Western Animation / Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie

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Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie is a 2024 live action/animation hybrid comedy film based on the SpongeBob SquarePants animated series by Nickelodeon and the fourth film in the franchise. The film is directed by Liza Johnson (The Last of Us, What We Do in the Shadows (2019)), and written by series veteran Kaz and Tom Stern. Distributed by Netflix, the film released on August 2nd, 2024. It stars all of the series' veteran voice actors, while also featuring Wanda Sykes, Johnny Knoxville, Craig Robinson, Grey DeLisle, Matty Cardarople, and Ilia Isorelýs Paulino.

In this adventure, Bikini Bottom's resident land squirrel Sandy Cheeks takes the spotlight as she and SpongeBob are on a mission to save the entire town after it was suddenly scooped out of the ocean. Their journey takes them to Texas, where they become acquainted with Sandy's family, and where an evil CEO plots their villainous scheme.

Previews: Trailer

Provides examples of:

• Adaptational Modesty: Sandy's bra was changed from her usual cup bra to a crop top, and her chest is much less endowed.
• Advertised Extra: One of the movie's posters featured Gary, Pearl, Mr. Krabs, Patrick, Squidward, Plankton, and Karen◊ alongside Sandy and SpongeBob. The poster design was intended as a parody of The Glass Onion, but for viewers unfamiliar with that film, the poster seemed to imply that the entire SpongeBob gang would play important roles. In the movie itself, only Sandy and SpongeBob have important roles, with the rest of the cast sidelined.
• ...And That Little Girl Was Me: Said word-for-word and lampshaded by Sue when telling Sandy the story about her motivations for "Sea Pals."
• Animals Not to Scale: It makes sense for most of the sea creatures to be small enough to fit in what is essentially a fish dome by much larger humans. The glaring exception to this is Pearl, who is a whale.
• Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: At one point, the inhabitants of Bikini Bottom are picked up by Phoebe and Kyle one by one, except for Plankton, who complains that they never pick him for anything.
  Plankton: It's just like high school all over again.
• Badass Family: The Cheeks family help Sandy and SpongeBob on numerous occasions throughout the movie.
• Big Bad: Sue-Nahmee is the villain of the movie.
• Body Horror: When SpongeBob is put in Sue Nahmee's Clone Popper machine, he begins to pop off pieces of his body into tinier SpongeBob clones, including from his head, hands, teeth and eyes, until he explodes into thousands of clones.
• Breaking Old Trends: The movie differs quite a bit from the previous films in the franchise in a few ways:
  • While the first three movies had live action play an important part in some way, this movie primarily takes place in live action settings.
  • The first three movies were directed by people who worked on the series prior. This movie is directed by Liza Johnson, who never worked on the show, or the franchise as a whole, before this production. In addition, this is the first SpongeBob project to be directed by a woman.
  • This is the first movie where the villain is female.
• Call-Back: When ambushed by the ratlesnakes, Sandy changes into the yellow tracksuit she wore during Karate Island.
• Chase Scene: On the way to Galveston, the Cheeks' vehicle ends up getting chased by a Texas police car. Randy reveals that it's because he stashed some stolen nuts.
• Chekhov's Skill: The Cheeks family's whistle call. While on the road, Randy teaches SpongeBob on how to perform the whistle call to summon the Cheeks family to his aid. Come the climax, after Sandy loses a tooth during her fight with Sue Nahmee, and thus is unable to whistle, SpongeBob is able to perform the call to bring her family in and get their help in returning Bikini Bottom to the ocean.
• City in a Bottle: After being scooped up from the sea floor, Bikini Bottom is encased in a giant glass bowl at the lab.
• Creative Closing Credits: The movie's credits are accompanied by stylistic, geometric-looking illustrations of scenes from the movie, along with a Sandy-themed rendition of the SpongeBob theme song.
• A Day in the Limelight: Sandy is front and center in this movie, with SpongeBob relegated to sidekick.
• Dogs Hate Squirrels: Lampshaded during as Sue's pug Cuda chases SpongeBob and Sandy around the water park.
  Dogs chasing squirrels? How cliché!
• Demoted to Extra: This applies to all the main show characters whose name isn't Sandy or SpongeBob, but Plankton especially takes the cake. After Squidward, Patrick, and Mr. Krabs get chosen to test out the cloning machines, and not him, he sulks as he walks away to the Chum Bucket. This is the last time we see him in the movie. Pearl also doesn't have dialogue.
