don’t sit well with me, such as when Plankton sings a note so high it shatters Sandy’s helmet. At least it isn’t as bad as what I have to get into in 78 episodes time.
I don’t have much to say about the animation, except for the gross-out at the beginning and the song/eventual outcome of it. As I said, I like the Mexican outfits SpongeBob and Patrick wear, and one point where the three performers are in a cube computer room (I know it’s a common trope in music videos to just perform in a digital room, but it looks rather nice here). Additionally, I like Karen’s facial expressions as she reacts to the song, it’s just so funny and sweet.
As for what I have to say about the characters, they’re all in good condition here. Squidward only has a few lines yet remains pessemistic and snarky, while Patrick (one of the performers for the song) doesn’t speak at all I think. The love between Plankton and Karen, trying to strengthen it if just for one day, is where the heart of the story lies, and I’m glad they got SpongeBob in on it to do something they sorta deserve. While his public asexuality should make it clear he’s not a love expert, I see him as someone trying to get these two people to enjoy each other. I also think Karen’s voice is a little higher in this episode, because I guess Jill Talley would’ve been excited for this episode, and I couldn’t blame her.
You know how with many episodes from around this time, you’ll think of the bad stuff before the good hits you? I don’t have this problem with Single Cell Anniversary, as its good stuff sticks with me. The story is unironically fitting for a SpongeBob episode, the character interactions are fun, the performances are wonderful and the song is sweet. It has a couple problems, but I’d otherwise consider it a fun piece of entertainment. I haven’t tried to find a girlfriend yet, but when I choose to, I’ll try to write a song on every wedding anniversary we have as a gift.
Question of the Day: What would you do on your partner’s anniversary?
To date, tomorrow’s episode is the only one made to take up two whole production blocks (or 4 times that of a standard episode), so I’m in for quite a shallow, disappointing treat. Unless you’re Honest Slug, in which case tomorrow’s is your all-time favourite episode! Until then, play me out Plankton.
:sbthumbs:
I have sweet nostalgic memories about this episode. When I was much younger I began to notice that season 6 much more boring and gross than previous ones, but I still watched the show, because seeing my favorite characters on TV was quite enough for me. I didn't care at the time about things like writing or animation.
But this episode sticked with me as pleasant surprise even then. I really liked it and was shocked in a good way.
P.S., Good luck, you need it. Truth or Square is a veeery big mess.
QOTD: Hm-m. It's an interesting question. Probably I would buy something that my partner really would love and spent the day in some fancy place.
But this episode sticked with me as pleasant surprise even then. I really liked it and was shocked in a good way.
P.S., Good luck, you need it. Truth or Square is a veeery big mess.
QOTD: Hm-m. It's an interesting question. Probably I would buy something that my partner really would love and spent the day in some fancy place.
Night-Waker
Moby Dollar
Ohhhh, yes finally! I've been waiting for your review of Truth or Square for a while now! This is gonna be good 
EmployeeAMillion
Season 12 Time!
Truth or Square (Season 6, Episode 23 and 24)
Original Airdate: November 6 2009
Episode 240 in standard order, Episode 249 in airing order
Plot: Things go wrong when the Krusty Krew celebrate their restaurant’s eleventy-seventh anniversary, getting stuck in the airvents
Written by Luke Brookshier, Nate Cash, Steven Banks and Paul Tibbitt
[titlecard]123[/titlecard]
Title Card Music: Happy Sponge Chase Vibes
So this is where we are now. After Atlantis SquarePantis managed to rake in high ratings, Nick thought it would be a good idea to make another SpongeBob TV Movie, this time one that was a full hour long! Unless it’s a theatrical movie, there’s no way anyone who knew what the sixth season of SpongeBob was like would watch an episode that’s 60 minutes long. The result is an episode that manages to be even more hated than SquarePantis, and for several reasons. I could talk about how it’s a 10th anniversary special despite airing half a year after it, and just how little it seems to care about the 6 seasons and 122 episodes that had built up to it, but I have to start from the beginning.
For the first time since the show’s premiere in 1999, we’re given a new intro just for this special, which is a stop-motion extravaganza with a remixed theme song performed by CeeLo Green (known at the time for his hit song “Crazy”, but a year later would put out the song “::dolphin noise:: You”). To be honest, this opening isn’t all that bad. Aside from a scary puppet and distorted visuals introducing you to the special, I don’t have any problems with it. The SpongeBob model used looks nice and I like how it translates some parts of the classic title sequence into 3D. Speaking of Ds, this is the first high definition (HD) episode (a quality that wouldn’t become standard until Season 9), but a majority of it is used on live action skits.
After the intro is done, Ricky Gervais introduces us to the fact that SpongeBob is now a decade old (almost double that now), and Patchy the Pirate over clips of his previous misadventures, all of which are Pre-Movie clips. When I watch this part, I don’t really think about the clips shown or what I’m about to see for the next hour, I just wish that a part of this special was Gervais trying to explain the concept of SpongeBob to Karl Pilkington. That I would pay to see, the rest of this special, not so much. In fact, it’s by far the worst Patchy outing of the whole series (I can see why he’s only appeared 3 times since, and only twice on the actual show).
