Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie - Review: Turn the Other Cheek

 

Titled like a Lifetime movie biopic made a few years after she’d passed, “Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie” isn’t a retelling of the tragic life of a starlet. Rather, it’s yet another spinoff for the uber popular “SpongeBob SquarePants” series, this time focusing on SpongeBob’s best friend and scientifically minded squirrel from Texas, Sandy Cheeks. And it’s one tale you’ll wish was left untold. 

The film follows Sandy, voiced by longtime performer Carolyn Lawrence (“Moral Orel,” “Jimmy Neutron”), and SpongeBob, voiced by Tom Kenny (“Rocko’s Modern Life,” “Adventure Time”), as they attempt to rescue the town of Bikini Bottom from B.O.O.T.S., the science lab Sandy worked for back in Texas, and the clutches of evil scientist Sue Nahmee, played by Wanda Sykes (“The New Adventures of Old Christine,” “Over the Hedge”). To do this, they venture to the Texan plains, where they encounter Sandy’s circus performer family consisting of Pa Cheeks, voiced by Craig Robinson (“The Office,” “Pineapple Express”), Randy Cheeks, voiced by Johnny Knoxville (“Jackass,” “Action Point”), and Ma Cheeks, Granny Cheeks, Rowdy Cheeks, and Rosie Cheeks, all voiced by Grey DeLisle (“Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated,” “Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends”). 

Where to begin with this tale? Well, for starters, this is the first streaming movie for the franchise, as opposed to the theatrical outputs made for the first three “SpongeBob” movies. Because of that, it's natural to expect the animation to be of a lower quality compared to those outings. But even given that disclaimer, the animation is much poorer than anyone would have expected. Sure, it all squashes and stretches like the requisite elasticity of the show, but it feels almost too stretchy, as if someone took the finished animations and cranked up their intensity by 25%. Not only that, but so many moments seem as if they’re against a flat backdrop. Yes, these are CGI characters layered overtop of a live action scene. But they somehow manage to give too many moments the feeling of being poorly green screened onto said live action footage, despite these characters already being digital to begin with. 

Director Liza Johnson (“Elvis and Nixon,” “Hateship, Loveship”) simply seems like an odd fit for the series, as her previous work has been adult aimed dramas. It comes across as a film directed by someone simply unfamiliar with the material or the medium, and it appears that might have been the case. There’s a particular moment in the third act where a live-action character’s head is super imposed on a younger body, to give them impression of them at a younger age. But the effect is so bad, it's hard to tell if this was meant to be the final effect or was simply a work-in-progress shot that snuck through the vetting process. 

Luckily, the vocal work is still incredibly solid, even as many of the actors are showing their age after voicing these characters for 25 years. Kenny and Lawrence are as delightful as ever, really nailing the back and forth between these lifelong friends. The entire pack of Bikini Bottom-ites are fun whenever they’re onscreen, and it helps to buoy the otherwise uneven film. Meanwhile, the live-action actors are just plain bad. Ilia Isorelýs Paulino (“The Sex Lives of College Girls,” “Family Switch”) and Matty Cardarople (“Stranger Things,” “A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017)”) play a pair of bumbling scientists named Pheobe and Kyle, respectively, but they come across like bad high school play acting. Sykes, meanwhile, is certainly giving her all in a performance that is just terrible. It’s as if she thought she’d be giving a campy, “so good it’s bad” performance and yet still ended up with a bad one. 

It’s hard to expect much from modern SpongeBob, especially after Stephen Hillenberg’s passing, given that Paramount greenlit two different spinoff shows (something he’d always said he’d never do) almost immediately after his death. But even for the lowest common denominator material churned out now, the script from Tom Stern (“An American Werewolf in Paris,” “Freaked”) and series veteran/cartoonist Kaz (“The Patrick Star Show,” “Phineas and Ferb”) lacks anything resembling intelligence. It's the same yelling and pop-culture references plaguing most modern kids cartoons, made even stranger by a seemingly genuine attempt to critique Nickelodeon’s oversaturation of SpongeBob merchandise slid into the second act. It disappears almost immediately, but it hints at a much better film hiding under the surface. Or a cheeky dig at Nickelodeon that nobody at corporate managed to catch and order be removed. 

It’s hard to really expect a lot from something like “Saving Bikini Bottom,” but even as the returns diminished, each of the three previous “SpongeBob” movies managed to at least be enjoyable at bare minimum. Not so here, as this is simply 80-minutes of the franchise’s worst impulses laid bare. Full of poor live-action performances, a lousy script, and animation that’s weirdly over-stylized yet still poorly made, this is a supersized adventure for Sandy and SpongeBob that would be better left under the sea. 1.5/5