Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie
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 "Once there was an ugly movie. It was so ugly that everyone died from cringe. The End."
— Patrick when explaining Spongebob about this film. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie is a 2024 American adventure comedy film based on the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants, created by the late Stephen Hillenburg. It was directed by Liza Johnson and written by Tom Stern and Kaz, based on a story by Kaz. The film stars the series' regular voice cast, Tom Kenny, and includes new characters (both live-action and animated) performed by Johnny Knoxville, Craig Robinson, Grey DeLisle, Ilia Isorelýs Paulino, Matty Cardarople, and Wanda Sykes. It serves as the sequel to the 2020 film The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run and is the fourth installment of the SpongeBob SquarePants film series. The plot follows Sandy and SpongeBob as they venture to Sandy's home state of Texas to save Bikini Bottom from the hands of an evil CEO. It is the first in a series of SpongeBob character spin-off films.
The film was first conceived during a pitching session for ideas for The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run (2020). In March 2020, ViacomCBS announced that it would be producing SpongeBob spin-off films for streaming television. In May 2021, a spin-off film featuring the character Sandy as its lead was announced, with Johnson, Kaz, and Stern all attached. Animation services were provided by REDEFINE and Pipeline Studios in Ontario, Canada, and Moniker composed the original score. Another spin-off, movie, Plankton: The Movie, will be released in 2025. Plankton: The Movie was leaked by 4chan on August 8, 2024 as early reviewers had positive reviews, as Plankton: The Movie was considered to be a huge improvement over this movie. The fourth film in the mainline SpongeBob SquarePants films, The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, will be released on December 19, 2025. A third spin-off film, an untitled one focusing on Patrick Star, will be released sometime in an unknown year.
Before its release, the entire film was leaked on January 21, 2024, as a video upload on X (previously Twitter). Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie was released on Netflix on August 2, 2024.
Production
Conception and development
Executive producer Marc Ceccarelli pitched Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie during a session of pitching ideas for The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run. The idea got passed on, but a few years later, when the team wanted to do a Sandy Cheeks-centric story, he brought it back up and it was put into development. Director Liza Johnson was a newcomer to the world of animation. She was hired to direct the film because of her work on a season 2 episode of What We Do in the Shadows, "The Curse", which had Ceccarelli's favorite joke in the series. Carolyn Lawrence, the voice actor of Sandy, had heard whispers at work of a Sandy-related project in the works and described herself as being in shock when she received a phone call confirming it. Lawrence praised Johnson's vision for the film and immediately loved the script.
In March 2020, it was reported that ViacomCBS would be producing two spin-off films based on the series SpongeBob SquarePants for Netflix. In May 2021, a spin-off film with Sandy as its lead character was announced to be in development from Nickelodeon for streaming television, to be directed by Johnson from a script written by Kaz and Tom J. Stern and described as a hybrid feature that will put the animated title character into a live-action setting. In August 2021, it was revealed that plans to film Saving Bikini Bottom in Los Alamos were scrapped due to rewrites of the script.
In February 2022, during an investor call, Nickelodeon CEO Brian Robbins said that three SpongeBob character-driven spin-off films were in the works and that they would be released exclusively on streamer Paramount+, with the first one premiering in 2023. However, in April 2023, it was reported that Saving Bikini Bottom would instead debut on Netflix in 2024. That same month, in addition to a first-look reveal, it was revealed that Wanda Sykes, Johnny Knoxville, Craig Robinson, Grey DeLisle, Ilia Isorelýs Paulino, and Matty Cardarople were part of the cast. Series regulars Carolyn Lawrence, Tom Kenny, Clancy Brown, Bill Fagerbakke, Mr. Lawrence, and Rodger Bumpass were also confirmed to reprise their roles.
