: (John
Debney) The Nickelodeon television series "SpongeBob SquarePants" has
endured an endless barrage of colorful criticism through the years, and
yet it still amazingly persists. Running on-and-off on television since
1999, the concept was unbelievably a favorite of parents ranging from
President Barack Obama to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the franchise
spewing forth one film in 2004 and several sequels starting in 2015. A
synopsis of that initial follow-up,
, is not really merited for the sane mind. After all, a 2011
University of Virginia study published in the journal "Pediatrics"
concluded that kids who watch "SpongeBob SquarePants" experience
"short-term disruptions in mental function and attention span" and "were
operating at half the capacity compared to other children." The
pertinent point for the context of this review is that there exists a
heavy pirate emphasis to the plot. The fact that the asinine cast of
characters, accused famously by American Evangelical publicity-hogs of
instilling homosexual subversion upon the children of God, is obsessed
with food and extremely infantile humor is all the rest you need to
know. Parents of heightened intellectual concern could view the concept
with about as much confidence as something like "Yo Gabba Gabba," a
frightening thought. This particular film is animated for most of its
length but sprinkles in some live action with CGI renderings of the
deviant cast. The hapless live-action foil is played by Antonio
Banderas, his "Burger-Beard" character in pursuit of a magical notebook
that can make its words become granted wishes. One could only hope that
his payday was significant. Critics and other audiences embraced the
film and gave it enough eye-popping revenue to immediately lead to
production commencement of the next ungodly abomination of a SpongeBob
adventure on the big screen.
The music for the 2004 film was handled by the
acclaimed veteran of the television show, Gregor Narholz, but the
adventurous score for
The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
fell to experienced children's feature score writer John Debney. Also
mixed into the film's soundtrack was some original song material
contributed by Pharrell Williams and his band N.E.R.D., though Debney's
score was conjured and then released separately on its own. For the
experienced composer,
The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
represents an easy but fun assignment, one plundering a number of genres
of music in the process of recording a passable and occasionally
entertaining parody score. The first thought any film music collector
should conjure regarding
The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
is in regards to whether Debney could resurrect any degree of the
swashbuckling magic from his classic hidden gem,
Cutthroat
Island, for this wretched affair. The truthful answer is "no," but
the parody angle here didn't really attempt to go that far. The pirate
material, centered mostly in the first half of the work, is admirable in
its silly nods to Erich Wolfgang Korngold's 1940 classic
Sea
Hawk-style of writing ("Stealing Formula Back" is quite shameless),
but you'll find the jaunty portions more reminiscent of various pieces
of
Hook,
The Little Mermaid and assorted vintage Bruce
Broughton music. It's easy listening but insubstantial. On the other
hand, the score is mostly comprised of Debney's continuing elaboration
on the Warner Brothers methodology of children's comedy music, sometimes
deviating into splashy sidebars of genre defiance in John Powell mode or
retro Henry Mancini comedy. A sudden shift into the Elmer Bernstein
Western realm occupies the middle of "Beachfront Antics / Bike Path
Encounters," followed by a pirate's solo cello interlude complete with
whistling. The orchestra is the centerpiece of the work, but Debney, as
per usual, adds a variety of electronics ranging from mysterious
ambiance ("Intro Bubbles") to outright sound effect employment ("Inside
SpongeBob's Brain").
The orchestral element in
The Spongebob Movie:
Sponge Out of Water is competent but not spectacular, some of the
low woodwind work for Banderas' character of interest. For every rowdy
adventure cue like "Burger Beard on Island," there's something truly
hideous like "End End/Get Him," which takes bass guitar and electronic
manipulation to truly unlistenable levels. (Recall the "disruptions in
mental function" from the academic study.) Debney does remain loyal to
his swashbuckling main theme, however, the duo of "Stealing Formula
Back/Pirate Ship and Food Truck" summarizing the idea quite well. Don't
look to be impressed by the choral accompaniment, which sounds sparse
and could have used some overdubbing at the very least. Better is a cue
like "Sandy Proposes Sacrifice," which takes the choir to 1990's Hans
Zimmer masculinity while throwing in echoing electronic effects similar
to what Jerry Goldsmith employed in his later
Star Trek movie
scores. And speaking of
Star Trek, be on red alert for the
opening of "Bubbles to the Rescue," a not-so-transparent homage to James
Horner's days in that franchise. On the whole, there are many things to
admire about Debney's continued mastery of the children's genre in
The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, but this kind of music
will test your tolerance for the genre after twenty minutes. A limited
CD release was afforded the score in 2015 by Varèse Sarabande,
and while you might have been impressed by the techniques you hear in
those 49-minutes, none of it really stands apart as memorably unique.
It's a far more enthusiastically appropriate treatment of the concept
than the Hans Zimmer and Steve Mazzaro dud for
The SpongeBob Movie:
Sponge on the Run in 2021, though. After Debney returned for 2025's
The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, Varèse
Sarabande returned to the music from
The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out
of Water in 2026 and added another eleven minutes in an expansion
provided on both a limited CD and digitally. The extra material is
largely redundant but of solid quality, though the fuller experience
really causes the diversions into the comedic synthetic arena to stand
out even further. On either product, be prepared for the mental function
issues it may cause.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For John Debney reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.32
(in 56 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.1
(in 52,208 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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