Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Small update

I added a new picture of SpongeBob, and three new images to the Other Stuff official art section. Aside from that, I've been experimenting making the comics page look neater and I think I've finally got something.

I also put up, at the bottom of the comics section, a page for related comics. I've got a Wizard of Id strip and a Jimmy/Timmy Power Hour comic, both of which contain mention of SpongeBob.

12 days 'til Who Bob, What Pants? premieres!

Monday, September 29, 2008

No more minigames...please....

I keep getting the date for Who Bob, What Pants? wrong. It's only about two weeks 'til it airs, though. I think it's either sixteen or fifteen days.

I mentioned a while back that I was getting Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition. I'm not expecting anything special, but I bought it because it has DoodleBob. Sure enough, the polygons are ugly, the dialogue is flat, and I caught a plothole in the opening scene. Long as I'm with DoodleBob, right?

It has a few features the original Drawn to Life didn't have that I like; for example, in the SpongeBob one, you can buy new furniture, redraw it, and rearrange the things in your house. The gameplay's pretty good, being built off the original Drawn to Life. The first couple of levels were genuinely fun, but I haven't played since my fifth attempt at the third one.

The third one is a touch-based minigame with unresponsive controls. Yeah, I've calibrated my Touch Screen and everything, but the controls are just plain loopy! The game is ignoring me, I swear. It's true that a good minigame is fun in between platformer levels, but honestly, have they never heard of beta testing?

I'm just griping. I'll get through it eventually. Maybe. It's stupidly long. But hey, I gotta have DoodleBob, right? Anything for him, right?

...Right...?

Believe it, man; I'm a fangirl

I was once told that I'm not a SpongeBob fan if I don't like video games based on SpongeBob. I later beat the person who said that at Fact or Fishy, mostly by answering more questions properly than he.

Face it --- I'm obsessed with SpongeBob. I dedicate every breath I breathe to the man! When, for some reason, I can't watch an episode, I spend the hours reading interviews with Stephen Hillenburg (may he live forever); I have every song off the show recorded and have written lyrics sheets for them (okay, not all...somewhere between sixty and eighty); I started a blog so I could babble about random, SpongeBob-related nonsense, upload over 200 official images I searched all over teh intarwebs for, and upload all the comic scans in case Nick.com should ever get rid of them!

I've written songs about SpongeBob. Serious songs, silly songs, songs that can only sound good coming from the mouth of Tom Kenny....

I've seen every episode, paid close attention to all the little details, rewatched every episode, observed the different styles of the different show writers, and taken my knowledge to write a fan fic trilogy to bring back Doodlebob, save the seemingly hopeless marriage of Plankton and Karen --- Enemy In-Law was not canon, people --- and expose Stephen Hillenburg's (may he live forever) ingenius plot to take over the world through television, all in one melodramatic storyline.

I can tell you the voice actors of Mama Krabs, Bubble Bass, DoodleBob, Bubble Buddy, Jim, and Stanley.

I AM A FANGIRL. YOU SHALL NOT TELL ME OTHERWISE.

Oh, yeah, new comic. ^_^

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Wizard of Id

Sorry for not posting in a week. I've been a little busy. But I'm back. ^_^ I finally have something SpongeBob-related to post about:

Read it, it's funny. XD It certainly brightened up my day.

In other news, fifteen agonizing days 'til Who Bob, What Pants? premieres! I can't stand waiting....

Sunday, September 21, 2008

The book based on the movie based on the book

Earlier, while browsing around http://amazon.com/, I found a book for sale based on Who Bob, What Pants? Who Bob is based on a book called "For the Love of Bubbles". This means they've got...

The book...
...based on the movie...
...based on the book.

Ingenius, eh? Maybe ungenius. Or something. It's silly, though. It's like doing a novelization of the Lord of the Rings movies.

Well, maybe not; truthfully, I don't know how similar Who Bob is to For the Love of Bubbles. For all I know, they're two completely different stories, but the movie is supposedly based on it.

I found the concept of basing a book on a movie that was already based on a book funny, though. :) Ah, well. Here's hoping Who Bob, What Pants will be good!

Friday, September 19, 2008

The problem with the new episodes

Boy, where to start? First off, I'd like to note that I'm not the sort who will criticize something simply because it's a new episode. I don't care if it's season one or season one hundred; if it's funny and well-written, I like it. Some of my favorite episodes have been after the movie, but most of them are not funny and well-written. I think I'll review each season seperately.

Post-movie differences
The movie, being, ya know, the movie, had cleaner line art, good framerate, fancy camera tricks, more shading, and brighter colors. That was fine. It was kind of nice. Problem being, even with those aspects aside, it looked like they were trying out a totally new art style, particularly on Spongey's face. I can't even place my finger on exactly what it is, but his face tended to look ugly and ill-proportioned, and his facial expressions often seemed out there. I mean, sure, "out there" is fine, but I mean too out there.