It begins with Patchy’s mother driving him to Nickelodeon Studios at Burbank, California in order to meet SpongeBob SquarePants (as in the actual character) and bring him onto his fan-made tenth anniversary special. The single joke with Patchy for the entire special is that he thinks SpongeBob is real, with it banking on the fact that he’s a creepy, delusional wierdo. When it’s rubbed off in the audience’s face for so long and gets so tiresome, the illusion breaks and you feel like this really is the ramblings and possible hallucinations of a creepy, delusional wierdo. Patchy doesn’t have a lot of character to begin with, but here it manages to exaggerate what little there is of it.
He goes up to the gate requesting to see SpongeBob, but is mistaken for someone in the casting department and is let in on a whim. The guard doesn’t even mind Patchy asking him several questions about SpongeBob and wanting a shrimp cocktail. It’s a very strange whim, because this is meant to take place in a world where SpongeBob is clearly an animated TV show, yet the guard, who knows a good deal about casting (enough to know where the department is), should know that this pirate has already made his fair share of appearances on the show itself. Does this just take place in a world where SpongeBob never had Patchy segments?
Now in a nice little office, Patchy sees a rolodex (although I’m much more interested in the Dunces and Dragons poster, and SB-129 animation cel on the walls). He has an angel-devil shoulder argument with two Potty lookalikes, eventually deciding to check the rolodex out and ring up some celebrities. This leads to some of the most phoned in guest stars in TV history, many of them coming with really bad jokes, with others being funny out of sheer awkwardness. There’s no excuse for a show this popular and this fortunate having celebrity cameos this rushed, much less have a majority of them not even being in the same room as any of the main characters.
The first celebrity featured is Rosario Dawson, who’s disgusted by Patchy’s foul breath, which she can smell across the line for some reason, even though no other celebrity he talks to can smell it. After a very small cameo by Eddie Deezen, who despite being a well-known actor is escorted out while Patchy gets to stay, he calls Triumph the Comic Insult Dog. Who in their right mind thought a puppet of a dog that makes vulgar jokes and squeaks cigar toys would be a good addition to a SpongeBob episode? It just makes the banter between him (it?) and Patchy feel like a fan film that’s gone off the rails.
Next is LeBron James, who simply doesn’t want to participate and makes up excuses about his contract, followed by Tina Fey who he mistakes for Tina Turner. At least Fey tries to tell Patchy the truth that SpongeBob’s voiced by this obscure, mystical man by the name of Tom Kenny, but it doesn’t sink in. After that is Will Ferrell, who decides to tease Patchy by saying he’s also preparing an anniversary special and has even better performers, but is bested when Patchy points out he has the world’s fifth-best ventriloquist on his side. It just isn’t a funny sketch, and it’s rather scary how it ends with them discussing the 20th anniversary. Did Nickelodeon really anticipate the show would still be on now?
Finally, he gets in touch with Craig Ferguson, who it happens was college roomates with Patchy and they still argue like pirates. Ferguson mentions he has Robin Williams coming over, so Patchy gets the idea to abduct Williams and force him to be on his extravaganza. As for Robin Williams’ performance, I like that he references his previous nautical roles, Popeye and Hook, but he does a really good job at acting scared. The whole scene with Patchy escorting him to the green room is shot like it’s a horror film. I get they’re playing around and possibly improvising much of their dialogue, but once again, it just isn’t funny.
Although Williams escapes easily, we later see that Patchy has abducted even more celebrities, many of them are fictitious. We have the aforementioned ventriolquist, the Queen (which I assume to be Elizabeth II), “the guy on the penny” who looks more like a guy playing Abraham Lincoln, and the only other guest star who agreed to be in the actual story, Pink. Patchy goes onstage (with Potty being an editor, note this is his only real appearance in the whole special), but is upset when SpongeBob doesn’t come up for him. Now angry, he storms out of the studio and over to his boat (despite getting there via his mother’s car), and heads out to sea to search for Bikini Bottom, something he should’ve done ages ago.
Bored out of her mind, Pink decides to perform a song with pirates called “We’ve Got Scurvy”, which is terrible. Bear in mind that I’m fine with Pink as a singer, but a pop/rock star and her voice doesn’t translate well into a satirical sea shante. I guess there aren’t that many pirate-themed singers out there these days, but this is like Katy Perry being forced to sing a song about Medieval times on Game of Thrones, the guest spot doesn’t fit the actor at all. However, I like how the pirates jump off the boat at the end of the video, as if it’s a sign that even they don’t want to be a part of this anymore, otherwise it’s just my imagination making that up.
While on his way out to find Bikini Bottom, Patchy’s eaten by a whale and plays some outtakes and alternate scenes to pass the time. Are these really deleted scenes from previous episodes? No, they’re entirely new material made for the special, which I’ll talk more in-depth about later, but it’s just a horrible choice. The clips he shows are of alternate intros for the show if they starred Squidward, Patrick and Mr Krabs. Each time, you have to sit through the “Are ya ready kids?” part again, and Patchy ejects each of them before they’re even finished.
This is followed by “da tru owijin” of SpongeBob as a short subject from the 1930s. Although it’s animated adequately, poking fun at the more surreal art direction of cartoons in those days, even in the context of the episode, this origin story makes no sense. Given how this is supposedly set in 2009, 10 years after SpongeBob’s debut on TV in 1999, why would they retcon his introduction to be during the Golden Age of animation!? It’s a plot hole that really annoys me because I wish this was more serious about the history of SpongeBob, instead of offerring weak, generic gags.
