Last summer, when I interviewed him before the release of “Winnie the Pooh”, Tom Kenny mentioned that there were discussions underway about the making of another SpongeBob SquarePants movie. Happily those discussions have turned into plans, with the announcement that there will be a “SpongeBob SquarePants Movie 2”, scheduled to be released in late 2014.
The original “SBSP” film made over $85 million dollars in the U.S. and is considered a classic among fans of the Nick cartoon, including yours truly. The new movie will be the first made by Paramount Pictures new animation division. Paramount is breaking ties with DreamWorks Animation, who they worked with for the first SpongeBob movie. Paramount just won an Oscar for “Rango”, their first fully-owned CGI film.
No word yet on a plot for “The SBSP Movie 2” and it really doesn’t matter. As long as the same writers and voice actors that work on the TV show (and did the first film) are on board the movie will be fantastic and should gross well-over $100-million, since SpongeBob and the show are so much more popular now than they were back in 2004.
It will be tough to top the first film, including the memorable David Hasselhoff cameo (“HORRAY!”), but I’m sure they will.