It has been almost ten years since the release of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, a feature-length adaptation of the beloved Nickelodeon cartoon that grossed an impressive $140 million at the box office and received strong reviews. In some ways, it’s surprising that this long has passed without a cinematic follow-up, seeing as the show is still going strong and is now in fact gearing up for its tenth season. Regardless, at last, fans of the franchise can look forward to The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, which is set for release next February.
No one really knows what exactly to expect from the sequel, seeing as the plot has not been announced. However, a new poster for the film has been unveiled, featuring a CGI SpongeBob on a beach with a live-action crab. Going by that poster, it looks like Sponge Out of Water is going to follow in the footsteps of Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Smurfs and Yogi Bear, blending CGI animation with real actors and settings. Whether that will be a good move or a terrible one for the franchise is anyone’s guess – but I’m not holding out hope. The three examples I listed above were all awful, but they made boatloads of money, and it looks like director Paul Tibbit, a writer and producer on the series, is heading a similar way.
Of course, that’s a very early assessment, seeing as we don’t know what the story of Sponge Out of Water will be. Still, it’s written by Kung Fu Panda scribes Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, who also gave us Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel and Chipwrecked, so that doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
At least SpongeBob SquarePants fans can look forward to hearing Tom Kenney voicing the titular sea sponge again. Other voice actors from the show are expected to pop up in the movie as well – though no word yet on whether or not we can expect a return appearance from The Hoff.
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water arrives in 3D on February 6th, 2015.