Eventually, the projector he’s using catches on fire, and the whale pulls a Monstro coughing him out, though through the blowhole, conveniently back to the studio. Unconcious, he hallucinates meeting SpongeBob and fainting, which I feel would’ve been another thing to put in the trailers for the episode as a bait-and-switch. When he wakes up, the guy on the penny tells him SpongeBob is everywhere in a metaphorical sense, and takes off his hat to reveal a SpongeBob doll. Ricky Gervais then concludes the Patchy plot by making fun of his buffoonery and saying he gives a bad name to pirates. After this whole mess, I couldn’t agree with him more. Still, I hope he gets Karl Pilkington to narrate the 20th, that would be glorious.
So yeah, the Patchy segments in Truth or Square are just as bad as everyone says. Patchy himself lacks any sort of judgement, making strange decisions whenever it seems like an opportunity to meet up with SpongeBob. You get a real sense that each of the guest stars here, especially the ones who filmed at Nickelodeon studios, were disappointed with the material they were given and didn’t hide it on camera, and of course, the jokes very rarely make sense. I haven’t seen Feral Friends yet, but if it took Tom Kenny 8 years to feel comfortable in his old pirate suit again, that’s not a good sign.
Now finally, onto the SpongeBob portion of the episode!
It opens in a rather annoying way, with SpongeBob setting up several alarms clocks, each one with a different ringing sound overlapping one another. The reason he’s so hyped for today is because it’s the eleventy-seventh anniversary of the Krusty Krab. He reminisces the first time he ate a Krabby Patty, still in his mother’s womb. It’s bizzare to see SpongeBob concious in his mother’s womb, able to talk and eat burgers through his umbilical cord, in fact too bizzare to see as funny. I understand that this is most likely SpongeBob making the expereince up, but it already retcons his first words of “May I take your order?”.
He gets prepared for work via a montage set to the song “A Day Like This”. Much of the sequence is creative, what with him literally trying on a new face and a part where he plays in giant food. Benefitting the whole sequence is that the song itself is upbeat and catchy, getting you in the mood for a day of SpongeBob’s life, which is certainly not what this episode is about. This is immediately followed however by a slightly annoying scene in which he notices a giant line to the Krusty Krab (Mr Krabs finally getting what he wanted back in Patty Hype), and jumping acros the civilians’ heads to get to work, instead of the traditional method of walking next to them.
Once he gets to work, Mr Krabs gives him and Squidward a lecture about how Plankton may want to steal the formula today, showing them the Krusty Krab’s underground passageways via hologram that we previously never knew about and introducing Patrick as the restaurant’s new security. At the same time, Plankton feels like giving up after 1,003 failed attempts, but Karen believes in him like a loving wife and gets him to do a 1,004th. Later, we see SpongeBob decorating the Krusty Krab for its eleventy-seventh anniversary, and he does his dash decorating it under a pay of 50¢.
One thing all these scenes have in common is that they’ll have a moment where the characters will reminisce over their previous adventures, parodying clip shows. Nick says we have to use the word “parody” because all the clips used are newly made for the special. One easy way to tell not a single old clip is used is they’re all done in the episode’s new art style. This really upsets me, not just because it feels like they were too lazy to use old clips (the only early footage shown is the Patchy stuff at the very beginning), or that introducing these new scenarios is a sneaky way to get newbies to watch more reruns, but because I can name a couple moments from earlier episodes that’d be ripe for usage. For example, Squidward sleeping on the job could use some clips from Krusty Krab Training Video, and Plankton being flung towards the Krusty Krab has been a recurring gag since his debut episode. I understand some people don’t like clip shows, but that’s not an excuse to make fun of how forced they are while not even showing any classic clips.
After SpongeBob decorates most of the Krusty Krab, he shows his last piece to his fellow workers, which is a Krabby Patty ice sculpture. It’s rather hard to carry out of the freezer, so hard in fact that SpongeBob’s flung out, then back in with the door inconveniently shutting and locking behind him. At some point during production, this episode would’ve been called “Stuck in the Freezer”, but I can see why they changed it, as they quickly find a way out in the form of the previously shown ventilation shaft. The episode flip-flops between calling them ventilation shafts and underground tunnels, the former because it makes sense for a restaurant to have, and the latter because it sounds cool.
While exploring, they eventually come across a surveillance room, where they discover there are cameras all over Bikini Bottom placed by Mr Krabs to spy on civilians. This part is just done awkwardly. Mr Krabs having a secret surveillance room is one thing, but keeping it stored away in a ventilation shaft even he doesn’t know how to navigate is just writing a stream of gibberish. Things are then made a little more complicated when Plankton sneaks into the shaft, only to fall through tunnel after tunnel. I can see why he decided to take the more secretive path, but it’s bad luck that he’ll eventually see the others.
Meanwhile, the main cast try to contact Sandy for help, but Patrick ends by breaking the walkie-talkie out of stupidity. I hate having to call Patrick a glorified plot device over and over again in these episodes, but that’s just what he is in this scene. We soon get even more flashbacks, two of which were featured heavily in the commercials. Let me make one thing clear, I’ve been fine with episodes featuring moments “tailor-made for the commercials” before, because they rarely got in the way of any story. The sad thing is these instances do, and seem to relish in lying to you about what they were advertising. It’s sad to see a show that was once so good at giving its audience what they wanted now laugh in their face without any irony.
