The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
| I'm sure you can help them sort it out, Dunban. ― Fiora, Xenoblade Chronicles |
This article is about the movie. You may be looking for video game with the same name. |
| ♥ | This article is dedicated to Stephen Hillenburg (1961-2018). |
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 I'M A GOOFY GOOBER! (Rock!)
YOU'RE A GOOFY GOOBER! (Rock!) WE'RE ALL GOOFY GOOBERS! (Rock!) GOOFY, GOOFY, GOOFY, GOOBER! (Rock!) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is a 2004 American live-action/animated adventure comedy film based on the popular Nickelodeon animated TV series SpongeBob SquarePants. The movie is written and directed by Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of the show, and stars the regular voice actors from the TV series along several guest stars. Despite being an animated movie, the movie also features live-action scenes, both standalone and blended with the animated sequences.
Plot
In this lively animated adventure, undersea oddball SpongeBob SquarePants and his starfish friend, Patrick, embark on a quest to clear the name of Mr. Krabs, the owner of the Krusty Krab restaurant, who has been framed for stealing the crown of ocean deity King Neptune. Leaving the familiar confines of Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob and Patrick venture out towards Shell City, where they hope to find Neptune's crown, but numerous obstacles stand (or float) in their way.
Production
Development
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie was long-planned; Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures had approached series creator Stephen Hillenburg for a film based on the show, but he refused for more than a year. Hillenburg was concerned, after watching The Iron Giant and Toy Story with his son, about the challenge of SpongeBob and Patrick doing something more cinematically consequential and inspiring without losing what he called the SpongeBob "cadence". While on a break from season four post-production, "To do a 75-minute movie about SpongeBob wanting to make some jellyfish jelly would be a mistake, I think this had to be SpongeBob in a great adventure. That's where the comedy's coming from, having these two naïve characters, SpongeBob and Patrick, a doofus and an idiot, on this incredibly dangerous heroic odyssey with all the odds against them."
In 2002, Hillenburg and the show's staff stopped making episodes to work on the film after the show's third season. The film's plot originally had SpongeBob rescue Patrick from a fisherman in Florida; an obvious reference to the 2003 film, Finding Nemo, this was later said by Tom Kenny (the voice of SpongeBob) to be a "joke" plot to keep fans busy. Hillenburg directed and produced the film, and also co-wrote it with five other writer-animators from the show (Paul Tibbitt, Derek Drymon, Aaron Springer, Kent Osborne, and Tim Hill) over three months in a room of a former Glendale, California bank. Osborne said, "It was hugely fun although it did get kind of gamy in there." At the beginning of the series, Hillenburg screened several silent shorts (from Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, and Buster Keaton) and work by two modern comic actors: Jerry Lewis and Pee-wee Herman, both obvious inspirations for SpongeBob. For the film, the writers created a mythical hero's quest: the search for a stolen crown, which brings SpongeBob and Patrick to the surface. Bill Fagerbakke (the voice of Patrick) said about the plot, "It's just nuts. I'm continually dazzled and delighted with what these guys came up with."
When the film was completed, Hillenburg wanted to end the series "so it wouldn't jump the shark". However, Nickelodeon desired more episodes; Hillenburg stated: "Well, there was concern when we did the movie [in 2004] that the show had peaked. There were concerns among executives at Nickelodeon."[10][11] As a result, Hillenburg resigned as the series' showrunner, appointing writer, director, and storyboard artist Paul Tibbitt to succeed him. Tibbitt was one of Hillenburg's favorite crew members: " totally trusted him." Tibbitt would remain showrunner until he was succeeded in 2015 by the show's creative director Vincent Waller and staff writer Marc Ceccarelli. He also acted as an executive producer from 2008 to 2018. While Hillenburg no longer wrote or directly ran the show on a day-to-day basis, he reviewed each episode and submitted suggestions: "I figure when I'm pretty old I can still paint I don't know about running shows."Kenny, Fagerbakke, and the crew confirmed that they had completed four episodes for broadcast on Nickelodeon in early 2005, and planned to finish a total of about 20 for the fourth season. In 2015, Hillenburg returned to the show following the completion of the second film as an executive producer, having greater creative input and attending crew meetings until his death on November 26, 2018.
