Spongebob SquarePants

[Insomnia]

Stephen hillenburg has been diaganosed with the terminal illness ALS.
https://www.yahoo.com/tv/spongebob-s...235748362.html

fuck, this is depressing

[pax]

This guy is one of my cartooning idols, damn Hopefully he can stave it off for as long as possible

[fas1997]

I'm spreading this news everywhere (including real life, when I get back from spring break, I will notify my friends at college), so if you have me in these accounts (In Twitter I just retweeted the post that Variety posted):

https://www.instagram.com/p/BRmbaYJl...rtoonjazzlover
http://fas1997.deviantart.com/art/Sa...Fans-668845918

I'm shocked to hear about this news. I just hope he can make it when the show ends. But if he doesn't, I hope Nick will air a marathon of SpongeBob (and maybe his Rocko's Modern Life episodes) to honor his memory.

[Dobbie]

Just heard about Hillenberg's condition. That is shocking to hear...hope he gets to enjoy every moment of his life from now on.

[Walid]

yea i heard about this a couple days ago. it sucks

[OldSchoolerSimpsons]

Oh dear God, that's so unfortunate
Hope he still lives for much longer!

[fas1997]

New episode of Nick Animation podcast features the current showrunners Vincent Waller & Marc Ceccarelli: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPgeGHF_AyY

[korusan]

I wish there were still a few "lost episodes" kicking around like you used to hear rumours about in the early 2000s...

[fas1997]

Let's see what new meme we have in store relating to SpongeBob.

(It happens to be from a rather awful episode called "Little Yellow Book", specifically where SpongeBob clucks like a chicken)

I don't mind SB memes, but why??? I like that the post-movie era is getting some recognition (besides Handsome Squidward and Who put in the planet), but Little Yellow Book out of all episodes???

Also, the show had been picked up for a 12th season. From Vince Waller's tweets, they are wrapping up season 11 production and moving on the new season.

[Walid]

man, with a 12th season, and a third movie in development, there really isn't going to be an end to spongebob anytime soon is there

[fas1997]

Who seen the Halloween stop motion special that aired last Friday? I did and here's my thoughts on it:
Anyway, I thought this was a very great episode. Season 11 is already looking to be better than the rather sugar-rush mess that was season 10 and this episode as well as Spin the Bottle and Spot Returns proves it. This is another great piece of scriptwriting I've seen from Doug Lawrence himself. Unlike a certain someone, he knows how to write everyone in character without resorting to melodramatic reactions. While it does feel like a typical Halloween special you see in other cartoons, I still think it was well-done, SpongeBob style. Sandy and Krabs' costume are pretty predictable for today's standards, but all of the costumes were good, especially Karen as a cat. But the best thing of all, it was nice seeing The Flying Dutchman again. Brian Doyle-Murray might sound a little older the last time he voiced him, but he still puts on a good performance. The Scare Song was great piece of music for a rather generic spooky sounding song. While the comedy hit most of the time, the pacing did felt a little too fast paced at times, but that's just me. my favorite part of the episode was easily the brain sequence which was animated and storyboarded by Sally Cruikshank. It was very trippy and a wild experience. What's even funnier is that, like in Scaredy Pants, the Flying Dutchman got scared by SpongeBob's brain. So the moral for this episode is...scary does equals funny, which can be true, unless you don't go too far with your pranks. Overall, this was such an awesome Halloween stop motion special. It's almost as great as It's A SpongeBob Christmas! 10/10

[fas1997]

Sorry for the double post, but I'm bumping this thread again after being inactive for nearly a year. So much has passed since it was last posted (I used to post on a SpongeBob forums), so I'm giving you the lowdown on the show recently.

We're almost through with season 11 as production is wrapping up as they move on with post-producing season 12. Tom Kenny himself won not only an Annie Award, but also a Daytime Emmy Award for his outstanding performance of Mimic Madness. I called it when that episode came out - he was meant to win an award after pulling off impersonations very well.

In other news, remember that third movie they're making? Believe it or not, but Tim Hill is actually going to work on it (he also wrote 10 episodes of the show and the 2004 movie. In fact the first Alvin and the Chipmunk movie he directed had a footage of the chipmunks watching a SpongeBob episode). Paul Tibbitt apparently had troubles behind the scenes. Kinda sucks for him, but at least he's tweeting again. Also, the date has been push to July 17, 2020, to complete with Bob's Burgers movie (kinda fitting since it's also its official premiere date if we don't count May 1).

