220. The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom

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Synopsis: "The Flying Dutchman wants to make sure SpongeBob and his friends are scared on Halloween."

Trailer from San Diego Comic Con:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SjVrNm0NgDg

Oh boy that animation is just gorgeous. I didn't think they could top "It's a SpongeBob Christmas" but this just looks marvelous. Hopefully like it's predecessor, it becomes a beloved episode.

Show us how scared you are when it comes in October! Ha ha ha ha ha!
 
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I thought it was good, but it wasn't great as GF vibe or IASBC.




Really liked the animation, seeing interacting between Plnkton/Flying Dutchman is cool. Overall, just a generic Halloween special. my favorite scene is Sandy;s part, and the roller coaster song reminds me of "This is Halloween" a bit

Final Grade: B+
 
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Even though this did go in the direction that the show should be later on in terms of calming down hyperactivity while also being an energetically fun experience, the episode just falls a bit short. It's honestly not what it did but it just doesn't hold up a candle to other episodes. Fun, nothing really wrong with it at all, but somehow still not the best is the way to describe this episode and it's a little bizarre.
 

Honest Slug

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I see that tons of people watched this episode.

Hopefully it's better than the mediocre Ghoul Fools.
 

TheJasbre202

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Honest Canadian Cartoon said:
I see that tons of people watched this episode.

Hopefully it's better than the mediocre Ghoul Fools.
I think (in post-movie expectations) that Ghoul Fools was a scary and good halloween ep, but this looks far better in terms of story and animation, I just don't like that they reused the intro from Truth or Square, it just doesn't match Halloween and it looks horrible compared to the animation of the episode.
 

J-444

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First off: Though I DVR-ed it, I am in need of a torrent copy to properly enjoy this, as for two-thirds of the time, Nickelodeon was showing a banner that took up a whole fifth of the screen (at the bottom) for TWC/Spectrum customers. Seeing the many, many shots with information at the bottom of the frame (ex. the Krusty Krab exterior, the coaster), this was an extremely cheap move to pull when a hyped-up special is airing. (I need to look back to see if this is true, but there might have also been a whole advertisement about it, seeing as I might have glimpsed a phone number while skipping the adverts.)

Anyway, besides that and the noise pollution behind me when watching, this was pretty good - and pretty pretty. This works very well as a Halloween special, even though there's nothing too profound, like the moral in IASC. It does what it needs to do, and does it well. The main strength of this special is, of course, the art - This may take the cake for the most asthetics-driven/artistic Spongebob episode ever created, effectively switching story and art strengths with IASC. Every inside-located segment in particular nails the creepy feel, with special mention going to the first Dutchman coaster segment halfway through, with a distinct claustrophobic dark-ride vibe that fits perfectly with what's going on.

On first impressions, this feels like a solid 8/10. Also, without specifics, anyone else catch Plankton's Soylent Green reference the first time around?
 
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Depressed Luigi

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I see that tons of people watched this episode.

Hopefully it's better than the mediocre Ghoul Fools.

I thought you didn't watch the show anymore.


Edit:Outdated opinion

Anyway, I thought this episode was really good. I espicially liked the visuals in this episode, they were some of the best I've ever seen in the show so far! I also liked the general atmosphere too, and the episode also felt fun to watch too in general, not sure how to explain it very good, but I just enjoyed it. And it was cool to see an episode that wasn't way too fast-paced or zany or any of that stuff, it felt more calmed down. I hope future episodes can be calmed down like this too while still having the great strengths of Seasons 9B-11. I espicially liked the parts after The Flying Dutchman takes all of Spongebob's friends and locks them up to scare Spongebob.

However, as others have said, it did feel like it was missing something. I feel like it didn't have that much of a plot until the Flying Dutchman takes all of Spongebob's friends to scare him, and it felt all over the place (Although this isn't really that bad of a thing). And I also felt like it could've been a bit funnier.

However, I still thought it was a great episode, and I'll say it's probably a 9.5. I still like to watch these episodes a second time though, since they sometimes seem better the second time.

