The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

 Review

Common Sense Media says

Very similar to the edgy animated TV show.
greenON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
yellowPAUSE: Know your child; some content
may not be right for some kids.
redOFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
not for kidsNOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age.

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Quality
 
Sometimes media can be age appropriate but a real waste of time. Our star rating assesses the media's overall quality.

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Parents say

Kids say

What parents need to know

Parents need to know that this movie based on the TV character SpongeBob has cartoon violence with some mature elements -- including drunken knife fights -- that some parents may not feel comfortable with. Also, expect crude humor, name-calling, and many commercial tie-ins. Bikini Bottom seems to have an economy that is entirely fast-food-driven, which may pose a problem for families trying to teach children to eat sensibly.

  • Intended to entertain, not educate.
  • Some messages about compassion, loyalty, and being yourself tucked inside a whole bunch of silly behavior.
  • Mindy, King Neptune's daughter, is compassionate and smart. She doesn't want to see anyone get hurt, and uses her skills to help save the kingdom. Sponge Bob and Patrick are are the last guys you'd want saving the world. They are reckless, feckless and obnoxious -- but that's kind of the point.
  • Gets more violent and perilous as the movie progresses. From shoving, smacking, and stepping-on, to drunken knife fights and dagger-soled boots, there is a creative array of brutal stuff. Bullies act ruthlessly, threatening that "all bubble blowing babies will be beaten senseless." They follow up with punches a-plenty.
  • Characters shown in their underpants, use of body parts for gags. A female character is ogled, and Patrick dresses in stripper boots.
  • Name-calling: "twit," "stupid," "dork," "ding-a-ling," "damning piece of evidence," and "Sponge Boob."
  • Commercial tie-ins with junk food and many other products.
  • Aped drunken behavior after SpongeBob and Patrick binge on ice cream. Real drunken behavior among tough guys in a bar. Beer, cigarettes, bottles of alcohol are consumed by bar patrons. Drunken brawls ensue.

What's the story?

Having conquered television, SpongeBob and the rest of the gang are taking on the big screen with their first feature-length film. When King Neptune's crown is stolen and Mr. Krabs is the main suspect, SpongeBob and his best friend, Patrick the starfish, leave the safety of Bikini Bottom and embark on an epic journey to Shell City on a mission to prove that Krabs is innocent.


Is it any good?

 

The challenge of making a feature length film of the television series is creating a story that preserves the essentially silly nature of the stories while having enough narrative heft to sustain a paying audience's attention for an hour and a half. SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS: THE MOVIE gets pretty close. They glitz up the highly distinctive, but near-anonymous voice talent of the television series by adding some new characters voiced by Alec Baldwin, Jeffrey Tambor, and Scarlett Johansson, plus a guest live-action appearance by Baywatch icon David Hasselhoff.

The film has wedgie jokes for the kids, snarky humor, and music by the Flaming Lips, Wilco, The Shins, and Avril Lavigne, and some gentle lessons about compassion, loyalty, being yourself, and believing in yourself for parents. What they don't do is find a way to benefit from the big screen. SpongeBob is as trippily goofy as ever, but it's still pretty much just a longer version of the television show.


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What families can talk about

  • Families can talk about what makes SpongeBob and his friends funny? Is the silliness all harmless fun, or are there some negative messages here?

  • Parents: Do your kids reenact some of the antics they see in this movie? What is your reaction to this?

  • Is it important that kids TV teach lessons, or is it OK to just entertain?


This review was written by Nell Minow
Parent of 7, 10, and 12 year old
September 14, 2009
 
Fine for Teens, but not for tweens
Before I saw this movie, I had never seen an episode of Spongebob.Of course I had heard about it, but my kids never really expressed an interest. On day I was shopping for a fun movie for the family, and I decided we'd try out this movie. Sure the cover looked innocent enough, but the content was the exact opposite. The first problem was when Spongebob's pants fell off, reveling his naked bottom. I covered my 8yr old's eyes when that happened. My 6yr old, thank the lord in heaven, was not present, because the movie was PG. After that, I continued to watch the movie with my 10yr old daughter, and sent my 8yr old upstairs. Just when I thought everything was going fine, Patrick, the pink starfish, shows up on the screen naked, with a flag between is butt cheeks that read "Spongebob." I was shocked, thinking "how could they let that pass in a PG rated movie?!" I continued to watch the movie by myself, just to see what kind of content they put into the rest of the movie. I was appalled. Spongebob goes to a "nut bar" which clearly symbolizes a real bar, and they get drunk on ice cream, which is symbolizing alcohol. They rest of the movie was very violent, and I was really shocked. Unless you have older kids, stay away from this movie.

Flag as inappropriate 
Kid, 12 years old
November 22, 2010
 
babies, kids, teens, and adults CAN WATCH spongebob the movie!
this movie is really good, with several positive messages... plankton steals king neptune's crown and sends it to shell city, and plankton steals the krabby patty formula (the very first time) to make krabby patties of his own, there are name calling such as mr krabs calls spongebob "a kid", and theres the other language such as "butt", "stupid", "idiot", "shut up", and "dumb" and a one inappropriate remark "your hot". patrick calls mindy the mermaid "pretty" and "hot", and also patrick is shown completetly naked and it shows his butt mostly and spongebob is shown in his underwear (but mostly naked once), even mr krabs was on fire and naked mostly... and i didn't realize why characters get naked in this movie or a TV show mostly... and there are comic violence are seen btw... babies, kids, teens, and adults will watch this movie as much as the TV show also!

