The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water is a 2015 American 3D live-action/animated absurdist comedy film based on the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. A stand-alone sequel to The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004), it was directed by former series showrunner Paul Tibbitt in his directorial debut, with live-action sequences directed by Mike Mitchell. It was the first film to be produced by Paramount Animation and the second film in the SpongeBob SquarePants film series. The film stars Antonio Banderas and features the show's regular voice cast, who returned to reprise their respective roles from the series and the previous film. The plot follows a pirate named Burger Beard, who steals the Krabby Patty secret formula using a magical book that makes any text written upon it come true. SpongeBob and his friends must travel to the surface to confront Burger Beard and get the formula back.

The film was written by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger from a story conceived by SpongeBob SquarePants creator Stephen Hillenburg and Tibbitt. Like the first film, the final act places the animated characters in a live-action world. These scenes were shot in various locations throughout Savannah, Georgia and Tybee Island. Filming began on October 9, 2013, and completed in November. The film is dedicated to Ernest Borgnine, the original voice of Mermaid Man, who died in 2012. It also marks the final film in the franchise that creator Stephen Hillenburg was involved in before his death in 2018, as well as serving the final voice role for Tim Conway, who died in 2019.

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water was released in the United States on February 6, 2015 and received generally positive reviews. The film grossed over $325 million worldwide against its $74 million budget, making it the fifth-highest-grossing animated film of 2015.

A third film, titled The SpongeBob Movie: It's a Wonderful Sponge, is set to be released on May 22, 2020.

Plot
A pirate named Burger Beard travels to Bikini Atoll, where he obtains a magical book with the power to make any text written upon it real. The book tells the story of SpongeBob SquarePants and his adventures in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob loves his job as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab fast food restaurant, where he cooks hamburgers called Krabby Patties and works for Mr. Krabs, the Krusty Krab CEO. He has spent several years prudently protecting the secret Krabby Patty formula from Plankton, the owner of a competing restaurant called Chum Bucket.

One day, Plankton attacks the Krusty Krab in an attempt to steal the formula. After a military battle involving giant foods and condiments, Plankton feigns surrender and uses a decoy of himself to give Mr. Krabs a fake penny, which the real Plankton then hides inside in order to gain access to Krabs' vault. As the decoy distracts Mr. Krabs, Plankton steals the formula, leaving a fake in its place. SpongeBob catches Plankton and the two engage in a tug of war over the formula, which magically disappears before anyone can claim it.

Without the secret formula, Krabby Patties cannot be made, causing customers to become ravenous. SpongeBob is the only one who believes Plankton is innocent and creates a giant soap bubble for them to fly away in. Bikini Bottom is immediately reduced to an apocalyptic wasteland due to the absence of the much-relied-on Krabby Patty. After a scuffle between Burger Beard and some seagulls, a page of the book is discarded in the ocean and lands on Sandy Cheeks' treedome, causing Sandy to assume the page is a sign from the "sandwich gods". SpongeBob proposes he and Plankton team up to find the formula. SpongeBob tries to explain the concept of teamwork to Plankton, who does not quite understand. Together, they decide to travel back in time to the moment before the formula disappeared. The two head to the Chum Bucket to rescue Karen, whom they intend to help power the time machine. They assemble the machine and end up traveling far into the future, where they meet Bubbles, a magical dolphin who acts as an overseer of the galaxy, and inadvertently get him fired. SpongeBob and Plankton succeed in retrieving the formula, but it turns out to be the fake one Plankton had left.

Burger Beard converts his pirate ship into a food truck to sell Krabby Patties at a beach community. Sandy suggests a sacrifice be made to appease the gods. As the town attempts to sacrifice SpongeBob, he and Mr. Krabs smell Krabby Patties. The townsfolk follow the scent, which leads to the surface. Bubbles returns and, revealing that he hated his job, repays SpongeBob by granting him and his sea creature friends the ability to breathe on land. Bubbles launches SpongeBob and the others out of his blowhole to the surface.

