OK, so, this so-called movie came at a time Nickelodeon was trying (way too hard) to promote special after special. Such attempts included DVD releases to probably fool people into thinking that those specials had that direct-to-video movie feel, segments dedicated to the specials themselves (Whoopi Goldberg desperately wanting to see SpongeBob's lost episode and Tony Hawk trying to fing Gary the Snail along with Patchy while also hammering in facts about places all over the world, being perfect examples), contests, hunge-sounding names, like Mystery with a Twistery, Clash of Triton, some really good video games, and more...
And my god, there's not a single better way to represent marketing at it's "finest", than Atlantis SquarePantis. Despite originally gaining a rating of 9.22 million viewers, the highest audience in the history of the show, it went on to be described one of the worst episodes of the show, ever!!!! I guess people like Mr. Enter (a reviewer who I personally really like, despite not agreeing in everything with him) were the ones who made the episode receive a much larger criticism than ever before, and I wouldn't lie, if I'd ever say I can't blame them.
Now, let's go from the humble beginning... It all started, when a naked Dani Michaeli while having a shower (or so that "ingenius" 22-minute filler behind-the-scenes special tells us), got a brilliant idea! He would make an 11-minute SpongeBob episode, where SpongeBob and Patrick go to Atlantis, and see the oldest living bubble, the world has ever seen! The aim: probably a lot of harmless like most in Seasons 4 and 5 jokes. And hey! Seeing how lots of those jokes, despite not reaching the adult and wacky themes of the original pre-movie era, really worked, people could get a bit hyped about the episode, right?
And now here comes Nick, then led by the "great" Cyma Zarghami, infamously known for making the network way worse with the years passing... well, ok, I should say "a disaster" judging from greenliting pilots with not much of a potential in the first place, and forcing the creator Harvey Beaks to apologize for expressing his ture feelings about yet another awful thing the US network has, which is scheduling, but seeing how many wonderful creators that made hit shows like "TMNT", "Loud House", the 2017-present bumpers in general, and so many more, I just can't really say it. Anyway, the desicion the network had, was to turn it into a made-for-television movie, which is quite funny, seeing how the final product could be easily mistaken for an average SpongeBob episode. Now, here's an upside with the desicion: SpongeBob going to Atlantis can sound like a big adventure, and this could be said as a fun desicion, so the writers could experiment with lots of possiobilities for endless jokes that could be the highlight of the show overall!!! And here's a downside: ....Nick wouldn', and didn't care about the production overall. If they had even taken a look at it, they would at least say "Hey, wouldn't it be better if this needed some fixing, or that was limited a little bit?", not nesecarilly be angry, after all, an episode of SpongeBob won't determine the future of planet earth. But here's the thing, the complete opposite was done here! The network did its best to only market it, and from such a prespective....... it was awesome!! The first memorable thing when thinking about the marketing of the "most special special to ever be called a special", was the video game. And while the home console version was rather quite honest with what the audience would see, the haldheld version had a million times better plot, which even thought mostly served for playability opportunities, I bet it could easily make for the final plot used in the episode. So, next we have kindergarten books, contests for luxurious hotel "Atlantis", a bubble one (Nick.com users would make bubble and a few of them would appear during the end credits of the episode), and to top it all of, a 12-hour marathon, where episodes would be included, judging from the first letter of a word highlighting it. And yes, it was fun, though weirdly enough, The SpongeBob Movie (Plan "Z"), was the first one to appear in it. Now, seeing how this originally made its network premiere at the very end of the Best Day Ever marathon, simply because a movie even the network executives know has a ton of replay value, would make up for the ridiculously little lenght of the BDE episode, that could mean that the TV movie coming, would be some of the best moments in the history of SpongeBob!!
The time finally came. Patchy, as part of an "underwater talk show", along with Potty, were about to give the green light for the episode to premiere, while of course, showing clips of people dancing, including a child that seemed to wait so much for the episode to premiere, HE COULDN'T EVEN GO TO THE TOILET TO PEE!!!!!
"The moment we've been waiting for, has arrived! It's for the world premiere of your favorite new episode, Atlantis SquarePantis!! IT'S GIGANTIS!!!"
The special starts off, with the usual theme song, followed by the usual title card. OK, I can't honestly see something terribly wrong happening....
The movie starts with SpongeBob and Patrick trying to take pictures of bubbles they make. However, when talking a picture of them, they pop, and Patrcik thinks it's the camera to blame.
"Hold on a second, Patrick! It's not the poor camera's fault you can't get a photo. No, it is the very nature of the fragile bubble. Allow me to demonstrate."
And what starts is a song that while a lot of people usually appreciate for its sweet nature, highly don't think this should be the start of the show's first TV movie. My opinion: I don't mind! Like, yes, it's slow, but saying it drawn out, would be a bit too harsh. The song is kinda brief, and it ties with the silly tone the show always had. After all, it's only the start of the episode, there will be surely much more twists and surprises to come! ......rrright?
