The SpongeBob in Minecraft Movie

"When disaster strikes, you know who you can count on."

- The movie's tagline.

The SpongeBob in Minecraft Movie is a 2017 CGI animated film based on the spin-off by TheSponge231 (also known as PAC-MAN). The film was released on July 20, 2017. Just like the show, it has the same style as most Minecraft animations.

The movie is the series finale to SpongeBob in Minecraft.

In 2015, TheSponge231 along with Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies announced a movie based on the series SpongeBob in Minecraft. They announced the movie would be directed by Derek Drymon and storyboarded by Sherm Cohen. They also said Markus "Notch" Persson, the creator of Minecraft, would work on the film as the film's animator and character designer.

The film was met with unfavorable reviews, and received a 39% on Rotten Tomatoes

Plot
SPOILERS HO!

Once discovering the earth has a magnetic pull, Plankton plans on using an enormous supermagnet to pull the Minecraft universe towards the SBSP universe, later on causing an apocalypse. Meanwhile in the Minecraft universe, SpongeBob and Patrick were role-playing Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy using dyed leather armor. Steve then comes dashing towards them as they let out a mighty "AAAAHHHHH!!!" and then he crashes. Steve tells them about this evil plan and that if they don't stop it now, everything on both universes will be extinct. So SpongeBob seeks help from Steve's sister, Alex.

They had trouble keeping up, so they were divided into two teams - Team Miners, which consists of Steve and Patrick, go out to mine the items to use for protection. And then there's Team Crafters, Which consists of SpongeBob and Alex, Use the items Team Miners mines to craft weapons to stop Plankton. However, the apocalypse has already started and they must escape the city before doing their duty.

SpongeBob then introduces Alex to his sword, "Absorbent Blue". He says it can "absorb the life out of any mob". However, Alex begins to develop a crush on SpongeBob, which makes him skeptical.

SpongeBob and Alex venture out into the desert, while Steve and Patrick venture out into the cave. While out in the desert, SpongeBob begins to ask questions, while Alex tries to hide her feelings. They suddenly come across one of Plankton’s Creeper army. As SpongeBob goes charging toward it, Alex blows him a kiss. He successfully defeats the Creeper and they move on.

After hours of walking, SpongeBob gets really annoyed by Alex and decides to dump her. Alex then says “I thought what we had was special…..”

Lying in front of him a long gravel road, SpongeBob keeps walking until he comes across a huge army of Creepers, zombies and skeletons. He quickly looks around to find a way to get out fast. He quickly finds a Rent-A-Pig just on the side of the road and rent a pig for 5 emeralds. He dashes off into a mine with the army following.

Meanwhile, Steve and Patrick are having trouble finding diamonds, but they did end up finding iron. They end up finding an abandoned mineshaft, where they begin to think they might find something. They end up finding a minecart, so they decide to hop in.

While SpongeBob is making his escape, he bypasses the time limit and George the Villager tells his pig Jeff to “bring him back alive”. So Jeff runs off in search of SpongeBob. However, George follows along.

Shortly after, SpongeBob ends up in the nighttime forest, with both the army and the duo catching up. Once the duo crash into SpongeBob, they ask him to return the pig. However, the pig gets eaten by a zombie. Once the trio sees the army charging towards them, they tremble in fear. However, Alex hops back into action when she says “Who’s back? I’m back.” And fights off the mobs. As SpongeBob lets out a mighty cheer, he also says that he is “so happy to see her!” This makes her go ecstatic, now that she knows SpongeBob actually does like her.

Alex asks SpongeBob for someone or something to ask, and he pulls out the Magic Conch. SpongeBob and Alex bow before it and say “ALL HAIL THE MAGIC CONCH!” George and Jeff think they are stupid because it’s just a toy. However, Alex gets mad and begins telling George “The Magic Conch is not a force to be reckoned with!”

SpongeBob asks the Magic Conch if they will stop the apocalypse, and it says “No.”. This makes them extremely nervous, as they begin to think they will never stop the madness. Suddenly, right behind them, Steve and Patrick come charging as SpongeBob and Alex let out a scream. After they crash into them, SpongeBob and Alex then introduce them to their new quote-on-quote “friends”. Suddenly, a wormhole opens and the entire team gets sucked in.

They end up in Bikini Bottom, where total madness has occurred. Once there, they go to find out who is behind the madness. It turns out to be Plankton. Plankton summons his Creeper army from the portal to destroy Bikini Bottom and get the Krabby Patty formula. The team meets at The Krusty Krab, as they devise a plan to defeat Plankton once and for all. They craft each other full sets of Diamond armor and send pigs to charge towards Plankton’s Creeper army. SpongeBob later finds out the source of the apocalypse is a giant supermagnet, so the team of six jump toward the supermagnet and SpongeBob busts it with Absorbent Blue.

KABOOM!

The supermagnet explodes into a million pieces, bringing the madness to a halt.