The team lands on a beach and finds the source of the Krabby Patty scent from Burger Beard's food truck. Burger Beard reveals he had stolen the formula by using the book to rewrite the story, and then uses it to banish the gang to Pelican Island. SpongeBob uses the page that Sandy had to transform himself and the others into superheroes with special powers—The Invincibubble (SpongeBob), Mr. Superawesomeness (Patrick), Sour Note (Squidward), The Rodent (Sandy), and Sir Pinch-a-Lot (Mr. Krabs)—but leave the page and Plankton behind. They return and find Burger Beard, who drives away with the formula, forcing the team to give chase. During the ensuing battle, the team manages to destroy the book, but Burger Beard overpowers them one by one.

Plankton then appears as a muscle-bound hero named Plank-Ton and assists them. Plankton and SpongeBob create one final attack to defeat Burger Beard and retrieve the Krabby Patty formula. After sending Burger Beard flying to Bikini Atoll, Plankton returns the formula to Mr. Krabs, having learned the value of teamwork. The gang uses the final page's magic to return home to Bikini Bottom. With Krabby Patties back, the city is finally returned to normal, and Plankton re-assumes his role as business rival and villain.

Cast

 * Antonio Banderas as Burger Beard
 * Tom Kenny as SpongeBob SquarePants
 * Clancy Brown as Mr. Krabs
 * Rodger Bumpass as Squidward Tentacles
 * Bill Fagerbakke as Patrick Star
 * Carolyn Lawrence as Sandy Cheeks
 * Mr. Lawrence as Plankton
 * Matt Berry as Bubbles
 * Jill Talley as Karen
 * Mary Jo Catlett as Mrs. Puff
 * Lori Alan as Pearl Krabs
 * Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci (Garfunkel and Oates) as the Popsicles
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Perch Perkins and other fish characters
 * Nolan North as Pigeon Cabbie
 * Paul Tibbitt (US), Joe Sugg (UK) and Robert Irwin (Australia) as Kyle
 * Peter Shukoff as Painty

The seagulls were voiced by Peter Shukoff, Lloyd Ahlquist, Carlos Alazraqui, Eric Bauza, Tim Conway (in his final film role), Eddie Deezen, Nolan North, Rob Paulsen, Kevin Michael Richardson, April Stewart, Cathy Cavadini, Cree Summer, Billy West, Alan Carr (UK), Caspar Lee (UK) and Stacey Solomon (UK). Slash also appeared in a trailer for the film. His scene was ultimately cut from the final product, but it was presented among the special features for the Blu-ray release of the film.

Development
Following the release of the first movie in 2004, producer Julia Pistor stated that a sequel film was unlikely, despite the film's successful box office performance. In a 2009 interview with Digital Spy, SpongeBob SquarePants writer and executive producer Paul Tibbitt was asked about the possibility of a sequel. He said, "I think that they are talking about doing that, but I haven't signed up for anything. We just feel like we've told so many stories, and SpongeBob exists so well in this short 11-minute form". He further stated that making another film was "a huge challenge". However, Tibbitt denied that a sequel is not impossible to emerge, saying "I wouldn't say no, but I don't know if there will be another one". In 2010, Nickelodeon reportedly had been approaching the crews of the show to make another film adaptation. The network had long wanted to partner with Paramount Pictures to release another SpongeBob SquarePants film to help reinvigorate the series from its declining ratings. However, internal disagreement delayed collaborations.

On March 4, 2011, in an article by the Los Angeles Times, it was first reported that Paramount had "another SpongeBob picture" in development. Several months later, in July, Paramount formed its new animation unit, Paramount Animation, in the wake of the commercial and critical success of the 2011 computer-animated film Rango, and the departure of DreamWorks Animation upon completion of their distribution contract in 2012. Philippe Dauman, the president and CEO of Paramount and Nickelodeon's parent company Viacom, officially announced on February 28, 2012 that a sequel film was in development and slated for an unspecified 2014 release, saying that "We will be releasing a SpongeBob movie at the end of 2014." Dauman added that the film "will serve to start off or be one of our films that starts off our new animation effort". Nickelodeon expected the film to do much better in foreign box office than the 2004 feature, given its increasingly global reach. Dauman said, "This will continue to propel SpongeBob internationally".

