Bugged out – second movement

The family PC is yet again inoperable, so I’ve taken matters into my own hands and stolen the modem. Now I’m hooked up to the net in my room, and it’s not nearly what I thought it would be. For one, I have no FrontPage, so I have to do this in the Angelfire editor, which is really inconvenient after working in FrontPage for so long. Secondly, for reasons unknown, most pictures refuse to display in my Internet Explorer browser. I haven’t installed Opera on this PC, but I’m thinking maybe it’s time to try. On the upside, I did get my sound working properly again. I switched out the sound card, and now it works perfectly again.

So that’s my alibi for not posting until now. I’ve got a lot to post about, and I still wanna do an article on Metroid Prime 2, so fixing the main computer is of the greatest importance right now. Sadly, it seems as though the only way to do it is to reformat the thing. This is bad, because all of my site from July up until now is on that hard drive and not backed up. Fortunately, it’s on the internet as well, so I can salvage mostly everything if it becomes necessary. Yeah. I guess I should type some stuff about someting a little more interesting now.

Saw the Spongebob Squarepants movie on Saturday. Was delightfully surprised at how good it was. I was expecting it to be decent at least (I do enjoy the show to some extent, after all), but it came out close to awesome. Pretty much in the “see it twice” range. I wouldn’t buy it, but I would be radiant if it were given to me as a gift. I guess I should tell youse a little bit about the movie, as I was planning on doing a mini-review of it anyway.

The plot is a little strange, but it’s Spongebob, so that’s easily forgivable. It starts with the grand opening of the Krusy Krab 2 (a sequel to a restaurant?? Right beside the original??), and Spongebob is rather hyped, as he is sure that Mr. Krabs will name him the manager of the new store. But as is surely forseeable, Spongebob is not given the job, on account of he is just a kid and not nearly mature enough for the responsibility. He is then struck by depression, and goes on an ice cream bender (and I mean it, he literally gets “drunk” off the stuff) with Patrick, and then the real plot noses itself in.

Over at the Chum Bucket, Plankton is distraught that he has exhausted all of his evil plans. “From A to Y” as he says. but then his computer wife pipes up, suggesting that he try Plan Z. And boy is Plan Z a dastardly one. The tiny genius sneaks into King Neptune’s palace, steals the king’s crown, and sets up Mr. Krabs to take the fall. King Neptune is ready to execute Krabs, but Spongebob comes in an claims that he and Patrick will return the crown, which has been taken away to Shell City. They are ridiculed, on account of they’re just kids, and Neptune’s daughter Mindy convinces him to let them try. He agrees, and gives them six days to return with his crown, and freezes Mr. Krabs solid, just to make sure he doesn’t high-tail it outta there.

The two heroes leave for their quest in the promotional Karbby Patty car, and then the plot thickens. Everything is going perfectly according to Plankton’s scheme, and he sneaks into the Krusty Krab and steals the secret recipe for the Krabby Patty as Krabs watched helpless, encased in ice. Everytihng works out for him, and soon everyone is eating at the Chum Bucket, and as a bonus, Plankton even gives out free bucket helmets to everyone. And that’s not even the last phase of the plan…

Meanwhile, Spongebob and Patrick are having a rough time on their quest, facing many dangers including a giant eel, tough biker fish, several deadly deepsea fish, mocking gas station workers, and a bounty hunter that goes by the name of Dennis. They lose the car twice (you’ll see…) and eventually come to an impassable trench. Mindy shows up and uses her “mermaid magic” to “make them men”, which gives them the courage to jump into the trench and strut right through. It’s also one of the very few musical scenes in the movie. I say few, because I expected there would be many, and I was surprised that – not counting the theme song – there were only two. Maybe Disney’s just fucked my mind to the point where I expect lots of crappy songs in any cartoon movie. I don’t know. Stupid Disney.

So things progress and the plot gets thicker and such, with pseudo-zombies, a “cyclops”, some evil cackling, and David Hasselhoff. I’m not going to spoil the rest of the movie, but I will tell you that the climax is quite awesome. Not giving any specific details, Twisted Sister ends up saving the day. Well not directly, but it’s surely a sight to be seen, and a song to be heard. Really, it’s a great ending that may surpass even the tons of one-liiners and jokes as the best part of the movie. Definitely a great ending for a great movie.

As for why the movie is great, well, it’s Spongebob. If you ever watch the show, you know what kind of humour to expect. Only it’s magnified about a thousand times. In the end, it falls just short of side-splittingly hilarious. Yes, it is mostly idiot humour, but I was very entertained throughout by it. Not quite as funny as Shaun of the Dead, but it surely does it’s job well. It’s kinda funny though, that for most of the movie, I got a really big PeeWee’s Big Adventure vibe. The movies are somewhat similar in terms of plot and events, and I’m not sure how to finish this sentence. I also found the movie to be even more reminiscent of Ren & Stimpy than the show is. Not really noted as a good or bad thing, I just thought I’d mention it.

That’s pretty much it. I strongly urge you to go see the movie. Unless you absolutely can’t stand Spongebob Squarepants. And if you only hate him because he’s so damn popular or you think you’re too cool to like Spongebob, shame on you. Definitely a movie worth your so dollars, and possibly even worth a second full-priced viewing. So if anyone wants to go, I’m in.

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