Also, I wonder how many people had tragic flashbacks from the intro :P

J-444 said:
First off: Though I DVR-ed it, I am in need of a torrent copy to properly enjoy this, as for two-thirds of the time, Nickelodeon was showing a banner that took up a whole fifth of the screen (at the bottom) for TWC/Spectrum customers. Seeing the many, many shots with information at the bottom of the frame (ex. the Krusty Krab exterior, the coaster), this was an extremely cheap move to pull when a hyped-up special is airing. (I need to look back to see if this is true, but there might have also been a whole advertisement about it, seeing as I might have glimpsed a phone number while skipping the adverts.)

Anyway, besides that and the noise pollution behind me when watching, this was pretty good - and pretty pretty. This works very well as a Halloween special, even though there's nothing too profound, like the moral in IASC. It does what it needs to do, and does it well. The main strength of this special is, of course, the art - This may take the cake for the most asthetics-driven/artistic Spongebob episode ever created, effectively switching story and art strengths with IASC. Every inside-located segment in particular nails the creepy feel, with special mention going to the first Dutchman coaster segment halfway through, with a distinct claustrophobic dark-ride vibe that fits perfectly with what's going on.

On first impressions, this feels like a solid 8/10. Also, without specifics, anyone else catch Plankton's Soylent Green reference the first time around?
Huh, I didn't notice a banner when I watched it. I did notice it did the thing where it freezes for a few second and then cuts a few seconds ahead at one point (and I was wondering how long it would take until this happened during a new episode airing, lol), but not a banner.
 

Honest Slug

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Wintermelon43 said:
I thought you didn't watch the show anymore.



Anyway, I thought this episode was really good. I espicially liked the visuals in this episode, they were some of the best I've ever seen in the show so far! I also liked the general atmosphere too, and the episode also felt fun to watch too in general, not sure how to explain it very good, but I just enjoyed it. And it was cool to see an episode that wasn't way too fast-paced or zany or any of that stuff, it felt more calmed down. I hope future episodes can be calmed down like this too while still having the great strengths of Seasons 9B-11. I espicially liked the parts after The Flying Dutchman takes all of Spongebob's friends and locks them up to scare Spongebob.

However, as others have said, it did feel like it was missing something. I feel like it didn't have that much of a plot until the Flying Dutchman takes all of Spongebob's friends to scare him, and it felt all over the place (Although this isn't really that bad of a thing). And I also felt like it could've been a bit funnier.

However, I still thought it was a great episode, and I'll say it's probably a 9.5. I still like to watch these episodes a second time though, since they sometimes seem better the second time.

Also, I wonder how many people had tragic flashbacks from the intro :P
I didn't see it. I'm just surprised the hyped up special didn't gain that much traffic in comparison to Goodbye, Krabby Patty. The Ghoul Fools comment was because some people are saying it was worse than that episode.

Also it's not like I'm never seeing another episode again, I'm taking a break since I've got other things to do atm and I'm not interested, if an episode looks good I'll probably get around to seeing it at some point, just not right now.

I still comment in these episode discussions because I like to keep up with new SBM topics, and SBM isn't that active today so there isn't a lot of options.
 

Depressed Luigi

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I didn't see it. I'm just surprised the hyped up special didn't gain that much traffic in comparison to Goodbye, Krabby Patty. The Ghoul Fools comment was because some people are saying it was worse than that episode.

Also it's not like I'm never seeing another episode again, I'm taking a break since I've got other things to do atm and I'm not interested, if an episode looks good I'll probably get around to seeing it at some point, just not right now.

I still comment in these episode discussions because I like to keep up with new SBM topics, and SBM isn't that active today so there isn't a lot of options.

My guess is that it didn't get as much traffic because

1. It was hyped up for a smaller amount of time then specials usually are hyped up for (only like 13 days or something, that's about how long they hyped up Sportz I think lol)

2. They didn't really hype up anything specific about the episode like they usually do. Usually they hype up something that happens during it, such as krabby patties not existing anymore in Goodbye Krabby Patty or Spongebob getting fired in Spongebob You're Fired. For this episode they just hyped it up as just being a halloween-based Spongebob special.

