I probably only watched one or two full episodes of the popular Nickelodeon show, which was number 28 on The 100 Greatest Cartoons, but I enjoyed the first movie featuring the sponge named Bob with square pants, I was definitely up for another movie, a stand-alone sequel that followed a decade later. Basically a pirate named Burger Beard (Antonio Banderas) travels to Bikini Atoll, opening a treasure chest he obtains a magical book with the power to make any words written into it a reality. The book tells the story of SpongeBob SquarePants (Tom Kenny), the over-optimistic sea sponge who lives in Bikini Bottom, he works in the Krusty Krab restaurant. The owner Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown) has spent several years protecting the secret Krabby Patty formula from his restaurant rival Plankton, owner of the Chum Bucket. One day, Plankton attacks the Krusty Krab and attempts to steal the formula, after a fight he appears to accept defeat, but he uses a decoy of himself, while the real Plankton gains access to Krabs' vault, stealing the formula, leaving a fake in its place. SpongeBob catches Plankton and they engage in a tug of war over the formula, but it magically disappears before either of them can claim it. Without the secret formula, no Krabby Patties can be made, causing customers to become ravenous, SpongeBob is the only who believes Plankton is innocent and creates a large soap bubble for them fly away in and escape. Bikini Bottom is immediately reduced to an apocalyptic wasteland, due to the absence of the Krabby Patty. SpongeBob proposes he and Plankton team up to find the formula, Plankton does not quite understand the concept of teamwork. Plankton comes up with the idea to build a time machine, to travel back in time to the moment when the formula disappeared, they are helped by the most intelligent computer possible, Plankton's computer wife Karen (Jill Talley). They assemble the time machine, but end up travelling to the future, where they meet magical dolphin Bubbles (Matt Berry) who acts as an overseer of the galaxy, they cause him to lose his job. They then travel back in time and succeed in retrieving the formula, only for them to realise they inadvertently grabbed the fake. Burger Beard converts his pirate ship into a food truck to sell Krabby Patties at a beach resort, while the town are about to sacrifice SpongeBob to "appease the sandwich gods", when he and Mr. Krabs smell Krabby Patties. SpongeBob, Patrick Star (Bill Fagerbakke), Mr. Krabs, Squidward Tentacles (Rodger Bumpass) and Sandy Cheeks (Carolyn Lawrence) follow the scent to the surface. Then Bubbles shows up, he says he actually hated his job, and repays the sea creatures by giving them the ability to breathe on land, and launches them from his blowhole to the surface. The team land on the beach, finding the smell of Krabby Patties coming from Burger Beard's food truck, the pirate used the magical book and rewrote the story to steal the secret formula for himself. Burger Beard then writes the magical book to banish the gang to Pelican Island, but SpongeBob uses a discarded page from the book to transform himself and the others into superheroes with special powers. They become The Invincibubble (SpongeBob), Mr. Superawesomeness (Patrick), Sour Note (Squidward), The Rodent (Sandy), and Sir Pinch-a-Lot (Mr. Krabs). Seeing them return, Burger Beard flees with the formula and they give chase, during the battle, the team manage to destroy the book, but the pirate overpowers them one by one. But Plankton saves them, transformed into the muscle-bound Plank-Ton, the Krabby Patty formula is retrieved, Burger Beard is sent flying and banished to Bikini Atoll, and Plankton returns to the formula to Mr. Krabs. In the end, the city of Bikini Bottom is finally restored and Plankton reassumes his status as a business rival, everything is returned to the status quo. Also starring Dee Bradley Baker as Perch Perkins and seagulls voiced Kevin Michael Richardson, Billy West, Alan Carr (UK) and Stacey Solomon (UK). This is another obvious slice of self-aware silliness and absurdity, the plucky leading character is loveably eccentric, fans of the show will enjoy the bigger scale adventure for the aquatic hero, the mix of live action, including the amusing Banderas, and fantastic computer animation, and newcomers to the whole thing will also have fun, lots of laughs and entertainment for all the family, a great live action/animated comedy adventure. Very good!
