Nicktoons heroes battle live-action evil on dry land in long-awaited sequel
Want to feel old? It has been a full ten years since the original SpongeBob Squarepants movie. Two generations (and counting) of fans have been clamoring for a sequel the whole time, and now Nickelodeon has debuted the first trailer for The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, in which the champions of Bikini Bottom will appear for the first time in 3D opposite live-action human actors.
In the sequel (which also includes scenes rendered in the series traditional 2D animation), Antonio Banderas appears as an evil pirate seeking a powerful magic relic hidden in SpongeBob and friends’ undersea community of Bikini Bottom. When he succeeds in stealing it – placing both the ocean and surface worlds in peril – SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, Sandy, Plankton and Mr. Krabs must undertake the perilous journey to the human world to confront him (which is where the 3D kicks in); ultimately making use of the stolen magic themselves to become human-sized superheroes.
While SpongeBob characters have ventured onto land before, in the series it was typically accomplished using intentionally-crude live-action puppets of realistic-looking sea creatures. In the first movie, SpongeBob and Patrick were depicted as remaining animated when on dry land, but only so long as they didn’t dry out. They also encountered a human ally in the form of Baywatch star David Hasselhoff.
Sponge Out of Water is currently targeting a February 2015 release date.
Source: Nickelodeon
