Spongebob Squarepants DVDs

Spongebob Squarepants is a kiddie series of sorts thats been around a couple years now, but I only really took notice of it recently. You’ve probably seen his face around enough places by now, donning a whole string of great licenced merchandise that rivals the Simpsons, and is on pretty much every night on YTV, Nickelodeon in the US. Created by Stephen Hillenberg (Rocko’s Modern Life), you could say Spongebob is in many ways the new (but a tamer) Ren and Stimpy. Its childish, funny/stupid/clever (such a fine line), at times dark, insane and doesn’t make sense. The characters drink water, spray water, go to the beach and surf, etc…

Spongebob is the main character, a naive young sponge who would seem is between 18-24 yet acts like he’s 6. Spongebob lives on his own away from his parents, has a pet snail named Gary, and works a job as a cook at the Krusty Krab. He has a neighbor named Squidward who is his opposite, an egotistical yet depressed squid. Spongebob’s best friends are Patrick Star, an astoundingly dumb starfish who lives under a rock and goes jellyfishing (kind of like butterfly collecting), and Sandy Cheeks, a Texan squirrel who lives in an underwater dome.

There are two things I find especially notable about the Spongebob show. First thing is, despite being a great kids show, it has that Muppet Show type feel that brings in the adults. Bands like the Violent Femmes, Pantera and others contribute tunes, Spongebob has a regular job and goes to driving school and has pretty adult situations going on. Several peripheral characters are stonerish, devious, stupid (like the way real people are stupid) and greedy.

The second thing is the extraordinary voice talent in the show. Spongebob himself is voiced by Tom Kenny, best known before as one of the regular cast members of Mr. Show (the tall skinny guy), as well as too many other cartoon/video game charcters to mention, including Spyro the Dragon, Asok and Ratbert on Dilbert, and Wally, one of the gay couple on Mission Hill. Patrick is Bill Fagerbakke (Tom Cullen in “the Stand” and Dauber on “Coach”). Spongebob’s boss, Mr. Krabs, is voiced by Clancy Brown, Dr. Neo Cortex himself as well as Kurgan from Highlander. The show is full of a lot of great lines, and it helps to have this sort of talent behind it.

Now, on to the DVD releases. There have been three thus far by Nickelodeon, each having ten 10-12 minute episodes, with just a few special features added on. The video releases of these only have 5. Some would suggest that 5 on each release must simply be filler then… there might be an argument to that, as the first release, Nautical Nonsense and Sponge Buddies, is put together from the episodes of two seperate video releases of the same names. This set is probably the best overall and the best for anyone not completely familiar with the Absorbant One to get acquainted with. Spongebob’s probably strongest episode overall ever is on this disc, “Graveyard Shift”, in which the Squidward and Spongebob work the night shift together, only to seemingly be haunted by a ghost that Squidward made up to scare Spongebob. In “Wormy”, a caterpillar that Spongebob and Patrick are babysitting for Sandy, turns into a butterfly and their town of Bikini Bottom burns to the ground in fear. In “Ripped Pants”, Spongebob turns to physical comedy, which garners him great attention from his friends until he goes too far.

This disc has the most and best special features of the three discs as well. There is a good backstage featurette on the creation of an episode, including long takes with the voice talent doing the entire “graveyard Shift” episode… You’ll marvel watching how Tom Kenny manages to do the Spongebob laugh.

On the second release “Halloween”, you don’t get much for menus or special features, but the episodes are considerably weirder, with some of the greatest Spongebob moments. Spongebob goes cock rock in “Band Geeks”, loses his brain in “Welcome to the Chum Bucket”, and gets attacked by his drawings in “Frankendoodle”… only around half the episodes are actually Halloween related, but I don’t really care.

The third and most recent Spongebob release is “Sea Stories”, and despite having the best cover and the best menu, it has to rank third overall in quality. The episodes simply aren’t as funny or weird as the other two releases. It has its moments though, such as Spongebob fighting with Gary to take a bath, Patrick making use of peer pressure in “Hooky”, swearing up a storm in “Sailor Mouth”, hanging out in Weenie Hut Jr.s, and going rave in “Jellyfish Jam”. In its favor, this disc gives three alternate endings to the episode “Shanghaied” and the “Dancin Pants” video is fun.. I wouldn’t know if the video games hints and tips section is helpful or not, but worth watching once to see how Spongebob adapts into a 3-d game.

Given their reasonable price and replay value, these would be great for any cartoon freak to pick up. Thumbs way up for the first two releases and thumbs moderately up (just not as far up) for Sea Stories. — The Goon