Well, here it is! At long last, we have come to the end of the yearly long marathon of SpongeBob SquarePants. I don’t think there was a more fitting way for me to celebrate 25 years of SpongeBob SquarePants by going back to experience all the highs, lows, and nautical nonsense that this show has provided over the course of 15 seasons and 4 movies! While there were plenty of bumps along the way, I can’t deny that this has been an incredibly fun and nostalgic ride that I do not regret taking whatsoever! To wrap up the year of SpongeBob SquarePants, it’s time to check into how the show is doing now with Season 14 and what we have gotten so far with Season 15.
If you saw my Seasons 12 and 13 perspective, you would know I believe that was a sign that the show was really starting to run on fumes. After Seasons 9-11 gave hope that a potential SpongeBob renaissance was on the way, these two seasons basically squandered it, giving the impression that the creative team have really started to run out of ideas on the show. It also didn’t help that Nickelodeon was still forcing multiple SpongeBob spin-off shows and movies that no one asked for. Despite SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Bash acting as a worthy celebration of 20 years of SpongeBob and a logical endpoint for the series, Nick kept the show going after that because the brand still seems to be going strong in terms of sales and merchandise. Because of that, we now have Seasons 14 and 15.
These are two seasons that basically acted as the beginning of the post-Stephen Hillenburg era of SpongeBob SquarePants. While the previous two seasons still had the remains of the late great Hillenburg attached to it, these seasons likely did not have that same fortune. Because of that, Nick and the other creators attached to this current era of SpongeBob SquarePants are officially on their own when it comes to what remains of this show. Even if this new era manages to work out, it will always miss that special spark that Stephen brought to the show from the beginning.
For what we have right now with these two seasons, it’s……better I guess. Unlike the past couple of seasons, there at least seems to be a bit of restraint when it comes to how wacky and over-the-top the animation and gags are, the plots are more easy to follow, and it’s still able to keep that solid lighthearted spirit that SpongeBob has always been known for. However, it still can’t escape that sense of familiarity with the majority of the premises for these episodes and does show that Mr. Hillenburg no longer has any creative involvement in it. Even then, for a show that’s been going on for over 25 years now and it’s currently on it’s 15th season, this is probably as good as it’s going to get for the remainder of the show’s run.
Season 14:
The big thing I noticed about Season 14 as it seems to act as bit of a reaction to the responses that the previous seasons has got. The animation is much more restrained, only being as wacky and over-the-top when the plot or gags actually demand for it. The plots for each episode feel much better thought out with a certain end goal in mind and not just a bunch of random nonsense and bits to pad the runtime. There is even a bit more care given to the characterization of the characters along with finding justifiable reasons for bringing back previously well known supporting characters.
The main problem relies in the sense of familiarity and fatigue. The majority of the premises behind the majority of the episodes has already been covered or contains traditional SpongeBob beats that you know by heart at this point. This is likely because of the fact that the show has gone on for over two and a half decades now. Because of that, they have squeezed nearly every single idea they could possibly come up with out and they now basically have no choice but to inherit old ones while doing them in new and different ways.
That’s not to say it does the majority of them bad. If anything, I was quite surprised how I was able to get in to each episode and find some genuine enjoyment out of it. I enjoyed seeing another superhero based episode where the gang had to stop the Dirty Bubble and seeing Mr. Krabs trying to impress Mrs. Puffs and seeing SpongeBob and Plankton try to become close friends (or in this case, brothers). The problem is that I’ve already seen these ideas being presented in other episodes. The repackage food might still tasted good but it’s still the same repackage food regardless.
There also seems to be a bigger emphasis on connecting the main show to certain spin-offs. This is mainly the case with the episodes Kreepaway Kamp and Sandy’s Country Christmas. Kreepaway Kamp ties to the controversial Kamp Koral spin-off, which sees the SpongeBob characters returning to Kamp Koral for a reunion. Sandy’s Country Christmas ties into the controversial Sandy Cheeks movie that came out this year, with Sandy’s family playing a role in saving Christmas for their daughter. For as much as I despised the spin-offs they are based on, they did surprisingly work quite well for me as individual half-hour specials. It makes me wish those spin-offs were even half as enjoyable as those two episodes were. I just hate how Nickelodeon is using this business method as a means to try to create an incredibly forced SpongeBob cinematic universe because…….of course.
Oh, and there was even a special of SpongeBob’s take on Snow White, titled Snow Yellow and the Seven Jellies. (*insert joke about how this is a better Snow White remake than the actual Snow White remake coming next year*).
If my overview of Season 14 is coming across as more negative than it deserves, it mostly because there’s not much here that hasn’t been done in many other SpongeBob medium. It does fix certain issues that folks had with the previous few seasons, the episodes themselves are enjoyable to watch, and they do at least seems to have a hit a comfort zone that works for Nickelodeon and the overall brand of SpongeBob. However, it’s service level quality for the season and the sense of familiarity really makes this season lack the re-watch value that the better SpongeBob seasons had. Because of that, it makes you wonder how exactly SpongeBob can evolve on it’s own with it’s creator no longer there to guide him.
Season 15:
It’s really hard to talk much about Season 15 because it only got started this year and has only consisted of FIVE (!) episodes thus far. However, it has been confirmed that this was originally meant to be part of Season 14 but got split into a 15th season to keep the number of episodes per season on a consistent base without making a new season feel too bloated. In a way, Season 15 basically acts as Season 14 2.0.
For the most part, I see this keeping up on that same consistent path but with a few hints of what a new era of SpongeBob could be like. It mostly consists of a solid mix between the classic SpongeBob from Seasons 1-3, to the middle age SpongeBob of Seasons 4-5, and the “reassurance” age SpongeBob from Seasons 9-11. With each new episode, I see it’s trying to walk that incredibly tight line in the hopes that it’s able to strike a balance while finding room for it’s own identity. Will it work? I don’t know. But like the last “awkward” era of SpongeBob, I see the seasonings for a much broader plant to grow.
Aside from that, there’s not much to talk about with Season 15 that I haven’t already said with Season 14. Again, it’s too early and is currently not even halfway through the season. But if I were to predicted the outcome for the rest of the season, I imagine it will be like Season 14 but a tad more creative.
Although, please less Sammy Suckerfish in the near future please! Don’t pull a Bubble Bass or Rube Goldfish with him!
In Conclusion:
Similar to Seasons 4 and 5, SpongeBob SquarePants now finds himself in yet another awkward era. An era that likely acts as another transition from one era of SpongeBob to the next. While there are definitely improvements from the prior seasons and does show the seasonings for another potential resurrection run for the yellow sponge, it’s quite difficult to get as optimistic as last time due to Stephen Hillenburg no longer being able to play a part for the show’s future. But once again, this is a series that has gone on for over two decades now and is now on it’s 15th (!) season and just passed 300 episodes total (That’s not even counting the segments!). When putting those factors in mind, the fact this show continues to be watchable and even enjoyable is about as much of a miracle as it comes.
Even so, after 25 years later, SpongeBob SquarePants continues to thrive and doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon. It still stands as one of the most beloved and evolving animated shows that has ever been made, successfully growing from generation to generation among children and millennials. Regardless of one era you fall in with the show that may you get into it, there has always seems to be something special with this yellow sponge and his friends that has just resonated with so many people over the years.
Regardless of what the future may hold for Nickelodeon as a whole now that Paramount doesn’t see them as a high priority anymore, I have no doubt that SpongeBob will continue on with plenty of new content with 2025 and beyond. After all, we got the remainder of Season 15, a new movie that is subtitled The Search for SquarePants which is set to come out in December 2025 along with a new SpongeBob game developed by THQ Nordotic, the studio behind Battle for Bikini Bottom- Rehydrated and The Cosmic Shake. Even if this year long retrospective/perspective is over, there will still be plenty more of SpongeBob yet to come.
Final Words
But, yeah! That officially does it for the SpongeBob SquarePants marathon! I once again give a special thanks to everyone that joined me along this incredible ride! SpongeBob has already held a special place in my heart since I was a child and he’s a character that is incredibly important to me. This is a series that has taught us all about the importance of being positive, optimistic, and finding a sense of reliability in ourselves and the ones we care about. Even after now becoming an adult, this character will always be one I look up to and strive to be like.
No matter what the future holds for the yellow sponge, I do hope for the very best!
Once again, thank you to everyone that joined me for this marathon!
Well, I guess good things can’t last forever……again. If my reviews on Sponge on the Run and the Sandy Cheeks movie is any indication, you could probably guess that I don’t have very positive thoughts about the current era of SpongeBob SquarePants we are currently in. Or at least with Seasons 12 and 13. While Season 14 and onwards remains to be seen (with that being the final piece of this retrospective/perspective), it feels like we are in the era where it seems like the young sponge we all know and love has officially flamed out.
There are of course many reasons as to why SpongeBob SquarePants has fell into the same trappings he did between Seasons 6 and 8. From Nickelodeon once again milking as much SpongeBob content and merchandise as possible in order to keep itself afloat to unfortunate passing of Stephen Hillenburg to the show just more than wearing out it’s welcome, SpongeBob has officially entered another bad era. The only slight glimmer hidden within these two seasons is a handful of standout episodes that was likely still in production before we all lost Stephen.
What’s most interesting is how this “other bad” era of SpongeBob is ENTIRELY different reasons than the original “bad” era. Seasons 6 through 8 suffered mostly from ill-conceived writing, the characters being unrecognizable from their original self, and way too much gross out humor that is disgusting to watch and cringe inducing to see characters suffered through it. When it comes to Seasons 12, 13, and (perhaps) 14, the main issues in lies in the fact that it’s just…..complete and utter nonsense.
There is little to no coherent storylines, random gags constantly happen out of nowhere just because, there is so much “fan service” and easter eggs that just exists for fans to point their fingers at the screen Leonardo DiCaprio style, and the animation has gotten so ham-fisted and over-the-top you could swear half of the crew was on cocaine while animating it. It may not fall under the mean-spirited tone and unpleasant characterization that the middle seasons did but it still can’t shake the feeling that everyone has run out of ideas for the show and are now just throwing whatever at the walls to see what sticks. Even in the worst episodes of the original “bad” era, you could at least understand the well intended point the writers were trying to make here. Here, I could barely tell you what exactly they were trying to get across with the majority of the episodes.