Perch Perkins begins to think that an eclipse is currently happening, but Steve corrects him by stating that it’s just the shadow of Minecraftia.

Plankton stands back up and says “I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!” and dashes off. He then gets squashed by SpongeBob’s foot and says “ouch….”

After Plankton is defeated, Alex finally confesses her love for SpongeBob and she and SpongeBob says "I'm sorry. What.". George sarcastically says “SEE? The Magic Conch is never right!” Steve hears this and says “Magic...Conch Shell? YOU MEAN LIKE THIS?” and pulls one out. SpongeBob, Steve and Alex shout “All hail The Magic Conch!” and sit down to do nothing. The movie finally ends with George saying “All hail The Magic Conch!” and sitting down to do the same thing. Shortly after, the credits roll.

After the credits, SpongeBob and Alex are shown sitting in a theater. They criticize the movie with comments such as “What was with that makeup?” and “Can’t they just use us?” Then, shortly after, SpongeBob leaves the theater with Alex following him.

Development
When SpongeBob in Minecraft first aired, TheSponge231 was getting a lot of requests from fans to do a film based on the series. He found the requests quite odd because the show just aired and already he was getting requests to do a movie. When Season 2 began, he contacted Nickelodeon Movies and asked if they could help produce a SpongeBob in Minecraft movie. They said yes and work on the movie began.

TheSponge231 was originally going to to a direct-to-video film called The SpongeBob Movie: SpongeBob Goes Global, and it had nothing to do with Minecraft. Half of the movie was finished, but then he decided to abandon this project for a while, and later on the project became The SpongeBob in Minecraft Movie.

Scripting began on December 18, 2015.

The series was put on hiatus and they worked on the movie for a bit.

In January 2016, TheSponge231 announced an official release date. It was July 20, 2017.

On Janurary 23, 2016, TheSponge231 announced two things about the movie - Alex was to be in the movie, and the music would be done by C418.

On January 27, 2016, TheSponge231 stated that "the plot would have something to do with Plankton taking over the Minecraft universe"

He also stated David Bowie's song "Heroes" will be featured in the movie's credits as it fits the plot of the movie. He said it would also have an "In Memory Of", as David Bowie died in 2016.

On February 15, 2016, TheSponge231 announced a plot, but only small glimpses. (See above)

On February 23, 2016, TheSponge231 stated that The Magic Conch would make an appearance.

On March 7, 2016, TheSponge231 stated that the movie was ready to be released and announced more of the plot.

Release
The film was first screened at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con to mixed reviews.

The film was released on July 20, 2017 to poor reviews.

Critical response
"The SpongeBob in Minecraft Movie might be a fun time for some, but it will likely become a snore fest for many."

- Rotten Tomatoes, The SpongeBob in Minecraft Movie The film was met with generally unfavorable reviews.

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 39%, with a consensus reading: "The SpongeBob in Minecraft Movie might be a fun time for some, but it will likely become a snore fest for many."

The SpongeBob and Alex plot was negatively received. Several fans said that "it didn't work". The characters George and Jeff, to many fans felt "shoehorned" into the plot. Other criticisms included the high amount of holes, bad writing, and the "YouTube-quality" animation.

TheSponge231 himself stated:"I understand that The SpongeBob in Minecraft Movie disappointed you, and I'm sorry, but this doesn't mean I'm losing my touch. I understand all of your criticisms. I'm just surprised with how over-hyped it was."

- TheSponge231, July 21, 2017

Box office
Anticipation for the film was really high, and it eventually became a success, despite the negative reviews.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack was released by RCA Records on June 1, 2017. In the UK, it was released by Virgin Records on August 10.

Songs on the soundtrack include the credits theme (The aforementioned "Heroes" by David Bowie), "And She Was" by Talking Heads, and "The Way Life's Meant To Be" by Electric Light Orchestra.

Trivia

 * TheSponge231 is the voice of Steve in the movie, as well as the show.
 * The poster has a typo. Disaster is spelled as "diaster"
 * The teaser poster was designed using Microsoft Word.
 * Alex is Steve's sister(?), introduced in the 1.8 update of Minecraft.
 * The poster reveals Steve's last name is Craftington.
 * This will be the series finale to SpongeBob in Minecraft.
 * The movie has a website at spongebobinmcmovie.com
 * Three working titles for the movie were Apocalypse Wow, SpongeBob and Alex and SBinMC: When Worlds Collide.
 * In the UK, the movie is billed as SpongeBob in Minecraft: The SpongeBob Movie
 * Nancy Cartwright, the voice actor for Alex, is most known for playing Bart Simpson on The Simpsons.
 * Despite the release date, the movie was finished on March 7, 2016.
 * The Magic Conch made it's second appearance in the film.
 * The SpongeBob and Alex relationship was intended as a joke, and is not canon.

Possible sequel
TheSponge231, when asked on Twitter about producing a sequel, responded with "Who knows what the future holds."