Production was announced on June 10, 2014 under the title The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie 2, which some trade publications began referring to as SpongeBob SquarePants 2. The film's executive producer is series creator Stephen Hillenburg, who departed from the show as its showrunner in 2004 following the release of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. He no longer wrote or ran the show on a day-to-day basis, but reviewed each episode and delivered suggestions. However, in a 2012 interview with Thomas F. Wilson, Hillenburg stated that he was helping in writing the film. Tibbitt later revealed on Twitter in late 2013 that "Steve [Hillenburg] and I wrote the new movie together and he has been in the studio everyday working with us". Production on the film was expected to finish in November 2014. After production on the film finished, Hillenburg returned to the show as an executive producer, now having greater creative input and attending crew meetings.

Casting
The regular series main cast members returned to reprise their roles from the series and the previous 2004 film. In August 2013, casting directors from Marty Siu Casting began casting calls for the background extras for the live action scenes. On September 21, 2013, it was reported that Spanish actor Antonio Banderas had been cast for a live-action role as Burger-Beard the pirate.

Animation
The animation for the film was handled overseas by Rough Draft Korea in South Korea. Creative supervisor Vincent Waller said, "We're getting animation back that is looking terrific.". The sequel is a combination of traditional animation and live action as its predecessor was, and also used computer-generated imagery (CGI) handled by Iloura VFX in Melbourne, Australia to render the characters in 3D. Sherm Cohen returned to work on the sequel, when he previously worked on The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie as a character designer and the lead storyboard artist and left the show in 2005. Series animation directors Tom Yasumi and Alan Smart worked on the film's exposure sheets. Most of the character layout crew of the film are from the series.

In a preview of upcoming Paramount films held in 2012, it first exhibited the film as a "3D feature film" with "CGI-like animation". Following the release of the SpongeBob SquarePants 4-D: The Great Jelly Rescue, a 3D short film released in early 2013 at the Nickelodeon Suites Resort Orlando, executives also talked of continuing the use of 3D in the film. Director Tibbitt was asked on Twitter concerning what animation technique the film would have, and responded, "[I] don't wanna spoil anything but [it is] mostly 2D."

The film contains a stop-motion animation sequence by Screen Novelties. The company had previously produced a clay animation scene for the first film, the mixed-media opening for "Truth or Square", and the entirety of the stop-motion special It's a SpongeBob Christmas!

In March 2014, Paramount screened live-action footage from the film during the National Association of Theatre Owners' CinemaCon. News websites report that the film would be CGI-animated, with an Internet Movie Database staff commenting, "When Paramount announced there would be a new SpongeBob SquarePants movie, the assumption was that it would be animated (like all other incarnations of SpongeBob). The very brief footage from tonight's presentation suggested otherwise – it looked as though this was a CGI/live-action hybrid akin to Alvin and the Chipmunks, Yogi Bear, The Smurfs, etc." In an article published by ComingSoon.net, author Edward Douglas wrote: "The CGI animation just looks weird." Philippe Dauman said that the CGI elements are intended to "refresh and give another boost" to the characters.

Filming
The film features live action scenes directed by Mike Mitchell. Filming began on September 30, 2013 and lasted through November 5, 2013, on various locations in Savannah, Georgia and Tybee Island. The Savannah Film Office first announced that the film would shoot live action scenes in Savannah for 40 days on July 11, 2013. Will Hammargren, location specialist for the Savannah Film Office, said the film was expected to contribute $8 million to the city's economy, including booking at least 5,600 hotel room nights.

On September 30, 2013, the start of production filming was interrupted when film services director Jay Self was dismissed. According to a memorandum from Joe Shearouse, bureau chief of the leisure services department of Savannah, Self was fired for his "failure to properly plan and manage the arrangement for the movie." It accused Self of shortcomings surrounding the filming and also cited complaints from local residents of Savannah. Another reported reason for Self's dismissal was a disagreement between Paramount and the Savannah Film Office, about the deal of granting the local businesses to negotiate with Paramount for potential business losses during filming.