Ok, so after this song, SpongeBob makes a really huge bubble, that, of course, is able of trapping SpongeBob and Patrick inside, and thus flying all over the city.... it's SpongeBob logic, don't question it. The bubble suddenly pops, and it's a matter of time for Bob and Patrick to realize, that they are in a cave, with a rather mysterious half piece of an amulet.
They go to the Bikini Bottom Museum to find more info about it, as we see Mr. Krabs in th entrance fooling people into thinking you need to pay to enter. Now, this joke is...... pretty meh. Good, I mean, he gets his karma at the end, but it's just not something I would expect from this gigantis TV movie.
The duo starts creating havoc, when Squidward interrupts them, and thinks they stole something from the museum. But little does he know, that they found the other half of the amulet that will guide the whole gang to Atlantis, a never-seen-before place, full of inventions that would make their way to the society of Bikini Bottom. One of their highlights include the oldest living bubble, that SpongeBob and Patrick want to see. And Sandy comes in, which loves science! Mr. Krabs loves money, Squidward loves art, and all those thing will be found at Atlantis!!!
.....why do I feel the movie so far has failed a bit to impress me? I mean, the whole thing just seems, from a teenager's point of view, too corny for SpongeBob.
But, here's what will rise your expectations! When they finally do put the second half with the first one together, a huge cool-looking 3D bus arrives to take them to the destination! Now, they go inside and sit there, as we're ready to see all thouse 3D scenes the crew had made for the pleasure of the audience... almost.
Something you'll notice quickly, is the incredible lack of 3d animation in the special. I mean, if they wanted to include for the 1st time such kind of animation, wouldn't they want to show it in a more incredible way, rather than mostly using it for.... making a massage in Squidward's feet for like 2 secs?? Because...... ehhh?
...when they learn the bus lacks the fuel needed.... Boy, for such a hugh looking civilization, not having fuel in your very own bus, seems like a no-brainer. The gang, somehow pulls this bus out of the museum, and goes to a gas station to fill it, only to learn NOW, that the bus gets its fuel from singing... what, was solar energy and wacky adventures in this bus of wonders (that will surely include some kind of gadgets) more boring, than singing a mediocre song about what the main characters want to see when they go to Atlantis? By the minds of the writers, yes. And it wouldn't be so bad, if anything else ever happened in this bus. Because, when immediately, Patrick forgets what he also wants to sing sbout, the bus loses its fuel (because.... having the bus falling into the ground is much more episodic and surreal- ok, I'll admit it is), and you know what's following. Again, those two jokes of SpongeBob singing a bit off-key, and Squidward blaming the others for ruining the garden of the Atlantean Kingdom, just aren't nearly strong enough, and are not memorable at all.
However, they find that where they arrived, sadly isn't Atlantis, but an alien colony, habituated by creatures that mostly look like they were made by the Mad Doctor, called.... Atlantis. Despite the fact this should get on my nerves, I somehow think that the whole crew did put most of its effort into the I'll admit, quite funny, interesting, and awesome-looking backgrounds of Atlantis, as opposed to everything else in the movie.
And we get introduced to Lord Royal Highness....... really? Like, was this the INTELLIGENT name they gave to the ruler of Atlantis? It's like, yeah, King Neptune would be so stupid to be called like that... Oh, and speaking of King Neptune, not that I'm bothered from it or anything but, why are there 3 DIFFERENT VERSIONS of King Neptune and Atlantis, on the SpongeBob universe????? Anyway, this ones is played by David Bowie, and truth be told, he really did blow on this one. Oh, it's not because he was bad at singing in this or anything, but HE DOESN'T SING!!!! Maybe this had to do with an accident on stage that happened to him around the time the movie aired, but seeing how in SpongeBob there have been tons of celebrity guests like Mark Hamill and Johnny Depp, who have had way less lines than Bowie, and all of their lines not highlighting in the very least their abilities, I think we all know who's to blame for.
And, I'm not kidding here, most of the scenes that follow, are followed by this pattern: 1. Go to a room full of treasures (unpopular cliche in kids' cartoons since the dawn of Willy Wonka), 2. Sing a pretty mediocre, or even awful song. Triple that, and there you go. Most of the special is filled with these for some strange reason.
OK, so, Mr' Krabs song (this is literally what this and the other three are called) is about money (one of the three being a cheapstake songs in seasons 4-5), and..... it's too mediocre to handle. The 3d as I said before, is really bland (and especially off-putting here), and...... yeah, it's bland, I can't even say anything about it!!! Sandy's song is also bland and forgettful, though the crew did an amazing job on the old arcade style!!! Next there's Squidward's Song, which is simply awful (sounds like Rodger Bumpass wrote it on his sleep), and the animation there is unimpressive...