• Denser and Wackier: As if the post-2005 output of the series isn't gradually dense and wacky enough, this movie definitely takes the cake in that regard. There's a much heavier emphasis on weird humor and more out there moments, with things like the rattlesnakes and all the gross-out humor.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Randy is so attractive and charismatic that he makes Squidward faint. Then again, this is Squidward we're talking about.
• Eye Scream: When SpongeBob tries to wink like Randy, his eyelashes get intertwined and his eye can barely open. SpongeBob is discomforted at first, but then starts strumming his lashes like guitar strings.
• Family of Choice: During SpongeBob's Rousing Speech to Sandy that lifts her spirits from her Despair Event Horizon, he tells her that he and the other Bikini Bottomites aren't just her friends, and Sandy interrupts him by telling him that he and the others were her family.
  SpongeBob: We're not just your friends. We're your-
  Sandy: You're my family.
• Flanderization: As they are not the main characters this time around, SpongeBob and Patrick's usual antics from the show get ramped up considerably. This includes them laughing at almost everything, cracking jokes and making quips whenever they get the chance, and being incompetent at even the simplest of actions. Patrick's gluttonous appetite is also over-the-top, as he eats a lot more of the modification paste than everyone else.
• Foreshadowing: While Sandy and SpongeBob are riding with the Cheeks family, Randy asks his sister if she was spying on Bikini Bottom, only for her to deny it and claim she was doing observations. It later turns out she was spying for B.O.O.T.S. Laboratory, albeit unknowingly.
• Friendly Tickle Torture: One scene has SpongeBob going underwater at a public pool to tickle the swimmers' feet.
• Fun with Acronyms: B.O.O.T.S. is short for Bureau of Official Texas Science.
• Fur Is Clothing: When the Cheeks family roll a boulder over the rattlesnakes, they are shot out of their scales, leaving them in their underwear.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: The back half of Sparky is scooped up along with the rest of Bikini Bottom.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Phoebe and Kyle do this after they both realize that Sue doesn't pay them for their efforts, much less fill up their vending machine.
  • After safely coming back into the lab through the sink, Cuda tips over the Clone Popper machine by Mr. Krabs' command after SpongeBob is turned into thousands of tinier clones.
• Inflating Body Gag: While fighting the cowboy rattlesnakes, Sandy ends up getting bitten by the leader, resulting in her inflating and looking swollen, which lasts until Ma sucks the venom out from her.
• Ironic Echo: Mr. Krabs begging to Sue Nahmee not to clone SpongeBob and shortly after begging her not to let the clones grow to actual size has him saying the phrase "It's the only thing I'll ever ask of you!" at the end in both instances.
• Just Whistle: Sandy is able to summon her family with the Cheeks Whistle. After losing a tooth makes her unable to do it, SpongeBob, who was practicing it earlier, does the whistle for her.
• Kids Are Cruel: After Patrick, Squidward and Mr. Krabs are turned into air breathers, two children are sent into the lab to play with them - stretching, throwing and whacking the poor sea creatures around as if they were just lifeless toys while screaming at each other over who gets which character.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: SpongeBob sadly says this after Bikini Bottom gets taken.
  SpongeBob: All my streaming videos on demand, I can't demand them anymore!
• Light Is Not Good: Sue Nahmee wears a bright, white suit, but she's the movie's villain.
• Losing Your Head: Sue Nahmee turns out to be a head on a robotic body, later being separated from it before she gets eaten by her pet mutant fish.
• Mechanical Horse: Sandy is accompanied by a robot horse, Sparky, for the first third of the movie.
• Medium Blending: Much like the previous movies, this one mixes animation and live action.
• Musicalis Interruptus: Happens quite a few times in this movie. A good example is Squidward's musical number being interrupted by an annoyed Sue Nahmee.
  Sue: (places a jar over Squidward) "That's better!"
  Mr. Krabs: "Why didn't I think of that?"
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • After finding out Sue Nahmee was using her to spy on Bikini Bottom, which caused all of her friends to feel betrayed, Sandy is fully remorseful because she had no idea that Bikini Bottom getting taken by B.O.O.T.S. was really her fault.
  Sandy: I didn’t know you were using me to spy on Bikini Bottom.
