Cynical Cinema

“They’re attracted to my whistly holes!”

Paramount Home Entertainment is releasing Spongebob Squarepants, Season 5 Volume 2, on November 18th. If you recently picked up Spongebob Squarepants: Pest of the West, or Spongebob: WhoBob WhatPants, then you will already have two thirds of the episodes on this set. Pest of the West contains seven episodes, WhoBob WhatPants contains six, and Season Five, Volume Two contains twenty-one episodes. Which means eight of them are new.

WhoBob WhatPants features the following episodes: What Ever Happened To Spongebob?, where he develops amnesia and becomes mayor of New Kelp City, Goo Goo Gas, where Plankton turns Mr. Krabs, and just about everyone else, into babies. The Two Faces of Squidward, where Squidward breaks his face and becomes gorgeous. Spongehenge, one of my personal favourites, where Spongebob creates a bunch of giant stone Spongebobs with whistly holes to attract jellyfish. Banned In Bikini Bottom, where the United Organization of Fish Against Things Fun and Delicious (UOFATFD) channels the HUAC. And finally, Stanley S. Squarepants, where Spongebob’s useless cousin Stanley comes to town and wrecks Bikini Bottom. Here is my review:

http://blog.rogersradiointernet.com/cynicalcinema/2008/10/13/spongebob-squarepants-whobob-whatpants-out-tomorrow-810/

Pest of the West has these episodes: Pest of the West, where Spongebob gets into a Western movie showdown with Dead-Eye Plankton in the 1880s. The Krusty Plate, where Spongebob fights with a spot on a plate…for an entire episode. Pat No Pay, an episode where Patrick eats his weight in Krabby Patties, and gets put to work by Mr. Krabs. The Inmates of Summer, a super episode where Spongebob ends up directing a musical theatre performance by prison inmates. To Save A Squirrel, where Sandy tricks Spongebob and Patrick into attending a survival camp. 20,000 Patties Under The Sea, where Spongebob and Patrick start delivering Krabby Patties in a submarine. (That one also features the creepiest line in all of Spongebob - “I liiiiike Squidward”) And finally, The Battle of Bikini Bottom, where two factions square off against each other - those who wash their hands and those who don’t. Here is the review of that one:

http://blog.rogersradiointernet.com/cynicalcinema/2008/04/15/spongebob-pest-of-the-west-out-today/

So really, with this Season 5 Volume 2 collection, I’m reviewing the eight new episodes. Which are just as good as the thirteen old ones. Atlantis Squarepantis takes Spongebob, Patrick, Sandy, Squidward and Mr. Krabs on a trip to the undersea paradise of Atlantis. It’s a pretty straightforward episode, longer than most, with some great moments. Then there’s Picture Day, where Spongebob desperately tries to get to boating school without getting dirty.  Ah hell.  I’m not going to go through episode-by episode, because I’m sick of it.  Fact is, Season Five Volume Two is worth it because it’s that much more Spongebob.  Which is for the best.  Pick it up.

Paramount Home Entertainment releases another Spongebob DVD on October 14th. WhoBob WhatPants features a special episode of Spongebob where he screws a bunch of stuff up, makes his friends angry, decides to leave town forever, develops amnesia, and becomes mayor of New Kelp City. He runs afoul of some gangster fish who appear to have just emerged from an underwater version of West Side Story. I am going to put this out there right now: Spongebob is still one of the best shows on television. Not just one of the best kids’ shows, but one of the best television programs, period. And it’s actually…smart? Like a kid-centric Simpsons or Family Guy, Spongebob remains consistently hilarious and totally watchable. I didn’t pick up this DVD for the kids, I grabbed it for myself. I love this show.

Included on this DVD are five other episodes of this awesome show. One where Plankton turns Mr. Krabs into a baby in order to obtain this formula for Krabby Patties, and one where Squidward becomes disfigured in an accident, but his disfigurement leaves him looking handsome, and the whole town of Bikini Bottom goes crazy for him. There is an absolutely fantastic episode, when a harsh wind blowing through the town makes music when it passes through Spongebob’s pores, which attracts jellyfish to him. This creates one of the most memorable lines I can remember in recent Spongebob history - “they’re attracted to my whistly holes”. It also leads Spongebob to build a strange yet awesome underwater version of Stonehenge. Or, Spongehenge. Then there is the episode featuring the United Organization of Fish Against Things Fun and Delicious, which bans Krabby Patties, and the episode where Spongebob’s cousin comes to town and messes up everyone’s life.

The special features are nothing interesting. The best one is a series of four shorts, entitled “What If Spongebob Was Gone?”, but each one is about 20 seconds long, and it’s fairly worthless. But the DVD is worth picking up just for the Spongebob show itself, which remains one of my favourites. Go Spongebob!