3. They also aired a Loud House Halloween special immedietly after Boo-Kini Bottom, which was hyped up just as much as Boo-Kini Bottom (and for an even longer time period than this)
 

kingseye423

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It was pretty good.

The animation is beautiful in this one, as well as the visuals, as well as the plot of SpongeBob thinking that scary equals funny, but you know what's going to happen (SpongeBob saves everyone and the villain is defeated, though some SB episodes have changed it sometimes). It's great to see the Flying Dutchman (in pure rage, literally).

Great episode animation and visual wise. 8.9/10.
 

CartoonJazzLover

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Wintermelon43 said:
My guess is that it didn't get as much traffic because

1. It was hyped up for a smaller amount of time then specials usually are hyped up for (only like 13 days or something, that's about how long they hyped up Sportz I think lol)

2. They didn't really hype up anything specific about the episode like they usually do. Usually they hype up something that happens during it, such as krabby patties not existing anymore in Goodbye Krabby Patty or Spongebob getting fired in Spongebob You're Fired. For this episode they just hyped it up as just being a halloween-based Spongebob special.

3. They also aired a Loud House Halloween special immedietly after Boo-Kini Bottom, which was hyped up just as much as Boo-Kini Bottom (and for an even longer time period than this)
I'm adding another reason: 4. The "geniuses" at Cartoon Network airing two new We Bare Bears episodes at the same time as this episode. Guess who's going to be winning the ratings? Also it didn't really grabbed Twitter's attention, so it didn't ended up trending like Goodbye Krabby Patty? did (if only the title didn't fooled them).

Anyway, I thought this was a very great episode. Season 11 is already looking to be better than the rather sugar-rush mess that was season 10 and this episode as well as Spin the Bottle and Spot Returns proves it. This is another great piece of scriptwriting I've seen from Doug Lawrence himself. Unlike a certain someone, he knows how to write everyone in character without resorting to melodramatic reactions. While it does feel like a typical Halloween special you see in other cartoons, I still think it was well-done, SpongeBob style. Sandy and Krabs' costume are pretty predictable for today's standards, but all of the costumes were good, especially Karen as a cat. But the best thing of all, it was nice seeing The Flying Dutchman again. Brian Doyle-Murray might sound a little older the last time he voiced him, but he still puts on a good performance. The Scare Song was great piece of music for a rather generic spooky sounding song. While the comedy hit most of the time, the pacing did felt a little too fast paced at times, but that's just me. my favorite part of the episode was easily the brain sequence which was animated and storyboarded by Sally Cruikshank. It was very trippy and a wild experience. What's even funnier is that, like in Scaredy Pants, the Flying Dutchman got scared by SpongeBob's brain. So the moral for this episode is...scary does equals funny, which can be true, unless you don't go too far with your pranks. Overall, this was such an awesome Halloween stop motion special. It's almost as great as It's A SpongeBob Christmas! 10/10
 

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Wintermelon43 said:
I thought you didn't watch the show anymore.



Anyway, I thought this episode was really good. I espicially liked the visuals in this episode, they were some of the best I've ever seen in the show so far! I also liked the general atmosphere too, and the episode also felt fun to watch too in general, not sure how to explain it very good, but I just enjoyed it. And it was cool to see an episode that wasn't way too fast-paced or zany or any of that stuff, it felt more calmed down. I hope future episodes can be calmed down like this too while still having the great strengths of Seasons 9B-11. I espicially liked the parts after The Flying Dutchman takes all of Spongebob's friends and locks them up to scare Spongebob.

However, as others have said, it did feel like it was missing something. I feel like it didn't have that much of a plot until the Flying Dutchman takes all of Spongebob's friends to scare him, and it felt all over the place (Although this isn't really that bad of a thing). And I also felt like it could've been a bit funnier.

However, I still thought it was a great episode, and I'll say it's probably a 9.5. I still like to watch these episodes a second time though, since they sometimes seem better the second time.

