Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie,’ a SpongeBob Spinoff on Netflix

After three feature films starring SpongeBob SquarePants, the Bikini Bottom cinematic universe is expanding to spotlight other characters. Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie is a made-for-Netflix feature starring the intrepid marine-biologist squirrel who uses a diving suit to live underwater with her pals. When the entirety of Bikini Bottom is extracted from the ocean and relocated to a lab in Texas, Sandy returns to her home state to rescue her pals. The movie doesn’t stray too far from SpongeBob, though; he accompanies Sandy on her journey – which feels more like an amusing TV movie than a full-blown feature event (though kids probably won’t notice).

SAVING BIKINI BOTTOM: THE SANDY CHEEKS MOVIE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Species-wise, Sandy Cheeks is an outsider in the ocean community of Bikini Bottom; she’s a squirrel, outfitted in a diving suit, who lives under the sea (albeit not in a pineapple) as a researcher for a marine biology firm based in Texas. She’s surprised, however, when her company extracts the town from its ocean-floor home and brings it to their offices in Galveston – and equally surprised to learn that the research lab is now a subsidiary of a water park owned by a shadowy figure. Sandy and SpongeBob – the only citizens of Bikini Bottom to evade capture – therefore set out to investigate the situation and rescue their friends. This takes them into a more hybridized live-action/animation world seen in previous SpongeBob features; much of the movie is computer-animated, but on land, there are some live-action environments, as well as a few live-action characters played by flesh-and-blood actors. It’s not the most eye-popping mixed-media combination you’ve ever seen, but it does help differentiate the movie from the various SpongeBob TV shows.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: I mean, there are three other SpongeBob movies, so you can probably figure that out. As much as Sandy’s buddy-driven mission to reach Galveston made me think of the raucous comedy Never Goin’ Back, there isn’t much actual resemblance between the two.

Performance Worth Watching: Though celebrities do dip into the SpongeBob’s waters on occasion (Antonio Banderas once played a pirate!), the franchise is notable for its heavy and admirable reliance on real-deal voice actors, rather than famous guests. So let’s salute Carolyn Lawrence, who has been giving Sandy Cheeks her chipper Texas twang for a full quarter-century at this point! Johnny Knoxville and Craig Robinson contribute voices, and Wanda Sykes appears in person, but they can’t steal the show from Lawrence. 

Memorable Dialogue:  In a satirically cheerful ad for the nefarious scheme to turn the movie’s lead characters to sort of toy-pet hybrids, an announcer brags that “Sea Pals are genetically modified to stay adorable and compliant, even during aggressive cuddling! Sorry, Fido; looks like you’re out of a job!”

Sex and Skin: No worries, parents: The “Bikini Bottom” and “Sandy Cheeks” entendres are as spicy as it gets.

Our Take: The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie and its pre-pandemic companions were major kid-movie events, if not exactly big-budget mega-movies. In the streaming era, SpongeBob is a busier franchise than ever, which also means that its various features and spinoffs feel more like this year’s regularly scheduled installment rather than a leveling up (in that sense, it keeps company with Marvel and Star Wars). Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie, for example, doesn’t seem like it could pass muster in theaters, especially given that the computer animation that’s supposed to mark it as a bigger feature is often less expressive than its 2-D TV counterpart. The CG is used to better blend the characters into some live-action settings, a technique that differentiates the movies from the scrappier style of the TV show, but often looks garish even (or maybe especially) on a small screen. (It’s frankly bizarre that this was directed by Liza Johnson, who made the sensitive indie drama Return, starring Linda Cardellini.) The storyline, involving Sandy Cheeks feeling torn between her Bikini Bottom found family and the actual Texan brood of circus performers she hasn’t seen in ages, doesn’t offer much in the way of inspiration, beyond a serviceable engine for episodic adventures that barely pass the 75-minute mark when end credits are eliminated. All told, the gags and kid-friendly grotesquerie are amusing and energetic, but not appreciably stronger or more special than what the loyal SpongeBob viewer gets on a regular basis. 

That said, the movie’s satirical angle is a lot of fun: The villain’s evil scheme is to genetically modify and clone the SpongeBob characters so they can be sold as horrific toy-pet hybrids, meaning that the bad guys basically want in on the merchandising that has been part of the SpongeBob world for decades at this point. Here, that garish live-action/animation combo at least has some utility, as we see CG versions of the cast test-driven as playthings for marauding children. It’s a great example of how even a merely standard SpongeBob movie can still be made with energy and some inventive kid-friendly ideas.

Our Call: If this were a theatrical release, maybe it would be a coin-flip as to whether it’s worth paying money to take the whole family. But if your kids like SpongeBob and you have Netflix, it’s a no-brainer to STREAM IT (even if you personally use those 75 minutes to get some chores done instead).

Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com, too.