  • When SpongeBob is split into numerous tinier clones of himself, Phoebe and Kyle express this in horror, with the latter hiding his face with his hat.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: After she and SpongeBob jump off the airplane upon reaching Texas, Sandy reveals herself to be a flying squirrel and, thus, is able to fly. Even though it gives her 'jiggly arm flaps'.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Bikini Bottom being lifted out of the ocean and placed in an aquarium? Sue's plans to make toys out of the citizens? Sandy is entirely at fault for all of it. She sent her research to B.O.O.T.S. Laboratory, which is how the scientists know exactly who her friends are.
• Ocular Gushers: SpongeBob's eyes shoot tears in twin streams after Bikini Bottom is taken.
• Off with Her Head!: Sue Nahmee's head flies off her body when Sandy defeats her, though it gets swallowed by the mutant fish.
• Outside Ride: Sandy and SpongeBob end up riding on the wing of an airplane after shooting out of the remains of Bikini Bottom via geysers.
• Parental Bonus: SpongeBob references The Human Centipede when he fears that B.O.O.T.S. is planning to stitch all his friends' bodies together, and even morphs his body into five separate sheets with his friends' faces.
• Product Placement: The computer in the B.O.O.T.S. lab is visibly an Apple computer. In a subversion of the common Everyone Owns a Mac trope, the appearance of Apple is solely in the hands of a villainous group.
• Pronouncing My Name for You: Sandy initially believes the villain's name is pronounced Sue Nammy, but at the climax Sue Nahmee corrects Sandy that her name is pronounced like "tsunami".
• Repurposed Pop Song: The trailer is set to a remix of "It Takes Two" by Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock.
• Resized Vocals: All the tiny SpongeBobs speak in a chipmunk-pitched version of SpongeBob's own voice. In fact, one of them needs a megaphone to give a Pep Talk to Sandy in the climax.
• Right-Hand Cat: Well, dog, but Sue is introduced carrying around her pug Cuda.
• Road Apples: While trekking across the desert, SpongeBob and Sandy come across a pile of horse dung. SpongeBob comments that "Texas sure is magical!" and takes a whiff of the pile... and gets a fly up his nose, which he spits out before catching up with Sandy.
• Robotic Reveal: After telling Sandy her backstory, Sue Nahmee reveals herself to be a cyborg robot the entire time, mainly due to her encounter with piranhas in Peru save for her head.
• Shout-Out: The way Sue Nahmee is presented in her backstory flashback is similar to the flashback moments in The George Lopez Show.
  • ​Some promotional posters are thinly-veiled references to other Netflix properties.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: In the marketing for her own film, Sandy was a downplayed example. One of the posters◊ pushed Sandy to the side, behind Pearl and Gary, who only appear for a few short scenes in the film. The poster design was supposed to be referencing The Glass Onion, but it just made it look like Sandy was a supporting character in her own movie.
• Skewed Priorities: When Bikini Bottom gets scooped out from the ocean, SpongeBob is more upset not about his friends or his pet snail Gary being taken away, but more about not being able to use his streaming services (as said in Leaning on the Fourth Wall).
• Snakes Are Sinister: While wandering the Texas desert, Sandy and SpongeBob are menaced by rattlesnakes who act like Old West bandits.
• Stylistic Suck: The Sea Pals commercial is full of deliberately bad-looking special effects, lampshaded by one of the scientists saying they nailed it afterwards.
• Terrestrial Sea Life: Sue Nahmee's plan is to create sea creatures that can survive out of water and be cuddled like other pets. Patrick, Squidward and Mr. Krabs become air breathers as a result of her experiment, but are still able to breathe underwater once they return to Bikini Bottom.
• "The Villain Sucks" Song: "She Makes Waves", A song about Sue Nahmee that plays in the background. The full song can be heard here.
  You see her swimming, then get out of her way
  She's a fishy with a mission, and there's something to say
  She makes waves
• Uncanny Valley: A young Sue Nahmee is portrayed by a child actor with Wanda Sykes' head poorly pasted on, giving her a very eerie appearance.
• Unseen No More: After being mentioned throughout the series numerous times and shown in books, Sandy's family finally makes their debut in the film.
• Vocal Evolution: All of the returning characters' voices (especially noticeable with SpongeBob) are much lower, gruffer, raspier, or some combination of the three due to the voice cast's ages at the time of production.
• Wasn't That Fun?: Patrick thoroughly enjoyed being played roughly by the two kids Sue pays off, unlike Squidward and Mr. Krabs.
• Why Didn't I Think of That?: Shortly after being given air-breathing abilities, Squidward breaks into song about how great he feels, until Sue Nahmee mutes him by placing a glass jar over him. Mr. Krabs then wonders why he didn't think of this.