REVIEW: IT’S A SPONGEBOB CHRISTMAS!
A laced holiday fruitcake transforms Bikini Bottom’s citizens into jerks, and Plankton is responsible for the scheme, which he hopes will keep everyone preoccupied as he tries snatching the secret Krabby Patty formula.
Spoilers Below
Its Christmas time! That said to leave it to Plankton to wanna ruin it for everyone when he puts Jerktonium in fruit cake which in turn is supposed to turn people into jerks once eaten. Problem is, Spongebob eats a whole mess of fruitcake and he can’t stop clamming about it so he takes to around town to spread the deliciousness. Thinking it didn’t work, Plankton goes back into his restaurant, but soon enough the Jerktonium begins to take effect on everyone around town with the exception of Mr. Squarepants! Plankton soon finds out that no matter how much fruitcake Spongebob eats, he will never be a jerk due to the fact that he has more Christmas cheer than just about anybody else. To hopefully counteract this, Plankton develops and unleashes a mechanized version of Spongebob that is wound up and sent through the downtown area causing all sorts of destruction and mayhem!
Spongebob decides to mosey back into the town area after delivering a bunch of fruitcakes and he discovers that everyone is acting like a jerk for no good reason. Worried that Santa might pass by Bikini bottom entirely if attitudes don’t change, Spongebob goes over to Sandy’s place to try and see what’s up. Having also eaten the fruitcake, Sandy is going nuts(HA!) but thankfully a piece of her cake goes into the analyzer where she figures out what Plankton did and as such is able to work out an antidote were as long as everyone has Christmas joy the jerkiness wears off. The whole town gets fixed JUST in time for Christmas and Santas arrival. Santa tells Spongebob that everyone is on the naughty list except Plankton and as such is the only one that gets a present…the Krusty Krabs’ formula! All of a sudden the mecha-Spongebob shows up and worse yet he makes himself bigger so that he can kill Santa once and for all! As luck would have it Spongebob shows up with his fruitcake delivery truck and is able to take down the huge machine, and save Christmas for all! Well, except Plankton…
Don’ t be a jerk…that’s the moral of this Christmas story and it has quite a bit of merit. Spongebob’s prime-time adventure came off as smart and funny all the meanwhile offering up a throwback style to the Christmas cartoons of yesteryear. Similar in style to say, Rudolph, Sponge bob ‘s Christmas special came chock-full of animated goodness in a stop-mo style offering complete with Patchy the Pirate’s voice-over narration akin to the classics. Also of influence are all of the original musical numbers that get dotted throughout the special, but that doesn’t mean this special didn’t have its shortcomings. The CGI effects clashing with the puppet style animation was a tad off-putting and Santa looked creepy as hell despite the fantastic job John Goodman did in voicing him. That said, for casual fans and kids alike, “It’s a Spongebob Christmas” is a great way to (hopefully) start replacing all of those other animated Christmas specials with relevance that has a bit more fanfare.
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