Yo, what's up, Kemosabes?

This is your friendly film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.

Today, for my third analysis on an installment of the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise, I'm gonna give you guys my take of "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water".

Here's the rundown of it:

During a battle between Plankton and the Krusty Krab over the secret Krabby Patty formula, the recipe itself disappears right before the eyes of both Plankton and SpongeBob SquarePants! Without the recipe, there won't be anymore Krabby Patties! And without Krabby Patties, the town of Bikini Bottom plunges into an apocalyptic state.

Despite SpongeBob's assurance, everyone immediately assumes that Plankton stole the formula and is secretly keeping it somewhere. As if things can't get any worse, SpongeBob is later suspected of being Plankton's secret accomplice.

Intent on clearing their names, SpongeBob and Plankton work together in order to find the secret formula and save Bikini Bottom.

Meanwhile, a suspicious pirate named Burger Beard has plans of his own, and they all involve a magical SpongeBob SquarePants book that he acquired from the island of Bikini Atoll.

Prior to making this review, I've been wanting to analyze another member of the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise for a very long time. Whenever I even thought about which one I wanted to make an analysis of next, "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water" was the one that came to my mind the most. And yes, I know that this wasn't the first SpongeBob movie Nickelodeon and Paramount created, but I felt more comfortable choosing this one.

I saw the film a couple times long before. In order to make my review, though, I decided to buy the movie on DVD since I had positives experiences with it anyway. I was originally going to post this review on May 1st since that was the day in 1999 that the TV show first aired, but it took me longer than expected to complete the review.

Coming from a guy who finally saw the movie again recently, I really must say that "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water" was truly as fun as I remembered it being!

For instance, the animation direction by Paul Tibbitt, the live-action direction by Mike Mitchell, the story by Tibbitt and Stephen Hillenburg, and the screenplay by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, were fantastic!

When it came to the animation's overall quality, Tibbitt and the animators did an excellent job with making the overall visualization faithful to the show while boosting it to a cinematic quality. Everything about the 2D animated sequences contained a liveliness that was strongly reminiscent to the works of Tex Avery and Chuck Jones, and I can definitely tell that Tibbitt and company were having a great time working on this project. The computer-animation used for when SpongeBob and friends were on the surface world was also very well-done, and so was the animation for Bubbles the dolphin and the seagulls. Likewise, I loved the different visual styles used for the time travel sequences and SpongeBob's brain.

The live-action sequences were fun as well. Mike Mitchell may not have had as big of a relationship with the SpongeBob franchise as Paul Tibbitt did, but his involvements in three of the TV show's episodes did solidify him as a fitting choice for directing the film's live-action scenes. The best part was that it didn't feel like it was shifting in direction, because Mitchell successfully matched the overall tone with Tibbitt's animation direction.

Of course, the impressive directions wouldn't be complete without the film's enjoyable story and screenplay.

Despite the fact that Stephen Hillenburg never actually left the SpongeBob franchise in general after completing the first film, his involvement as co-writer and executive producer of this movie genuinely felt like a creative comeback to it. There was clearly something about this movie that got him interested in not just being an advisor for it, because his creative fingerprints made themselves apparent all throughout the film. Plus, Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger were obviously quite the SpongeBob fanatics, because they managed to be faithful to the TV show's roots while adding their own flair into it all. The comedy was gut-bustlingly hysterical, there was a surprisingly vast amount of heart and emotion, and its morals about teamwork were nicely done.

The music by John Debney was magnificent, if I may add.

Everything about Debney's overall score felt exactly like the kind of music a SpongeBob movie would have, only at a much more emotional and cinematic level. The individual melodies fit every scene like a glove, and they helped the story be all-the-more engaging. Plus, the songs that were created by N.E.R.D, and the "Teamwork" song, were enjoyable in more ways than one. My favorite of the N.E.R.D songs was the "Squeeze Me" song.

Finally, the performances of the cast, characters, and character development were terrific.

When it came to being the film's only major human-visible cast member, Antonio Banderas truly rocked the house in his portrayal of Burger Beard. His casting may be unusual due to him playing more heroes than villains, but it was still incredibly inspired; it also helped Burger Beard have a delicious Spanish that isn't commonly seen in Pirate characters. Plus, Banderas performed the part with spot-on comedic-timings and personality. Burger Beard himself was a villain who constantly developed throughout the film, and he proved himself as a force to be reckoned with too.

The vocal performances and animated characters were entertaining as well.

Each of the vocal performers sounded like they were having loads of fun portraying their characters, and their overall performances were perhaps some of the most enthusiastic and inspired I ever heard. When it came to ensuring that all the regular characters retained everything that made them special from the beginning of the series, the filmmakers and returning cast members did a wonderful job doing just that. The characters themselves were three-dimensional every step of the way.

If I had to choose what my favorite reprisal performances were, it'd be Tom Kenny as SpongeBob SquarePants and Mr. Lawrence as Plankton. Not only were their characters also the most faithfully portrayed and lovable, but both SpongeBob and Plankton developed the most throughout the movie.

In conclusion, "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water" is truly one of the most enjoyable installments of the SpongeBob franchise I've ever watched. It showcases talent at its finest, and it lives up what made the series' earlier seasons so beloved.

So, I rate "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water" a solid five out of five stars.