![]() ![]() He sprouts a Santa hat and hops his way over to Squidward’s (Rodger Bumpass) house to find his crotchety neighbor decorating as well. He spins his entire pineapple house to wrap lights around it, and there is an animation cheat when it’s done as the lights that wrapped around his door have vanished. SpongeBob (Tom Kenny) emerges from his bed singing a festive tune, “Santa Has His Eye on Me,” as he decorates his home. We then head under the sea, after a modestly festive rendition of the credits, and the stop-motion set looks gorgeous. SpongeBob has a rather festive pineapple. The unconventional part is the method utilized to get on Santa’s famed nice list. It’s a semi-conventional plot, where a bad guy and naughty list regular tries to trick Santa into giving him a present for Christmas. A collective of writers worked on this story, and it was partially inspired by the song featured in the episode, “Don’t Be a Jerk (It’s Christmas),” which was recorded by Tom Kenny and Andy Paley in 2009. Screen Novelties also participated in the restoration of some of the puppets from the original special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, so they have significant Christmas cred. Screen Novelties is a modern producer of stop-motion and has worked with yesterday’s feature, Robot Chicken, as well as famed visual effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen, so SpongeBob found himself in good company for this one. The animation for this episode was produced by Screen Novelties and directed by two of the studio’s founders: Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh. SpongeBob has the right DNA for a Christmas protagonist. Sadly, CBS hasn’t turned this one into an annual tradition, but at least for one night there was an air of importance attached. ![]() If you’re going to enter the crowded world of Christmas specials and you’re looking to stand out, nostalgia is a recipe for success! Now, not everyone can just up and decide they want to do something like this and it helps that SpongeBob appeared to have the backing of Nickelodeon and the Viacom company since this sucker was ticketed for a CBS premiere. When I saw the promos for this special I immediately was interested because the show had made the decision to produce a stop-motion Christmas special in the same vein as the old Rankin/Bass specials. ![]() I’ve seen episodes here and there, enough to know how the show works, but the only appointment viewing this show has ever produced for me is this Christmas special. I wasn’t watching Nickelodeon when he premiered and I’ve never made it a point in my life to see what all the fuss is about. SpongeBob Squarepants is a show, and character, that I missed. Seriously, if you haven't seen it, give it a go.Christmas returns to Bikini Bottom, but in a cool, new, old, way! All-in-all, for Spongebob fans, I think this is worth checking out, especially if you've been as annoyed by recent episodes as I've been. Also, the animations are really good, and even the Patchy segment wasn't anywhere near as painful to sit through as they usually are. It feels more like something you'd expect from season 2 as the jerkish behaviour of the citizens is implied to be out-of- character for them despite a boatload of recent episodes proving otherwise. This special more-or-less pretends that every episode leading up to it never happened. The only downside is that, honestly, I wish this had come out earlier. The humour is actually good and while Squidward does get tormented at one point, at least it's the film's antagonist doing it and not one of the protagonists, who the episode would likely want us to believe is in the right. The songs are quite good and actually add to the plot, unlike Atlantis Squarepantis where every single number except for maybe the first one was a complete waste of time and effort. ![]() Here, there's a reason for the characters to act like jerks, well, except for Patrick who's still kind of a jerk even without having eaten Plankton's fruitcake. With the series becoming so mean-spirited ever since season 5 started, this was kind of uplifting. Seriously, this was surprisingly charming. ![]()
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