Season 4
The writing also changed. SpongeBob would sometimes be his normal self; other times, they'd greatly exaggerate certain aspects of his character, until he was a caffeine-fueled two-year-old; other times he'd be very aggressive, hanging onto his sanity by a thread, and incredibly easy to send into a rampage. The writers could've easily used Patrick for parts like this, I think.
Aside from this, Sandy became much stupider, but they put more emphasis on the fact that she was smart. It's like a Mary-Sue fan fic; they talk about these great traits the character has, but they show us nothing.

Aside from this, the humor just lost it's edge.


Season 5
Season 5 fixed many problems with the art, and some with the writing. They got SpongeBob out-of-character less often, but when they did, they sure did. Aside from this, they fleshed out SpongeBob's evident but ignored clean-freak side, and brought back some of his geekier traits which made him so dang endearing. Not to say it was perfect; season 4 seemed like they had no ideas for storylines, but season 5 made it seem like they had plenty of ideas, but couldn't work them properly. Also, unfortunately, season 5's idea of visual humor was drawing Plankton with a bottom.
Speaking of Plankton, as of one season 4 episode his marriage to Karen has been a bad one. Later episodes show this, and what was previously a nice, evil couple has become hideously depressing. Sandy was, for the most part, back in character. SpongeBob was, except for being overly whiny on occasion, and being too close to Squidward.

Season 6
So far, season 6 has been a mixture of seasons 4 and 5. Some episodes are great, some...not so much. For humor, season 6 has relied on rear ends less, but has made up for it with...disgusting injuries.
I'll explain: I'm totally fine with it if Bugs gives Daffy dynamite, the dynamite blows up, and the last we see of Daffy is an angel. That's fine.
I do, however, have something against seeing Plankton's innards, Squid's graphic toe injuries, and an entire episode dedicated to SpongeBob's swelling, infected, pus-oozing splinter!
It's not all like this, but a good deal of it has been. So far, it's not been great, but it has had some decent episodes, and a few outright great episodes.


Keep in mind, though I've listed every flaw in these three seasons, there are episodes in all of them that are shining exceptions. And besides, the first three seasons weren't flawless; they had things like...well...I know they had...hm.... Okay, so they were flawless.
Nickelodeon has confirmed a season 7. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, but I'm gonna watch all of it. All of it!

Technically, Who Bob, What Pants? is a part of season 6, but I have a good feeling about it. Maybe I'm being overly optimistic? ...Nah. :)

Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition

Second post today! Woot. Oh, before I go on, there's a new comic up.

Drawn to Life was a game where you could draw your own characters, weapons, and other things with the DS stylus. The premise was that there were a bunch of bunny-like people called Raposas. One Raposa, Wilfre, has stolen the Boof of Life, which their God wrote in. Everything written in it came to life. Wilfre tried to change reality as he saw fit and rule, but his creations came out black and twisted. Now, the village the Raposas inhabit is trapped in an endless winter and near empty, because everyone has left. The mayor's daughter calls out to their God (you) and asks you to send them a hero. Thus, you draw your hero to life.
It was a cute game, though it contained a badly-written tragedy in it, the storyline was good and the ending scene---unless you're a ten-year-old boy---was a tearjerker.

What does this have to with SpongeBob, you ask? A spin-off, using the original engine, was released on the fifteenth entitled Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition. For real. Truthfully, I don't care much for games based on cartoons. But this is interesting to me because, for one thing it's based on a game I loved. For another thing, the villain happens to be the character who is the protagonist of tons of my fan fiction: DoodleBob!
It's loosely based on the episode Frankendoodle. Basically, DoodleBob uses the pencil to draw himself a badly-drawn army, and you must save his captives. Hmm...it sounds a lot like a fan fic I wrote....
Since it's based on the episode, but promises to be nothing like it, it doesn't really have a place in the SpongeBob canon. Hey, who cares? This DoodleBob fangirl wants. that. game. It's on my birthday list. ;D

Thursday, September 18, 2008

SpongeBob's instrument of choice

No news, so I'm just back to posting random bits of SpongeBobness I've noticed.

Normally, things what instrument is played by a character who doesn't play often doesn't stay consistent. If it's not been said that the character particularly likes that instrument, then it's not really important enough for the writers to make note of again and again. That's why I think this is sort of cool: SpongeBob normally plays something with strings, and Patrick's normally a drummer.

SpongeBob actually plays a pretty wide variety of instruments. The ones I recall him playing most often are guitar and ukulele, but on the episode New Digs, he showed some talent for drums. Just a few occasions, off the top of my head:

Ripped PantsGuitar
F.U.N.Ukulele
Sponge Guard on DutyUkulele
The Camping EpisodeGuitar
The MovieGuitar? I can't remember.