Let’s dive a bit deeper into these two seasons!
Season 12
I will say, between the two seasons, Season 12 is definitely the better one in quality. After all, this was the last season which Hillenburg was involved in before his unfortunate passing. And there are sprinkles of his influence throughout the season. This includes episodes such as Plankton’s Intern, Dream Hopers, The Krusty Bucket, and The Ghost of Plankton. Of course, there is also the very special episode, designed to celebrate over 20 years of SpongeBob SquarePants, known as SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Blowout, that basically acted as an anti-thesis of the controversial 10th anniversary episode known as Truth or Square. These were all episodes that were able to follow the strengths of the previous three seasons without going too far in the other unintended direction to make for a nice transaction phase after the middle seasons. Unfortunately, the rest of the season in not able to keep up that consistent level of quality.
Episodes such as Jolly Lodgers, Boss For a Day, The Nitwitting, Hiccup Plague, Who R Zoo, and Sandy’s Nutty Neices were all factors into the decline of this modern era of SpongeBob we are living in. It’s takes an idea that might make for a decent short at BEST and then stretches it out for as long as it can with uncanny animation, repetitive gags, and chunks of filler just to justify the episode being at least 11 minutes long. The plot barely has any coherent follow through, you get so much returning characters from the original three seasons that they don’t know what to do with, and it just seems to lack the heart and passion that the best SpongeBob episodes and seasons have.
And there was even an episode called Kwarantined Krab, which (NO JOKE) revolved around a pandemic that hit Bikini Bottom. It was originally meant to air in 2020 but due to the real life Covid-19 pandemic, it was pushed by Nickelodeon to 2022, right around the time where everything was starting to get under control. The episode would not be included as part of the Season 12 DVD box set and was taken down temporarily on Paramount Plus. I couldn’t find out if this episode was made before COVID hit or during it but that was just…..unfortunate timing.
And that is one thing that can basically be said about Season 12 as a whole, unfortunate timing. From coming off the highs of Season 11 to Hillenburg’s passing, it could not have come out at a worse time and the quality of it certainly didn’t help in aiding it. Even so, this season isn’t so bad compared to Season 13!
Season 13
It’s hard to say for certain if this is the worst season of SpongeBob SquarePants or the one that did the most damage to the franchise but no doubt, but this was no doubt the one that showed just how much this series is running on fumes. Not only did it suffer easily the worst tv ratings of any season (barely able to reach 500K an episode), but this is the season that suffered from having the lowest amount of creativity thus far.
To be honest, I could just copy and paste almost everything I said about Season 12 and that’s what you get here, except there is much more bad here. It’s all just so random, so all over the place, and just not SpongeBob. This season doesn’t so much feel like it was written and animated by an A.I. but more of a simulated conveyor belt. At best, this season is full of episodes you can watch with a headset while playing a game and makes for decent background noise. At worst, it’s just completely generic and utter nonsense.
One episode in particular that is the perfect example of the modern era of SpongeBob in a nutshell is FUN-Believable. It’s an episode that has no plot, clumsy animation, overlong and unfunny gags, returning fan favorite characters from the original three seasons that it has no idea what to do with, and just dials into complete nautical nonsense (no pun intended). The worst part of it all is that I couldn’t tell you what the title, FUN-Believable, is suppose to represent in this episode. Nothing that occurs in this episode felt fun or believable to me and not even the characters in the episode. If I can’t tell you what it means, then there’s a good chance that the creators of that episode couldn’t either.
I would say more but that’s the best description I got for Season 13. It’s basically Season 12 but on steroids, with much more of the bad and much less of the good. Are there a handful of gem episodes scattered throughout? Sure! Is it anywhere near enough to save this season and other “bad” era of SpongeBob? Absolutely not!
In Conclusion
While Seasons 12 and 13 of SpongeBob SquarePants are far from the worst things that I’ve ever seen, it really does represents the show on it’s very last legs. The clever ideas that the show has had for years in regards to it’s humor, characters, world building, and meaningful messages are barely to be seen here. It’s now nothing about utter nonsense, unearned fan service, and tons of filler that’s good enough to justify an episode being 11 minutes long. While it does seem like the current writers understand why fans didn’t like the middle seasons of the show, what they DON’T understand is why fans liked the original seasons and the era in between Hello Bikini Bottom and SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Blowout. Aside from a handful of enjoyable episodes and a solid anniversary special that could be seen as the true epilogue of the series outside of the first movie, it’s sad to confirm that SpongeBob has entered another bad era.
Unfortunately, unlike the last bad era he was in, Nick can’t rely on Stephen Hillenburg to help get them out of their slump again. It’s only a handful of creators that were there from the beginning such as Tim Hill, Derek Drymon, Mr. Lawrence, and Aaron Springer that can do everything in their power to return this series to a new good era. While Hill failed miserably with Sponge on the Run, Drymon, Lawrence, and Springer are currently working on new SpongeBob movies such as Plankton and Search for SquarePants to hopefully provide some sort of spark left to this franchise.
Despite the recent decline in quality and television ratings, it doesn’t seem like Nickelodeon plans on ending the show anytime soon. The merchandise is still going strong, the spin-off series in Kamp Koral and The Patrick Star Show have expanded the brand even further, and this is basically all that Nickelodeon has left to thrive on or else they will basically be dead. No amount of Paw Patrol, Fairly OddParents reboots, or constant tv re-runs of the Sonic movies will be able to save them this time! Unless the folks that work on SpongeBob now are able to find some sort of creative spark in spite of Nickelodeon’s constant micromanagement, it’s hard to imagine another successful era on par with the original three seasons and Seasons 9-11.
However, there is at least one episode from this era that I genuinely believe could have worked as both a proper ending and even epilogue to SpongeBob SquarePants as a whole. That one episode of course is SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Blowout! And I will talk all about why next month!
Next Month: Why SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Blowout Should Have Been The Ending of SpongeBob SquarePants
It boggles my mind that I have to use the word “retrospective” when describing the 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider. However, considering it’s been over a decade since that game’s release, I can’t help but feel like that is a proper term to describe just how much time has flown by since this game. Because of that, yeah! Welcome to my retrospective of Tomb Raider (2013).
Tomb Raider (2013) is an action-adventure game that was developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix. This made for the 10th entry and acted as a reboot for the Tomb Raider franchise, acting as the first installment of the so-called “Survivor” trilogy, which put a big focus on retelling the origin story of Lara Croft, exploring the character in her early adventures.
Crystal Dynamics began development soon after the release of Tomb Raider: Underworld in 2008. Rather than a sequel to that, the team chose to reboot the series yet again, re-establishing the origins of Lara Croft for the second time, which they also did with Tomb Raider: Legend, and wanted to expand upon the character even further than they have had in their prior history. Camilla Luddington was hired to voice and do motion-capture performance as Lara Croft, replacing Keeley Hawes respectively.
Tomb Raider (2013) released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows on March 5th, 2013, later being ported to other consoles such as Xbox One, PlayStation 4, OS X, Linux, Shield TV, and Stadia, with extended editions of the game such as Game of the Year Edition and Definitive Edition. The game received universal acclaim from critics and gamers alike, with huge praise giving to the graphics, gameplay, and the development and characterization of Lara Croft herself. However, certain creative decisions such as making the actual tomb raiding mostly to optional side quests draw some criticism among the fanbase, with Crystal Dynamics putting more focus on action and stealth combat with the tomb raiding coming second. The game sold over 14.5 million copies by October 2021, making it the best-selling Tomb Raider game to date.
With the newest Netflix anime, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, set to come out next month, I went and took a look back at the recent reboot trilogy of Tomb Raider. After all, the series is confirmed to be set between the Survivor trilogy and the original series of games. Because of that, my next marathon will be to look back at Tomb Raider (2013), Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider to see how they have all held up years later.
Plot:
Set on Yamatai, a fictional lost island in the Dragon’s Triangle off the coast of Japan, we follow Lara Croft on her first ever adventure aboard the ship known as Endurance. Lara is a young woman that is looking to follow in her father’s footsteps in becoming an adventure, making discoveries and collecting hidden artifacts. Her first main objective is to find that lost kingdom hidden on Yamatai.
The Endurance is hit by a giant rain storm, causing the boat to sink completely. While Lara is able to escape from drowning to death, she is separated from her friends on the estranged island. As she searches for her friends, Lara soon discovers that the island is in fact inhabited, mostly by a violent cult named Solarii that worships Himiko, confirming the island is indeed Yamatai. Their leader is known as Mathias, who wants to everything in his power to earn the trust of Himiko.
As soon as Mathias discovers the presence of Lara and her friends, this puts them all in great danger. Lara’s best friend, Sam, is seen as great interest to the Solarii, who plans to offer her as a new host to Himiko’s spirit. As Lara meets up and reunites with other survivors, she must work with them to rescue any captured ones from the Solarii while also finding a way off the island. The crew with Lara include Whitman, Sam, Roth, Reyes, Jonah, Alex, and Grim.
As Lara Croft takes her first steps into becoming a strong adventure, she discovers that she must overcome immense adversity in order to save her friends and herself. That includes taking down enemies, using any methods of travel, using any scrap, items, or weaponry as she can, and doing everything in her power to survive against this deadly foe that is looking to wipe her out and her loved ones. It’s then that we get a first taste into Lara building a name for herself in becoming the legendary Tomb Raider.
What is most interesting about the story is that despise the game being called Tomb Raider, this is by in large an origin story of Lara Croft before getting the reputation as the Tomb Raider. Yes, the tomb raiding is in the game (which we will discuss in gameplay) but this is really a story about who Lara Croft is before that and what she is without that. While those might sound like unusual and risky ideas for a narrative on paper, Tomb Raider (2013) is able to make it work incredibly well.
The reason it all works is because of how well developed and characterized Lara Croft is as a character. This is arguably the most fleshed out version of the character throughout the character’s history. Seeing Lara go from being a fearful Curious George to a badass adventure is very exciting to see play out. The story really makes Lara Croft go through absolute hell and requires her to make the toughest choices imaginable in the means of surviving.
