The most popular animated film of all time dominates Netflix’s top 10
From Jonathan Klotz
| Published
For nearly 30 years, one cartoon has dominated pop culture in a way few could hope for, and no, it isn’t The Simpsons. SpongeBob SquarePants was released in 1999, and as the 30th anniversary approaches, the optimistic sponge that lives in a pineapple under the sea shows no signs of slowing down. As proof, The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water has been in Netflix’s top 10 for over a week and is not in the children’s list either, but at the top The Guardians And Horizon: An American Saga in the top 10 overall.
A film that defies explanation
The continued success of SpongeBob SquarePants It may come as a surprise, but children who grew up following the adventures of the Bikini Bottom crew are now old enough to have children of their own, who in turn will introduce them to the groundbreaking series. And yes, as someone mentioned Doug, Ren and StimpyAnd RugratsThat was a painful sentence. Even those who didn’t grow up with the series have been exposed to it The Simpsons. It’s become a central part of modern internet culture and it seems there’s a Spongebob meme for every occasion.
Most of the popular memes come from the early seasons of the series The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water was released in 2015 and sends Spongebob and his friends on a journey through time, space and the strangest of places, the mainland, to find the Krabby Patty recipe and save Bikini Bottom. It’s delightfully strange and offers an unhinged performance Antonio Banderas like the pirate Burger Beard, and any attempt to summarize parts like “Bikini Bottom turns into Mad Max” and “Sandy tries to sacrifice Spongebob to appease the sandwich gods” sounds crazy, which is why it was a return to the climax SpongeBob SquarePants.
Paramount’s most successful franchise
Every long-running series will have its ups and downs, but just the same The Simpsons Movie helped distract fans from the lackluster seasons that surrounded it, The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water did the same. The difference is that SpongeBob SquarePants continued to produce films and more were added over the next few years The Simpsons could finally, mercifully, come to an end.
That can be argued SpongeBob SquarePants has become, shall we say, too much of a children’s show in the last decade and has lost the satirical appeal it had before the unfortunate death of creator Stephen Hillenburg, but what cannot be denied is that it is Paramount’s most successful franchise .
Star Trek Fans know very well that it is one of the biggest franchises of all time, but it has always struggled to be profitable, so it makes perfect sense that it is a merchandising machine SpongeBob SquarePants is one of the most valuable franchises in the world. The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water grossed over $325 million in theaters and was more profitable than on a budget of just $72 million Star Trek: Beyondwhich further solidifies its status as the crown Jewel of Paramount’s media empire. It’s easy to overlook these days, but there’s no denying that the strange cartoon that turns a plankton into a recurring villain (so to speak) is one of the most popular shows in the world.
Although The Simpsons has surpassed it in longevity as the longest-running animated series, SpongeBob SquarePants has more spin-offs, more movies, more merchandise, more theme park rides, more video games and more memes. There are now two generations that can recognize handsome Squidward, but may not know who Hank Scorpio is or why “Boo-urns” is one of the greatest punchlines in comedy history. Golden age Simpsons can’t be touched, but that ended before Spongebob has aired its first episode.
The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water is the best feature film in the series to date, although it was followed by sponge on the run, and a fourth film in December this year, The search for SquarePants, I will ben theater. 13 seasons of SpongeBob SquarePants are available to stream on Paramount+ while The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water is also available on Netflix.