Patrick normally plays the drums, one exception being the episode Krabby Road; he played his belly.

Band GeeksDrums
The Camping EpisodeDrums
The Best Day Ever CDDrums
Krabby RoadBelly

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Overhyped, underhyped, whatever; 26 days!

Argh! It's nearly a month until Who Bob, What Pants? premieres, and I'm sitting here yanking my hair out in impatience! But I've noticed a pattern: whenever Nickelodeon hypes something A LOT, it turns out to be pretty lame. SB: Atlantis SquarePantis; FOP: The Big Superhero Wish; JN: --I think it was this one-- Win, Lose, Kaboom, and on and on. They might've had some good points, but they didn't live up to the hype.

But what about stuff that wasn't hyped as much? Sometimes they hype new episodes of things, but the ones with less hype were the ones that were best. Nine years ago, the day the second SpongeBob episode aired, do you remember commercials saying things like, "Tonight...one Sponge...rips his pants!!"
No? You don't? Exactly.

I've seen very few ads for Who Bob, What Pants? on Nick.com, I've never seen a commercial for it on TV, and I've not seen magazine advertisments. Do you hear any hype coming from anyone but the fans? 
No? You haven't? Exactly.

SpongeGeeks, keep your fingers crossed. And your toes, teeth, eyes, and shoelaces. That way, when October comes...we'll be ready!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

New Kelp City

I read most of this on the Wikipedia, so I can't promise it's reliable.

On Who Bob, What Pants? bubble-blowing is outlawed in New Kelp City. That is, until our amnesiac hero uses his own bubble-blowing skills to drive out the oppressors who have made it so.

Wow. I cannot make that sound anything less than lame....

SpongeBob, confused and searching for his identity, is now considered a hero among the citizens, and is elected mayor for his bravery. He finds himself happy and fulfilled, until a group of "strangers" (Patrick, Sandy, Squidward and Krabs) comes to try to take him home to Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob has not only forgotten them entirely, but has grown attached to the city that declared him its leader.

Oh, the drama! Does he stay? Does he go home? And how could he ever mistake his love for an undersea weasel? And why did Squidward go along? While I'm at it, what is the meaning of life?!

Actually, I'm looking forward to this movie. I really, sincerely believe that Nick may do something right this time, but every pessimist I know tries to convince me otherwise. It's okay; I'll stay optimistic. Aaaaand... if it is bad, it's not the end of the series, right?

Right?

(Actually, it's not. They've confirmed a season 7)

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

The Patty Caper

I saw this later last night. I've gotta say, it was better than Plankton's Regular. This one made me laugh and I liked the storyline. I saw a review saying it was reused from The Smoking Peanut, but it's really not. I suppose the "who dunnit" element is similar, but it was more the main plot with this episode and just a subplot with the latter.

SpongeBob was sent to pick up the secret ingredient for the Krabby Patty formula. It was very heavily guarded, and it looked like nothing had gone wrong -- 'til he opened the case! The ingredient was gone, and in the middle of the case there was a clean, round hole, one that could only be cut in the case. I'm sorry to say, I accidentally read who did it before I saw the episode. I was slightly annoyed that they didn't tell exactly how the thief did it, though.

No more spoilers. It did get a little annoying at parts, but overall, I thought it was a good episode. That said, watch it. ;)

Monday, September 8, 2008

Plankton's Regular

*SPOILERS*

Finally saw this ep today. I hated it.

Basically, it went like this: Plankton has been talking to Karen, because he's depressed and thinks he's a failure. Karen couldn't care less, and makes that known. Then---surprise, surprise!---a guy comes in and buys some chum. He likes it so much, he comes back daily. Krabs and SpongeBob apparently can't accept the fact that they have tons of customers and Plankton has one, so they try to get the guy to eat at the Krusty Krab instead. Finally, they try to steal Plankton's formula. As it turns out, the guy hates chum; Karen paid him to eat there so Plankton would stop whining. The episode closes with Krabs enjoying Plankton's sobbing.

It was boring, had no humor, and the whole thing was just pointlessly cruel to Plankton, who wasn't even doing anything wrong---Krabs was! Karen was out of character, and her voice was off. On older episodes (such as Plankton's Army), she, being his sole confident, listened to him and tried to cheer him up. On current episodes, you gotta wonder why they're married!
Also, it was pointlessly violent for the sake of...well, pointless violence. I mean, funny, cartoony violence is okay. But there were two scenes of characters being ripped open, and it wasn't funny or cartoony, it was gross. I've always found that sort of stuff disgusting and the abundance of it in the current episodes is...kind of upsetting. To me, anyway. I'll admit they had a little of it on older episodes, but bwargh!!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

SpongeBob MUST sing this!