These flashbacks include Mr Krabs telling SpongeBob the Krabby Patty secret formula, but not after a long trek across the ocean to get back to Krabs’ office (which is admittedly a funny gag), the flashback is cut short because Plankton wants to hear what the formula is word-for-word. The next one, and the only one that tries to give you something, is Squidward’s life before SpongeBob, though a strange error occurs when, after moving in, SpongeBob immediately recognises Patrick. It seems they remembered the scene in The Secret Box where they’re shown to be best friends from birth, and decided to show that they still know each other, SpongeBob just never knew Patrick lived next to Squidward, and Squidward was never annoyed by Patrick.
The last, and possibly most infamous flashback, is to when SpongeBob and Sandy got married. On one hand, I can’t believe Stephen Hillenburg allowed this scene to go through after all the turmoil about SpongeBob’s sexuality a couple years earlier, let alone imply this was a play written by SpongeBob about him marrying Sandy. On the other hand, I’m impressed that they technically got married; despite it being a play, they hired a real priest to wed them. All in all, while a little bit funny, the way it’s set up leaves a real sting due to this being nothing but a ship tease.
The crew can’t take their endless search for the exit anymore, so SpongeBob turns his friends into a battering ram and busts them out. However, despite their freedom, the line of customers wanting to celebrate has gotten bored and left. SpongeBob sings a parody of “Oh Christmas Tree” called “Oh Krusty Krab”, which just so happens to get all the customers back and excited for some Krabby Patties. After a few more loose ends are tied up, like Mr Krabs getting his wallet back and Plankton being trampled, the special finally concludes with SpongeBob flipping patties, congratulating the Krusty Krab on eleventy-seven years.
Dear Neptune, what a waste of time all of this was! The plot for both parts of Trurth or Square are all over the place, and feel like spending the time celebrating all of pop culture instead of the ten year legacy of the series. None of it’s made any better by just how long and aimless it all feels. I should also mention how the specials are interwoven is rather lazy. You could get 2 minutes of each story followed soon by 15 minutes of each. Just a clip show would be all I’d ask for, with Patchy offering some real facts and trivia about the origin of SpongeBob, but we instead get two of the most insane plots in SpongeBob history that don’t understand how poorly handled they are. It’s hard to understand how Paul Tibbitt, writer of episodes like Ripped Pants and Frankendoodle, brought himself to this level for a majority of this special.
To be fair, there are a couple moments that I find funny. Nothing legitimately comedic comes from Patchy’s segments, but it’s got a “so bad it’s good” vibe to it. I’m sure you’ll find a part of it that’s so awkward or broken you’ll find it a little bit funny, but I just hope that wasn’t the intention. As for SpongeBob’s segments, you get the occasional laugh, like Patrick asking if the only way out of the Krusty Krab is a high school diploma, and SpongeBob wearing “leaderhosen” as a leader. There are some unfunny moments, sure, but I try to savour the good stuff, because this 30 minute segment has about as much comedy as an 11 minute episode.
This episode is rather important for being the first 16:9 HD episode, and while they don’t take much advantage of their higher picture quality (aside from the intro), you get a real sense they were still testing the widescreen framing out. There are various scenes where the shot feels like it’s panned too far back, because they were just enjoying how wide they could make each shot. Aside from a close-up of SpongeBob’s birthmark and three moles, there isn’t any gross-out in the animated segments. It was a hit-or-miss test for widescreen episodes, and I’m glad they waited until Season 9 to use the technique fully.
Also a useless tidbit, my family’s getting its first 4K TV tomorrow.
That’s not all there is to note about the animation however, because much like Atlantis SquarePantis, this special plays with a couple different art styles. As a huge fan of animation history, you’d think I’d be happy to see them poke fun at the 20s/30s rubberhose style and 50s conservative UPA style, but they’re only played with briefly and don’t really feel like cartoons from their respective eras. The best I can say is that the 50s Krabby Patty commercial has a jingle which could be a call-back to the one SpongeBob sings in Fear of a Krabby Patty, but I wouldn’t count on Truth or Square caring about any prior episode.
As for characters, for a 10th anniversary special, this really only gets the bare basics of most of them. SpongeBob doesn’t really show off much of his carefree, childlike personality outside of “A Day Like This”, Squidward is bored and that’s about it, Patrick makes the situation worse through his stupidity and that’s about it, and Plankton tries to steal the formula and that’s about it. The only one I think has character that’s more than surface-level is Mr Krabs, as they make more jokes about how long he’s owned the business and how cheap he is with it. One perfectly decent character doesn’t redeem several flat ones however.
The live action characters consist of Patchy the Pirate, occasionally his sidekick Potty, and a host of guest stars. As I’ve said, it’s hard to see Patchy boiled down to being a mindless SpongeBob fan, considering he was already a one-dimensional host. Potty only makes a physical appearance in one scene as a camera operator, but is otherwise absent from Patchy’s shoulder for the entire special. Finally, the vast array of guest stars feel like they were all forced into the special, and as such, their acting all feels uninspired, which is a shame because this is full of talented actors and celebrities. Alas, they make the episode feel more like a product of its time.
In short, I can get why some people would call this the worst episode of the whole series, because half of it barely even feels like an episode. The live action skits really set Patchy back, with Rick Gervais being the only interesting part of it all, while the animated stuff is a mediocre waste of HD animation that’s littered with lies. I know they teased a 20th anniversary special throughout this, but if anyone in the SpongeBob creative department is reading this, I urge you not to make a direct sequel to Truth or Square. Although it has its moments of light fun, it’s an anniversary special that feels independant from practically everything that came before. As for my viewing reccomendation to casual fans, you’re much better off watching the related documentary, Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob SquarePants. I might review it sometime soon, but trust me, it’s a much better celebration than this is.
