Everyone’s favorite sea sponge is officially a quarter of a century old, and to celebrate, Netflix released a brand new SpongeBob film last week. This time, a squirrel girl from Texas experiences a long-awaited adventure of her own in Saving Bikini Bottom: A Sandy Cheeks Film. On paper that seems like a great idea for a movie; the other SpongeBob The spin-offs of the past few years have been of a mixed nature, but Sandy has always been an underrated character and the prospect of having her return to Texas for a bit is tempting.

Unfortunately, the execution of Save Bikini Bottom leaves a lot to be desired. Negative reactions to the film began to intensify when it was accidentally leaked on X/Twitter earlier this year.and those fears proved entirely justified. It’s a drearily unfunny spin-off that never exploits its premise and seems to exist only to further exploit a hackneyed intellectual property. While the third SpongeBob Film, Sponge on the runalready controversial among fans, it looks like the original film compared to Save Bikini Bottom.

Should there even be spin-offs of SpongeBob?

Read our review

Before we discuss the film further, we need to address the obvious: the prospect of SpongeBob Spin-offs even exist is highly controversial among fansThis became a particularly big lightning rod after series creator Stephen Hillenburg died of ALS in 2018. Less than a year later, Nickelodeon announced a series spin-off, Camp Koralfocusing on younger versions of the series’ characters as they attend summer camp.

This announcement has already angered many, because Hillenburg was firmly against it, SpongeBob Spin-offsAccording to longtime series writer Paul Tibbit (via Long reading), “When you run out of ideas, you just do Muppet BabiesSteve always said to me, “You know, one day they will SpongeBob Babies. Then I’m out of here.”

Therefore, it seemed (ahem) suspicious when Nickelodeon announced a spin-off just months after the creator’s death and a second, The Patrick Star Showjust two years later. Tibbit in particular did not take these announcements well; in 2019, shortly after Camp Koral got the green light, he wrote on X/Twitter: “I don’t mean to disrespect my colleagues who work on this show. They are good people and talented artists. But this is a greedy, lazy management team and they ALL know full well that Steve would have HATED this.”

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It is unclear how much truth there is in these reports, because Camp Koral was actually greenlit a month before Hillenburg’s death (and according to other reports, he approved it), and he has been mentioned in all of the series’ spin-offs to date. Still, it remains an extremely polarizing topic for fans, and it was only exacerbated when the third SpongeBob Film, Sponge on the runcontained flashbacks as an extended teaser for Camp Koral (It didn’t help that these scenes completely retconned the characters’ backstories). And especially given the mixed response to both Camp Koral And The Patrick Star Showanother spin-off film, regardless of its quality, was almost destined to confirm fans’ fears that Nickelodeon would want to continue milking its biggest cash cow.

Sandy Cheeks misses her chance to shine

Even outside the polarizing idea of ​​a SpongeBob Spin-off is, the biggest problem with Save Bikini Bottom is that it’s just not funny. Worse, it feels like a missed opportunity; Sandy Cheeks has always been an underrated part of the show’s ensemble, and giving her a day in the spotlight isn’t a bad idea on paper. If anything, the idea of ​​having her return to Texas briefly and allowing viewers to meet her family has great comedic potential. Especially since the season one episode “Texas” addressed her homesickness, it would have been fun to explore how her family relationships have changed since she moved to Bikini Bottom.

However, none of her family members are as interesting; most of them are more reminiscent of Texan stereotypes than anything else, and almost all of them only get a scene or two before disappearing. Since it’s implied that Sandy’s mother wants her to return to Texas permanently, it’s all the more frustrating when just two scenes later, off-screen, she changes her mind and promises her daughter that she can visit her whenever she wants.

Unfortunately, the same goes for most of the series’ regular characters. Since the plot revolves around SpongeBob and Sandy having to save the inhabitants of Bikini Bottom (who are rescued from the sea and, in a blatant rip-off of Finding Nemo), Fan favorites like Patrick, Mr. Krabs and Squidward disappear from the screen for long periods of time. Gary meows two or three times before disappearing, and Plankton abruptly leaves the movie three-quarters of the way through.

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In its place is a brutally unfunny subplot starring Wanda Sykes as the aquarium’s evil CEO, Sue Nahmee (get it?), who plans to clone the sea creatures and sell them as pets. Sykes tries her best, but she can’t salvage the material from the first draft, and all of her scenes look shockingly cheap, like they were shot in a high school classroom.

The most shocking thing about Save Bikini Bottom is like cheap all of it looks. Even if nothing after the first SpongeBob The movie did the original three seasons justice, at least you could always rely on great animation and solid voice acting. Sandy’s voice actress Carolyn Lawrence is excellent as always, but the animation looks on par with the graphics in the 2003 series. SpongeBob Video game Battle for Bikini Bottomand the characters are somehow more poorly integrated into the live-action segments than in any of the previous three films. And that’s even before the film shows Sue Nahmee as a child in flashbacks in which Sykes’ head is photoshopped onto a young girl’s body (yes, it’s as disturbing as it sounds).

Fans hate saving Bikini Bottom, and for good reason

Just one week after the release, it is clear that fans are already Save Bikini Bottom one of the worst releases of the entire SpongeBob franchise. And for good reason: It’s sad to see how a show so beloved for being so casually bizarre could be reduced to something so commercial and uninteresting.

Considering they had a promising setup at their disposal only to make almost nothing of it, it is clear that Sandy Cheeks deserved better. Hopefully next year’s theatrical release will SpongeBob The movie will be better. Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie is now streaming on Netflix.