Flag as inappropriate 
Teen, 14 years old
November 22, 2010
 
babies, kids, teens, and adults CAN WATCH spongebob the movie!
this movie is really good, with several positive messages... plankton steals king neptune's crown and sends it to shell city, and plankton steals the krabby patty formula (the very first time) to make krabby patties of his own, there are name calling such as mr krabs calls spongebob "a kid", and theres the other language such as "butt", "stupid", "idiot", "shut up", and "dumb" and a one inappropriate remark "your hot". patrick calls mindy the mermaid "pretty" and "hot", and also patrick is shown completetly naked and it shows his butt mostly and spongebob is shown in his underwear (but mostly naked once), even mr krabs was on fire and naked mostly... and i didn't realize why characters get naked in this movie or a TV show mostly... and there are comic violence are seen btw... babies, kids, teens, and adults will watch this movie as much as the TV show also!

Flag as inappropriate 
Kid, 11 years old
November 22, 2010
 
babies, kids, teens, and adults CAN WATCH spongebob the movie!
this movie is really good, with several positive messages... plankton steals king neptune's crown and sends it to shell city, and plankton steals the krabby patty formula (the very first time) to make krabby patties of his own, there are name calling such as mr krabs calls spongebob "a kid", and theres the other language such as "butt", "stupid", "idiot", "shut up", and "dumb" and a one inappropriate remark "your hot". patrick calls mindy the mermaid "pretty" and "hot", and also patrick is shown completetly naked and it shows his butt mostly and spongebob is shown in his underwear (but mostly naked once), even mr krabs was on fire and naked mostly... and i didn't realize why characters get naked in this movie or a TV show mostly... and there are comic violence are seen btw... babies, kids, teens, and adults will watch this movie as much as the TV show also!

Flag as inappropriate 
Adult
April 9, 2008
 
it's not bad, its just silly stuff!
Spongebob is completely appropriate in my house. It really isn't bad, it's just plain silly! Silly stuff never hurt kids at all. It broke my daughter's heart to see so many parents denying Spongebob for being silly ( okay, maybe it's a little bad to call someone a boob) I'm not trying to say that the people who don't like their kids watching Spongebob are too protective or anything but, I think that some people need to WATCH Spongebob once in a while.

Flag as inappropriate 
Kid, 10 years old
July 23, 2011
 
best child show spinoff movie
if you seen the show (which i',m sure you have) you'll be very famillar with it but it's really good and no inaproppriate

Flag as inappropriate 
Kid, 10 years old
October 16, 2011
 
This is spongebob!!!
Come on!!!This is spongebob.Patrick and spongebob go on a misson to save neptune's crown. Fish think Mr.krabs did it, but it was plankton!I don't know why people think ths is bad!

Flag as inappropriate 
Kid, 10 years old
March 17, 2011
 
All ages can watch this awesome movie!
HennaGirl19 has lost her mind! This movie is appropriate for ALL AGES! I WATCHED IT WHEN I WAS THREE I BET YOU! I'm nine and LOVE SPONGEBOB! Those "scenes" toward Mindy are just cute things. It's not like real people and real relations ships! Gosh people! And Jadenp says THIS has language!? Oh my gosh people! WAKE UP! It shows how kids shouldn't feel they're worthless. And no offense to Common Sense, but y'all or you have no common sense! The commercials are nothing! AND THEY MISHEARD THE "DAMNING" THING! GOSH YOU PEOPLE NEED TO LEARN!

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Kid, 10 years old
May 1, 2011
 
One of my favorite movies!
Great Movie!It's just really great, though it's not my favorite.I love this movie, it could have some crude humor, but it's all played for laughs.King Neptune says D--n one time and there's one use of fr--king in the Goofy Goober Rock Song, but they're not very noticeable.I used to watch this movie when I was little, but I had no idea that Spongebob and Patrick were drunk, all because of ice cream.I didn't catch that part, and I didn't know about Drinking and stuff.To make this review short, a Great movie, Watch It!And this is sure to amuse Spongebob fans.

Flag as inappropriate 
Kid, 11 years old
February 21, 2011
 
:)
Super cute!!!!

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This review was written by Nell Minow
Topics:friendship, ocean creatures
Studio:Paramount Pictures
Director:Stephen Hillenburg
Cast:Alec Baldwin, Jeffrey Tambor, Scarlett Johansson
Genre:Family and Kids
Run time:90 minutes
Theatrical release date:November 19, 2004
DVD release date:March 1, 2005
MPAA rating:PG
MPAA explanation:some mild crude humor

This review was written by Nell Minow
 

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About our rating system
ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids.
OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
Learning ratings
BEST: Really engaging, great learning approach.
GOOD: Pretty engaging, good learning approach.
FAIR: Somewhat engaging, OK learning approach.
NOT FOR LEARNING: Not recommended for learning.

 

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