Question of the Day: What would you want to see for SpongeBob SquarePants’ 20th anniversary?
The only perscription after subjecting yourself to this is more cowbell. Until then, here’s a song that couldn’t get much better, and I’ll let Honest Slug handle the rest of this.
:sbthumbs:
Original Airdate: November 6 2009
Episode 240 in standard order, Episode 249 in airing order
Plot: Things go wrong when the Krusty Krew celebrate their restaurant’s eleventy-seventh anniversary, getting stuck in the airvents
Written by Luke Brookshier, Nate Cash, Steven Banks and Paul Tibbitt
[titlecard]123[/titlecard]
Title Card Music: Happy Sponge Chase Vibes
So this is where we are now. After Atlantis SquarePantis managed to rake in high ratings, Nick thought it would be a good idea to make another SpongeBob TV Movie, this time one that was a full hour long! Unless it’s a theatrical movie, there’s no way anyone who knew what the sixth season of SpongeBob was like would watch an episode that’s 60 minutes long. The result is an episode that manages to be even more hated than SquarePantis, and for several reasons. I could talk about how it’s a 10th anniversary special despite airing half a year after it, and just how little it seems to care about the 6 seasons and 122 episodes that had built up to it, but I have to start from the beginning.
For the first time since the show’s premiere in 1999, we’re given a new intro just for this special, which is a stop-motion extravaganza with a remixed theme song performed by CeeLo Green (known at the time for his hit song “Crazy”, but a year later would put out the song “::dolphin noise:: You”). To be honest, this opening isn’t all that bad. Aside from a scary puppet and distorted visuals introducing you to the special, I don’t have any problems with it. The SpongeBob model used looks nice and I like how it translates some parts of the classic title sequence into 3D. Speaking of Ds, this is the first high definition (HD) episode (a quality that wouldn’t become standard until Season 9), but a majority of it is used on live action skits.
After the intro is done, Ricky Gervais introduces us to the fact that SpongeBob is now a decade old (almost double that now), and Patchy the Pirate over clips of his previous misadventures, all of which are Pre-Movie clips. When I watch this part, I don’t really think about the clips shown or what I’m about to see for the next hour, I just wish that a part of this special was Gervais trying to explain the concept of SpongeBob to Karl Pilkington. That I would pay to see, the rest of this special, not so much. In fact, it’s by far the worst Patchy outing of the whole series (I can see why he’s only appeared 3 times since, and only twice on the actual show).
It begins with Patchy’s mother driving him to Nickelodeon Studios at Burbank, California in order to meet SpongeBob SquarePants (as in the actual character) and bring him onto his fan-made tenth anniversary special. The single joke with Patchy for the entire special is that he thinks SpongeBob is real, with it banking on the fact that he’s a creepy, delusional wierdo. When it’s rubbed off in the audience’s face for so long and gets so tiresome, the illusion breaks and you feel like this really is the ramblings and possible hallucinations of a creepy, delusional wierdo. Patchy doesn’t have a lot of character to begin with, but here it manages to exaggerate what little there is of it.
He goes up to the gate requesting to see SpongeBob, but is mistaken for someone in the casting department and is let in on a whim. The guard doesn’t even mind Patchy asking him several questions about SpongeBob and wanting a shrimp cocktail. It’s a very strange whim, because this is meant to take place in a world where SpongeBob is clearly an animated TV show, yet the guard, who knows a good deal about casting (enough to know where the department is), should know that this pirate has already made his fair share of appearances on the show itself. Does this just take place in a world where SpongeBob never had Patchy segments?
Now in a nice little office, Patchy sees a rolodex (although I’m much more interested in the Dunces and Dragons poster, and SB-129 animation cel on the walls). He has an angel-devil shoulder argument with two Potty lookalikes, eventually deciding to check the rolodex out and ring up some celebrities. This leads to some of the most phoned in guest stars in TV history, many of them coming with really bad jokes, with others being funny out of sheer awkwardness. There’s no excuse for a show this popular and this fortunate having celebrity cameos this rushed, much less have a majority of them not even being in the same room as any of the main characters.
The first celebrity featured is Rosario Dawson, who’s disgusted by Patchy’s foul breath, which she can smell across the line for some reason, even though no other celebrity he talks to can smell it. After a very small cameo by Eddie Deezen, who despite being a well-known actor is escorted out while Patchy gets to stay, he calls Triumph the Comic Insult Dog. Who in their right mind thought a puppet of a dog that makes vulgar jokes and squeaks cigar toys would be a good addition to a SpongeBob episode? It just makes the banter between him (it?) and Patchy feel like a fan film that’s gone off the rails.
Next is LeBron James, who simply doesn’t want to participate and makes up excuses about his contract, followed by Tina Fey who he mistakes for Tina Turner. At least Fey tries to tell Patchy the truth that SpongeBob’s voiced by this obscure, mystical man by the name of Tom Kenny, but it doesn’t sink in. After that is Will Ferrell, who decides to tease Patchy by saying he’s also preparing an anniversary special and has even better performers, but is bested when Patchy points out he has the world’s fifth-best ventriloquist on his side. It just isn’t a funny sketch, and it’s rather scary how it ends with them discussing the 20th anniversary. Did Nickelodeon really anticipate the show would still be on now?