In preparing the filming location in the downtown, the film crew painted storefronts along Broughton Street to resemble a "beach community" called "Salty Shoals". Jay Self said, "They're trying to make it look like it's right at the seaside." The Jen Library and Trustees Theater, a landmark situated on Broughton Street, of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) was converted into a sea museum. Paramount first approached SCAD to utilize the Jen Library for a scene back in August 2013. Once SCAD approved, the studio's art department transformed the buildings in choice for the film. It remained open to students during filming, while the "SCAD" letters atop Trustees remained untouched. Other establishments, like flower shops, convenience stores and coffeehouses, were converted to surfing, fudge and buoy shops, respectively. Self said, "The changes are temporary with all buildings scheduled to be restored to their original colors after filming is complete."

Filming began on October 9 in the downtown, where parts of the Broughton Street between Montgomery Street and Habersham Street were closed through October 18. Prior to October 9, residents were given yellow flyers handed out by the production crew to detail the inconveniences of the filming would have on them. Actor Antonio Banderas appeared as a pirate and was filmed on a pirate ship with wheels for a car chase scene. At one point, a film crew member caused an accident that damaged a downtown building and rushed a woman to the Candler Hospital. William Hammargren, with the Savannah Film Services office, said that Paramount was issued a permit to use motorized vehicles within certain areas closed for filming, but the permit did not extend to the lanes.

Filming in the downtown ended on October 18, when a raffle was also held, with City Mayor Edna Jackson announcing the winners. The prizes include: a SpongeBob SquarePants-themed party, bicycles, a vacation at Marshall House, dinner at Savannah Bistro, gift certificates, and a 60-inch television. After filming in the downtown, the production received mixed response from local businesses located in filming areas. A concern raised by business owners was the choice in dates for shooting as October is "a big month for merchants along Broughton." Some merchants suggested February, July, or August as prime filming dates.

Filming for the scenes resumed on October 21 on Tybee Island. The producers of the film were permitted to film on Tybee Island after meetings held at the Tybee Island City Hall with businesses and residents that imposed concerns about the possible effects of the filming, and also apprehensions about sea turtle safety. Musician Slash of the band Guns N' Roses was seen on set at the Tybee Pier for filming, although he does not appear in the final film. The film crew later moved to Strand Avenue for a chase scene with extras on bicycles.

Soundtrack
It was announced that Pharrell Williams would write a song for the film with his band N.E.R.D, which is titled "Squeeze Me". A five-song EP was released digitally on January 27, 2015.

Score
The original score for the film was composed by John Debney. On February 16, 2015, Debney announced via Twitter that Varèse Sarabande would release his score to the film digitally on March 23, 2015 in the UK and March 24, 2015 in the US, along with a physical release on March 31, 2015.

Marketing
In March 2012, in regards to consumer products for the film, Dauman stated, "This will be a Nickelodeon-branded movie. We'll license the toys, but we own it." On June 10, 2014, the film's first teaser poster was released, along with the announcement of its new title, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water. The poster is a nod to the famous Coppertone sunscreen advertisements from the 1950s, in which a dog is seen pulling the bikini bottom off of a blonde girl.

At the San Diego Comic-Con International held on July 25, 2014, Paramount Pictures released the first footage from the film, as part of their presentation at Hall H, with Tom Kenny, SpongeBob's voice actor, hosting the panel. On July 31, 2014, the film's trailer was released. Throughout the year, trailers and 15 second teaser posters of the movie were shown.