Filming, visual effects, and animation
Greg Gardiner served as the film's cinematographer for its live-action scenes. Animation was provided by Pipeline Studios and Sinking Ship Entertainment in Ontario, Canada. Spin VFX in Ontario and ReDefine Animation in Montreal, Canada, completed the live-action VFX parts of the film. Johnson started work early on to storyboard the entire film and together with animation supervisor, Piero Piluso, created an integrated look for the mix of live-action and animation. As a newcomer to animation, Johnson felt the process was a learning experience for both parties. The combination of the new animation style, story requirements, and technical and budget limitations were factors in deciding how scenes would look to make certain "that everything that people love and care about each character is still present, even though we’re doing it in new conditions".
Plot
Shorter and simplified plot: Bikini Bottom has been kidnapped by an evil scientist. Can Sandy and Spongebob save their town?
Much longer plot: When Bikini Bottom is suddenly scooped out of the ocean, Sandy Cheeks and SpongeBob journey to Sandy's home state of Texas, where they meet Sandy's family and must save Bikini Bottom from the hands of an evil CEO.
Why It Can't Save Bikini Bottom
- The animation, while still decent to look at (thanks to the Canadian animators from Pipeline Studios and Sinking Ship Entertainment, and VFX companies Spin VFX and REDEFINE) is a downgrade from the previous two films, even when compared to the spot-on animation from The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on The Run. This would sit more at home with a television special despite already being released on Netflix.
- Sometimes, the movements are somewhat lazy, stiff and janky (altough this is majorly unoticable) in live action scenes.
- It also feels more like a CGI animated-style cutscene for a SpongeBob SquarePants game on current consoles.
- Despite the story being written by Kaz himself (a writer from the series and Camp Lazlo), the story feels more like an extended episode of the series rather than a normal film. That, or the aforementioned cutscene of a SpongeBob SquarePants video game.
- A lot of the events that happen, like the characters getting into a fight with snakes, getting sucked into a tornado, getting chased by the police (due to stolen nuts), and ending up in a water park where Bikini Bottom is being held, feels more like random events added to pad out the film's runtime.
- In addition, there are many nonsensical moments that the writers wrote, even for the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise. How does the traveling van Sandy's family go in a change in size in several scenes? Why does it drive very fast yet have trouble outrunning the police? Why does a dog suddenly have a hang glider when he chases SpongeBob and Sandy? Why didn't Sandy's family drown when they reentered Bikini Bottom?
- There's also a subplot of Sandy being conflicted about returning to the circus with her family, but this adds nothing to the overall plot other than filler.
- There's even a plot hole regarding Sandy's involvement in B.O.O.T.S., which the movie doesn't even tell properly the conflict between Sandy and Sue.
- The humor is a massive downgrade from most SpongeBob SquarePants media (on par with seasons 6 to 8)
- Like with most bad children's movies, everyone (besides Sparky, Plankton, and Karen) keeps talking and never shuts up. It's like the writers are afraid you will get bored if there is no constant humor going around.
- Every character doesn't stop spouting out quips, one-liners, or pop culture references, like a scene where SpongeBob laments about his streaming services being gone. "All my streaming videos on demand, I can't demand them anymore!"
- There's a joke about poop and the bathroom in which SpongeBob smells cow poop and another where Patrick comes out of the bathroom (with fart fumes behind him) and says he washed his hands.
- There's also a very weird scene where SpongeBob tickles the feet of the human visitors of a water park. Several users on Twitter/X compared this infamous scene to many of Dan Schneider's infamous foot fetish scenes for Nickelodeon.
- To add further weirdness, SpongeBob says a very weird and bizarre line, "This place has more legs then Squidward!". We don't think this needs any explanation.
- For some strange reason, they made that a preview clip scene for Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie in one of the Netflix Side Trailers of 8/9/2024.
- Speaking of fetishes, there's inflation fetish humor when Sandy gets bitten by a snake.
- Sue Nahmee is a terrible villain with a motive that makes no sense, is not funny nor threatening, and feels more like a parody of a James Bond villain complete with her petting a dog to show how evil she is. She's also a massive downgrade from the previous films' antagonists Plankton (The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie), Burger Beard (The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water), and King Poseidon (The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run).
