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SpongeBob SquarePants: Atlantis Squarepantis (TV)
R1 - America - Paramount Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: James Teitelbaum (6th December 2007). |
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The Show
 This DVD, produced by the Nickelodeon cable television network, is crammed to the gills with the undersea adventures of Spongebob Squarepants (Tom Kenny) and his friends. The cell animation is rendered in that ubiquitous (but cool) retro-1950s/1960s style that began its renaissance with "The Ren & Stimpy Show" (1991-1996), and which has also influenced contemporary low-brow artists like Miles Thompson and Mitch O'Connell. The Spongebob series is characterized by the self-aware silliness of a group of sea creatures who are each just a little bit less bright than the next. All of them are likely to break out in goofy little songs at the slightest provocation. The centerpiece of the disc is a triple-length episode (41:16), during which our heroes discover Atlantis. The lost city turns out to be populated by extras from The Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" (1968). After finding themselves transported into and out of an 8-bit video game, Spongebob and his four pals all get their heart's desire, until they accidentally destroy a sacred artifact. These granted wishes range from the obvious (wealth) to the silly (two of the characters are overjoyed to see a certain bubble), to almost high-brow (see if you can spot all of the famous artists that the squid character checks out when he visits a museum - Van Gough, Dali, Duchamp, etc.). The episode is broken up with a few skits by a guy in a pirate costume and his marionette parrot. These segments strongly recall the local hosts of 1970s UHF kids cartoon shows. You know the ones: there was a different guy in every city introducing the cartoons on Saturday mornings, each with a different low-budget persona (these are the guys who inspired Krusty the Clown on "The Simpsons" (1989-Present)). Back to cartoonland, there no less than six other Spongebob episodes on the disc, and all are considerably shorter than the main feature. In "Money Talks" (7:03), Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown) makes a deal with the Flying Dutchman (Brian Doyle-Murray) (who is a human ghost in this cartoon, rather than a ship as in the traditional pirate lore). "Spongebob vs. The Patty Gadget" (4:04) features Spongebob trying to outdo a machine. Next up is "Slimy Dancing" (10:53), in which our characters enter a dance competition. The second page on the episode menu begins with "The Krusty Sponge" (10:51). A food critic named Gene Scallop (who looks like movie critic Gene Shallot) is impressed with Spongebob's fast food burger flipping skills. "Sing a Song of Patrick" (10:58) is next; the titular starfish writes a song. The final episode is "Picture Day" (7:00). Young Spongebob needs to get to school without messing his clothes up - at least until after his yearbook picture is taken. This proves more difficult than he'd hoped. In the end we have a bit over 90 minutes of undersea silliness that is sure to please the kiddies -- and certain factions of grownups as well.
Video
All episodes and features are presented at 1.33:1 full screen. The video is pristine, as the 2007 animation was apparently transferred straight to digital, and is completely free of any wear, grit, grain, or other artifacts of celluloid. The simple animation holds up well to compression and looks fine throughout.
Audio
Everything on the disc is presented in English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. Dialogue is clear, music and sound effects are mixed in competently. There are no subtitle options.
Extras
"Inside the Spongebob Animation Studios" featurette takes us to Korea, for a look at the animation process. This is a super-quick 1 minute 50 seconds once-over: here are the cell animators, here are the colorists, here are the background painters, here are the compositors, and we're outta here. Slightly more substantial is "Behind the Pantis: The Making of Atlantis Squarepantis" featurette that runs for 11 minutes 30 seconds. This fast-cut documentary has lots of clips from the show, narration by a pirate, interviews with the creators, and a lot of goofiness. "Credits for the show" is a clip that runs for 5 minutes 29 seconds, which do not appear at the end of the individual episodes (apparently, the same people are to be credited for all of the content). There are also bonus trailers for: - "The Spongebob video collection" which runs for 1 minute 7 seconds. - "Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 2" which runs for 1 minute 6 seconds. - "Nick Picks Volumes 1-4" which runs for 1 minute 6 seconds. - "The Naked Brothers" which runs for 1 minute 5 seconds. - "Zoe 101" which runs for 1 minute 12 seconds. - "Creature From the Crusty Krab" which runs for 37 seconds. - "Wayside the Movie" which runs for 1 minute 14 seconds.
Overall
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