Ever since it was announced that SpongeBob SquarePants was headed back to the big screen for a brand new movie, everyone has been pretty excited. And now, the actor who voices the iconic sponge we all know and love, Tom Kenny, has spilled all the tea on what fans can expect from the upcoming flick, Sponge On The Run.
“It’s a really funny story, with SpongeBob, Patrick and the rest of the Bikini Bottom gang embarking on an insane road trip to rescue Spongie’s beloved pet snail Gary from a very slimy situation!” he revealed to J-14 exclusively. “There’s fun music and some very unexpected guest star celebrity cameos!”
Wow, how epic does that sound?! And it turns out, Nickelodeon has secretly been working on the film for quite some time now.
“Pretty immediately after the 2015 SpongeBob movie, SpongeBob: Sponge Out Of Water, did good business, they started discussing the possibility of a follow up,” he explained. “Then there were various drafts of the story and script and at one point the title was: SpongeBob: It’s a Wonderful Sponge! I’m notoriously bad with dates, but I’m thinking we started recording it in Summer of 2019 or so? Recording voiceover for a feature film is a much slower process than doing it for a TV series. The movies are recorded in little teeny bits and pieces over a long period of time. With the TV show, we knock out a whole 11 minute episode in three or four hours!”
As for the scene he’s most excited for fans to see, the 57-year-old said there’s one that’s very “out of control.”
“There are some very cute flashbacks to the characters‘ childhoods and their early days, but for me, the scene I really can’t wait to see is the one where SpongeBob and Patrick find themselves in a casino, and get the ‘gambling fever!’ he dished. “It gets VERY out of control, and the day Bill Fagerbakke and I recorded that scene we were laughing really hard — both at the idea and at the visuals!”
Not to worry, you guys, because according to Tom, this definitely isn’t the last you’re going to see of the yellow sea creature on the big screen.
“I sure hope there are LOTS more SpongeBob movies! There was 11 years between the first SpongeBob film and the second SpongeBob film, this time it was only 5 years!” he told us. “The movie stories have to be bigger and more epic than the TV show‘s stories, where you can spend 11 minutes on SpongeBob learning how to tie his shoes. I’ll bet there are super-creative young people out there reading this interview right now who are going to be the ones dreaming up SpongeBob‘s future antics, running the show and writing future SpongeBob films! I’m sure their ideas are better than any that I could come up with! I’m looking forward to them being my bosses!”
Finally, we just had to ask the star what his favorite part was about playing SpongeBob, and his answer seriously brought a tear to our eyes.
“My favorite part about being SpongeBob is just THAT: Being Spongebob!” he said. “Voicing SpongeBob during 20+ years of his insane adventures, has been a crazy fun adventure for ME! Stephen Hillenburg casting me is the best thing that ever happened to me; and all of us that work on the show are still really enjoying the ride and all the unexpected places it’s still taking us! It’s like the most fun theme park ride you’ve ever been on, except instead of being over in two minutes, it goes on for a quarter century and still counting! The love, laughs and affection that people of all ages have for the character is just so gratifying, and it seems like even after all these years, there is still someone out there every day discovering SpongeBob for the first time! SpongeBob fans are the nicest people in the world, and it’s gratifying to be welcomed into their lives, from childhood into adulthood, and continuing into the next generation! Also, I feel very very lucky to have a job that I love! I know a lot of people never manage to find that.”
Sponge On the Run will be available to stream on CBS All Access on August 7, 2020.
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