Those for who are keeping up with the newer episodes, what are thoughts on the past couple seasons? Personally, while I still find more enjoyment than it was 8-10 years ago, I think some of the episodes go way too overboard with the facial expressions and it can gets pretty noisy (Krusty Katering, Patrick's Coupon, etc.). Season 11 also gave us one of the worst episodes in years, Ink Lemonade. I feel like the animation is overshadowing the writing, but that's just me.

[Mr. Teenie]

SpongeBob SquarePants creator Stephen Hillenburg dies aged 57

RIP

[comeau]

rip

[GlitterCat]

That's so sad. Rip Mr. Hillenberg.

[purple]

rip

[purple]

On a sidenote, season 11 is alright. Despite having some issues like going overboard with facial expressions and having one of the worst episodes in a while(Ink Lemonade), it's still a vast improvement over seasons 6-9a.

[sideshow ken]

So young. R.I.P.

[3t8yb]

I was never a huge fan of SpongeBob (just didn't really watch it much growing up), but you can't deny the influence of a guy like Hillenburg. R.I.P.

[Suomynona]

Godspeed, ocean man.

[Walid]

I stopped watching spongebob sometime ago, but this sucks. R.I.P. to the man responsible for one of my favorite shows growing up

[fas1997]

2 months late, but SpongeBob is having a birthday episode its 20 years anniversary, as well as a possible spin-off:
https://deadline.com/2019/02/spongeb...ca-1202555203/
https://www.thewrap.com/spongebob-sq...eeks-plankton/

[1010011010]

20th Anniversary ep airs this Friday btw. Spongebobs birthday, he goes to the surface and meets the live action voice actors. Seems neat.

[Wile E. the Brain]

Just saw the birthday special yesterday, and it was a damn good one if you have to ask me. This whole episode feels like a love letter towards Stephen Hillenburg's creation, and it's so enjoyable to watch.

You can just see during the whole episode how everyone who made it had a lot of fun by doing it. The two plots, with SpongeBob and Patrick touring the surface world and the others Bikini Bottomites planning a surprise party for the sponge, are a lot enjoyable. It has some moments that are a bit missed (I'm not a huge fan of the scene with Beanie McBean, not to mention it was a bit too long) but the good stuff is too good to ignore it.

Like I said, this episode feels like a huge love letter towards the show. There's a lot of references and cameos but it's not just a simple fanservice episode, but really a great homage to the show. I really loved the part with the live-action versions of the characters, they managed to make the wackiness of the show and its characters work in the real world, and you can see how each voice actor had so much fun by playing the live-action counterpart of their respective characters (not to mention others voice actors outside of the main cast like Jill Talley or Lori Alan have a nice cameo).

The other plot with Sandy and the others preparing the surprise party has a lot of funny moments (loved Plankton forcing Fred to say "My leg") and I enjoy how each of SpongeBob's friends tries to make a satisfying party for him, based on a theme about something he loves (driving, Mermaid Man, karate or... Squidward himself); even Plankton contributes, even if he doesn't have the right theme for him. Oh, and I just laughed out loud at the view of the Peter Lorre lookalike fish.

The first part has a little problem of pacing but the more the episode goes, the more the pacing improves. Patchy has some great moments as well and the ending is the cherry on the cake, with the birthday version of the song, Patchy and SpongeBob singing along followed by the other characters, and a very funny final joke about SpongeBob's age. Not to mention all the celebrities wishing SpongeBob an happy birthday as well (you just realize with this scene how iconic this character and this show is, no matter how many mediocre seasons they were during its "dark period"), and of course the last shot with a simple yet very heartwarming tribute to Stephen Hillenburg; I can't deny it, I had a little tear coming out by seeing this. That's very nice from the crew.

In fact, it's not only this last message, but this whole episode that is a wonderful tribute to Stephen and what he created. An entertaining, enjoyable, enthusiastic, genuine, heartwarming and a lot feel-good special with great vibes all around. They give a worthy 20th birthday to SpongeBob, and I'm glad they did it. I'm glad the show itself improved after some very clumsy seasons and hopefully, this quality will remain until the very end.

