Encyclopedia SpongeBobia
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Encyclopedia SpongeBobia

SIMMY, LOOK OUT. THERE'S A CANDIED PEN HEADING STRAIGHT FOR YOUR EYE DUE TO MY ACT OF SWATTING IT AWAY WITHOUT FIRST CONSIDERING THE TRAJECTORY! OH, I WISH I COULD GIVE MY WORDS OUT FASTER, BUT EVERYTHING'S IN SLOW MOTION!

Company Picnic[]

Company picnic tc

Honestly, I can see where people come from when they say they hate this episode, but personally, this was a real joy.

This episode's idea is really nice and creative. It's a simple premise about the Krusty Krew taking this short break from the restaurant to have a picnic. This is a really cool premise that utilizes real-life aspects of worker vacation (or whatever it is) and turns it into a fun little SpongeBob episode. Starting off with the setup, I enjoy the fact that the characters Simmy and Tally that SpongeBob is playing with end up being used by Plankton in his scheme later in the episode. Also, once again, the idea I just mentioned comes into play here very cleverly to make for a nice setup. There's a lot of small aspects I enjoy in this setup like how there's no customers at the restaurant, so the employees don't really have anything to do. Seriously, they show SpongeBob using Krabby Patties to have this little scene, which really shows just how lifeless the Krusty Krab is at the moment. The episode also shows this with Squidward where SpongeBob accidentally shoots a pickle into Squidward's eyes, leading to a hilarious series of events that cause pain to him. It works as great physical comedy due to the wackiness of it as well as the unpredictable twist of Squidward accidentally putting HOT SAUCE in his eyes. This also shows that he also doesn't enjoy the condition of the restaurant and would most likely want a change of scenery. There's also this nice model shown in the episode with SpongeBob making this figure of a Krabby Patty worker, who is used to develop the idea that the Krusty Krew needs to go on a company picnic.

I really, really enjoy the casual tone of the episode. Sure, the plot doesn't necessarily progress but what it does develop is how the Krusty Krab picnic works. How it utilizes a minimal amount of materials but the characters can still have fun by using them for several different purposes. I honestly think this is a really great way to showcase the difference between Mr. Krabs' picnic and Plankton's picnic. His picnic is more old-fashioned while the other's is more advanced and looks much more fun in appearance. Speaking of that, I really enjoy how it's a parody of things that look good, but when you actually use them, they actually aren't so good. It's one of the reasons why I really liked the twist at the end of the episode, as it's a fun way to poke fun at this real-life occurrence while also being pretty unpredictable due to the episode's great writing. Continuing on, I really enjoy how this episode's shows Plankton's picnic as extremely amazing, with all these kinds of things that make Squidward and Mr. Krabs desperately want to go to his picnic rather than their own picnic. While it may seem out of character for Mr. Krabs to want to go with some Plankton's involved in, the episode doesn't show him like that right away and actually makes him against it. Of course, Squidward right away goes ahead with it, which is actually a very clever way in having Mr. Krabs end up going to the company picnic, as he sees him having so much fun and wants to be in that fun rather than his "boring" picnic. Because yeah, they do show his company picnic to be relatively boring. But since this episode has great writing, it shows how creative the picnic is while still making it seem as though it's boring, which really helps in creating the overall moral of this episode.

Then there's the ending twist, where it turns out all the stuff Plankton had were all holograms. Now, I can completely understand why someone would dislike the twist. After all, if Squidward ate the cotton candy, how would he be able to taste it if it was a hologram? But I'm not really going to dive into the logic of this twist, because like I said earlier, this is clearly a parody of companies falsely marketing their brands as "good," but then it turns out they're bad. This show actually utilized this premise in an earlier episode, Chocolate with Nuts, but this episode utilized it in an A. More creative way, B. A more unpredictable way, and C. In a way that's really funny and makes sense for the type of episode this is. In Chocolate with Nuts, SpongeBob and Patrick were just spreading random lies to people and they weren't even clever lies, while once again, this episode writes itself to make the twist make sense and also be really hilarious built-up to with SpongeBob amazingly trying to stop the candied pen from hitting Simmy, which is great due to the awesome slow-motion as well as the episode's acknowledgement of this. Also, it does show a good moral that you shouldn't be tricked by things that look great, and that you have to think before you act, or else you might get tricked into a scam. Though, I do think if this was executed in a way where the holograms didn't cause questions about how this twist even worked, it would've been much better, but I still think this twist is great enough to make me forget about those small mistakes and just enjoy the episode as a whole.

