Spongicus:
Plankton turns The Chum Bucket into a Colloseum to lure customers away from The Krusty Krab.
While this segment is low on laughs, it makes up for that with the cool story. It's celebratory and exciting, and for the first time since the movie Plankton feels legitimately evil. His primary goal is to steal Mr. Krab's customers, but also decides to make one of them unwillingly participate in a deadly arena fight.
The chase scene between Patrick and the lionfish has solid stakes, and features SpongeBob at his bravest. I find it very amusing how excited he first gets over the idea of a Roman-style arena fight, most likely from all those swords-and-sandals movies like Spartacus. As soon as he sees Patrick come in however he instantly panicks.
Plankton charging 10 dollars for chum sticks made me laugh, and got an even funnier callback in the ending as Krabs uses the same trick by charging 10 dollars for every Krabby Patty (when they previously cost 1). When the customer tells him it's too much, Krabs points to the new "financial advisor", which is the lionfish we saw earlier.
He, SpongeBob, Patrick and Mr. Krabs then break out in laughter, followed by dead-eyed blank stares and everybody walking away. It's an odd ending, but I found it funny somehow.
Suction Cup Symphony:
After Squidward hears about the Bikini Bottom Symhony Orchestra competition, he's determined to write a composition so great there's no way he won't win. But to his chagrin he keeps getting disturbed by all the noise outside...
The humor throughout is rollicking. At first we have Squidward practicing his clarinette, which sounds so atrocious SpongeBob mistakes it for bad gas. Him trying to cover for Squidward by pretending the noises come from somewhere else is not only hilarious, but actually very nice of him. He doesn't want Squid to feel embarrassed.
Then as usual, he and Patrick start to annoy Squidward. What makes it stand out is how they don't just act like clowns, but have a reason for it. Patrick breaks his ass while falling (which is accompanied by a very funny sight gag where it's literally shown broken, to the point where his bones stick out), so his friend has to perform some very painful procedures on him. These procedures only get more and more absurd. The best one of them is Patrick getting electrocuted during the cat scan like he was in the chair.
Squidward's frustration as he tries to work but can't concentrate with all the noise outside is very understandable. His struggle makes you root for him since you know how much he wants a spot in the competition.
There are some very fun visuals such as Squidward literally melting of happiness when he thinks about the positive reception over his composition, a rainbow shining over his head which drops to the floor like paint when he gets disturbed and the homage to Squid's Day Off when his piece has finally been written.
The climactic scene as he presents it to the jury is a joy to behold. He somehow wrote Patrick and SpongeBob's activities outside *into* the actual piece, so we get to see it juxtaposed with his more traditional music. When he's met by confused murmurs afterwards he thinks he's lost, but when he starts to walk away everyone applauds. It's a heartwarming and satisfying victory.
Plankton turns The Chum Bucket into a Colloseum to lure customers away from The Krusty Krab.
While this segment is low on laughs, it makes up for that with the cool story. It's celebratory and exciting, and for the first time since the movie Plankton feels legitimately evil. His primary goal is to steal Mr. Krab's customers, but also decides to make one of them unwillingly participate in a deadly arena fight.
The chase scene between Patrick and the lionfish has solid stakes, and features SpongeBob at his bravest. I find it very amusing how excited he first gets over the idea of a Roman-style arena fight, most likely from all those swords-and-sandals movies like Spartacus. As soon as he sees Patrick come in however he instantly panicks.
Plankton charging 10 dollars for chum sticks made me laugh, and got an even funnier callback in the ending as Krabs uses the same trick by charging 10 dollars for every Krabby Patty (when they previously cost 1). When the customer tells him it's too much, Krabs points to the new "financial advisor", which is the lionfish we saw earlier.
He, SpongeBob, Patrick and Mr. Krabs then break out in laughter, followed by dead-eyed blank stares and everybody walking away. It's an odd ending, but I found it funny somehow.
Suction Cup Symphony:
After Squidward hears about the Bikini Bottom Symhony Orchestra competition, he's determined to write a composition so great there's no way he won't win. But to his chagrin he keeps getting disturbed by all the noise outside...
The humor throughout is rollicking. At first we have Squidward practicing his clarinette, which sounds so atrocious SpongeBob mistakes it for bad gas. Him trying to cover for Squidward by pretending the noises come from somewhere else is not only hilarious, but actually very nice of him. He doesn't want Squid to feel embarrassed.
Then as usual, he and Patrick start to annoy Squidward. What makes it stand out is how they don't just act like clowns, but have a reason for it. Patrick breaks his ass while falling (which is accompanied by a very funny sight gag where it's literally shown broken, to the point where his bones stick out), so his friend has to perform some very painful procedures on him. These procedures only get more and more absurd. The best one of them is Patrick getting electrocuted during the cat scan like he was in the chair.
Squidward's frustration as he tries to work but can't concentrate with all the noise outside is very understandable. His struggle makes you root for him since you know how much he wants a spot in the competition.
There are some very fun visuals such as Squidward literally melting of happiness when he thinks about the positive reception over his composition, a rainbow shining over his head which drops to the floor like paint when he gets disturbed and the homage to Squid's Day Off when his piece has finally been written.
The climactic scene as he presents it to the jury is a joy to behold. He somehow wrote Patrick and SpongeBob's activities outside *into* the actual piece, so we get to see it juxtaposed with his more traditional music. When he's met by confused murmurs afterwards he thinks he's lost, but when he starts to walk away everyone applauds. It's a heartwarming and satisfying victory.