Finally, he gets in touch with Craig Ferguson, who it happens was college roomates with Patchy and they still argue like pirates. Ferguson mentions he has Robin Williams coming over, so Patchy gets the idea to abduct Williams and force him to be on his extravaganza. As for Robin Williams’ performance, I like that he references his previous nautical roles, Popeye and Hook, but he does a really good job at acting scared. The whole scene with Patchy escorting him to the green room is shot like it’s a horror film. I get they’re playing around and possibly improvising much of their dialogue, but once again, it just isn’t funny.
Although Williams escapes easily, we later see that Patchy has abducted even more celebrities, many of them are fictitious. We have the aforementioned ventriolquist, the Queen (which I assume to be Elizabeth II), “the guy on the penny” who looks more like a guy playing Abraham Lincoln, and the only other guest star who agreed to be in the actual story, Pink. Patchy goes onstage (with Potty being an editor, note this is his only real appearance in the whole special), but is upset when SpongeBob doesn’t come up for him. Now angry, he storms out of the studio and over to his boat (despite getting there via his mother’s car), and heads out to sea to search for Bikini Bottom, something he should’ve done ages ago.
Bored out of her mind, Pink decides to perform a song with pirates called “We’ve Got Scurvy”, which is terrible. Bear in mind that I’m fine with Pink as a singer, but a pop/rock star and her voice doesn’t translate well into a satirical sea shante. I guess there aren’t that many pirate-themed singers out there these days, but this is like Katy Perry being forced to sing a song about Medieval times on Game of Thrones, the guest spot doesn’t fit the actor at all. However, I like how the pirates jump off the boat at the end of the video, as if it’s a sign that even they don’t want to be a part of this anymore, otherwise it’s just my imagination making that up.
While on his way out to find Bikini Bottom, Patchy’s eaten by a whale and plays some outtakes and alternate scenes to pass the time. Are these really deleted scenes from previous episodes? No, they’re entirely new material made for the special, which I’ll talk more in-depth about later, but it’s just a horrible choice. The clips he shows are of alternate intros for the show if they starred Squidward, Patrick and Mr Krabs. Each time, you have to sit through the “Are ya ready kids?” part again, and Patchy ejects each of them before they’re even finished.
This is followed by “da tru owijin” of SpongeBob as a short subject from the 1930s. Although it’s animated adequately, poking fun at the more surreal art direction of cartoons in those days, even in the context of the episode, this origin story makes no sense. Given how this is supposedly set in 2009, 10 years after SpongeBob’s debut on TV in 1999, why would they retcon his introduction to be during the Golden Age of animation!? It’s a plot hole that really annoys me because I wish this was more serious about the history of SpongeBob, instead of offerring weak, generic gags.
Eventually, the projector he’s using catches on fire, and the whale pulls a Monstro coughing him out, though through the blowhole, conveniently back to the studio. Unconcious, he hallucinates meeting SpongeBob and fainting, which I feel would’ve been another thing to put in the trailers for the episode as a bait-and-switch. When he wakes up, the guy on the penny tells him SpongeBob is everywhere in a metaphorical sense, and takes off his hat to reveal a SpongeBob doll. Ricky Gervais then concludes the Patchy plot by making fun of his buffoonery and saying he gives a bad name to pirates. After this whole mess, I couldn’t agree with him more. Still, I hope he gets Karl Pilkington to narrate the 20th, that would be glorious.
So yeah, the Patchy segments in Truth or Square are just as bad as everyone says. Patchy himself lacks any sort of judgement, making strange decisions whenever it seems like an opportunity to meet up with SpongeBob. You get a real sense that each of the guest stars here, especially the ones who filmed at Nickelodeon studios, were disappointed with the material they were given and didn’t hide it on camera, and of course, the jokes very rarely make sense. I haven’t seen Feral Friends yet, but if it took Tom Kenny 8 years to feel comfortable in his old pirate suit again, that’s not a good sign.
Now finally, onto the SpongeBob portion of the episode!
It opens in a rather annoying way, with SpongeBob setting up several alarms clocks, each one with a different ringing sound overlapping one another. The reason he’s so hyped for today is because it’s the eleventy-seventh anniversary of the Krusty Krab. He reminisces the first time he ate a Krabby Patty, still in his mother’s womb. It’s bizzare to see SpongeBob concious in his mother’s womb, able to talk and eat burgers through his umbilical cord, in fact too bizzare to see as funny. I understand that this is most likely SpongeBob making the expereince up, but it already retcons his first words of “May I take your order?”.
He gets prepared for work via a montage set to the song “A Day Like This”. Much of the sequence is creative, what with him literally trying on a new face and a part where he plays in giant food. Benefitting the whole sequence is that the song itself is upbeat and catchy, getting you in the mood for a day of SpongeBob’s life, which is certainly not what this episode is about. This is immediately followed however by a slightly annoying scene in which he notices a giant line to the Krusty Krab (Mr Krabs finally getting what he wanted back in Patty Hype), and jumping acros the civilians’ heads to get to work, instead of the traditional method of walking next to them.