Theatrical release
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water was originally planned for a 2014 release to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first film. However, on August 1, 2013, in an article in The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount Pictures announced that the film would instead have its official wide release in theaters on February 13, 2015 in North America to avoid competition of the 2014 reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. On June 5, 2014, the film's release date was moved up one week to February 6, 2015 in order to avoid competition with 20th Century Fox's Kingsman: The Secret Service and Universal Pictures' Fifty Shades of Grey, which premiered the following week. The film premiered on January 28, 2015 in Belgium and the Netherlands, and on January 30, 2015 in Iceland, Mexico, and Taiwan.

International releases
On February 24, it was announced that Paramount Pictures, in partnership with TG4, would release the film in the Irish language, alongside the English release. This marked the first time a major film studio released an Irish-language version of a movie. On March 27, 2015, SpongeBob – An Scannán: Spúinse as Uisce premiered in Ireland.

Home media
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water was released on Digital HD on May 19, 2015. It was then released on Blu-ray (2D and 3D) and DVD on June 2, 2015. The cover of the home media releases (excluding the Blu-ray 3D release) and digital releases is the principal theatrical poster. The only difference is that Plankton is on the cover as his super hero alter-ego, Plank-Ton.

Box office
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water grossed $162.9 million in North America and $162.1 million in other territories for a total gross of $325.1 million worldwide, against a budget of $74 million. It outgrossed the first SpongeBob movie, which made $140.2 million worldwide, and is the second-highest-grossing film based off an animated television show, behind The Simpsons Movie ($527.1 million).

Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $99.8 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues for the film.

North America
The film was originally expected to gross around $35 million in its opening weekend;  however, the film exceeded expectations on its opening day. In its opening weekend the film grossed $55.4 million, playing in 3,641 theaters, with a $15,206 per-theater average and finishing in first place at the box office. It beat out American Sniper, which grossed $23.3 million, marking the first time in four weeks a film other than American Sniper was the top-grossing film. In its second weekend, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water earned $31.4 million, marking a 43.2% decline, and was overtaken by Fifty Shades of Grey and Kingsman: The Secret Service, dropping to number three. On its third weekend, the film stayed at number three, grossing $16.5 million. In its fourth weekend, the film was number three again, with $10.8 million.

Other territories
A week ahead of North America release, the film was released in five markets for the three-day weekend of January 30 in other territories, and earned a gross of $8 million. $6.7 million of that came from a strong debut in Mexico. For its second weekend of February 6, 2015, the film earned itself a gross of $16.2 million playing in theaters of 25 markets. The film opened at #1 in Brazil and Spain by grossing $4.6 million and $1.9 million, respectively, while maintaining the top spot at the box office of Mexico by earning $2.4 million. In the UK the film was released on March 27 in time for the Easter school holidays and opened at #3 behind Cinderella and Home.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film scored an approval rating of 81% based on 103 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water won't win over many viewers who aren't fans of the show, but for the converted, it's another colorful burst of manic fun." On Metacritic, the film received a score of 62 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". According to CinemaScore, audiences gave the film a grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Andrew Barker of Variety praised the film for "never even feigning a lick of seriousness". Although he felt the film was too long and the CGI sequences to be inferior to the traditionally animated ones, he said the film would prove "popular among the franchise's key grade-schooler and head-shop-owner demographics." Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter was more negative, saying the film's two animation styles failed "to create a cohesive whole in spite of all the inspired non sequiturs," stating "the live action/CG stuff never satisfyingly jibes with the traditional nautical nonsense down below." He opined that although the film was inferior to the first one, it would likely be a box office success. Barbara VanDenburgh of The Arizona Republic gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of five, saying "The plot is straightforward, predictable and slight, no more intricate a plot than a 15-minute TV episode would have. It's the freewheeling madness of its execution that makes the movie such a trip – as in acid trip." Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News gave the film four out of five stars, saying "The spirit of the series remains true: cheerfully random jokes, blink-and-you'll-miss-them references and, above all, a silly, stubbornly sentimental streak that only the crabbiest cynic could dismiss." Colin Covert of the Star Tribune gave the film three out of five stars, saying "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water weaves a silly – and often funny – spell. It's a scrappy little B-movie that zips along rather entertainingly." Jen Chaney of The Washington Post gave the film two out of four stars, saying "There's something about this project that, despite checking all of the requisite plot and sensibility boxes, doesn't convey as an organic work of SpongeBob-ishness."