Also, I wonder how many people had tragic flashbacks from the intro :P


Huh, I didn't notice a banner when I watched it. I did notice it did the thing where it freezes for a few second and then cuts a few seconds ahead at one point (and I was wondering how long it would take until this happened during a new episode airing, lol), but not a banner.
Probably because you don't have Spectrum. They had the banner at the bottom saying they were gonna get rid of all the Viacom channels if we didn't do something about it, Spectrum is like the 2nd biggest cable company in the US I think.
 

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TheJasbre202 said:
I think (in post-movie expectations) that Ghoul Fools was a scary and good halloween ep, but this looks far better in terms of story and animation, I just don't like that they reused the intro from Truth or Square, it just doesn't match Halloween and it looks horrible compared to the animation of the episode.
When doing some research I think I got my episodes mixed up. Ghoul Fools was actually very good, I think I was thinking of the 9a Seance episode which is different.
 
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Wonderful special that is my favorite episode of the whole season. Just like with It's A SpongeBob Christmas, the special had a fantastic stopmotion animation, as well as a great 2D animated sequence of SpongeBob's brain (great callback to Plankton entering SponeBob's brain in the second movie). The humor was pretty good, a lot of slapstick actually worked for stopmotion animation and it didn't go too zany with it either. All of characters were 100% in character, yet they didn't flanderize them. Especially Squidward. He wasn't zany nor got undeserved pain, he was actually a prankster and I found it very funny. The musical number cheered me so much and it was the highlight of the episode. The pacing was well balanced, it didn't feel too fast or too slow. The story was nothing too special but simplicity is what SpongeBob does best and it worked here. It entertained me throughout. At first I thought it'd go with Scary Pants direction but it didn't and I loved it. I still prefer It's A SpongeBob Christmas but one thing I'll say better about this story than It's A SpongeBob Christmas is that there are no plot holes I can think of. Thanks Mr. Lawrence for another masterpiece. I think so far he's my favorite writer of this new era.

Grade: A
 

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This was the best SpongeBob Special ever.
10/10
 

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Huh, I didn't notice a banner when I watched it. I did notice it did the thing where it freezes for a few second and then cuts a few seconds ahead at one point (and I was wondering how long it would take until this happened during a new episode airing, lol), but not a banner.
The banner was only for spectrum customers. I guess you don't have spectrum?
 

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Well, The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom has become one of my favorite specials released within the past several years. Of course, that isn't hard to do when the only special from this decade I like is Hello Bikini Bottom!

The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom is a nice surprise. Did we ever need a stop-motion Halloween special? Not at all. But the crew that worked on this episode put in a lot, and I mean A LOT of effort into this special. First off, the animation in this special is incredible. I'm personally not a fan of It's a SpongeBob Christmas! I find it to be a mediocre special with very ugly set pieces, and forgettable jokes that fall flat on their face.Thankfully, this special seems to fix all of the problems that It's a SpongeBob Christmas! had.

First off, let's talk about the plot (Yeah, yeah, I never gave my full two cents on the animation). The plot of this special is fairly simple, and I do give it credit for being quite original. Sure, we've already explored SpongeBob being scared around Halloween, but this special seems to turn the scenario around, focusing much more SpongeBob's overall Halloween experience, highlighting different ways his friends celebrate Halloween. The episode takes an interesting direction this way, and we get a lot of cool and interesting visuals, as well as some funny gags. Plus, a lot of moments in this episode actually serve a purpose in the plot. Yeah, Sandy's puppet she uses returns during the climax of the episode, which was something I honestly wasn't expecting. The cheap decorations on the Krusty Krab and Chum Bucket motivate The Flying Dutchman to show SpongeBob what true fear is like. I feel as though the pacing in this special comes off really smoothly, some scenes aren't faster than others, some aren't slower than others, they all seem to last an appropriate amount of time. Also, the conflict between the Flying Dutchman and SpongeBob is played out very interestingly. I really like the interaction between the two. Sure, we've seen them both interact before, but never really like this. Dutchy IS the antagonist of this episode. Sure, he's been the antagonist before, but he never really was the main antagonist. Sure, he was a pretty big foe in Ghoul Fools, but that was for just the last few minutes. He's an antihero in Ghost Host, a plot device in Money Talks, and only appears during the climax of Scaredy Pants. He finally gets his big break in this episode, and I feel as though him trying to one-up SpongeBob is a pretty interesting premise, tied in with the overall theme of SpongeBob looking at scary things in a whole different light.

