Need to See an ‘Odyssey’ Adaptation Now? Watch ‘The SpongeBob SquarePants Film’ — Simply Belief Me

There’s been loads of Odyssey speak for the reason that announcement of Christopher Nolan‘s upcoming adaptation of the influential epic poem. Even for those who’ve by no means learn it, you have probably loved considered one of its quite a few diversifications, like O’ Brother, Where Art Thou? or Black Sails. However typically forgotten in discussions of Odyssey diversifications is the 2004 Annie Award-nominated characteristic The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. Directed by cartoon legend Stephen Hillenburg and starring the vocal skills of Tom Kenny, Invoice Faggerbakke, and Clancy Brown, The SpongeBob SquarePants Film is certainly an adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey (battle me).

How Is A ‘SpongeBob’ Film An ‘Odyssey’ Adaptation?

In an interview with the East Valley Tribune, sequence creator and movie director Stephen Hillenburg referred to The SpongeBob SquarePants Film as a “street journey journey”. In a broader sense, The Odyssey was the primary road trip adventure. However The SpongeBob SquarePants Film attracts extra than simply vague inspiration from Homer’s epic poem. Like Odysseus’ journey begins with the wrath of Poseidon, SpongeBob’s (Kenny) journey begins with the wrath of Neptune, the Roman equal to Poseidon. The SpongeBob SquarePants Film pulls an identical transfer with the character of Princess Mindy (Scarlett Johansson), who aids SpongeBob and Patrick (Faggerbakke) on their journey. Whereas Mindy is rarely referred to by her full title in canon, “Mindy” is a standard nickname for “Minerva”, who’s the Roman equal to Athena, the Greek god that aided Odysseus on his journey.

The SpongeBob SquarePants Film additionally takes its personal spin on the myth of the siren. Sirens are often portrayed as enticing ladies whose voices draw sailors to their watery graves. However The SpongeBob SquarePants Film presents SpongeBob and Patrick with a demonic-looking frog fish that attracts in its prey by deceiving it with what seems to be a pleasant previous woman serving ice cream. In actuality, neither the ice cream nor the previous woman are actual, and SpongeBob and Patrick barely escape with their lives. However it’s a becoming change from Odysseus and his males circumventing the Sirens by plugging their ears with wax. SpongeBob won’t be drawn in by a music, however he actually is by the promise of ice cream.

The ‘Odyssey’ References Get Even Extra Direct

The SpongeBob SquarePants Film may be very unsubtle with its Odyssey inspiration. Princess Mindy offers SpongeBob and Patrick a bag of wind to assist of their journey house, which is simply straight up from The Odyssey. SpongeBob and Patrick, like Odysseus, additionally battle a cyclops within the type of a human in an old school diver swimsuit. The movie even adapts The Odyssey’s meta-narrative of being a story-within-a-story by means of its pirate subplot. Simply as Odysseus’ epic journey is not merely a direct account of occasions, however a poem relating Odysseus’ story to an viewers, The SpongeBob SquarePants Film just isn’t merely a film, however a movie-within-a-movie that the pirates are additionally watching.

Whereas it is easy to dismiss The SpongeBob SquarePants Film and all of its child-like whimsy, it makes loads of intelligent and suave decisions in adapting The Odyssey and its surrounding Greek mythology. Hillenburg understood, implicitly, the audience he was writing for. The SpongeBob SquarePants Film holds up spectacularly within the 20+ years since its launch. And, no, that is not simply the nostalgia speaking. Although not essentially the most correct of diversifications, The Odyssey’s affect on the movie is simple.

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

Launch Date

November 19, 2004

Runtime

87 Minutes

Director

Stephen Hillenburg, Mark Osborne

Writers

Stephen Hillenburg, Derek Drymon, Kent Osborne, Aaron Springer, Paul Tibbitt, Tim Hill

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  Tom Kenny

  SpongeBob / Narrator / Gary / Numerous

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  Rodger Bumpass

  Squidward / Fish #4

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  Invoice Fagerbakke

  Patrick Star / Fish #2 / Chum Buyer / Native Fish