Once he gets to work, Mr Krabs gives him and Squidward a lecture about how Plankton may want to steal the formula today, showing them the Krusty Krab’s underground passageways via hologram that we previously never knew about and introducing Patrick as the restaurant’s new security. At the same time, Plankton feels like giving up after 1,003 failed attempts, but Karen believes in him like a loving wife and gets him to do a 1,004th. Later, we see SpongeBob decorating the Krusty Krab for its eleventy-seventh anniversary, and he does his dash decorating it under a pay of 50¢.
One thing all these scenes have in common is that they’ll have a moment where the characters will reminisce over their previous adventures, parodying clip shows. Nick says we have to use the word “parody” because all the clips used are newly made for the special. One easy way to tell not a single old clip is used is they’re all done in the episode’s new art style. This really upsets me, not just because it feels like they were too lazy to use old clips (the only early footage shown is the Patchy stuff at the very beginning), or that introducing these new scenarios is a sneaky way to get newbies to watch more reruns, but because I can name a couple moments from earlier episodes that’d be ripe for usage. For example, Squidward sleeping on the job could use some clips from Krusty Krab Training Video, and Plankton being flung towards the Krusty Krab has been a recurring gag since his debut episode. I understand some people don’t like clip shows, but that’s not an excuse to make fun of how forced they are while not even showing any classic clips.
After SpongeBob decorates most of the Krusty Krab, he shows his last piece to his fellow workers, which is a Krabby Patty ice sculpture. It’s rather hard to carry out of the freezer, so hard in fact that SpongeBob’s flung out, then back in with the door inconveniently shutting and locking behind him. At some point during production, this episode would’ve been called “Stuck in the Freezer”, but I can see why they changed it, as they quickly find a way out in the form of the previously shown ventilation shaft. The episode flip-flops between calling them ventilation shafts and underground tunnels, the former because it makes sense for a restaurant to have, and the latter because it sounds cool.
While exploring, they eventually come across a surveillance room, where they discover there are cameras all over Bikini Bottom placed by Mr Krabs to spy on civilians. This part is just done awkwardly. Mr Krabs having a secret surveillance room is one thing, but keeping it stored away in a ventilation shaft even he doesn’t know how to navigate is just writing a stream of gibberish. Things are then made a little more complicated when Plankton sneaks into the shaft, only to fall through tunnel after tunnel. I can see why he decided to take the more secretive path, but it’s bad luck that he’ll eventually see the others.
Meanwhile, the main cast try to contact Sandy for help, but Patrick ends by breaking the walkie-talkie out of stupidity. I hate having to call Patrick a glorified plot device over and over again in these episodes, but that’s just what he is in this scene. We soon get even more flashbacks, two of which were featured heavily in the commercials. Let me make one thing clear, I’ve been fine with episodes featuring moments “tailor-made for the commercials” before, because they rarely got in the way of any story. The sad thing is these instances do, and seem to relish in lying to you about what they were advertising. It’s sad to see a show that was once so good at giving its audience what they wanted now laugh in their face without any irony.
These flashbacks include Mr Krabs telling SpongeBob the Krabby Patty secret formula, but not after a long trek across the ocean to get back to Krabs’ office (which is admittedly a funny gag), the flashback is cut short because Plankton wants to hear what the formula is word-for-word. The next one, and the only one that tries to give you something, is Squidward’s life before SpongeBob, though a strange error occurs when, after moving in, SpongeBob immediately recognises Patrick. It seems they remembered the scene in The Secret Box where they’re shown to be best friends from birth, and decided to show that they still know each other, SpongeBob just never knew Patrick lived next to Squidward, and Squidward was never annoyed by Patrick.
The last, and possibly most infamous flashback, is to when SpongeBob and Sandy got married. On one hand, I can’t believe Stephen Hillenburg allowed this scene to go through after all the turmoil about SpongeBob’s sexuality a couple years earlier, let alone imply this was a play written by SpongeBob about him marrying Sandy. On the other hand, I’m impressed that they technically got married; despite it being a play, they hired a real priest to wed them. All in all, while a little bit funny, the way it’s set up leaves a real sting due to this being nothing but a ship tease.
The crew can’t take their endless search for the exit anymore, so SpongeBob turns his friends into a battering ram and busts them out. However, despite their freedom, the line of customers wanting to celebrate has gotten bored and left. SpongeBob sings a parody of “Oh Christmas Tree” called “Oh Krusty Krab”, which just so happens to get all the customers back and excited for some Krabby Patties. After a few more loose ends are tied up, like Mr Krabs getting his wallet back and Plankton being trampled, the special finally concludes with SpongeBob flipping patties, congratulating the Krusty Krab on eleventy-seven years.
Dear Neptune, what a waste of time all of this was! The plot for both parts of Trurth or Square are all over the place, and feel like spending the time celebrating all of pop culture instead of the ten year legacy of the series. None of it’s made any better by just how long and aimless it all feels. I should also mention how the specials are interwoven is rather lazy. You could get 2 minutes of each story followed soon by 15 minutes of each. Just a clip show would be all I’d ask for, with Patchy offering some real facts and trivia about the origin of SpongeBob, but we instead get two of the most insane plots in SpongeBob history that don’t understand how poorly handled they are. It’s hard to understand how Paul Tibbitt, writer of episodes like Ripped Pants and Frankendoodle, brought himself to this level for a majority of this special.