Nicolas Rapold of The New York Times gave the film a positive review, saying "While less fluid and fresh than its 2004 predecessor, the new film displays enough nutty writing and sheer brio to confirm the stamina of its enduring and skillfully voiced characters." Gwen Ihnat of The A.V. Club gave the film a B+, saying "The visual effects and fast and furious quips combine for that rarest of releases: one that both parents and kids can enjoy (just like the show), leaving viewers of any age hoping that the next SpongeBob movie isn't an entire decade off." Alonso Duralde of The Wrap gave the film a positive review, saying "The jokes are consistently hilarious, with enough variety to tickle the funny bones of old salts and young fishies alike." Claudia Puig of USA Today gave the film two out of four stars, saying "The live-action elements—mostly in the person of Antonio Banderas as cranky pirate Burger Beard, who spends most of his time addressing a flock of seagulls – don't mesh seamlessly with the animated sequences. It almost feels like two movies awkwardly melded together." John Semley of The Globe and Mail gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, saying "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water mostly nails what has always made the character, and his brightly coloured underwater world, so endearing: the abundant innocence, the welcome lack of cynicism and the out-and-out stupidity." Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, saying "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water remains true to the surrealism of its animated television roots. But it also tries to force a live-action element which isn't as comfortable a fit as a certain pair of symmetrical trousers."

Video game
A video game featuring a plot set directly after the film, titled SpongeBob HeroPants, was released in North America on February 3, 2015 for the Nintendo 3DS, Xbox 360, and PlayStation Vita. The game is published by Activision. A mobile game, titled The SpongeBob Movie Game: Sponge on the Run, was released on January 22, 2015 for iOS and Android. It is an endless running game based on the film, featuring several mini games.

Prequel
In a February 2015 interview discussing the film's financial success, Megan Collison, president of worldwide distribution and marketing at Paramount, stated the possibility of a third film was "a good bet". In another interview, Paramount vice chairman Rob Moore remarked, "Hopefully, it won't take 10 years to make another film." On April 30, 2015, via Twitter, Viacom announced a third SpongeBob SquarePants film was in development. On August 3, 2015, via Twitter, Vincent Waller confirmed that the sequel is in pre-production and that Paul Tibbitt was confirmed to return as director from a story by him and Kyle McCulloch. It was announced in November 2015 that the film would be released on February 9, 2019. On November 11, 2015, Waller confirmed via Twitter that the film will be mostly traditionally animated with CGI/live-action sequences. Screenwriters Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger said in a January 2016 interview that they are working on the third SpongeBob movie. Storyboard artist Bob Camp said in an April 2016 interview that cartoonist John Kricfalusi is developing a new Ren & Stimpy cartoon to precede the movie; however, Kricfalusi denied on Twitter that he's making a cartoon. In March 2017 at CinemaCon, it was announced that the movie had been delayed to August 2, 2019. On March 28, 2017, Yahoo! Movies reported on its Twitter feed that the film had been given the final title of The SpongeBob Movie; current showrunner Waller later suggested that this was a placeholder title. On May 29, 2017, Kristen Caplan was announced to be the production manager of the film.

On December 19, 2017, it was announced that the movie had been pushed back again to July 31, 2020. In April 2018 at CinemaCon, it was announced that the film would be called The SpongeBob Movie: It's a Wonderful Sponge, that it was going to be directed by Tim Hill, and that it would have a new release date of July 22, 2020,  which was later moved up to July 17, 2020 and then May 22, 2020.

At the VIEW Conference in Turin, Italy, Paramount Animation president Mireille Soria announced that the film will be an origin story of SpongeBob meeting his friends for the first time at Camp Coral, and the film will use full CGI animation provided by Mikros Image for the underwater sequences, a first for the film series. Hans Zimmer was also announced as the new composer for the film. On January 22, 2019, it was confirmed that production on the film had officially begun.