Intro
The hero is a kitchen sponge. I think I’ve seen everything now.
Synopsis
Ten episodes of the Nickelodeon cartoon series, starring the terminally nerdy Spongebob Squarepants. He lives in the Goo Lagoon, and has a thing for Sandy, a squirrel in a diving outfit. The humour will either work for you or it won’t.
Audio
The sound is clear, but a bit thin. The surround effects are limited almost entirely to the music, and even that isn’t as rich as it might be. The big…problem is the degree of dialogue buzz, both in the cartoons and in some of the commentary.
Video
The picture looks good. It is, of course, full frame, being a TV series, and is free of any visible damage. The colours are nice and bright, and all in all the cartoon looks as good or better than it would in an actual broadcast.
Features
A real mixed bag here of the interesting and the silly. The menu is fully animated, scored, and deeply weird. When the “Backstage Pants” feature is triggered, a small Spongebob appears at the bottom right of the screen. Hit enter, and you’ll get a short commentary, often silly rather than informative, and then you go back to where you left off. There’s a 30-second clip of the Violent Femmes singing the Spongebob song, and then a series of short featurettes: “Spongebob’s Start” (how he came about), “Voice Overs” (scenes of the voice overs being done for various episodes), “Drawing Characters,” “The Graveyard Shift: In the Beginning” (how this episode was developed), and “Show Design.” These are all rather more informative than the “Backstage Pants” bit.
Closing Thoughts
Well, it’s not Ren and Stimpy, but the concept has a certain torqued appeal.
Special Features List
- “Backstage Pants”
- Violent Femmes Sing Spongebob Squarepants
- Five featurettes