I especially like how, unlike most action heroes in games and movies, when Lara gets injured, she doesn’t just make a light grunt, shake it off, and get right back in the game. She clearly gets hurt and feels pain. Whenever she takes damage, she feels every bit of it. There are plenty of instances in the stories where you follow Lara while she is grunting in pain and needing to find a way to patch it up before it’s too late. It helps add to the human nature of the character and increases the stakes of the story to a near perfect degree.
Sure, there are definitely PLENTY of moments where it feels like Lara should have died and probably would have in real life but at the end of the day, it is a video game and Ms. Croft is able to make the best use of the traditional gaming plot armor. Even so, I do feel like Crystal Dynamics could have tone down the violence a little bit and not having it gain close to the violent “torture porn”.
When it comes to the supporting cast, it’s a mixed bag. Lara’s friends and crew are fun if not a bit basic. Outside of Whitman, none of them really change and grow throughout the game, really only showing up when the plot requires and to give Lara’s moments of optimism during her mission to save them and escape the island. They are likable enough where I did find myself wanting them all to survive to the end but most of their characters can be read like a book with not a single one of them being much of a page turner.
The main antagonists on the other hand, are quite weak. While having Lara going up against a violent cult is fitting for her first adventure, the bad guys she is forced to go up against could not be more bland and forgettable. There’s not much motivation or characterization behind them other than wanting to make their god/goddess happy and believing in certain morals that they think their ancestors would be proud off. I barely remember their names or any line of dialogue that stands out greater than these villainous religious cults in any games.
Aside from some minor issues with the supporting cast and villains, the narrative for Tomb Raider (2013) is very strong. You really feel the character development of Lara Croft the whole way through and seeing it all unfold is really satisfying to see. Lara is given the kind of arc that by the end, you almost can’t believe this is the same protagonist that we have been following all along. If that is not the sign of a really strong character arc, then I don’t know what is. Lara Croft’s journey along is enough to recommend at least watching all the cutscenes throughout the entire game but of course, the important part of a video game is in fact the gameplay.
Gameplay:
Tomb Raider (2013) is an action-adventure game played through a third person’s perspective. Players take control of Lara Croft herself, using an interconnected formula that combines action, adventure, exploration, stealth and survival elements. Players can traverse between the camps and across the entire island using footpaths, ziplines, and climbable tracks and walls. Many of Lara’s moves from prior games are carried over here with some minor tweaks added to it. Quick time events occur at regular intervals throughout the game, appearing at crucial points in the game’s plot where you are on the run, such as extracting a shard of metal and escaping a cave.
In terms of combat, the inspiration from Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series is clear as daylight but the game still does plenty of it’s own things to stand strong on it’s own two feet. The players have the ability to free-aim with Lara’s bow and the guns she collects. You will engage in close-quarter combat and perform stealth kills when coming up against enemies. The most helpful addition to this is Survival Instinct, an ability in which the presence of enemies, collectables, and objects to environmental puzzles will be highlighted and easy to spot. So even if you are familiar with Uncharted, Tomb Raider (2013) makes many tweaks and revisions to that combat formula which you will need to get the hang off in a way that you couldn’t with Uncharted.
The game incorporates role-playing elements that help with the progression of the game. As you go through the whole game, you earn experience points from performing certain actions and complete in-game challenges involving hunting, exploring and combat. This helps the skills and abilities to be upgrade in specific ways, such as giving Lara more storage capacity for arrows and ammo. You can also upgrade and customize weapons using scarps and materials that you collect across the island. The character progression system in the game helps with gaining better items, weapons, and equipment as you progress through the game. Even if certain items and weaponry can only be unlocked once you get to certain points of the story, there is not a single moment of this game where you should not have access to enough of them to progress through the game.
As for the actual tomb raiding itself, it’s mostly optional and only appear during side quests that don’t impact the main campaign. Player can complete multiple side quests as they explore the island and revisit certain locations. It’s only during these side mission which the challenge tombs can be searched for. There is more than enough of challenge tombs for any longtime fan of the series but these sections are NOT required to be played through in order to be the main story. It’s odd how a game called Tomb Raider, the actual tomb raiding itself plays secondary to the overall gameplay experience.
Even if the actual title of the game itself might be a bit misleading, the gameplay of Tomb Raider (2013) is absolutely top notch. I loved being in the shoes of Lara Croft in ways that I couldn’t have with any other prior Tomb Raider game. Lara has never felt more comfortable to control and more fun to play in terms of the game’s combat, platforming, and exploration. Seeing the character develop and unlocking many different skills along the way always made the gameplay stand out without feeling too repetitive or irritating. There is plenty of variety in terms of the items you use, the weapons you upgrade, and the costumes you are able to unlock. It helps enhance the replay value and motivates you to play through the whole game. I constantly found myself eager to unlock every single skill point that I possibly could because I wanted to unlock all the weapons and costumes that were available.
I loved going through every single set piece moment of the entire game, having that perfect feeling of cinematic escapism while also remembering that this is still an actual game. These sections feel right at home with an Indiana Jones adventure while still feeling proper for the adventure that we go with Lara Croft. If it wasn’t an intense stealth section that kept me on the edge of my seat, it was these jaw dropping sequences where our main female hero is pushed beyond her limits to survive.
If there is any mixed to weak aspects to the gameplay, that would mostly be the boss fights. They don’t play much differently than fighting regular enemies other than needing a few more hits to kill and another required automated section to give the impression it’s more different than it really is. It doesn’t help that the main villain is very weak and forgettable but the final showdown with him is rather anticlimactic in terms of gameplay. It misses that one last powerful punch that’s able to evaluate the game at the last possible moment.
I should also mention that there is also a multiplayer mode with this game. In each multiplayer match, there are two enemy teams: four survivors and four scavengers. And there are three different types of games for multiplayer with five different maps. These modes are Team Deathmatch, Private Rescue, and Cry for Help.
The first mode is a player vs player combat scenario, where teams are pitted against each other and whoever kills the opposing team in three separate matches is the winner. In the second mode, the “survivors” team must take medical supplies to a specific point on the map, while the scavengers must reach a certain number of kills, both within a time limit of ten minutes. The third mode, Cry for Help, involves the survivors for exploring the maps and retrieving batteries for defended radio beacons while being hunted by scavengers. Across all three modes, weapons and destroyable environments from the single-player mode are carried over.
Ngl, the multiplayer mode didn’t do anything for me. It feels like it tries to incorporate elements from other shooters out there such as Call of Duty and Battlefield along with trying to copy the multiplayer modes from Uncharted. However, there is just not as much polish put into this mode as with the single player mode and mostly comes across as a last minute addition, feeling like it was just thrown in there just for the sake of trying to give gamers more bank with their buck. I appreciate variety in video games but not when it feels like it’s something that the developers themselves really didn’t care to make. This did receive plenty of DLC which I will discuss later on in the review.
Aside from the tacked-on multiplayer mode and lackluster boss fights, I adore the gameplay of Tomb Raider (2013) to bits. It really felt nice and refreshing back in 2013 to put you in the hands of a female video game protagonist but also making her very satisfying to play as. The special abilities that Lara is giving and the maneuvers you are able to use with her makes her super convincing as a gaming action hero, constantly finding her own ways to take down enemies in ways that actually work for her character. Lara plays in a way that only she herself can stand out and not in the same ways of say…..Nathan Drake.
Yes, the challenge tombs not playing first and foremost to the gameplay might be infuriating to some but the combat, stealth, and exploration are all so well done that it’s genuinely hard to care. Power that along with a trophy/achievement system that will make you EARN every single award you get, Tomb Raider (2013) holds up greatly in terms of gameplay and delivers plenty of replay value, even after beating the main campaign.
Graphics:
Graphically, this game is FANTASTIC for a 2013 released game and still looks strong on the Definitive Edition many years later. It’s able to capture that realistic vibes that many games were starting to aim for back in the 2010s and makes you almost believe you are there with Lara on her journey. The rain and water effects looks about as convincing as it should, the characters move naturally and is certainly aided by top-notch motion capture, and it has a great, enhanced engine that helped make this game stand out not just back in 2013 but even now. While some might think the game looks too bleak, it fits for the tone that the game is going with along with the rather bleakness that Lara goes throughout the game.
It’s also refreshing to see Lara Croft herself actually look like a real woman instead of a plastic dog back in the original games. I get the developers back then were going for a more cartoon vibes with the original games but Lara’s more human and realistic design works perfectly for the rebooted games that are clearly for a much darker and realistic vibe. In that accounts, her design along with the designs for the rest of the characters are able to stand out about as well as they could.
Sound:
The voice work is absolutely outstanding overall. There’s not a single bad performance to be found here in terms of line delivery and motion capture but the real MVP is of course no other than Lara Croft herself, Camilla Luddington. Luddington really captures the younger side of Lara Croft perfectly, blending her vocal range and motion capture movements in the most convincing way imaginable. All respect to the other previous actresses for Lara respectively (ESPEICALLY by girl Angelina Jolie) but there’s something about Camilla Ludington that makes her the best Lara Croft to date imo. She’s able to capture that charm, energy, and depth of the character better than anyone ever has. I love me some Hayley Atwell but she’s got her work cut out for herself for The Legend of Lara Croft.
The soundtrack done by Jason Graves is remarkable all around. It has the exact time of music that can get your heart pumping and have you on the edge of your seat the whole way through. It feels like the type of soundtrack you would hear in any action movie, particularly Indiana Jones. My favorite track in particular is the one track that plays when you stop at a checkpoint next to the fire. It’s a nice little moving track that allows you to breathe for a split second before getting straight back into all of the intense action. With a score that is about as fist pumping and intense, having a track like that helps make it stand out greatly.
Downloadable Content:
Various amounts of small DLC were released with the game. At the game’s launch, Xbox Live users would get early access to the map pack titled “Caves and Cliffs”. The maps themselves contained the three new Tomb Raider multiplayer maps, entitled “Scavenger Caverns”, “Cliff Shantytown” and “Burning Village”. That pack would later become available for PSN and Steam users just a month later.
