‘Plankton: The Movie’ Review
After ‘Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie’, another spin-off film in the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise has been released, ‘Plankton: The Movie’, which focuses on the antagonist from the popular animated series.
The plot is straight forward, once again, Plankton wants to steal the secret formula for the Krabby Patty and take over the world, but all of his attempts fail, and his computer wife gets sick of him never listening to her plans. When he ruins her attempt to make the Chum Bucket into a respectable restaurant, she finally snaps, and begins her own evil plans for world domination, meaning Plankton has to team up with Spongbob and co. to get Karen back.
This movie was released on Netflix, and you can see why it would appeal to them, because it fits neatly alongside their other offerings. It’s a simple and straightforward movie that follows a set formula you’ve seen dozens of times. There’s nothing in here that will surprise you, the plot is copy/paste, and there’s no reason to think it will become any kind of classic, or even be rewatched again.
This movie was originally supposed to be a half-hour special, and it shows. Every scene feels like it’s been stretched to the max to meet that ninety minute runtime, and the whole story is more like what you’d expect from a single episode of a show, rather than something to make a movie on. It’s filled with flashbacks to Plankton’s past, and bits of filler to pad out the minutes.
As a movie, it’s fine. It’s a kids movie, not like that means it shouldn’t be good, but will probably appeal to kids who are fans of Spongebob, or else be something their parents can sit them down in front of to keep them quiet for an hour-and-a-half while they get things done. There are plenty of jokes, most of them slapstick and nothing truly laugh out loud, also some totally forgettable songs, and plenty of fast-paced action to keep things moving.
The animation is one of the worst parts of the movie. Unlike the ‘Spongbob’ series that used a traditional animation style, this takes the same approach as the ‘Kamp Koral’ show, with a very bland looking computer animation, which looks more childish, even unfinished, than the original cartoon. It does throw in some 2D elements here and there, which look far better, and a few live-action scenes which are so bad they should have been cut entirely.
But for a Netflix movie, it’s about what you’d expect, and if you just want some easy entertainment, then go for it. It’s hard to say whether it will be a success. Initial reviews have been positive, and at the time of writing, it’s number one on Netflix in the UK. No doubt it will be forgotten in a couple of weeks, but I think that would happen however it was released.