- At the film's climax, she is revealed to be a cyborg for some reason. No questions should be asked about how ridiculous this is, even though her body got eaten by piranhas.
- Also the film's climax involves Sandy messing with the controls of Sue and ending her up in the body of a fish. You can guess how lazy that is.
- The visual effects of the flashback to Sue Nahmee's childhood are so shockingly bad that it is considered by many fans to be the worst scene in the film and the SpongeBob franchise in general. One Twitter user said that it looks as if the editors (not the visual effects crew) cropped out Wanda's head in Magix Vegas Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, or Photoshop and lazily slapped her head onto the body of Jamria Davis and did not even keyframe it properly and/or moved it choppy. It looks more like a YouTube video, and even YouTube videos have better-cropped heads and keyframing than this.
- Same can be said as the ending with Kyle and Phoebe's heads being placed in Sandy-style diving suits, and a scene of Sue in her fish body swimming to the camera.
- At the film's climax, she is revealed to be a cyborg for some reason. No questions should be asked about how ridiculous this is, even though her body got eaten by piranhas.
- The scene where SpongeBob is tortured through the cloning machine is very harsh and mean-spirited, and sometimes, it can be disturbing to young viewers.
- Lame and poor direction from Liza Johnson, who directed Elvis & Nixon and the episode "Left Behind" from The Last Of Us, not helping that's also starting her animation career on poor note.
- The acting for the human characters is so bad you wonder if they were even there just for a paycheck. Every human character acts like they don't want to be here, probably trying to escape from the movie's quality of the cow poop Spongebob sniffs earlier.
- Kyle and Phoebe are very unfunny new characters and will get you on your nerves because of their idiocy.
- Sparky, a robotic horse introduced in this movie, while likable, is a completely useless horse who only shows up for the scene of Bikini Bottom and shows up in the end. This might as well make you think he's pointless. Similar to how other shows that also have useless characters that Maddie Taylor also worked on.
- While it is nice to see Sandy having a family, they don't do anything besides adding more gags and slapstick. They feel more like the Minions in Despicable Me but more action-packed vibe than actual characters.
- The characters are so heavily flanderized that it actively makes the SpongeBob characters in seasons 6-8 more mature by comparison.
- The film's "drama" also feels underbaked with Sandy's only mistake being that she led Sue to Bikini Bottom, through no fault of her own.
- Not to mention the unnecessary scene where everyone acts like they were betrayed by Sandy. But unlike other SpongeBob media, it feels forced due to its lack of emotional weight.
- The film's ending, just like any other, is just a generic dance party ending, and the film ends there as it was already done in several better movies.
- Executive meddling: A storyboarder on the movie, April "Pinkie" Davis, was uncredited in this movie, especially with the fact that she was disappointed when she watched the movie and found out she was not credited in the movie, where you can feel bad for her (especially when she gets hate messages during Kamp Koral), as she was simply doing her job as a storyboard artist.[1]
- She also felt shame when another storyboard artist, Eliza Herdon, was credited instead of Pinkie, and even Eliza was disappointed about it.[2] Eliza was willing to have her name be taken off the credits in place of Pinkie, which says a lot.[3]
- It was also revealed by Jay Lender, another storyboard artist for this movie and a writer for previous Spongebob episodes, that a majority of the jokes like the streaming services to the live action characters were done by the studio rather than their input.
- Poor cinematography that would feel more in line with a basic live action Nick sitcom.