In September 2003, Jules Engel, Hillenburg's mentor when he studied experimental animation at the California Institute of the Arts, died. Hillenburg dedicated the film to him: "He truly was the most influential artistic person in my life. I consider him my 'Art Dad.'"
Casting
The film stars the series' main cast members: Tom Kenny as SpongeBob SquarePants, Gary the Snail, and the French Narrator, Bill Fagerbakke as Patrick Star, Rodger Bumpass as Squidward Tentacles, Clancy Brown as Mr. Krabs, Mr. Lawrence as Plankton, Jill Talley as Karen, Carolyn Lawrence as Sandy Cheeks, Mary Jo Catlett as Mrs. Puff, and Lori Alan as Pearl Krabs. It also features Dee Bradley Baker as Perch Perkins, Carlos Alazraqui as King Neptune's squire, Aaron Hendry as the Cyclops, and Neil Ross as the voice of the Cyclops. In addition to the series' cast, it was reported on March 23, 2004, that Scarlett Johansson, Jeffrey Tambor, and Alec Baldwin would play new characters Princess Mindy, King Neptune, and Dennis, respectively, and David Hasselhoff would appear as himself.
Johansson accepted the role because she liked cartoons and was a fan of The Ren & Stimpy Show. When Jeffrey Tambor signed for his voice cameo, he saw his character (King Neptune) and joked, "This is me." He remembered the first cartoon he saw, Bambi (1942): "My first cartoon, I had to be carried out crying It was Bambi. It's like the great American wound: the death of Bambi's mother. 'Run, Bambi, run!'" Another guest voice was Alec Baldwin; Stephen Hillenburg said that the actor recorded his character Dennis on a "phone": "I wouldn't say that about his performance. He might be mad if we said that. Technically, it was like he was in another booth in the studio."
David Hasselhoff accepted the role when his daughters, Taylor-Ann and Hayley, urged him: "I got an offer to do a cameo in the SpongeBob Movie and I turned to my girls, who were like 16 and 14, and I said, 'Who's SpongeBob?' and they said, 'Oh my God, Dad, it's the number one cartoon in the world, you gotta do it.'" Hasselhoff enjoyed his cameo: "It was great fun and to this day around the world kids stop me and say, 'Are you David Hasselhoff?' because I was the only human in the picture." Hasselhoff said that the film gained him new fans: "It's amazing - so many of the kids were so young and didn't see Baywatch and Knight Rider so I got a whole new legion of fans."
There were several stages involved in the making of the film, beginning with a rough animation process of ideas drawn on Post-it notes. The writers drew, working from rough outlines rather than scripts (which made the humor more visual than verbal). The storyboard artists, including Sherm Cohen, then illustrated ideas conceived by the writers. In the series, Tom Yasumi and Andrew Overtoom do the animatics, but Hillenburg and Drymon do the animatics for the film. Yasumi and Overtoom were the film's animation-timing directors, concentrating on the sheets. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, like the series, was animated at Rough Draft Studios in South Korea. The animators worked semi-digitally with pencil-drawn poses that would be composited into layouts in Photoshop.
Series writer and storyboard artist Erik Wiese left the show for a year to work on Samurai Jack and Danny Phantom but returned to do storyboards and character layout for the film. He "always wanted to be a feature animator, and the movie felt like I was on the character animation end", describing the experience as "a blast it felt like coming home."
Hillenburg enjoyed the process of making the film: "The TV schedule is tight, and you don't always have a lot of time to work on your drawings."[6] He appreciated the film's hand-drawn animation: "I think the movie's drawings are much superior than the TV show", although CGI animation was flourishing at the time of the film's release. "There's a lot of talk about 2-D being dead, and I hope people don't think that. Even Brad Bird is a proponent of 2-D. He would agree with me that it's all about what you're trying to say. There are many ways to tell a story, and what's unique about animation is that there are many styles with which to tell a story." The clay animation scenes were shot by Mark Caballero, Seamus Walsh, and Chris Finnegan at Screen Novelties in Los Angeles.
Filming
The film features live-action scenes directed by Mark Osborne in Santa Monica, California. The ship used during the 30-second opening featuring the pirates singing the theme song was the Bounty, a 180-foot (55 m)-long, enlarged reconstruction of the 1787 Royal Navy sailing ship HMS Bounty built for Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). The ship appeared in several other films, including Treasure Island (1999), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007). In film trailers, live-action scenes were taken from Das Boot (1981), The Hunt for Red October (1990), and U-571 (2000).