"I'd even look great on the side of your van!"
That's how horrible it is. Oh, and there's Plankton's Song, but it's so dreadful, I won't bother explaining about it any further.
FINALLY after having wasted around 10 minutes on pointless songs that someone could argue they wouldn't even make it to a regular SpongeBob episode, with NO humor whatsoever, LRH finally tell SB and Patrick about that oldest living bubble. I guess that in the middle of talking exposition to them there should be an awesome scene showing how this bubble which meant a lot for them, after such a war about it, remained safe, while also throwing some clever gags. But, judging by the fact even Tom Kenny in an interview mentioned that the show still had a basic cable budget when making this movie (indicating that Nickelodeon would not DARE to give something a little bit more from their precious money, but dare to market something the heck out of it, even if it's awful by the numbers), they instead throw a storyboard image at us. OK, so Patrick and Bob go to see the bubble, they break it (the reactions may get some giggles), and they go to dinner. Everyone seems happy with Atlantis, all but the duo itself, that admits they broke the bubble. What we get is a scene of LRH showing the real bubble (because they like black comedy or something like that), Patrick pops it with his camera again (because I guess that's black comedy), and in a yet again off-putting way, LRH gets mad at them, plus calls his minions to get rid of them! And on top of that, the very brief action scenes are also, you guessed it, BORING!!! Like yeah, Sandy uses the characters as weapons, even though they could, oh I don't know, move their legs (but they don't want to..... no, it's not funny), and, I'm sorry, after passing the last 10 minutes hearing a boredom of mediocre musical numbers, this won't make at any point for what I passed through!!
Then, Pankton stops 'em because he found a tank in Atlantis, and he's ready to blow 'em up!!! To sum up, what happened before: Plankton SOMEHOW gets found on the bus' glovebox door, then gets out with the help of a manual, gets into a room full of battle weapons that Atlanteans as LRH said, don't use anymore, because they don't think problems are solved with this way (which doesn't escuse not looking after them), Plankton gets a tank (which should mean that the citizens should run hyterically to find something to hide), and.... yeah, at one point, seeing the gang getting out of such a situation, seems cool!!
OK, so the 2nd commercial break (or 3rd, I don't care) ends, as we're ready to see Plankton pushing the button, that will activate the tank, that will blow up our beloved characters... actually, that's kinda scary at the same time. So, he pushes it, the tank gets activated, and we find that, the reason Atlanteans don't bother to take care of its weapons, is because, this tank for example, shoots......
ice cream.
.....that's so stupid, not a single word, letter, or sound of miscellanious violence can express my disapointement. Like, yeah, remember the scene with Sandy inside that lab room, where LRH explains how most of the machines there, only have ice cream as a result? That was a clever hint, that this tank also had, ice cream.... Then, how the heck did Antlantis even invent most of the stuff Bikini Bottom uses nowadays????
Plankton becomes the replacement of the oldest bubble, the gang leaves with the bus Atlantis, and all that followed by a bit funny line LRH says: "I thought sponges were supposed to make life easier."
Next, we get a surprisingly pretty emotional song about how the crew feels sad for leaving Atlantis (maybe it's sad because we WANTED to se more of Atlantis), even though going back to Bikini Bottom is the best option and still means the gang will still have adventures that thank Jesus will be better than this piece of boredom......
And no joke, THAT WAS the whole special. This was a hard one. I mean, let aside the fact the movie doesn't even meet the 40 minute requirement (meaning the special lasts 30 minutes).... the plot is boring, the characters are boring, and, amazingly enough, the movie is almost devoid of memorable jokes!!! Most of the jokes in the special are just bits that you forget, once the special ends.
Also, in reruns, there are Patchy segments, which even though they are fine on their own (only in the desert they start slowing down, and the alien stuff (ironic seeing how Atlantis itself looks like an alien colony) is too random), they don"t fit in context of the special.
And to top it all, the behind the scenes special sucks. I mean, even this filler special to fill in the 1 hour runtime in the original airing, consists of mostly filler! Aside from storyboards, early concept art, and surprisingly enough, work made in the Korean studio that animated the show (which is really surprising for Korean studios that usually aren't part of the spotlight), the whole thing is just awkward speeches made by the crew, scenes from Seasons 1-3 episodes, some obvious stuff about voice acting, mentioned better in other specials, and literally the last two steps, Sound and Packinging (?), which are just clips from older eps as said before. Oh, and the narrator manages to make the Ta da da da thing from Krusty Krab Training Video sound awful.
Do I recommend it? Let's just say unless you are a 5-year-old (in which case, this special will seem quite entertaining, and overall harmless; the reason I give it 3 stars), the special will be mostly a waste of time, not only because of the special itself, but because of how much Nickelodeon ridiculously hyped this GIGANTIS event.... No, I don't.