- Because of all these problems mentioned above, this movie is the antithesis of bad SpongeBob media (although not as bad as "A Pal for Gary" and "One Coarse Meal," but still) to the point where it almost damaged the reputation of the SpongeBob SquarePants film series, the first three movies had humor. Still, there were also dramatic scenes that worked as well. These dramatic moments are thrown out of the ocean and replaced with a litter of childish jokes that no one ten and older would find hilarious, nonsensical moments where the writers don't even bother with the continuity of SpongeBob as a whole (as in Sandy being a flying squirrel when SpongeBob's own Twitter account state the opposite), shoehorn in the wasted talents of Wanda Sykes, Matty Cardarople from Stranger Things and A Series of Unfortunate Events, and Illa Isorelýs Paulino from her role in One Piece, and the simplistic plot to the point where the viewer is left questioning if they wasted their time with this film and it is safe to say that the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise has declined in quality because of this film and it will never be as good as it was.
- While a more comedic and light-hearted tone (just like how seasons 9b-present) for a movie is not inherently bad, the tone of this film is too comedic and completely devoid of any drama and dark scenes, something that even the first three seasons of the SpongeBob SquarePants series, which was known for it's comedic and light-hearted tone, didn't do and had some drama and dark moments to balance out the lighter themes and characters that also had more personality beyond dull angst.
- Despite the leaks, Netflix left the film the way it was, instead of improving it by giving the animation team time to improve the visuals.
- Overall, it started the spin-off movie line on a sour note with all these problems from all the reasons for WIDSBB.
Redeeming Qualities That Saved Bikini Bottom
- The voice acting for the Bikini Bottom characters is still spot on, as usual.
- Some of the humor and gags can work, albeit not as hilarious as the last three movies.
- Mr. Krabs getting hit by the word "FREE!" and having a panic attack.
- Despite being nonsensical, the dog suddenly having a hang glider while chasing Sandy and SpongeBob is pretty funny.
- Fred's line, "Hey, everyone! They're selling phase ones and they're FREE!" is also very funny.
- Mr. Krabs getting hit by the word "FREE!" and having a panic attack.
- The Bikini Bottom characters (except SpongeBob until the third act) are still likable especially when it comes to Sandy Cheeks.
- Speaking of Sandy Cheeks, she gets some very good and executed character development as well.
- In fact, Sandy Cheeks' family is very likable despite they don't do anything aside. Their appearances in the SpongeBob SquarePants season 14 episode "Sandy's Country Christmas" is a major improvement over their appearances in this movie.
- While the animation is downgraded, is still decent to look at, all thanks to Canadian animators from Pipeline Studios (Sidekick and the reboot of Dora) and Sinking Ship Entertainment (Dino Dan), and VFX companies Spin VFX and REDEFINE, with good character designs that is faithful to the series counterpart.
- There's also a good squish-and-scratch moments where Canada animators that surprisingly did.
- It's nice to see a SpongeBob film where the protagonist is Sandy.
- On that topic, the idea of a Sandy Cheeks movie is a great idea, even if the execution wasn't the greatest.
- The soundtrack, like the previous films, is well-composed.
- Many of the songs are at least catchy, especially Sandy Cheeks' theme song.
- Like the previous films, the set designs are still great.
- The first act of this film is amazing, as it shows a true threat to Bikini Bottom that hasn't ever been seen before, only to have the movie waste the first act as mentioned above.
- The next movie, Plankton: The Movie is agreed to be a massive improvement over Saving Bikini Bottom, it was leaked on Twitter so many fans liked it.
Trivia
- Storyboarders on this movie:
- Chuck Klein (who returned after season 6)
- Jason Dorf
- Jay Lender
- Mark Stanleigh
- Steven E. Gordon
- Bryan Mann
- Maddie Taylor
- Brian Hatfield
- Katie Smith
- Dylan Bozic
- Eliza Herndon
- Joey Mason
- April "Pinkie" Davis
- This is the fourth hybrid animated SpongeBob SquarePants movie.
- Some of the soundtracks from SpongeBob SquarePants did return as "Hawaiian Calypso", "Old Hilo March" and "Stack of Leis"
- The film was originally set to be released on Paramount+ only in the United States but was then moved to releasing it on Netflix.