David Hasselhoff made a cameo in the live-action scenes, offering SpongeBob and Patrick a ride to Bikini Bottom. The scene was originally written before consulting Hasselhoff. Hillenburg was pleased with the storyboards; Lead storyboard artist Sherm Cohen said, "He had been wrestling with the ending for quite a while, and finally he was ready to pitch his ideas to some of the other board artists." Hillenburg was counting on casting Hasselhoff, and the first question he asked him was "So, do we have Hasselhoff?" He replied "No", with a grin. Hasselhoff eventually agreed, before seeing the script. Hillenburg said about the actor, "He's a great guy. ... He was great at making fun of himself."
The crew built a 750-pound (340 kg), 12-foot (3.7 m) replica of Hasselhoff. The $100,000 replica was kept at Hasselhoff's home; he has said, "It freaked me out because it was so lifelike, with teeth, when you touch it it feels like real skin. It's soft, like your skin." After filming, Hasselhoff said, "That's ridiculously awesome. What are you gonna do with it?" Asked by the crew if he wanted to keep it, he answered, "Uh, yeah. Okay." Hasselhoff filmed in cold water, where he was pulled by a sled nine yards across the sea; he described the experience as "cold but a lot of fun." In late March 2014, Hasselhoff offered the replica up for auction with other memorabilia collected during his career. Julien's Auctions handled the item's sale, which was expected to bring in between $20,000 and $30,000. Ultimately, Hasselhoff pulled the item, just a few days before the auction.
Deleted scenes
The DVD and Blu-ray releases include animatics of deleted scenes from the film, including SpongeBob and Patrick's meeting with Sandy Cheeks (a squirrel) on the surface after they escaped from Shell City. Patrick repeatedly vomits, upset by Sandy's unusual appearance. The squirrel is pursued by black-suited exterminators and defends herself with acorns. She informs SpongeBob and Patrick that they can return to Bikini Bottom by taking a bus to the beach. This idea was later used for the second film The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, where Sandy became a giant realistic squirrel.
In 2013, the film's lead storyboard artist, Sherm Cohen, released a storyboard panel of a deleted scene from the film with SpongeBob awakening from his dream saying "WEEEEE!" and Mr. Krabs holding a manager's hat.
Why It's a Goofy Goober, YEAH!!!
- Unlike some other movie adaptations, this movie stays completely faithful to the TV series and is very welcoming to newcomers of SpongeBob SquarePants, both the series and the character himself, as it sets up the series' signature tone, presents who some of the characters are and explains all that is happening in Bikini Bottom.
- Well done animation that tops that of the series.
- It plays more with the characters' facial expressions, often for comedic effect.
- It takes advantage of the lighting and colors to set up a strong mood, especially whenever there is a presence of danger.
- The backgrounds also function in a way that visually explains the scenario that is going on.
- This is the first time SpongeBob has gone in high-definition widescreen.
- Action-packed adventure scenes.
- Lots of fun scenes, such as the bubble party scene, the Goofy Goobers scene, and more.
- Talented voice acting both from the same voice actors of the cartoon and from guest stars, most notably Alec Baldwin and David Hasslehoff (the former portraying a convincing villain and the latter as himself).
- Continuing on with the previous pointer, instead of using stunt casting, it picks up nearly the same cast as the source material.
- The new characters created for the movie are great additions to the SpongeBob series, such as Princess Mindy, King Neptune's daughter, who is a reasonable lady who helps SpongeBob and Patrick on their journey, and Dennis, an intimidating hitman hired by Plankton to kill SpongeBob and Patrick before they can reclaim King Neptune's crown.
- Plankton is at his absolute best in terms of villainy as he’s more villainous than ever before in this movie, as he not only successfully manages to frame Mr. Krabs for stealing Neptune's crown so that he could steal the Krabby Patty Formula unhindered, but he also manages to subsequently enslave all of Bikini Bottom in the process.
- SpongeBob and Patrick are also at their absolute best in this movie, as they go on an adventure together, get past all the danger they’ve faced, brought King Neptune’s crown back, saved Bikini Bottom and their loved ones, and defeated Plankton.
- Amazing cinematography.
