Now that we're men, we can do anything!

Now that we're men, we are invincible!

Now that we're men, we'll go to Shell City

Get the crown, save the town and Mr. Krabs!

20 years ago today, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie was released in theaters. Based on the most famous Nickelodeon show in history, this film follows the adventures of SpongeBob and Patrick as they go on a dangerous trek to the horrible Shell City in order to retrieve King Neptune's crown, which was stolen by Plankton, and the pin is blamed on Mr. Krabs. However, while the two goofy goobers are on their quest, Plankton initiates the second step of his grand master plan: to enslave the citizens of Bikini Bottom and transform it into a dystopia of his image and eventually kill Mr. Krabs and take over the world. Now, it's up to SpongeBob and Patrick to "get the crown, save the town, and Mr. Krabs!" while also learning a few experiences about growing up.

Directed by the series' creator, Stephen Hillenburg (RIP Ocean Man), this film would have a legacy as the definitive film starring the little yellow sea sponge. To this day, the film resonates in the hearts of millions of people, including myself. While not my favorite film of 2004 (that honor goes to The Incredibles), this film comes at a very close second. I have plenty of the film's lines memorized, the climactic scene where SpongeBob and Patrick momentarily died still tugs at my heartstrings, and it feels like everything I ever wanted out of a big-scale SpongeBob production, as I've brought up time and time again that this is my second favorite cartoon of all-time, just behind Ed, Edd n Eddy.

In fact, it's because of this film's legacy that one of my biggest goals involving this film is to have it inducted into the National Film Registry. For those that don't know or forgot, that National Film Registry is a subsidiary of the Library of Congress whose goal is to preserve the films that are "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". Each year, 25 films are selected for preservation, and they can range from feature films, to short films, to even home movies. Given the impact this film has left on our culture, and because I think it would be a great way to honor Stephen Hillenburg, I would love to see this film be inducted very soon.

Going into the artwork, it's very clearly inspired by the "Now That We're Men" musical number, where SpongeBob and Patrick proudly show off their "mustaches". My initial plan with this artwork was that the background would be filled with numerous of elements featured in the film, like one of Plankton's statues, one of the monsters from the trench, the Cyclops, among other things. However, I decided to ditch those plans and instead just have a giant silhouette of Plankton looming over the heroes because it was less time-consuming, and I only began working on this artwork last night. If you look closely, you can see that the bubbles spell out "20". Originally, I was going to have the bubbles be sporadically placed around the artwork, but then I realized, "Wait a second. I could use them to make the 20 to signify that this artwork is to celebrate the film being 20 years old."

That's all I've got to say here. Hope you like this artwork, and what are your favorite memories of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie?

Nov 19, 2024