Other packs included, the “1939” multiplayer map pack that consists of two new multiplayer maps called “Dogfight” and “Forest Meadow”, a Japanese Language Pack on Steam, a multiplayer DLC pack called “Shipwrecked” that offered two additional maps in “Lost Fleet” and Himiko’s Cradle”, a single player outfit pack was released on Xbox Live, containing the Demolition, Sure-Shot and Mountaineer outfits.
Two versions that contained all the DLC were released in 2014. Those included the Game of the Year: Edition for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC and Definitive Edition for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One along with receiving an eventual release for Window in April 2024, exclusively on the Microsoft Store.
All of the DLC for Tomb Raider (2013) were strictly for multiplayer maps and player outfits. There was no story DLC or exclusive single player content. They were all mostly additions to add to one of the weaker aspects of the games in hopes of improving it. Considering I didn’t care for the multiplayer mode back then and now, I can’t say these DLC packs did anything for me. There’s nothing here that will enhance the gaming experience for supporters of the game nor is there anything that win any naysayers of it.
If you are curious to check the DLC out, the Game of the Year and Extended Editions should be much cheaper to buy than it was a decade ago. However, for me, it just seems like useless extras to justify pre-order/console exclusives and just random content made back when single player games felt the need to tack on a multiplayer mode, even if the game itself didn’t really acquire it.
Conclusion:
Tomb Raider (2013) is essentially a textbook example of a reboot done right! While it undoubtedly takes inspirations from the likes of Uncharted, the modern update of Lara Croft is able to embrace everything that fans have loved about Lara Croft over the years while also being able to stand by itself perfectly as it’s own unique thing. The graphics are breathtaking, the gameplay contains the perfect mix of combat, platforming, stealth, and exploration, the set pieces are terrific and genuinely cinematic in the best of ways, Camilla Luddington is perfect as the main video game heroine, and Lara herself has never a more compelling or engaging character than she has been here. While some might bark at certain aspects like the actual tomb raiding being secondary and being too overly violent just for the sake of it, the actual game itself has so much love, passion, and effort put into it that the game comes across as genuine and NOT neglect.
Opinions may vary on if the follow-ups were better than this one but this is definitely the most fresh, exciting, and action-packed that the Tomb Raider franchise has ever been. You would be hard pressed to find that freshness and novelty that 2013 has and the foundation it leaves perfectly for it’s future that you will just never find in any other adventure with Lara Croft. Whether one is a longtime fan of Tomb Raider or a newcomer to the series like I was back in 2013, I highly recommend Tomb Raider (2013) to fans and gamers alike.
Right around the time these three seasons came out, there was a whole generation of the SpongeBob fandom that had basically given up on this show. Whether it’s because of the inconsistent to poor quality of the later seasons or that they just got too old for the show, there was a significant group that had basically stopped watching SpongeBob SquarePants entirely. This was around this time where the show had to basically go through an awkward transaction phase from one era to the next if it were to continue for the foreseeable future. Now that the kids of the 1990s and 2000s had grown up and moved on, Nickelodeon had to find a way to appeal to the kids of the 2010s. And I guess Nickeldeon thought that the best way to get these kids to care about SpongeBob is by going back to what made the original seasons so good while also adding a new identity with itself to make this era feel incredibly distinctive of itself and compared to the rest of the other seasons.
This include the likes of new and stylish animation, bringing back characters, callbacks, and references to the original three seasons, and the biggest one of all, bringing back the creative folks that helped make SpongeBob SquarePants an icon in the first, most notably the original writers and the show creator himself, Stephen Hillenburg. In a way, Seasons 9-11 felt like a revival series for SpongeBob SquarePants without technically being a revival series. This felt like the show wanting to usher in a new generations of SpongeBob fans while still appealing to the ones that grew up with the show and we’re still watching it to this very day. It might have been a trickly balance act but for the most part, it paid off about as well as it could have.
Seasons 9-11 not only acted as easily the best era of SpongeBob SquarePants since the original, it was genuine proof that the show still had plenty of life left in it, even over 12 years later. It might have had some rough spots here and there and certainly consisted with particular animation styles that would certainly not being everyone’s cup in tea, but for the first time in a long time, it felt like there was genuine love and passion for our favorite yellow sponge. SpongeBob no longer felt like a corporate product for Nickelodeon, he just felt like……SpongeBob.
Season 9
Okay, I’m not gonna lie. I was REALLY questioning whether or not to put this as part of the “other good” era of SpongeBob that we are discussing this month. Mostly because, the first half of the season was not so great. It contained a handful of some of the most infamous episodes through the show’s history such as Squid Baby, Little Yellow Book, and the absolute ABSYMAL “special” that was SpongeBob, You’re Fired!. After Season 8 ended on an incredibly promising note with Hello Bikini Bottom! and It’s A SpongeBob Christmas, it seems like it was back to the “same old, same old” with SpongeBob, barley hanging on life support with Nickelodeon refusing to put their cash cow to sleep. It was definitely not all bad with also a handful of legit good episodes mixed in (My personal favorite being Plankton’s Pet!) but the bad ones were legit awful, being up there among the absolute worst episodes in SpongeBob’s history.
It is worth mentioning that this season alone went on for about FIVE years, starting in July 2012 and not ending until February 2017. I was still in high school by time this season started and by the time it ended, I was in my second year of community college. A large part of that likely had to do with Nickelodeon’s annoying habit of airing the episodes of a show out of it’s original order and airing them literally whenever the heck they wanted to. Another part of that had to do with the fact that in between Seasons 9 and 10, Nickelodeon along with the cast and crew of the show put the majority of the focus on the next SpongeBob movie, Sponge Out of Water. Needless to say, this season was just…..all over the place.
Thankfully, the second half of Season 9 was much more consistent and was the positive shift in quality that many were hoping for after Season 8. Some of the best episodes include Lost in Bikini Bottom, Tutor Sauce, Squid Plus One, Two Thumbs Down, Bulletin Board, Pineapple Invasion, along with plenty of others. It was able to cut down on the flaws that plagued the previous seasons such as the mean spirted tone, the characters one known trait being cranked up to 11, and all of that Squidward Torture Porn. Instead, the episodes felt more heartfelt, genuine, and earnest, while recapturing the style of humor and animation that made the original three seasons stand out as well as it did. Even with the somewhat bumpy first half, the second half was able to be much stronger and consistent, giving the series another lease on life.
While Season 9 turned out to be a pleasant surprise, I’m sure there were plenty of fans if Nick would be able to keep up with that consistent level of quality for Season 10 and onwards. Between this and Sponge Out of Water, there were encouraging signs to SpongeBob but it still felt like it needed that consistent voice that can guide the series forward without these constant sudden dips in quality. So what did Nickelodeon after this season? They bought back a handful of the writers of the first three seasons, including the creator and showrunner of the first three seasons of the show, Stephen Hillenburg. Needless to say, after all of that was confirmed, the vibes could NOT have been more positive for the future for our favorite yellow sponge.
Season 10
To say that Season 10 was a return to form for the series would be an understatement. This is when SpongeBob SquarePants finally just felt 100% right. While that is likely due to Stephen Hillenburg returning to the show with a role greater than a creative consultant that checked into office every now or then, the show has not felt so joyful and genuine since perhaps the first SpongeBob movie.
This is a season that everyone from the cast and crew seemed like they brought things back to basic, almost acting like this is a soft reboot of the franchise. The cast felt looser and more locked in with their performances than ever before, there was a newer and slicker animation style that felt like a progression from the prior seasons, and you can just see the handfuls of story ideas and slapstick comedy just bursting on the screen at every given moment.
Season 10 was also the season had put more focus on the overall continuity of the show. There were plenty of one-off supporting characters and jokes that are given more time to shine throughout the season, most notably with the likes of Bubble Bass, Nosferatu, and even the “MY LEGS!” guy. That’s not to say it introduced a bunch of plot threads that would be followed upon later on down the road or introduce new story elements to the canon but it was just a reminder that the crew that returned to the show did not forget their achievements from back in the day.
One other main element of Season 10 was how this was when the show put quite an emphasis on revisiting ideas from their past but doing new things with it. The most positive example of this is with Mimic Madness. That was an episode that took ideas and cues from the infamous Face Freeze episode but they were able to make it work WONDERFULLY here. That episode in of itself is how this entire season operated in a nutshell. Taking a handful of ideas from the past, throwing in new elements with the newer style of animation, and make into something worthwhile that can stand on it’s own. Mimic Madness alone best represents the style of animation, humor, slapstick, ideas, and creativity that Season 10 would have.
Other standout episodes include Code Yellow, House Warming, The Getaway, Patrick’s Coupon, Burst Your Bubble, and Feral Friends. It was a season that was able to combine ideas old and new and still finding ways to make them fresh, funny, and entertaining. In a way, Season 10 basically played like a special revival series, similar to the likes of X-Men 97 and even a handful of revival movies that Nickelodeon took time our of their day to make with their old classic shows. It was able to act as a modern update of the show while still be able to capture that joyful and silly wonder that SpongeBob SquarePants had during the show’s original prime.
That’s not to say the season was perfect by any means. As I mentioned, there were plenty of episodes that reused ideas from the past and, even if many of them executed better than it did in the past, it does become noticeable the more episodes you watch during this season. This was also the beginning of introducing the new crazy, wacky, and just plain “out there” animation that the show basically used as a staple from here on out. While it does help to give this era it’s own unique personality and charm, there are times where the animation can become WAY too “in your face”. So much so that I honestly wouldn’t blame anyone that couldn’t get into these newer episodes because of it.
What’s most shocking about Season 10 was that this was the shortest season of the show by quite a bit. It only consisted of 11 episodes total with just 22 episodes, with no half hour long episodes or holiday episodes to go along with it. While that is likely due to the focus that Nick had on Sponge Out of Water at the time, it does make Season 10 feel a bit like a protype for Season 11 and onwards. And this was even before the trend where each new show would only consisted of six to ten episodes top per season.
Even so, while brief, Season 10 brought some much needed energy and spark to a long-running show that was starting to lose it’s steam big time. While plenty would still argue that SpongeBob didn’t need to keep going for this long, if the show HAD to keep going, at least it seemed like the cast and crew were putting the same love and effort that they have done with the past. And it’s that same kind of love and effort that was able to carry itself into Season 11.