- Several recurring musical numbers from the show are used in the film, including Pua Puaokalani (b), Marching to Honolulu, Drowsy Reef, SpongeBob Theme I, Steel Sting, Airs and Graces (a), among others. The new songs are also incredibly amazing, like "Goofy Goober Rock", and "Ocean Man" (which would later go on to become a meme).
- The scene where SpongeBob and Patrick get captured by The Cyclops is one of the darkest and edgiest moments in the movie.
- There are funny and hilarious moments and jokes that don't contain gross-out humor.
- An epic climax where SpongeBob frees the people of Bikini Bottom from Plankton’s control via the power of rock.
- Excellent writing with an engaging plot that fits well with the series' standard humor while providing extra material for a movie.
- It hands you a great message, saying that "it doesn't matter if you are a kid".
- Pleasant soundtrack by the London Metropolitan Orchestra, Gregor Narholz.
- The end credits are beautiful.
- The Nickelodeon Movies opening in this installment is widely considered the best variation, as many of the frames are very interesting and fit Nickelodeon's picture of being rather quirky, but somewhat cool.
- This could've been an excellent way to end the series (as originally intended) with SpongeBob finally becoming the manager, which shows the hard work he has done to earn it.
- The scene where SpongeBob and Patrick dry up, though a bit dark and depressing, is memorable and more sad, even making the audience pirates cry.
- And them getting rejuvenated along with the rest of the dried up sea creatures is also memorable, with the latter hilariously attacking the cyclops with the glue and googly eyes he was using on them!
- Also hilarious in this scene are fish that are dressed up as a mariachi band, who casually play their music as the action unfolds.
- And them getting rejuvenated along with the rest of the dried up sea creatures is also memorable, with the latter hilariously attacking the cyclops with the glue and googly eyes he was using on them!
Qualities That Aren’t Goofy Goobers
- There is plenty of gross-out humor, including one shot showing a nude Patrick's rear end with a flag showing SpongeBob’s name wedged between his buttocks, which is kind of gross.
- As Hillenburg had largely focused his attention on the movie, the show had been in hiatus from late 2002 (after production of season 3) to 2004, with only the final 9 episodes of season 3 as well as the final 3 episodes of season 2 being released during that time, (despite the final 3 being made in 2001, which aired from Late 2002 to Late 2003). While Stephen's intention to focus on the film is understandable, the series was at the height of its popularity when this decision was made, and in some ways hurt the series in the long run.
- The movie overuses deus ex machinas in order to progress the plot.
- SpongeBob and Patrick are seen drying up under a heat lamp, although they turn out okay in the end, the scene is nonetheless a bit dark and depressing for young as well as even some adult fans of the show.
- Several popular characters had little to no role in the film, notably Pearl, who only has one scene with one line; Mrs. Puff and Sandy Cheeks, each having 3 brief scenes and two lines throughout the film; and Larry the Lobster, who only briefly cameos.
- While still likable, this movie started the "SpongeBob's High Pitched Voice" era, as SpongeBob's voice becomes high pitched from this movie up until season 7, and is kind of annoying.
- The "Goofy Goober Rock" scene has some strobe lighting, which can be pretty risky for viewers with photosensitive epilepsy, which resulted in some censorship issues in South Korea and Japan.
- It has some minor plot holes, one example is how the masked robber who carjacked the pattywagon earlier from both Spongebob and Patrick did not immediately recognize them at the Thug Tug or even the least suspicious of why the same guys he carjacked earlier would be at the Thug Tug.
Reception
Box office
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie earned $9,559,752 on its opening day in the United States, second behind National Treasure (2004) (which earned $11 million). It grossed a combined total of $32,018,216 during its opening weekend, on 4,300 screens at 3,212 theaters, averaging $9,968 per venue (or $7,446 per screen, again second to National Treasure). The film dropped an unexpected 44 percent over the Thanksgiving weekend, and 57 percent the weekend after that. The opening weekend earned 37.48 percent of the film's final gross. It closed on March 24, 2005, failing to out-gross holiday animated competitors The Incredibles (2004) ($261,441,092) and The Polar Express (2004) ($183,373,735). It was still profitable for distributor Paramount Pictures and producer Nickelodeon Movies, earning $85,417,988 in the United States and $140,161,792 worldwide on a budget of $30 million.
