SpongeBob SquarePants continues to change things up, in the latest season 16 episode, “SpongeBob TrashPants”. We follow SpongeBob in his efforts to clean up trash in Goo Lagoon. This sounds straightforward enough, but the crew gave the episode a unique twist which made it yet another highlight of the season.
The episode starts off with SpongeBob sunbathing on the beach, when a passerby drops a wrapper. SpongeBob gives chase to it as it flies away, and ironically causes more litter to be dropped as he disrupts beachgoers. Before he knows it, he has a litter picker in hand and is on a mission to clean Bikini Bottom’s iconic beach. In the process of doing this, he accidentally jabs Plankton in the behind, which felt like the scene from “Walking Small” where SpongeBob innocently treads on the tiny super villain.
Realising the litter picker is taking too long, he switches to a vacuum cleaner which is all too effective as it sucks up all the Goo Lagoon sand, leaving a metal bottom beneath. With the intense rays of the sun, the Bikini Bottomites are cooked on this surface, with a hilarious gag of them being turned into real life battered fish. Larry swings by and compliments the citizens on their tans, and decides he wants in on that action.
SpongeBob then follows Bubble Bass who’s dropping more wrappers behind him. We get a perfect use of the “Hall Monitor” face and voice (used multiple times in this episode to great effect), as a really dynamic chase scene ensues, as SpongeBob hitches an anchor to Bubble Bass and the pickle-lover runs off, with SpongeBob in tow. The chase ends with SpongeBob flying into a carriage that Slappy is towing, carrying none other than Nosferatu in a coffin. I love that this guy is still a recurring character in the show! Our favourite vampire falls out of the coffin though and turns to ash under the intense sun. No worries though, SpongeBob cleans up the… remains and sends Slappy on his way. A dark turn but I loved it.
After, SpongeBob spots a crumpled piece of paper and there’s a cool Western standoff as the frame narrows, and SpongeBob pulls an extremely off-model, grizzly cowboy face, which reminded me of faces seen in The Amazing World of Gumball, This makes an otherwise mundane confrontation feel epic and cinematic, and I felt myself twitching in my seat waiting for the outcome. The fourth wall is quickly broken though as the frame shatters in SpongeBob’s attempts to catch the paper. He then tries to lure the paper into a hole which he moves, which felt like a very Looney Tunes gag but worked great. He’s eventually able to emotionally blackmail the paper close to him, where he’s able to capture it. Unfortunately, the paper escapes SpongeBob’s pocket and eventually corners it near a building.
In another stand-off, SpongeBob is able to impale the paper with his spear but the paper develops propellers and flies off, carrying SpongeBob with it. It turns out to be Plankton, seeking revenge on the yellow square for injuring him in the behind. Another really funny chase ensues as SpongeBob is maimed by a windmill and radio tower. Eventually though, Plankton’s paper chopper runs out of gas and they crash into Larry sunbathing on the beach, spreading sand and litter everywhere. Furious, Larry orders the pair to clean up litter for the rest of the year. Plankton ends the episode with a perfect line from cartoon villains of the past!
As I said earlier, the plot of this episode sounds simple, but there was endless creativity that went into it. The artistic direction here was nothing short of stunning. There was a beautiful orange sky throughout the episode, which gave the episode a distinct warm feeling that wasn’t anything like the show has done before. The sky flowers and objects in the background felt more abstract than normal, with colours overlapping edge lines and visible paint and pastel strokes. The episode felt very cartoony and vibrant, and had a retro feel that felt authentic.
The episode clearly paid homage to 1930s Disney cartoons, Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, and more. This was down to the art direction as above, and also the fluid and off-model animation. SpongeBob having exaggerated animation has been a talking point for years now, and I have my own thoughts on that, but it worked a treat here. The expressions SpongeBob pulled were wild, but were really funny. They weren’t gross-out like in “Face Freeze!” or other post-movie episodes. They had a clear purpose here and fit the scene they were in, and the tone for the episode. We saw the return of the “Hall Monitor” face and voice which was a fantastic nod to the past, but also genuinely fit this content. When SpongeBob turned into a real-life robot briefly, that reminded me of the Flash Gordon era, where robot movies and threats of AI invasion were on the rise. Nice to know that’s a thing of the past.
Overall, what could’ve been a pretty ‘standard’, fun SpongeBob episode is actually a beautifully crafted standout of the season. It pays homage to past cartoons with a lot of confidence, while having the unique SpongeBob flavours. I wouldn’t want something like this episode every week, as I stand by that SpongeBob isn’t made for this style at its core. But as a fun experiment and homage to the past, it works perfectly and is a great love letter to the animation industry as a whole.
Chris.
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