To be fair, there are a couple moments that I find funny. Nothing legitimately comedic comes from Patchy’s segments, but it’s got a “so bad it’s good” vibe to it. I’m sure you’ll find a part of it that’s so awkward or broken you’ll find it a little bit funny, but I just hope that wasn’t the intention. As for SpongeBob’s segments, you get the occasional laugh, like Patrick asking if the only way out of the Krusty Krab is a high school diploma, and SpongeBob wearing “leaderhosen” as a leader. There are some unfunny moments, sure, but I try to savour the good stuff, because this 30 minute segment has about as much comedy as an 11 minute episode.
This episode is rather important for being the first 16:9 HD episode, and while they don’t take much advantage of their higher picture quality (aside from the intro), you get a real sense they were still testing the widescreen framing out. There are various scenes where the shot feels like it’s panned too far back, because they were just enjoying how wide they could make each shot. Aside from a close-up of SpongeBob’s birthmark and three moles, there isn’t any gross-out in the animated segments. It was a hit-or-miss test for widescreen episodes, and I’m glad they waited until Season 9 to use the technique fully.
Also a useless tidbit, my family’s getting its first 4K TV tomorrow.
That’s not all there is to note about the animation however, because much like Atlantis SquarePantis, this special plays with a couple different art styles. As a huge fan of animation history, you’d think I’d be happy to see them poke fun at the 20s/30s rubberhose style and 50s conservative UPA style, but they’re only played with briefly and don’t really feel like cartoons from their respective eras. The best I can say is that the 50s Krabby Patty commercial has a jingle which could be a call-back to the one SpongeBob sings in Fear of a Krabby Patty, but I wouldn’t count on Truth or Square caring about any prior episode.
As for characters, for a 10th anniversary special, this really only gets the bare basics of most of them. SpongeBob doesn’t really show off much of his carefree, childlike personality outside of “A Day Like This”, Squidward is bored and that’s about it, Patrick makes the situation worse through his stupidity and that’s about it, and Plankton tries to steal the formula and that’s about it. The only one I think has character that’s more than surface-level is Mr Krabs, as they make more jokes about how long he’s owned the business and how cheap he is with it. One perfectly decent character doesn’t redeem several flat ones however.
The live action characters consist of Patchy the Pirate, occasionally his sidekick Potty, and a host of guest stars. As I’ve said, it’s hard to see Patchy boiled down to being a mindless SpongeBob fan, considering he was already a one-dimensional host. Potty only makes a physical appearance in one scene as a camera operator, but is otherwise absent from Patchy’s shoulder for the entire special. Finally, the vast array of guest stars feel like they were all forced into the special, and as such, their acting all feels uninspired, which is a shame because this is full of talented actors and celebrities. Alas, they make the episode feel more like a product of its time.
In short, I can get why some people would call this the worst episode of the whole series, because half of it barely even feels like an episode. The live action skits really set Patchy back, with Rick Gervais being the only interesting part of it all, while the animated stuff is a mediocre waste of HD animation that’s littered with lies. I know they teased a 20th anniversary special throughout this, but if anyone in the SpongeBob creative department is reading this, I urge you not to make a direct sequel to Truth or Square. Although it has its moments of light fun, it’s an anniversary special that feels independant from practically everything that came before. As for my viewing reccomendation to casual fans, you’re much better off watching the related documentary, Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob SquarePants. I might review it sometime soon, but trust me, it’s a much better celebration than this is.
Question of the Day: What would you want to see for SpongeBob SquarePants’ 20th anniversary?
The only perscription after subjecting yourself to this is more cowbell. Until then, here’s a song that couldn’t get much better, and I’ll let Honest Slug handle the rest of this.
:sbthumbs:
Depressed Luigi
Dead Inspector
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I personally think Truth or Square is one of the best Spongebob episodes and I don't care what everyone else says. The Patchy segments were kinda meh outside of the whale scene (though people completetly exaggerate how bad it is) from what I remember, but I also haven't seen the parts before the ones that air on TV so it might be worse. Either way though, I don't really heavily consider the Patchy scenes with discussing how good an episode is anyway unless the scene is really good since it's so much differant from the spongebob scenes, seperated from them and doesn't matter for the plot (except in Feral Friends), so I just don't watch them usually and don't feel like I'm missing anything. The Spongebob scenes are flat out perfect to me, and I never understood either why people hate them so much, or why people want it to be a clip show, since the way it does it in this episode makes it really funny and interesting, whereas making it a clip show would have been fairly boring (though still interesting to see what the characters say about it). And I don't care how rude it sounds, but anyone above the age of 5 who thought Spongebob and Sandy would actually get married deserved to be disappointed. It's completetly idiotic to think that they would have a shipped couple be married in a show like this.
SpongeBronyPH
Giant Clam
Truth or Square is pretty meh to me, despite the Squidward Torture Porns and lies, especially the fake wedding of SpongeBob and Sandy.
Night-Waker
Moby Dollar
It's been over eight years since that episode came out and part of me is STILL a little salty over the misleading ads.¬_¬
I mean, I don't completely hate Truth or Square, you'd just think that considering that it was the show's 10th anniversary special that it wouldn't be so... lacking.
QotD: Tbh I don't really care what they do, I just want them to actually pay tribute to the show's legacy this time around.
I mean, I don't completely hate Truth or Square, you'd just think that considering that it was the show's 10th anniversary special that it wouldn't be so... lacking.
QotD: Tbh I don't really care what they do, I just want them to actually pay tribute to the show's legacy this time around.