Critical response
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie received mixed to positive reviews from critics and received a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 6.28/10, based on 129 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Surreally goofy and entertaining for both children and their parents." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100 based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, calling it "the 'Good Burger' of animation plopping us down inside a fast-food war being fought by sponges, starfish, crabs, tiny plankton and mighty King Neptune." Ed Park of The Village Voice wrote, "No Pixar? No problem! An unstoppable good-mood generator, the resolutely 2-D [The] SpongeBob SquarePants Movie has more yuks than Shark Tale (2004) and enough soul to swallow The Polar Express whole." Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, calling it "an animated adventure that's funnier than Shark Tale and more charming than The Polar Express." Randy Cordova of The Arizona Republic said, "Like the TV show it's based on, it's a daffy, enjoyable creation." Jami Bernard of the New York Daily News gave the feature a score of three out of four: "It's not The Incredibles, or one of those animated features that spent zillions on character design, pedigree and verisimilitude. But SpongeBob is a sweet, silly thing with a child-friendly esthetic all its own."
Sponges, Starfish, Crabs, tiny plankton and mighty King Neptune." Ed Park of The Village Voice wrote, "No Pixar? No problem! An unstoppable good-mood generator, the resolutely 2-D [The] SpongeBob SquarePants Movie has more yuks than Shark Tale (2004) and enough soul to swallow The Polar Express whole." Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, calling it "an animated adventure that's funnier than Shark Tale and more charming than The Polar Express." Randy Cordova of The Arizona Republic said, "Like the TV show it's based on, it's a daffy, enjoyable creation." Jami Bernard of the New York Daily News gave the feature a score of three out of four: "It's not The Incredibles, or one of those animated features that spent zillions on character design, pedigree and verisimilitude. But SpongeBob is a sweet, silly thing with a child-friendly esthetic all its own." Will Lawrence of Empire gave the film four out of five stars, calling it "a film for kids, students, stoners, anyone who enjoys a break from reality." Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave it a B-minus grade: "The best moments in his [SpongeBob SquarePants] first movie outing are those that feel most TV-like, just another day in the eternally optimistic undersea society created with such contagious silliness by Stephen Hillenburg." Desson Thomson of The Washington Post enjoyed the film: "You gotta love SpongeBob. Coolest sponge in the sea, although this one has a suspiciously manufactured look."
Carla Meyer of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie retains the 2-D charm of the hugely popular Nickelodeon cartoon but adds a few tricks a little 3-D here, a little David Hasselhoff there. The series' appeal never lay in its visuals, however. 'SpongeBob' endeared itself to kids and adults through sweetness and cleverness, also abundant here." A. O. Scott of The New York Times gave it a score of four out of five: "If you're tired of bluster and swagger, SpongeBob is your man." Tom Maurstad of The Dallas Morning News also gave the film a B-minus grade: "Being so good is what led to making the movie, and it's also the reason that many small-screen episodes are better than this big-screen venture."
Some reviews praised David Hasselhoff's appearance in the film. Jennifer Frey of The Washington Post wrote, "Getting to see the hairs on Hasselhoff's back (and thighs, and calves) magnified exponentially is perhaps a bit creepy. Like the movie, it's all in good fun." Cinema Blend founder Joshua Tyler called Hasselhoff's role "the best movie cameo I've seen since Fred Savage stuck a joint in his crotch and played a clarinet to charm the resulting smoke like a snake."
David Edelstein of Slate criticized the film's plot, calling it a "big, heavy anchor of a story structure to weigh him down." Mike Clark of USA Today called it "harmlessly off-the-cuff but facing far more pedigreed multiplex competition SpongeBob barely rates as OK when compared with The Incredibles." A reviewer noted in Time Out London, "Anyone expecting anything more risky will be sadly disappointed." In his Variety review, Todd McCarthy said the film "takes on rather too much water during its extended feature-length submersion."
While the film received mostly positive reviews by critics and by fans of the show, it is considered a turning point in the show's history; many fans believe that the television series has declined in quality since the film's release. While episodes aired before the film were praised for their "uncanny brilliance", those aired after the film have been called "kid-pandering attention-waster", "tedious", "boring", "dreck", a "depressing plateau of mediocrity" and "laugh-skimpy." After the film's release, fans "began to turn away from the show," causing fansites to "bec[ome] deserted." Some fans believe that the show's 2012 ratings decline correlates with a decline in quality, and "whatever fan support [the show] enjoys is not enough" to save it from its slide in ratings. This was due to the fact that Stephen Hillenburg and many writers left the show.