Season 11
While I’m not sure I would say Season 11 is objectively the best season of the show, it is most certainly the most creative, unique, and inventive season of the entire show. I stand by that statement completely! I can’t recall a season of SpongeBob SquarePants that felt like it was trying to get every single creative inch that it could scratch and give the show it’s own unique voice to it. The animation is at it’s peak, the story found a perfect blend of comedy and stakes while being told in a functional structure, each characters no matter how big or small would get a moment and/or episode to themselves, the world building brought a brand new side to the Bikini Bottom we had yet to see, the ideas for each episode have never been explored further, and all the characters just felt totally in form with very little sense of unlikability and mean sprit to them.
Season 11 was non-stop hit after hit, classic episode after classic episode. Just off the top of my head! Spot Returns, Karen’s Virus, Man Ray Returns, The Legend of Boo-kini Bottom, Squid Noir, My Leg, Mustard O’ Mine, No Pictures Please, Bottle Burglars, Plankton Paranoia, Creature Feature, Moving Bubble Bass, and Scavenger Pants. These are all episodes that is not only good enough to fit wonderfully with the first three seasons but it was show that SpongeBob still had plenty of creative bones left in his body, standing firmly on it’s own two feet without feeling the need to change the past. Even the ideas and characters from previous episodes that are brought back here have enough fresh and new elements added to them that it almost feels like you are seeing them for the very first time.
Season 11 is when the show was arguable as it’s most energy-filled and feels so alive. It’s expansion on the worlds, characters, and lore of SpongeBob SquarePants was so fun and refreshing to see. I love the attention to detail, I love seeing the new roles that certain characters was able to play as, I love that it brought it’s own sense of humor and slapstick, I love seeing this universe being expanded upon further than ever before, and I just love the fact that I can say that I adored a new season of SpongeBob without feeling ashamed or having reservations for it. This really felt like this show as back in absolute peak form. Yes, there might have been one or two duds in here, most infamously Pink Lemonade, but those are much easier to ignore or accept because the rest of what Season 11 had to offer was just so good.
The main thing that I got from Season 11 was this was when the cast and crew that returned to the show felt fully at home here. They knew that in order for the show to keep going in a positive way, they would have to remember what worked so well about the original run of the show while also bringing in fresh and new elements of it’s own to make this season and era of SpongeBob stand out more than just trying to recapture that magical lightning in a bottle. While I’m sure everyone has their own thoughts about Season 11 and this era as a whole, I say they succeeded greatly.
If there was any season that showed there was zero contrast between pre-movie SpongeBob and post-movie SpongeBob that would be this. When it comes to quality, there is no pre-movie SpongeBob and post-movie SpongeBob to me. In my eyes, there’s just good SpongeBob and bad SpongeBob. And Season 11 was some darn good SpongeBob. This wasn’t just the best that SpongeBob SquarePants has been in ages. This was SpongeBob SquarePants reaching a new level of peak. That kind of peak that everything afterwards have yet to replicate.
There will undoubtedly some hater that will read this post and think I’m being a weirdo for gushing over a season from the “modern” SpongeBob era but I don’t care. For a SpongeBob season to be as good as it is considering how long the show has gotten is a miracle. Whether it’s because of the old blood that returned to the show or the new blood that came into the show around this time, Season 11 of SpongeBob SquarePants just rocked.
In Conclusion
They say it could never be done but at long last, SpongeBob SquarePants had finally had a consistently good era once again. You can debate on whether or not it compared to the first three seasons of the show but no doubt, Seasons 9-11 were able to stand strong on their own, no matter what you compare it to. There are some flaws to be found such as the constant reusing of old ideas and the new animation style will either really work for you or put you off entirely but it’s so nice to be able to talk about SpongeBob in such a positive light again. This era was so good that I didn’t need to bend over backwards to defend it like I do with Seasons 4-5, it’s just good in it’s own right.
It really just goes to show how anything is possible and you should always learn to never say never. This era of SpongeBob SquarePants should be proof that long-running franchises can reach greatness even after it’s peak. If you have the right cast and crew that are 100% committed to what they do, they can achieve anything. With all the momentum on this show’s side at long last, would they still be able to keep up that quality for the foreseeable future? Well…..just tune in next time.
This month, I wanted to do something different for the SpongeBob SquarePants retrospective! Instead of going over the second movie, Out of Water, I decided to take a step back and talk about a big specific episode of SpongeBob SquarePants. This is an episode that I don’t think gets talked about quite as often as it should nor do I think people understand the great importance of it. That episode I’m referring to is Hello, Bikini Bottom!
Hello, Bikini Bottom! was an episode that aired on October 8th, 2012, acting as the finale to Season 8 of SpongeBob SquarePants along with it being the swan song for longtime series writer Aaron Springer (who did later return for future projects such as Sponge on the Run, The Patrick Star Show, and the upcoming Search for SquarePants. Of course, Nickelodeon being Nickelodeon, it was aired completely out of order and wasn’t actually the final episode that aired of Season 8, with even several episodes of Season 9 airing before and after that, but the episode itself still feels and is structured like a season finale. Not only because it was a 22-minute long special but it acted as both a culmination of the worst era of SpongeBob while also setting the stage for the revival era of SpongeBob. While Season 8 did show potential for greener pastures for the show for upcoming seasons, I don’t think there was one episode that was able to hit that mark quite as much as Hello, Bikini Bottom!
The episode is about SpongeBob and Squidward learning to play music together that would draw a crowd and show potential of the two forming a famous duet band, giving Squidward the career he has always wanted and giving SpongeBob that perhaps he never knew he wanted. After SpongeBob tries to play his guitar alongside Squidward playing the clarinet, they are discovered by a concert promoter named Colonel Carper. He wants SpongeBob and Squidward to form a band together and sent them both on a concert tour. However, after hearing from a long distance about what Colonel Carper has in mind, Mr. Krabs decides to take things into his own hands by forming the duo band himself, banking on potential massive profits from both his employees. In so doing so, he steals a bus from Mrs. Puffs and sound equipment from Carper and sells the Krusty Krab to generate funding for this concert tour. It’s then that SpongeBob and Squidward must learn to perform as a duo band to become the famous stars that Colonel Carper saw them both as or else this could be the end of the Krusty Krab and even Mr. Krab’s reputation as we know it. Oh….and Patrick is in this episode too because all bands need a roadie and what better starfish for the job than him.
I have stated throughout this entire retrospective that SpongeBob SquarePants has never been known for it’s groundbreaking storytelling or themes but I can’t help that Hello, Bikini Bottom in many ways represents the main turning point for the series and serves as a swelling goodbye to the end of the worst era of SpongeBob SquarePants and hello to a promising new future that awaits. This isn’t just the SpongeBob crew going on a concert tour in the hopes of starting a new career in music, this is the crew going on a farewell tour towards this specific era of SpongeBob. This is by revisiting ideas that weren’t very well executed in prior seasons while also giving a sneak peek at the new crazy and just plain “out there” animation that would become a staple for later seasons.
Throughout this episode, we see the characters act as they always have been up to this point but never goes too far towards their one main character trait being their entire character. SpongeBob is still optimistic and hopeful but he also has a brain in his head. Squidward does get tortured every once in a while and still fill with nihilism but he also gets his way by the end and it never goes too far with the torture or nihilism. Patrick is still dumb and comic relief but he’s not so dumb that he becomes unbearable. Even the character that was the easiest to mess up, Mr. Krabs, despite being obviously greedy and shellfish throughout, gets punished for his actions and suffer consequences for taking a such a baffling gamble. It’s a nice balance of being able to keep the characters the way they have always been without falling into the trappings that has lessen them for the past three seasons.
However, I think the main hook of this episode comes from the climax when the song Never Give Up plays. This comes at the moment where the crew are at their lowest point. They went to several different places to try to gain a massive crowd and following and just about all of it failed. Supermarkets, retirement homes, birthday party for kids, and even trying to hijack another famous bands’ show. All of those were failures and as a result, the concert tour was a failure and the Krusty Krab is long gone along with Mr. Krab’s salary. They have nothing let…except to stand up and play a song.
While there was some solid songs throughout this episode, the song that is most well known for this episode is Never Give Up. This is the moment where SpongeBob and Squidward are able to sing together despite being in different places and finally learn how to duet together. Here is where they move pass their shortcomings up to this point and just stand up and play, finally realizing the potential of a duel band that Colonel Carper saw in them at the beginning of the episode. Yes, the crowd they gather wasn’t necessarily for them and actually for the superstar light show that was right behind him but in the heat of the moment, that didn’t matter at all. That moment was not about SpongeBob and Squidward gathering a crowd, it was about them learning how to play together and seeing their own potential as a band.
That song is also a great showcase of the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise up to this point. It started off great, lose some stream, and went complete rock bottom. However, the people behind the show did not give up and kept working hard and eventually found the series in a much better place later on down the road. Those two factors in of itself is what makes Never Give Up perhaps the best song of the post-original era and easily the most emotionally satisfying. However, there is one other factor that hits home for me personally. Not only about this song but the entire episode in general.
Right around the time this episode aired, it was around that time where I and many others that grew up with SpongeBob SquarePants and Nickelodeon were getting older and becoming teenagers and/or young adults. It was around this time where most of the shows that era of kids grew up with had either ended or would soon come to an end. iCarly saw it’s series finale just one month later (until it would later get revived nearly a decade later), The Penguins of Madagascar was on it’s last legs on the main Nickelodeon channel, The Fairly Oddparents was still up in the air of continuing, and the likes of Victorious and Big Time Rush would reach their conclusions a few months later. Yes, there was still a handful of remaining shows that (in some way) connected to Gen Z’s childhood such as Kung Fu Panda: Legend of Awesomeness, TMNT (2012), and The Legend of Korra but for the most part, this was the end of my (and many others) era of Nickelodeon and the beginning of a new era for the kids of the 2010s.