I know the rating may seem a bit high, but I simply adore the writing in this episode. Yeah, it's not one of the funniest of this season, but the writing alone bumps this up to my top ten of the season.

Episode Rating: Fantastic (9/10)

Pull Up a Barrel[]

Pull Up a Barrel title card

Wow was this episode epic. Well, it doesn't get that rating in particular, but y'know, it was fun.

This episode's concept is one I've been waiting to see for a long time. The show's talked about Mr. Krabs' pirate side several times in the show's run, but no episodes ever went in-depth as to what he actually DID during those times. And this is the episode that answers that question. Starting off, the fact that most of the characters are similar to current counterparts is definitely very creative and I love how they actually make these characters fit the personalities. For example, there's Ensign, who is SpongeBob's counterpart. He is portrayed as a very silly guy who doesn't necessarily pay attention to situations much, which makes sense as that is part of SpongeBob's personality. Then there's Captain Scarfish who is shown as a pretty dumb guy who literally makes Mr. Krabs eat GLOP, because of course, he isn't intelligent enough to know that this isn't the type of food people should eat. There's other characters than just these two but I've made my point. There's also the actual premise of this whole adventure, which is that Mr. Krabs tries to make good food for his crewmates. It's a simple premise but the episode has a lot going for it, making for an episode with lots of substance. I'll bring up Captain Scarfish because he is portrayed very well as a mean tyrant, developing the conflict. Also, I love the animation of this episode. I really enjoy the colors of the sea as well as the background, and the ship itself is amazingly detailed with each room being a joy to look at with many of the small details showing how much care the animators must have put into making this episode stand out. Though, this is expected for a season like season 9.

I also enjoy how the episode develops Mr. Krabs' relationship with his crewmates, and it also develops the formers characterization in general. It's clearly shown how much they love the food he makes and how they consider him an amazing person overall. This also helps wit the ending where they end up helping Mr. Krabs defeat Sandy, who is the villain of this episode. I'm not a big fan of how this episode constantly cuts the plot to make some stupid joke in the present day. In fact, it takes around a minute for the episode to get started with the story. Sure, it definitely makes sense for this episode to be shown in a story-like fashion, but there wasn't any real reason to show an entire sequence where it's just the Krusty Krew bored at the restaurant. And similar to The Bad Guy Club for Villains, the constant cuts to the present day distract from the actual plot, and while this episode doesn't necessarily have a lot of jokes, perhaps giving reason as to why these exist as comic relief, I do think this episode has enough humor to at least sustain itself. For example, the whole idea that Captain Scarfish likes glop for some reason is chuckle-worthy, as well as Mr. Krabs trying to light one of his foods on fire, only to backfire humorously. But my favorite joke has to be at the very ending where when Sandy is arrested, Mr. Krabs gives her a cotton candy key, which doesn't seem too funny at first, but the way SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs are winking at Squidward in the present day makes it hilarious because it implies Mr. Krabs has a crush on Sandy somehow. I don't know why, I just love that implication, and is another joke that gives me proof that this episode has enough comic relief without all the useless Krusty Krab segments.

The climax is pretty fun in general. There's some pretty nice action with Mr. Krabs and Sandy and her crew fighting. What I really enjoy is how Mr. Krabs utilizes a lot of creative weaponry shown earlier in the episode to defeat Sandy, mainly the glop. I love how it is shown to have a surprising amount of usages, such as being able to destroy an entire ship, or being used to fight off people. Another aspect I enjoy was the way this episode portrayed the fish being stuck on the island. That by itself is enough to set the conflict in motion, but the way the episode shows them on an imaginary FRYING PAN creates some good suspense for the plot, as we don't want these innocent fish to die from the immense heat. The last thing I'll talk about is how this episode kind of gives Captain Scarfish some character development. While I would've liked if the episode directly showed this, I think it's pretty obvious that's what the episode's going for, as it shows Scarfish being shown as unable to even defeat the crew of pirates despite being captain of the ship, while Mr. Krabs is able to come up with an awesome strategy to do so.

Overall, I found this episode to be very fun. With nice animation, a great set of characters developed in a nice way, a plot that is pretty solid and creative, as well as some nice action and jokes, this episode's got most of what I need for a great episode. Sure, some aspects could've been improved upon and the Krusty Krab segments weren't needed (most of them anyways), but it's another example of how big of an improvement 9B is from 9A.

Episode Rating: Supreme (8.5/10)

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