STACK NZ Jul #64

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BOTTOM’S UP! Nickelodeon’s most absorbing cartoon character returns in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water .

K rabby Patties might be closer to reality than we thought. The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water heralds the underwater fry cook’s first true visit to dry land, for his most super-heroic adventure yet. Life in Bikini Bottom (if you don’t think too much about the name) seems blissful enough, until Spongebob (voiced by Tom Kenny) and his pals – Patrick Star (Bill Faggerbakke), Squidward Tentacles (Rodger Bumpass), Sandy (Carolyn Lawrence), and Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown) – embark on a wild 3D escapade when the top-secret Krabby Patty recipe is stolen. Consequently, SpongeBob must join forces with nemesis Plankton for a trip through time and space, harness internal superpowers and battle fiendish pirate Burger Beard (Antonio Banderas), who has his own plans for the Krabby delicacies. “It's everything you want in a movie," promises director Paul Tibbitt. "We've taken familiar characters and pushed them in completely new directions – it's a road movie, a superhero movie, and a post-apocalypse movie, and it's all in 3D!" After years of working within the constraints of a television, the movie allowed the creative team to explore crazy new possibilities for the series' classic characters. "From the beginning, we knew we needed

It's everything you want in a movie – it's a road movie, a superhero movie, and a post-apocalypse movie

miss. "We've always written to make ourselves laugh," says SpongeBob writer Stephen Hillenburg. "Thankfully, what makes us laugh is appropriate for children. It's always great to hear adults say they can stand to watch our show." Now, for the first time, fans of the SpongeBob television series will get to see their favourite characters rendered in three dimensions. "The show has always had an element of animation and live action; animated characters in Bikini Bottom and a few live action segments in our world," says Hillenburg. "But we've never done anything on this level." Bill Fagerbakke adds, "In the past, our characters have been stick figures outside of the water, but this time around, the visual presentation is completely new. Everything is different. It's like they're going to Oz.” It seems as though the occurrences in this film aren’t all that different from the goings-on in Oz, either. From time travel to talking dolphins, and everything in between, The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water is pretty much exactly

to do something big," Tibbitt says. "We're used to having these huge ideas for stories which we'd inevitably have to scale back in some way. But for the film, we

time to ponder the franchise's legacy. "When the show first started airing, my daughter was in kindergarten," recalls Clancy Brown. "Now she's in college. Both of Tom's kids were born during the run of the show. You start to associate parts of your life with [SpongeBob], because it's become such a huge part of our lives."

realised we could bring the studio (Paramount) a crazy new idea, and they'd give us the latitude to make it happen. Nothing was off the table." After 15 years of SpongeBob, the cast and creative team have had

As far as the humour goes, there’s no holds barred when it comes to the in-jokes that the kids might

• The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water is out July 29

what you’d expect from a sponge that wears pants and a squirrel that lives underwater in a space suit. Are ya ready, kids?

JULY 2015 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.co.nz

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