Sponge retains its absorbent hilarity

It's hard to believe that our favorite properly dressed sea sponge has been around for nearly 16 years. 16 years. After the first movie was released in 2004, many thought it would be the beginning of the end for the series as a whole and yet here we are eleven years later with another movie. This time around, the story takes its' craziness even further as the movie opens with a pirate named Burger Beard (played by Antonio Banderas who seems to be having the time of his life, mimicking a certain pirate from another franchise) who travels to an island in search of a book that can make any written text come true. Inside the book is the story of Spongebob (Tom Kenny) and his life in his underwater home Bikini Bottom, where he works for Mr. Krabs

Yep, that's a machine gun that shoots ketchup and mustard bottles; clearly showing that the movie has no problem embracing its ridiculousness.

(Clancy Brown) at the Krusty Krab; constantly fighting with his business rival Plankton (Mr. Lawrence) over the secret Krabby Patty formula. During their "food fight", Plankton manages to get his hands on the formula but not long before Spongebob discovers him and tries to wrestle the formula away from him. All of a sudden, the bottle containing the secret formula disappears into thin air (or bubbles?) much to Plankton's and Spongebob's disbelief. What occurs next is something that could only happen in Spongebob's universe: without the formula, Spongebob can't cook any Krabby Patties and as a result society collapses. Bikini Bottom suddenly becomes a cartoon-ish version of Mad Max, tight leather and dread included. In an attempt to uncover the mysterious disappearance of the formula, Spongebob forces an agreement on Plankton to work together, whom despite his intellectual prowess can't even pronounce "team" or "T-em" as he tries to enunciate. The concept of enemies working together to defeat a greater evil has been done before and the film is well aware of that and doesn't do much to try to mess with the idea. Instead, Sponge Out of Water plays it at the simplest level, focusing

I'll admit: this is how my face looked while enjoying the film

more on visual ecstasy to elevate the story. Those time machine sequences are some of the most trippiest scenes I've seen on this side of the animation world. Speaking of trippy, I'm calling it; N.E.R.D's "Squeeze Me" song is going to be this year's "Everything is Awesome". No doubt it's going to be the catchiest tune of 2015 among kids [and adults as well]. Overall, the film was an absolute delight from beginning to end and is actually quite better than the first film. Fans that grew up watching Spongebob [such as myself] will definitely be pleased with how well the film recaptures the magic from when it first aired in 1999, allowing old and new generation of fans the opportunity to enjoy it together. The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water gets my highest recommendation.

-Reviewed by Razor, 2/28/2015