254/255. SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout

[RD Rockruff]

Admittedly, for a while, I put off watching this episode. Whether it were due to external influence making me feel uneasy about watching it, or just out of exhaustion with the show in general (as much as I like the direction the show's going in), I didn't see this episode for a bit over a week after it first aired. And, what are my thoughts on it? Well...

...it was good, but not great. For starters, this episode does not have an exactly concise plot. Not that it detracts from the quality of the episode overall, but considering this is a TV movie, I guess I would have expected it to be a bit more... solid? But eh, what can I ask for anyways, it's just an episode... And besides, at least it doesn't have an idiot plot like Truth or Square did. Anyways, structurally, this episode is broken up into two segments intersecting each other. I'll discuss both of them right below.

The underwater segments consist of several parts: The beginning where the plot is set up, the middle where the party is being set up, and the ending, which I'll get to later. The beginning of the episode was fine, but, to be honest, I'm having trouble remembering it. That being said, it's not a bad scene... the only iffy part was the gag with Patrick's spit, but admittedly it didn't affect me as much as it could have. The parts intersecting the above-water segments are probably the best parts of the episode for me. The party setup is pure insanity, and this is where most of the episode's humor is. Although they aren't the peak of post-sequel's comedy, these middle sections of the underwater segments are where most of my enjoyment of the episode came from, and I'm happy that they put some focus on these scenes whenever they could.

As for the above-water segments, I'm a bit more mixed on them. Starting off, like in Truth or Square, a lot of the celebrity appearances feel more hollow than anything else. I wouldn't say they're as bad as in Truth or Square, but celebrity cameos are already... not something I exactly look forwards to. The scene with Kel Mitchell as a bean mascot was passable, I wouldn't say it was as cringeworthy as the commercials had made them out to be but the "sliming" section of it is basically another trite Nickelodeon stereotype, and one I never especially cared for personally. That being said, again, I don't despise this scene. Anyways, the Trusty Slab scene felt somewhat forced as well, admittedly. Not to the point of Truth or Square's worse moments, no, but it didn't really feel all that fulfilling either? It was just there for a few scenes and brushed off not too long after. And it was kind of odd having the normal character voices coming out of the human variations in the Trusty Slab, but I guess that's to be expected. Other things I could say about these parts of the episode are that they're not unfunny (just a bit drier than the underwater scenes) and the CGI got a few laughs out of me, if just out of ironic enjoyment... Oh, crap, I almost forgot about the conflict near the end with the aquarium. This conflict felt kind of forced, to be honest: It just kind of... happens. And that one fish who kept kissing towards Patrick would fill a nice spot on that one Bruh Moments Twitter page. That stuff aside, I didn't hate these segments of the episode, just I wasn't feeling it as much as with the underwater segments.

As for the ending? It's alright. Not gonna lie, it did sort of feel like a fulfilling ending, with Patchy finally getting to meet Spongebob after so long (if the method were a bit, uh... strange), but otherwise I'm not sure what else to make of this ending. All I can say is that I enjoyed it.

tl;dr: This episode has aspects I like and aspects I didn't like, but overall they played together well enough, especially in the underwater segments, that I ended up liking this episode overall. I wouldn't call it a modern classic, but I found it enjoyable enough.

7/10 (GOOD episode)

[Fondue]

I was weary of this special at first based on the preview I had seen, and went in with low expectations, thinking it was going to be mediocre at best. Thankfully, that didn't turn out to be the case. The special started out a bit slow in terms of pacing, but it got better after the first 10 minutes, and stayed consistently well-paced for the remainder.

The A-plot with the surface land trip was great. Although it had an aforementioned slow start, I loved how they were able to brew up tons of humor out of the seemingly typical destinations they traveled to. The ratio of SB characters to guest stars was equal enough to not make me complain. Oh, and speaking of guest stars, I loved seeing Kel Mitchell as the bean guy. Kel is incredibly flexible with whatever role he happens to be cast in.

The B-plot, SpongeBob's surprise party attempting to be set up, was also pretty good. I'd say it's about even to the A-plot in terms of quality. The only downside to this plot was the bit about Plankton attempting to steal the formula, which felt forced, but even that was minor enough to not negatively affect my rating. I felt the characters were utilized well, each displaying their own interests in various ways plus simultaneously blending into the overall plot without causing any damage to its structure. The Peter Lorre fish, Slappy, was also a nice sight to see; very Looney Tunes-esque. There was a clever twist on the "My Leg" gag this time that I really enjoyed.

And not to mention the ending. Since it had Gilbert Gottfried, it was easily the peak of the episode.

Spoiler

Even if it was simple, that "Thank You Steve Hillenburg" card at the end was very heartwarming, especially since this was supposedly the last episode he worked on.

A+