In many ways, Hello, Bikini Bottom! represents the ending to multiple things at the same time! It was the end to Season 8, it was the end of Aaron Springer’s run on the main show, it was the end of what many consider the worst era of the history of SpongeBob SquarePants, and the most personal to me, it acted the end of “my” era with Nickelodeon. The one thing it was NOT the ending of was SpongeBob SquarePants itself. Despite all the other Nick shows coming and going during this time, SpongeBob SquarePants was one that still prevailed and unlike say The Fairly Oddparents, would find even more good will later on down the road. Because of that and more, there’s a lot to thank Hello, Bikini Bottom for!
Hello, Bikini Bottom is by no means the best or biggest episode of SpongeBob SquarePants but I do think there’s a strong argument to be made that it’s the most important one to date. Not just because of it’s high quality but also it’s timing. This show aired during a time where the show and a generation of kids that grew up with Nickelodeon was losing their appeal. They needed episodes from this show specifically that would be good enough to cater to the last remains of the previous generation and make way for the new one. They needed that one episode that could act as that proper bridge between Season 8 to Season 9 and get a new era into SpongeBob. While there might be another episode or two that might’ve done just that, I can’t think of one that I handle that about as well as it could then Hello, Bikini Bottom!
It’s all those reasons and more why I felt compelled to make a piece strictly based off this episode. Mostly because I believe it was that one moment that shows signs of a brighter future ahead of our beloved yellow sponge. This was an episode that not only gave a soft landing to a very bleak era of SpongeBob SquarePants but it showed that this show still did have untapped potential it hadn’t reached for a long time. All everyone had to do on the show as to not give up! And they did just that!
Next Month: The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
This was when SpongeBob SquarePants got truly as bad as folks claimed the show got after the first movie. While I still stand by my opinion that Seasons 4 and 5 weren’t the worst things in the world, these next three seasons I’m about to talk about is MORE than deserving a seat at the table. Okay, maybe that’s a little harsh. It’s not the worst thing ever but it’s undoubtedly SpongeBob’s roughest time throughout his history up to this point.
There are multiple different factors that played into the poor quality of these three seasons I’m about to talk about. Part of it is because most of the writers from the original three seasons were no longer present. Another part of it is because the writers of these three seasons likely tried to add their own style of humor and slapstick to the show that just fell flat. And of course, there’s that part that might be how the show has gone on for way too long and basically ran out of ideas. However, I do think the one main factor in all of this has to do with Nickelodeon and them relying SpongeBob SquarePants WAY too much to keep their network afloat!
Nickelodeon has been a controversial network for quite some time, ESPECIALLY in recent events (Dan Schneider is going straight to hell!). A big part of that has to do with their habit of expecting a new show to be a big grand hit RIGHT out of the gate and never looking back. When a new show doesn’t meet anything near those criteria, they tend to disregard it quite quickly.
So much so that they won’t even have the decency to air the rest of the episodes of a season but just dump it on their “back-up” network and letting that show go out with an absolute whimper. Or in the case of The Legend of Korra, they’ll just stop airing new episodes halfway through a season on TV and dump the rest of the show on their website. Yes, that really happened!
However, when a show does in fact become as big of a hit as they want, they go too far in the other direction and milk it until that cow is dry. And even then, they’ll just find another cow to milk.
There has been two shows throughout their history that has been the direct result of that: The Fairly Oddparents and SpongeBob SquarePants. With Nickelodeon constantly cranking out new episodes and content for these long lasting franchises like crazy, it played a significant role in their inevitable decline in quality.
It was by the points of Seasons 6, 7, and 8 that Nick was relying HEAVILY on the SpongeBob brand to keep the network at a steady heart rate. They would constantly demand for new episodes to be made as fast as humanly possible. Don’t worry about the overall quality. All that matters is that they get a ton of episodes released so they can be covered for the next two to three years before having to worry about anything beyond that timeline.
When watching Seasons 6 through 8, you can definitely tell that Nick was rushing production for new episodes of SpongeBob that the writers never had time to sit down and figure out what the hell they were even doing. It was that bad!
The end results of that leads to an era of very ill-fated and mean spirited episodes that goes against everything that the show has been up to this point. You have characters acting constantly out of characters, the same repetitive “torture porn” jokes, inconsistent animation with unintentional creepy imagery, messed up morals that aren’t well thought out in the slightest, and episodes that lack any sort of substance whatsoever. If there was ever a time where the post-movie haters got to gloat how right they were with SpongeBob losing his way after the first three seasons, this was it.
Let’s dive a little deeper as to why this era of SpongeBob SquarePants has been the show’s most infamous.
Seasons 6 & 7
You might be wondering why I’m going to be talking about Seasons 6 and 7 at the same time? Well, that’s because they both have the exact same kind of problems that I just mentioned. So much so that it’s pretty hard to tell which season that each episode belongs to. Not only because Nickelodeon aired episodes in between both seasons before either one was officially complete (This would not be the only time they would do that in this show before and after!) but because the majority of the episodes gave that exact sense of ill-conceived, poorly thought out gags and storytelling.
First off, you have the infamous episodes that lacked any sort of substance. These were mainly ones that take the most paper-thin premise imaginable and filled 90% of the runtime with filler. You have Penny Foolish which is about Mr. Krabs trying so hard to get just a little penny from SpongeBob. You have The Card which is about SpongeBob trying to protect a special Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy card from Patrick. You have A Day Without Tears which SpongeBob makes a bet with Squidward that can he go a whole day without crying. There’s also Gone, which is about everyone but SpongeBob disappearing from Bikini Bottom, only to find out they left because it was National No SpongeBob Day! They are about as dull, one-note, and shallow as the premise of each episode makes it out to be.
You have the infamous episodes that show of the lackluster animation and gross out images. There’s The Splinter that shows the most disgusting looking splinter that you will likely ever see on your life. There’s House Fancy that shows Squidward’s entire toenail coming off in rather painful fashion. There’s Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful where we see Squidward eating, bathing, and sleeping in complete garbage. While the earlier SpongeBob seasons weren’t necessarily a stranger to gross out humor, these seasons take it way too far to the point where these episodes might make you legit nauseous.
You have the infamous episodes that completely butchers the characters beyond repair. You have Boating Buddies, Choir Boys, and Squid’s Visit which makes SpongeBob come across as a complete stalker with the way he refuses to let Squidward have his space and knows his home and lifestyle near perfectly. You have A Pal for Gary that makes SpongeBob look like an arrogant and illogical jerk to Gary, who is literally getting TORMENTED by the other pet in this house. You have Yours Mine and Mine and Stuck in the Wringer which takes Patrick’s stupidity to ridiculous level and making him look like a selfish a-hole. There’s even One Course Meal, which makes Mr. Krabs look like the most soulless crab in the ocean by trying to drive Plankton into committing suicide (an episode which even Clancy Brown admitted he was very uncomfortable doing voice work for). These episodes were so bad that I wouldn’t blame anyone if it made fans not look at certain characters the same way again.
You also have the infamous special episodes, especially one in particular, that were so overhyped and underwhelming that it made people lose interest in the show completely. While SpongeBob vs The Big One was pretty good, just about every other one in Seasons 6 and 7 were about as lackluster as the majority of special SpongeBob episodes. The Clash of Triton was mediocre at best that made you want to sympathize with King Neptune’s whiny and annoying son but failed spectacularly. SpongeBob’s Last Stand was a bold attempt on making commentary on environmental awareness that mostly fell flat and was ultimately forgettable. And do I even need to mention the dull, obnoxious, poorly directed, visually ugly, non-existential story driven, and disappointing as hell special that was Truth or Square. The 10th anniversary special that was nothing but false advertising and empty promises, the worst possible celebration for ten years of SpongeBob SquarePants that you could imagine. That one special alone was so bad that it made plenty of folks drop the show completely, such as yours truly.
That’s not to say there were ZERO good episodes of any kind to be found in Seasons 6 and 7 such as Sand Castles in the Sand and The Bad Guy Club for Villains. It’s just that you would have to dig HARD to find those hidden gems buried within such garbage. Anything else you would find is nothing but trashy, greasy nonsense. A sign that Nickelodeon no longer valued the quality of SpongeBob SquarePants but more saw it for it’s name and brand alone. There’s plenty of fingers to be pointed around here but this was the show at it’s absolute lowest point.
However, why didn’t I lump Season 8 into this as well?! Well, it’s complicated!
Season 8
To be clear, Season 8 was also not a good overall season whatsoever. There were plenty of episodes of the dire examples that I just mentioned to be found here. You have Face Freeze! which showed off the creepiest and most horrifying face expressions that has ever been seen on this show. You have Pet Sitter Pat which made Patrick more unlikable and insufferable than he always has been, allowing poor Gary to be beaten up the whole way through. And it’s better not mentioning Demolition Doofus, the episode where Mrs. Puffs is trying to get SpongeBob literally MURDERED! This was a bad season by all accounts, but it did have it’s moments!
As much as there were plenty of bad things about Season 8, it also had a handful of good things about it. The good things that not only help make it more salvageable compared to Seasons 6 and 7 but also it helped plant the seeds for the inevitable resurrection seasons for the coming years. These were good episodes that helped made Season 8 not just the best out of a bad bunch but also the best possible conclusion to the worst era of SpongeBob’s history.
A handful of fan favorite episodes this season include the likes of Frozen Face Off, Planet of the Jellyfish, Super Villain Aquatic Villain Team Up Is Go!, Chum Fricassee, the Vacation episodes, and The Krabby Patty That Ate Bikini Bottom. However, there were two special episodes that I believed helped evaluate this seasons quite a bit. Those two special episodes were It’s A SpongeBob Christmas! and the Season 8 finale, Hello Bikini Bottom!
While the Vacation episodes with the main characters going on vacations were light and enjoyable enough on their own merits (even if most of them probably could have just been shorts instead of 11 to 22-minute long episodes), these two special episodes were able to capture a certain spark that the majority of this era couldn’t come close to achieving. It showed that not only is it possible for there to be new SpongeBob episodes that were good but that this show did in fact have some creative energy left within itself.
It’s A SpongeBob Christmas! was the first major SpongeBob episode to be strictly in stop motion animation. It also officially premiered on CBS during November 2012 before airing on Nickelodeon a month later. And believe it or not, it was very, very good. It managed to be funny, charming, moving, and just put you right into the Christmas spirit! For as good as the original Christmas Who? special was, It’s A SpongeBob Christmas managed to be just as good if not better than that already classic Christmas animated tale.
