Spongebob Squarepants Is Still Making Headlines Over Two Decades Since Its Debut
This Sponge has legs.
Not the two spindly ones dangling below those square pants; we’re talking about the endlessly durable SpongeBob franchise, now over two decades old.
Just this week, Paramount+, the streaming service born out of the ashes of CBS All-Access, has released a new movie and a prequel, and another prequel was announced on Thursday (this one to air on Nickelodeon.)
Released Thursday on the new streamer, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run was actually meant to be in theaters last July, but after the lockdown shuttered cinemas last summer, it was moved to this year and to streaming only.
SpongeBob’s third cinematic outing (and his first that’s entirely CG-animated) at first looks to be about the fry cook’s relationship with Gary, his distinctly feline pet snail. While SpongeBob is at work, Gary goes missing, and SpongeBob must find a way to track him down and bring him home.
The usual suspects appear in the movie; unfriendly neighbor Squidward, crusty money-grubbing boss Mr. Krabs and his dear friend Sandy Cheeks — the down-home squirrel who dons a space suit to live under the sea. The villain, of course, is Plankton, who kidnaps Gary to get SpongeBob out of the way, sending him to The Lost City of Atlantic City (ha ha!) all for a chance to achieve his unachievable goal: stealing the Krabby Patty’s top secret recipe. As always, SpongeBob is joined on this mission by his slightly simple BFF, Patrick Star, and Keanu Reeves makes a surprise cameo as a godlike figure.
The first of the two spin-off series is called Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years and takes us back to when the Bikini Bottom pals spent the summer at sleep-away camp. The characters, now only 10 years old, learn wilderness skills and moral lessons, like how to avoid the temptation of sugary snacks.
The character’s roles have changed, of course. SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy are camp goers, Squidward is a junior counselor and Krabs is in charge of the entire camp. Naturally, Plankton runs the food shack.
The idea for this prequel show came from a flashback scene in the Sponge on the Run movie. The first six episodes of the series are out now on Paramount+, with another seven episodes dropping at a later date.
Both the movie and Kamp Koral feature the actors who have voiced the characters since SpongeBob SquarePants began in 1999, including Tom Kenny as SpongeBob, Bill Fagerbakke as Patrick, Rodger Bumpass as Squidward, Clancy Brown as Mr. Krabs, Carolyn Lawrence as Sandy, and Mr. Lawrence as Plankton.
Also announced on Thursday is the upcoming The Patrick Star Show, yet another prequel that follows a younger version of the starfish (also voiced by Fagerbakke), who is still living at home with his family, “where he hosts his own show for the neighborhood from his television-turned-bedroom,” according to the official logline.
We’ll meet Patrick’s genial dad Cecil (SpongeBob‘s Tom Wilson); daffy mom Bunny (A Different World‘s Cree Summer); little sister Squidina (fellow franchise vet Jill Talley), who serves as the executive producer of his imaginary TV show; and GrandPat Star (The Penguins of Madagascar‘s Dana Snyder), the most intelligent member of the Star family.
“Nickelodeon is diving deeper into Bikini Bottom to give fans a look at our lovable young adult Patrick Star and his entire family with a sitcom only he could imagine up,” Ramsey Naito, President of Nickelodeon Animation, said in a statement. “This second original spinoff allows us to expand our reach, tell new stories and connect with our audience around the world who continue to love these characters.”
The show is slated to launch in July and thirteen episodes have been ordered.