As for the jokes, this is definitely one of the funnier episodes of recent time. There's plenty of good gags in this episode, especially Plankton and Krabs decorating their restaurants as the opposing restaurant across the street. I felt that was VERY creative, and quite original. Not to mention, SpongeBob's dream sequence had some chuckles, and there were some good visual gags (Especially the bowling pins one). I think the funniest part of the episode is probably the "WE ONLY HAVE ONIONS!" line. The absurdity of this joke, and sheer randomness of it is absolutely priceless. Seeing those giant onions roll out of Squid's house was definitely a highlight! Overall, I think this episode had it's humor down.

Now let's talk about the characters, I think they were really well written in this episode. I already discussed how much I enjoyed The Flying Dutchman's grand return in this episode, and how he plays off of SpongeBob. Now let's talk about the rest of the gang. Pretty much, they're all in character. No real flaws with their personality, or how they act, they're portrayed perfectly in this special. Not to mention, they're not useless. All of the main characters have some sort of impact on the episode's climax. Having The Flying Dutchman scare SpongeBob by trapping his friends in ghost form was genius! I felt that was a very clever push for SpongeBob to have a change in character. Overall, the characters are definitely one of this episode's strengths.

Now let's talk about the best part of the episode, the animation. I wasn't fond of It's a SpongeBob Christmas!'s animation. I felt as though it was a little too choppy at times, not to mention the setting was unusually drab. Thankfully, the animation is really improved in this episode, it is incredible at times! The sequence where SpongeBob and Patrick first go into the Dutchman's ship was very incredible to see in stop-motion (Of course there were obviously effects to make the ramp disappear, but I felt as though it was an impressive shot). The character designs feel a little more improved over the Christmas special, despite being pretty much the same. I don't know, maybe it's just the fact that this is in HD. Of course, there still remains the fault with SpongeBob and Patrick not having helmets in Sandy's dome, but I can forgive that for all the other massive amounts of effort poured into this episode. The Flying Dutchman is incredible in this episode, I think I like this design more than his 2D design! The episode seems a lot more colorful than the Christmas episode, and the atmosphere is appropriately lightened at various parts of the episode. I especially like the ghost counterparts of SpongeBob's friends. Those designs were pretty impressive.

I think the most baffling part of the episode was SpongeBob's brain sequence. First off, Plankton pretty much confirms this episode takes place after Sponge Out of Water, saying he's been in SpongeBob's brain before, and it's a frightening site. Meaning Sponge Out of Water is definitely a prequel. I think we all knew that at this point, but I just thought it was cool that the series was referencing one of their movies (Aside from the Goofy Goober references in past episodes). But the most interesting part about this surprising turn of events is that a completely different animation style is used in this scene! It's like if SpongeBob Comics was adapted onto TV, it's incredible! This odder, more modern-like style of animation (Which feels like a mix of Steven Universe and Clarence) is a perfect representation of SpongeBob's imagination, with bright colorful creatures of happiness, and all sorts of imaginative creatures of love. This was definitely a shocking turn of events which was a very creative way to finish the conflict.

While I do think the ending was kind of lazy, primarily Sandy and Krabs' dialogue, I think this is a very solid special. It seems to get just about everything right, great animation, funny jokes, a fairly original plot, it's definitely a Great Episode. I tell you, Season 11 keeps getting better and better. If we have more of these types of episodes with the amount of effort pushed to the max, and less episodes like Cave Dwelling Sponge, I think we're in for a really good Season. I give it a 9.4/10.
 
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