- This makes the second SpongeBob film to be released on Netflix, the first being The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, which was released on the service internationally (except in the United States).
- This makes SpongeBob SquarePants the sixth Nicktoon to have a film released exclusively on Netflix after Rocko's Modern Life, Invader Zim, The Loud House, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Casagrandes.
- This film was originally set to release sometime in 2023 but was later delayed to a year later for unknown reasons.
- The film was completed in 2023, hence the copyright year of 2023 in the closing credits.
- This is the first film April "Pinkie" Davis has ever worked on and Eliza Herndon's first movie production.
- This movie marks Grey DeLisle's debut voicing in the SpongeBob SquarePants series, she had already voiced Preda Tory and Elwood (starting on the episode "Deep Sea Despot") in 2021-2024's Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years
- This is the second time Johnny Knoxville worked on the franchise after guest starring in the season 9 episode "Extreme Spots" 12 years ago, where he did the voice of Johnny Krill.
- This is the second Nickelodeon film to feature Wanda Sykes, after Barnyard.
- Maddie Taylor, who's the storyboard artist of this movie, also voiced Sparky from season 9 of The Fairly OddParents and the Fair Bears in season 10.
- Ironically enough, there's a robotic horse (created and owned by Sandy Cheeks) in Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie named Sparky.
- Sandy's job is revealed to be a marine biologist just like the late Stephen Hillenburg. This also confirms a longtime theory of Sandy being a marine biologist.
- This movie reveals that Sandy is a flying squirrel despite saying that she is a land squirrel in "Tea at the Treedome."
- SpongeBob getting cloned is a canon reference to "Sleepy Time" where, when he goes in Patrick's dream and tell him "I can make... SpongeBob multiples A MILLION OF ME!," "Boss for a Day," where is does everything he can to help everyone in the Krusty Krab and "CopyBob DittoPants" which Plankton does everything he can to get the cloned SpongeBobs to get the Krabby Patty secret formula, yet fails due to the ink he used was cheap, resulting them to disappear. DoodleBob in "Doodle Dimension" drew tons of him to catch SpongeBob and Patrick in said dimension.
Reception
This movie received mixed reviews by critics and a highly negative reception by fans due to its confusing story, and inferior CGI that is worse than Sponge on the Run. It is considered the worst SpongeBob SquarePants film ever made. However, the next film, Plankton: The Movie is an improvement over this film when it got leaked.
This movie received an IMDb score of 3.7/10, making it the lowest-ranked film based on a Nickelodeon show, even lower than The Last Airbender and The J Team
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 56% of 16 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.9/10. Catherine Bray of The Guardian gave the film a three out of five-star rating. They commended its entertainment value and appeal to younger audiences and concluded, "For general viewers, it may not pack as much of an emotional punch, but like SpongeBob himself, it’s thoroughly absorbing." Tessa Smith of Mama’s Geeky praised the film for its humor, animation, and story and said, "Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie delivers the same type of jokes that SpongeBob SquarePants fans are used to, but it also tells a heartwarming story and allows viewers to finally meet Sandy and see where she comes from." Adam Graham of The Detroit News gave the film a C grade. They felt it retained the series' irreverent humor but in a way that did not connect and criticized it for being overly busy, undercooked, and "feeling like a knockoff rather than a spinoff". Barry Levitt of The Daily Beast largely disliked the film, citing its sidelining of main characters, underdeveloped new characters, lackluster animation, and script. He said, "Sandy has always been a delightful if underappreciated part of Bikini Bottom, but the movie fails to give her the spotlight she rightfully deserves. Its initial promise is washed out by cheap jokes, an uninspired plot, and off-putting animation".
NICKtendo, however surprisingly put it as the second best of his SpongeBob SquarePants Spin-offs ranking video, despite putting it on his least favorite in Letterboxd, along with The Patrick Star Show while Maher & Ibrahim's Avengers do found a movie, having a fun premise but flawed execution.
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