Fan project
In honor of Stephen Hillenburg, a non-profit re-animated collaboration project, titled The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie Rehydrated, was released online on May 1, 2022. Similarly to 3GI's Shrek Retold collaboration, the video consists of over 300 artists recreating the film's animation and audio in their own artistic styles. Amid the YouTube premiere, the video was taken down by Paramount Global due to copyright laws. As a result, the hashtag #JusticeForSpongeBob became trending on Twitter against Paramount's action. The video was restored the following day.
Trivia
- Besides, Tim Hill (as he's the writer only), the writers who also did storyboarders.
- Storyboard artists of this movie are:
- Sherm Cohen
- Caleb Meurer
- Tuck Tucker
- Mike Roth
- Erik Wiese
- This is also the very first time, a new member of SpongeBob SquarePants was involved, Casey Alexander.
- Storyboard artists of this movie are:
- This film was originally going to be rated G by MPAA, but it received a PG rating as a result the film containing a scene where SpongeBob and Patrick appear to get drunk over ice cream and the scenes where we see Patrick naked.
- All of the main characters have speaking roles in the movie, including Pearl and Gary, both of whom only had one real line each.
- It wasn't until after the release of this film, the show was considered to be going downhill, becuase after its completion, the film was intended to be the series finale, as Stephen Hillenburg didn't want the series to "jump the shark"; when Nickelodeon ordered more episodes of the series, Hillenburg resigned as the series' showrunner and appointed Paul Tibbitt, a longtime friend of his and a writer on many of the show's most well-known classic episodes ("Chocolate with Nuts", "Frankendoodle", "Ripped Pants", "The Secret Box", and "No Weenies Allowed") to replace him as showrunner. Tibbitt was the showrunner until the second half of the ninth season, when Vincent Waller and Marc Ceccarelli (crew members on Ren & Stimpy and Uncle Grandpa) became the new showrunners. Because of this, many fans and critics feel that the show's quality dropped between the first and second films, especially during the sixth through eighth seasons when the quality hit an all-time low. The fourth and fifth season, however, were pretty well received.
- The design on King Neptune looks incredibly different from the one on the show.
- This was due to a firewall between Nickelodeon and Paramount content at the time. This resulted in other elements (apart from Goofy Goober's) created for the first movie not being allowed to be used in the series from 2005 to 2014.
- "Goofy Goober Rock" is a parody of the Twisted Sister song "I Wanna Rock".
- It was rumored to be canonically the end of the SpongeBob SquarePants timeline, but Vincent Waller debunked this and it was actually a false fan theory that this movie is set after every episode. Said theory was based on a misunderstanding: fans incorrectly thought that "Hillenburg wanted to end the show after the first movie" meant "the in-universe fictional timeline ends with the first movie" (not true and never said).
- The film was nominated for three Annie Awards, including Best Animated Feature, but did not win any.
- During in one episode of The Substitute, it accidentally showed the Pooh's Adventures version of the poster instead of the official version. More topic can be found here. The error was later fixed but the Nick version of the app still uses the fake version of the poster.
- In the scenes where SpongeBob and Patrick are riding on David Hasselhoff's back, a 14-foot long replica is used instead of the real actor.
- Originally, Sandy was supposed to appear as a real life chipmunk when Spongebob & Patrick get the crown including human versions of Patrick & Spongebob.
- This is the final animated Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies film to be released on VHS.
- Originally, the ending to the movie featured 'Mourning Glory' by Ween playing over the credits, but when it failed with test audiences, it was ultimately replaced with the more popular 'Ocean Man'.
- Though not owned by Nickelodeon, Popeye and Krazy Kat can be seen in the background of Goofy Goober's in the movie.
- At one point in an earlier draft, the cast from Rocko's Modern Life was set to make a cameo in the film and they can be seen scuba diving.
- According to Vincent Waller, from 2005 to 2014, Paramount Pictures formerly did not allow any movie-exclusive content to be used in the SpongeBob SquarePants series. This is why Goofy Goober's was only seen in one brief, unnamed cameo appearance in the series until "Patnocchio."
- This is the first Spongebob media to be transitioned to high-definition widescreen.