I would also go into deep details into how important Hello, Bikini Bottom! was to this season and the whole show in general but I actually have a special piece of that coming next month. And yes, that will be the monthly piece for this yearly SpongeBob retrospective! There’s just so much to talk about that episode and the multiple meanings that it has. Needless to say, it’s a very special episode and one that I feel should be even more appreciated than it already is.
Overall, I guess you can look at Season 8 compared to Seasons 6 and 7 the same way that folks look at Revenge of the Sith compared to the rest of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. It may not be particularly good but it’s definitely the least bad of the three with some redeemable values to it. However, the redeemable values are definitely worth bringing up as it would eventually build up towards another golden era of the yellow sponge quite later on in the future. This is something that I will be tackling in my next piece of the yearly SpongeBob marathon with talking about why Hello, Bikini Bottom! might be the most important episode of SpongeBob SquarePants.
In Conclusion
I’m not sure what more I can say that hasn’t been said about everyone else on the planet to how bad this era of SpongeBob SquarePants truly was. It’s the era which saw SpongeBob at his absolute lowest point. Due to Nickelodeon’s constant micro management and time constraints along with writers that might have been over their heads, Seasons 6-8, even with the last season’s good elements to it, is what sank SpongeBob’s reputation so hard. It was so bad that it killed any good will that most folks had left in this series. It did so much damage to SpongeBob that it made folks not want to acknowledge the legit good episodes that are a part of it because of how bad the majority of the episodes were. Whenever I feel the urge to claim that post-movie SpongeBob was no where near as bad as many have led you to believe, it’s these three seasons that respond back with an enthusiastic, “Yes, it is!”. And it’s then I would lose this fight completely.
I feel sad that the episode I will be talking about next month had to be a part of this era. In some ways, it basically had to die for this era’s sins to push towards the brighter next era that would come along. And it’s that episode of Hello, Bikini Bottom! that I will be covering in May!
Next Month: Why Hello, Bikini Bottom Is The Most Important Episode of SpongeBob SquarePants
Well, I’d be skadoosh-ed! It’s already been EIGHT years since the last film installment of the Kung Fu Panda series came out. Of course, that will change very soon with the release of Kung Fu Panda 4 coming next month but that once again showcases just how fast time can really fly! To top off this Legend of Awesomeness marathon, let’s take a look at Kung Fu Panda 3!
Kung Fu Panda 3 has had a rather complicated response when it comes to the fans of the series. There are those that view it as the perfect culmination of the series thus far, there are those that view it as the Return of the Jedi of the original Kung Fu Panda trilogy, i.e. a solid B+ follow-up to A++ predecessors, and there are those that view it as a major disappointment, believing that it was basically a rehash of the first two movies and it felt too dumb down for little kids. While I can understand all possible view points, I think it’s a bit more complicated than that.
The criticisms that I’ve heard of this movie are relatively fair. It does have an overdose of child friendly humor, it has a much more lighthearted tone compared to the first two films, and it’s not nearly as good as the first two films. However, the main point I’ve come to disagree with in regards to this film is those that claim that this is just a rehash of the previous two films and offers nothing new on its own. That could not be anything further from the truth. Yes, there are similarities here and there but that’s always going to be the case the further you go along with the series. The main thing Kung Fu Panda 3 has going for it compared to the first two is seeing Po not just turning into his own Kung Fu master but he is able to turn into that version of himself that he always dreamed off, most notably the dream we saw at the beginning of the first film. How is he able to accomplish that? Well, by mastering chi of course.
For those that don’t know what chi is, chi is basically like the Kung Fu Panda equivalent of the force in Star Wars. To what Shifu describes in a very Obi-Wan Kenobi way, chi is a life force energy that can be found in all living things. It surrounds us, it penetrates us; it binds kung fu together. In all seriousness, it can act as a power for kung fu. It can be used to stimulate life, heal living beings, or grow flora. Most importantly, this is the one power that Master Oogway himself hoped the Dragon Warrior would one day unlock. Not just to prove himself to be the mighty dragon warrior that can enter the gates of what is basically the Kung Fu Panda equivalent of heaven but he can pass the mantle of the mystic staff to the next Kung Fu Warrior who is worthy of it. This acts as the next step in Po’s journey but how exactly can he achieve this great power? By reuniting with his own previously thought extinct kind!
At the very end of Kung Fu Panda 2, there was a cliffhanger that saw a mighty panda, who seems to resemble Po’s real biological father, is still alive along with plenty of other pandas out there. It wouldn’t be until five years later where we the audience got confirmation that was indeed the case. Earlier on in the movie, we see Po meet his father who gave birth to him named Li Shan, voiced by Walter White himself, Bryan Cranston. It’s then we find out that there are still pandas out in the world and have camped at a secret panda village. A panda village that just so happens to tie into the main conflict with the main villain of the picture, Kai, voiced by J. Jonah Jameson himself, J.K. Simmons!
For a bit of backstory, we discover that Kai and Oogway were once brothers-in-arms and that Kai saved a wounded Oogway from dying. He saved him by taking him to a secret village full of pandas, where he was healed after they were ambushed. The pandas there taught the two of them the power of chi. Whereas Oogway used that power of chi for the method of healing, Kai used that power to take chi away from others for his own personal power. This forced Oogway to battle and banish him to the Spirit Realm. By revisiting that secret panda village, Po is hoping to learn Chi from his father Li to defeat Kai while Shifu and the Furious Five prepare to protect the valley.
Now, in hindsight, having the pandas tie into the backstory surrounding the main villain and the original Kung Fu Master in Oogway can be seen as quite contrived. It was always stretchy enough that you just had a bad guy in the previous movie that had something to do with the death of the main character’s parents, which wasn’t even hinted at in the original film, even if the film handled all of that INCREDIBLY well. Now, you have a panda race that was originally written off as being extinct somehow serving a role in healing Oogway and involved with Kai’s drastic turn to the dark side. However, there is one element that makes this whole thing work.
You see Li claims to know the power of chi but refuses to teach his son how to chi until he remembers how to be a panda again. From eating, sleeping, and interacting with his whole kind, Po is rediscovering the true meaning of being a panda. However, as Kai starts to strike with his desire goal to erase Oogway’s legacy and steal the chi from every living kung fu master out there, which he is able to successfully due to Shifu and four of the furious five members, Po must learn how to chi from his dad quickly. The problem though is that Li doesn’t really know how to chi and lied to his own son to prevent losing him again. That right there is what helps make this story work.
Yes, the liar reveal is a very common trope among movies, especially kids movies. But, that really allows the world of Kung Fu Panda to be build upon more fluently and not have it being bog down by common cinematic universe tropes where EVERYTHING MUST BE CONNECTED! These really aren’t the pandas that was able to heal Oogway and bare witness to Kai’s evil turn, these are just ordinary pandas that don’t know the first thing about chi or really anything to do with kung fu. This is yet another misdirect that could ruin an entire film if not done properly but it’s able to do it well enough because it plays a role in Po’s arc in the film.
The main thing about Po in this movie is not just having to learn chi but pass his knowledge of kung fu onto others. He attempts to train the Five before but fails to do so. He must try it again but this time teach the village of pandas and his father, Mr. Ping (who I forgot to mention is along for the ride too). Except this time, Po realizes that he can’t teach others kung fu by intimating his style but must build upon the styles of others by using the everyday activities from pandas. Just like the way Shifu trained Po in the first film, Po must find unconventional ways to train his fellow panda bears. With step one of Po learning to become a teacher being completed, now must come the part where Po must learn how to chi.
Of course, Po wants to take the easiest way imaginable to be Kai. Face him head on, get close enough to him, and use the wuxi finger hole to send him back to the spirit realm. And as usual with movies, it’s not that simple. Kai reveals that the technique only works on mortals and that he is a spirit warrior. Because of that, Kai is able to recall the chi and beat Po. With the villain gaining the upper hand and Po failing to learn the power of chi, it must be very doom and gloom for the hero. How can Po actually save the day this time? By beating the bad guy at his own game!
To save all the others, Po grabs Kai and sakdooshes himself and Kai to transport them both to the spirit realm, the place which chi basically originated from. I guess if Po was unable to master chi in the real world, might as well go to the place where that power came from to be able to do it. Of course, Po can’t do this on his own. It’s with the help of his father and the entire panda village, they are able to unlock their own power of chi and pass it on to Po. As it turns out, it’s finding one’s true self that is the key to unlocking chi. It’s Po reuniting with his kind and the help from his friends that he was able to rediscover himself once again and learn the true meaning of chi. Because of that, he’s able to use his chi to destroy Kai and his weapons and save the day once again.
It’s then we get into the scene that not just Kung Fu Panda3 has been building too but perhaps the entire trilogy up to this point in general. In the Spirit Realm, Po is able to reunite with Oogway. The wise old master tells Po that the reason he chose him to be the Dragon Warrior is because he saw the potential in both to master both kung fu and chi. Now that he has been able to successfully do both, he passes the baton to Po by making the Dragon Warrior his true successor as Grand Master and gives up his mystic staff to him. Po then uses that wisdom, knowledge, and staff he now has to pass on what he has learned to the pandas and residents of the Valley of Peace, teaching them all the true meaning of kung fu and chi. Now, Po has become the ultimate Kung Fu Master he has always dreamed of since the beginning of the first film. He has truly earned the titled name of Kung Fu Panda.
Kung Fu Panda 3 is a film that is easy to dismiss when looking at it on the surface. From its familiar plot beats to its toned down humor, it almost feels as if it’s falling into the traps that the franchise has avoided up to this point and that it’s starting to become a shadow of it’s former self. However, with seeing how Po’s journey concludes by the end of the movie and at the end of this trilogy, there is something to chew upon greatly here. It really feels like Po has fully 100% lived up to the Dragon Warrior name, just as Oogway hoped he would the moment he chose him.