You all remember my post, My Bizarre Daydreams, right? Well, I have more on that. I've written a song and rewritten it again and again over the years. The final draft is almost done, and I'm gonna do it. I'm Ready!

...I wish. : I feel silly. I know that nobody knows who I am, so there's no need to be embarrassed, but still. The last thing Nickelodeon wants is some random hick kid sending them a letter shouting "OMG PLZ CAN SONGEBOB SING DIS?!"

Fortunately, I ain't some random hick kid, and I can spell. I'm awfully fond of the word ain't, but I decided that, to make a good impression, I should remove the ain'ts from my letter. The finished letter is pretty professional looking, in my opinion. After double-checking the letter to make sure it didn't reek of stupid kids and plagiarism, I chose a nice, readable serif font and printed it off and signed it in the best cursive I could do. At first I was wondering if that looked like a form letter, but I dug up a letter from Nintendo of America I had saved. They did the same thing, and the letter was clearly not a form letter.

I'm trying not to look like I'm trying to look overly professional, but I'm also trying not to look like an overeager SpongeBob fangirl who stole some song off the radio and replaced the singer's name with SpongeBob. Which I didn't. It's only slightly based on another songs, and those are two songs off of SpongeBob's CD, The Best Day Ever, based on them in style only.

I'm in over my head alright. My dream isn't even to contribute to a SpongeBob episode, it's just to hear him sing it whether it's on the show or not. Meaning I'd just be satisfied tracking down his voice actor and getting him to sing it for me. Boy, it'd be creepy watching a perfectly human-looking guy sing something I wrote in SpongeBob's voice.

I've given them the URL to a recording of the song, but I wonder if they'll even listen to it. Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained! :) Yeah, I'm gonna send the letter...soon...I guess... O_o

Goofs

I'm in a better mood now. :) I made a short list of goofs on SpongeBob. It's not nearly all of them; I just wrote down the ones off the top of my head.

Procrastination - SpongeBob writes 'spotlight' instead of 'stoplight.'

Plankton! - When he walks into his pants, SpongeBob's tie is black for a few seconds.

Club SpongeBob - When Squidward asks the Magic Conch for food, his tentacle is yellow.

The Gift of Gum - SpongeBob says, 'It's still Best Friends Day,' despite the fact that two days have passed.

I Was a Teenage Gary - When his arm falls off, SpongeBob comments that it's okay, he's a lefty. But his left arm fell off. Besides, he's ambidextrous.

Breath of Fresh Squidward - SpongeBob states that he has gotten a zillion and six Employee of the Month awards. By the movie, he only has around 300.
(Afterthought: on the movie it's 300 *CONSECUTIVE* awards, and Squidward got one on the aforementioned episode, so I guess it doesn't count.)

Best Frenemies - In the first airings of this episode, Plankton's mouth was bright purple on the inside.

Friend or Foe? - It's stated that Plankton accidentally helped Krabs create the Krabby Patty secret formula. But on Enemy In-Law, it was an old Krabs family recipe.

Friend or Foe? - Krabs is shown not to know what money is until Plankton tells him. However, when he was young, his father gave him a dollar, at least, according to My Pretty Seahorse. He loved that dollar...and there was a video of him, much younger, with a quarter on The Krusty Krab Training Video.

Friend or Foe? - Krabs' family poor. Krabs is wearing rags. (Of course, poor Plankton's naked.) So how did Krabs' mother afford her dress? Maybe that's why they were poor...?

Rule of Dumb - Patrick is said to be the result of inbreeding on this episode, but his family tree does not show it.

Rule of Dumb - Er...ah...on Patrick's family tree, Carl's parents are both ...Princes. *blushes and hides face*

Driven to Tears - Patrick's eyes are said to be black on his license. On Wormy, however, they were green.

Dunces and Dragons - King Krabs pronounces gulloitine (gee-uh-teen) as it is spelled. Gullotines weren't even invented yet. Hey...maybe that's why he didn't know how to say it! :D

Frankendoodle - SpongeBob sticks the pencil back together with a band-aid. With DoodleBob's half sharpened, however, it would not fit together properly.

Frankendoodle - How did the pencil sink in the first place? Pencils don't sink.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Boy, I don't know how I'd live without a blog

I hate talking to people. Nobody ever listens, nobody ever makes an effort to follow. I'm either going too fast or too slow, and if I mention something they're not wild about in passing, the conversation ends right there. I always log on here when I want to talk. Problem is, this is a SpongeBob blog. I've got SO MANY more things to talk about than SpongeBob. :( I know like two people who will listen to me, and the one I like isn't home right now.

In actual, slightly-SpongeBob related news, I can watch TV again on the eighth, so I'll post my thoughts on the new episodes.

*sigh* I guess I'd better listen to track 2 on The Best Day Ever.