[fas1997]

Remember the news about SpongeBob getting spin-offs a while back? Well, here's more info about Kamp Koral from a recent interview of Brian Robbins, current president of Nickelodeon:
TV KIDS: Tell us about how Kamp Koral came about, and what the plans are for the SpongeBob universe.
ROBBINS: Literally my second or third day here, I was asked to go to a SpongeBob season 12 or 13 pickup meeting. I asked a lot of questions. What I realized is that we’ve made a lot of shows over many, many years, but the shows basically stayed the same. We had all these great characters in the world of SpongeBob, but we never individually explored their origin stories or their histories or put them in their own environments. So we decided to put a room together and really look at what the SpongeBob universe looks like. And out of that came the Kamp Koral idea and actually a couple of other ideas. Kamp Koral is the first show. It will be a limited summer series. I just saw amazing animation tests and conceptual art that blew us all away. It’s basically about how Patrick and SpongeBob met in summer camp when they were kids. It’s not SpongeBob babies, so to speak, but it is in CG, and they’re younger and cuter. Sandy is really cute in it. She has braces. It’s really fun and it looks different but still feels like SpongeBob. I couldn’t be more excited about it.

Yeah, as you can tell how people been reacting all over the Internet, MANY people are NOT happy about this. As a former huge SpongeBob fan, I feel disappointed and rather betrayed. But since people are talking about this more than the upcoming Nickelodeon projects like Casagrandes, Glitch Techs, and any possible original cartoons, it sucks people will assume Nick is just the SpongeBob channel and nothing else. At this rate, I gave up on the franchise for good, as well as Simpsons (ironic, I haven't been posting in the Simpsons General Thread that much either).

[Walid]

I wanted to give it a shot but right off the bat, I'm really annoyed that Sandy is going to be in it... Considering spongebob meets her for the first time in the pilot and this is supposed to be about when spongebob is a kid

[Sam]

I wanted to give it a shot but right off the bat, I'm really annoyed that Sandy is going to be in it... Considering spongebob meets her for the first time in the pilot and this is supposed to be about when spongebob is a kid

if you're such a shtickler for continuity you would remember he doesn't meet sandy in the pilot, but the iconic episode tea at the treedome

[TheDuffBlimp]

Fantastic show.

[hippythehippo]

well im a huge spongebob fan, might as well go through the eras

pre movie: im a normie, so these seasons are the best for me easily. most of the best episodes reside there, and most of the episodes are fantastic classics. very few duds, and all the bad eps come from s3, but most of the eps in that season are epic so who cares. while i disagree that it is the pinnacle of animation, it is still some of the most consistent comedies, and i can rewatch these eps a lot and still not get bored.

post movie:
s4 is great, almost as good as 1-3, despite having a few more duds. the best episodes match, and even exceed s1-3, and in general the quality is very consistent. i have my beef with specific episodes, but as a whole this one can stand next to the greats.

s5 is alright. i debate whether the season is legit good, or if the shit brings it down to ok. half of the season is quality, but the other half has the worst eps of 1-5. this was where i think the series jumped the shark.

s6 is bad. gross out, flanderization, mostly boring and substanceless messes, its flaws are overdone.

i actually thought s7 was an improvement, and the best season of the 6-9a era. s7 is still very mediocre, and littered with a lot of bad eps, but it has a good deal more gems than s6, and i can get through most of the eps easy enough.

s8 is boring, has no identity, and i can fall asleep watching most of these eps. besides some standout specials, a few extremely good eps like mermaid man begins, this season doesnt have much reason to exist.

at least it isnt 9a, which might be the worst season in the shows run. tell me one memorable ep this season has, and before you say planktons pet, that ep is alright, but only memorable because plankton wins. the sequels eps are way better. it isnt even fun to shit on this season, it just is really sad that the crew was this burnt out

post sequel
s9b: not as good as a lot of people say, but it is pretty good. not that memorable, but i like the majority of the eps. solid, and a nice change of pace.

s10: mediocre, felt like a test of the new animation style, not really memorable

s11: im part of the club who thought this season was way better than 9b and 10, steps up animation, story, characterization, and jokes. most of the episodes are funny enough, and it has a few duds despite its long length, tho ink is kinda bruh

s12: basically the same as 11. just replace ink with the even worse nitwitting

rankings: 2>1>3>4>12=11>9b>5>10>7>8>9a>6

[pax]

The first three seasons are comedic gold and endlessly rewatchable, but you knew that already.

In the case of Modern SpongeBob, Nick deserves to be razed to the ground for waiting until Hillenburg passed to greenlight a prequel series he was entirely against.