This movie is not only about Po learning to become a teacher, a master of chi, or becoming that ultimate kung fu warrior he has always dreamed of, it’s about Po learning to find the best of all these worlds when it comes to being the Dragon Warrior and a panda. He doesn’t need to compromise one end or the other, he’s willing to do them all. He can still hold onto his two daddies and his Kung Fu family at the same time just like how he can master kung fu and chi at the same time. He just needed to find that version of himself that was willing to do it. In this case, he just needed to learn to find his inner chi.
And that about does it for my Kung Fu Panda retrospective marathon. Sorry, it took a little later in the month to get around to it but I had other things in February that I wanted to cover first.
I will have my review of Kung Panda 4 sometime next week. I’m not sure how to feel about that movie considering the disturbing lack of marketing for it, almost as if DreamWorks is trying to hide it from the whole world. I hope that it’s able to do what all of the Kung Fu Panda films have done thus far and find a brand new story to tell with Po where he learns something grand that progresses his character forward. I guess we’ll see if it’s able to do that next month!
Once again, thanks to everyone that clicked on these pieces of each three films. I hope you enjoy it and look forward to more content on this blog!
If there is one movie out there that is basically the textbook definition of “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover!”, that would be Kung Fu Panda. On paper, this sounds like the dumbest idea ever. A big fat panda voiced by Jack Black learning Kung Fu?! That feels like an idea that came from the same person that thought The Emoji Movie would be a great hit! And that’s not even going to the overall marketing and trailers for this movie, which played the movie as being nothing more than a water down slapstick comedy aimed for toddlers. However, once the movie came out during the summer of 2008, we all could not have been wrong about Kung Fu Panda.
I believe it’s safe to say that Kung Fu Panda has been far in a way Dreamwork’s most surprising franchise to date. Heck, with the exception of Shrek and How To Train Your Dragon, you could argue Kung Fu Panda is their best and most consistent franchise to date. This was a series of films that most folks didn’t think could hold it’s own standalone film, let alone a franchise, with a premise that sounded like the stupidest idea imaginable. However, not only is Kung Fu Panda is able to work despite it’s silly premise, it’s able to work BECAUSE of it.
It’s able to use that “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” mindset that not only acts what most folks thought of Kung Fu Panda when watching it but use that as the central theme throughout the film. And it’s that theme that makes for the perfect way to tell the story of the main character of Po, the titled panda that learns kung fu. A story that is yet again another chosen one narrative with the main character having to go through the typical hero’s journey but is able to use it’s admittedly absurd premise to find a completely fresh and unique way to tell it. It’s that exact reason and much more that makes Kung Fu Panda the right movie to talk about when it comes to films that is successfully able to redefine the typical chosen one narrative.
When we first meet Po, he seems like the last person that is worthy of being the chosen one, or as the movie refers to it as The Dragon Warrior. Sure, he is shown to be a massive fanboy of kung fu, with him having dreams of becoming the ultimate dragon warrior and owning his own action figures of the entire Furious Five group, but he comes off as an absolute clumsy oaf who don’t seem to take anything seriously. However, despite having a straight forward future with running a noodle shop with his TOTALLY not adapted father Mr. Ping, his heart doesn’t seem to eagerly awaiting for that kind of future. He’s awaiting for that special opportunity to fight alongside the Furious Five. He’s awaiting to become a kung fu warrior. It’s then the day that Po has been waiting for arrives, the day that known kung fu legend Master Oogway announces who The Dragon Warrior is.
After a handful of hilariously comedy bits in seeing how Po tries to enter a closed palace for the ceremony along with admitting to his father that noodles aren’t really his thing, we see Oogway choosing the Dragon Warrior. And that Dragon Warrior turned out to be no one other than Po himself. Not Tigress, not any member of the Furious Five, and not even a tall and muscular man! The Dragon Warrior is a fat panda named Po.
That moment is not only Oogway choosing the fate of kung fu in the valley of peace set in China but the fate of the actual movie in general. He is basically counting on the most unlikely person imaginable for the job. He is counting on the titled panda character voiced by Jack Black to carry the entire picture and make Po’s heroic journey feel earned. It may seem unimaginable but Oogway has fate in himself, his students, and most importantly, the audience to be alongside Po’s quest to become the Dragon Warrior by any means necessary.
Shifu is the one kung fu master that has to train Po to become the Dragon Warrior, as he had trained the Furious Five. His goal is to teach the panda kung fu and have him become good enough to not only defeat the sinister Tai Lung, Shifu’s fallen apprentice that has escaped from prison with a massive grudge against his former master, but also to claim the dragon scroll, which is believed to have the secrets to limitless power of kung fu. However, as you would expect for as someone that is as bumbling and clumsy as Po looks, it does not start off well at all.
Po’s early days of training are nothing short of disaster. Fallen short of every possible training lesson, session, and technique needed to master any sort of kung fu, Po had lived up to his first impressions of being the worst possible person for the job of the Dragon Warrior. Due to that, every one around him seems to think that Oogway made a mistake picking Po. Shifu believes it, the Furious Five believes it, and worst of all, Po himself believes it as well. The only person that does NOT believe Oogway was wrong is well…Oogway himself.
After receiving word of Tai Lung escaping from prison, Shifu realizes that their days may be numbered before evil strikes the heart of the valley of peace. Matters are made even more complicated when Oogway’s time has come and dies of old age at the Sacred Peach Tree, blown away by wind and pink petals. Even though Shifu has done everything in his power to get rid of Po, he now knows he has no choice but to do everything in his power to train Po and become the ultimate Kung Fu master.
Before he is able to do that, Po tries to run away from the responsibility after coming to the realization that he is the only one that can stop Tai Lung. We then have a great moment between Shifu and Po when the former asks the latter why he didn’t quit when everyone was trying to get rid of him. Po claims that despite all of the constant failing and insults from Shifu and the gang, he powered through with it because he figured that if there was anyone that can change himself from being just a big fat panda to a noble warrior, it was Shifu. This right there is a major defining moment of the movie.
This is when the movie has it’s main character basically questioning it’s own premise and overall existence. There is no way a big fat panda can be the one to be the hero that saves the day, it has to be someone way more than him. Po doesn’t want to be that anymore because that’s not what is normally defined as being a hero. No matter how good he can be at kung fu, Po will always be that big fat panda in his overall appearance and nothing can change that. Nothing except for possibly the dragon scroll.
With Shifu figuring out that the only way to motivated Po to be the best Kung Fu warrior imaginable is with food, he takes unconventional measures to train Po, measures that he could never have done with the Furious Five. Because of that, Po is able to succeed and have now learn how to properly Kung Fu. After the Furious Five attempt to take Tai Lung head on and failing, Shifu believes that it is now time to hand Po the dragon scroll, which is believed to do basically anything to help the Dragon Warrior master Kung Fu in ways unimaginable.
However, something unexpected happens once Po opens up the dragon scroll. It’s blank. Literally completely blank. Only showing himself in a golden reflection. No kung fu cheat codes, no magical or whimsical power! Nothing but Po himself. All of that build up and hype for the dragon scroll turned out to be literally for nothing!
Now, a movie where the big overall reveal turns out to be nothing is a HUGE risk, especially when there has been so much build up towards it. It could make the whole experience feel like it was a giant waste of time with trying to keep a secret that ultimately amount to literally NOTHING. However, Kung Fu Panda not only makes it completely work but it might just be the best “nothing” twist that I’ve seen in any movie.
After Po and the Furious Five go their separate ways with Shifu, who awaits his former student’s arrival, we see Po running into his father once again as the whole valley evacuates. Despite learning kung fu, it seems like Po is right back where he started at the beginning of the film, awaiting his noodle tradition future with his adopted father. It’s then that Mr. Ping believes it is time for him to let his son know of his little secret. That secret being the secret ingredient of his secret ingredient soup. And just like with the dragon scroll, the secret ingredient is literally nothing.
That’s right! That secret that Mr. Ping has kept from his son for so long turned out to be literally nothing. It’s nothing but plain old noodle soup. Even though there is no secret ingredient, Mr. Ping believes he doesn’t need it for his soup to be a success. The fact that he believes his soup making skills are special is good enough for him. The fact that he believed in it hard enough and made it happen was the true secret ingredient to all of this.
And there it is right there! That was the meaning of The Dragon Scroll! That was the point that Oogway was trying to get across! There is no secret ingredient to becoming a hero, it’s just you! Your overall appearance doesn’t matter! It’s only a matter if you believe in yourself willingly to accomplish the goals you set out to achieve! That moment right there is not only telling Po himself not to take himself for granted but also the audience as well!
It’s Po using the skills he learned from Shifu and the knowledge he discovered from his father to defeat the sinister Tai Lung. It’s nothing that was learned from any member of the Furious Five or even Shifu himself, it was all on Po. And that realization comes into fruition when Tai Lung finally gets his hands on The Dragon Scroll only to find out it’s literally nothing. All of that training and years of anticipation for the dragon scroll to find out it’s literally nothing. The main difference here is that Po is able to discover the inner meaning of himself with that reveal while Tai Lung is unable to. It’s because of that and more that Po is the one victorious in the end and Tai Lung ends up in skadoosh land.
There have been many different ways of telling the traditional chosen one narrative. There has been plenty of franchises out there that have done that and done it well. However, there isn’t one that I can recall that was able to tell it as fresh, unique, and most importantly, subversive as Kung Fu Panda. It’s like the filmmakers behind were fully aware of it’s absurd premise that audiences would judge too harshly on the surface. It’s like they wanted to use that sense of doubt from everyone to not only prove all the naysayers of the film wrong but literally have that be the main driving force of the film. And if the success of this film is anything to go by, I would say they succeeded spectacularly.
It’s that positive mindset of not doubting yourself that has led DreamWorks to the success with Kung Fu Panda. At the end of the day, when you set yourself out to achieve something, it’s only you that can accomplish it. There’s no secret weapon or trick to do it all, it’s just you. It’s only if you have the confidence to believe in yourself will you be able to accomplish your dreams when given the opportunity. Po was able to do that just well throughout the series and hopefully you can too with whatever you set out to be. Only then where you might just become your own version of the chosen one or The Dragon Warrior.
Next up in the marathon: Kung Fu Panda 2– How To Make The Perfect Villain
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