How does It's a SpongeBob Christmas! squeeze even more fun out of our porous little hero and the Bikini Bottom gang? By turning the animated characters three-dimensional for their holiday special.
In a tribute to classic fare such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the SpongeBob SquarePants crew has been re-imagined as puppets and put through their comedy paces for stop-motion photography.
The story line was dreamed up by Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob: The denizens of Bikini Bottom are suddenly rude because of exposure to jerk-tonium, a plot by naughty Plankton to get on Santa's (voiced by guest star John Goodman) nice list.
Plankton "wants to put everyone on their worst behaviour when they should be on their best behaviour, and zany mayhem ensues," Kenny said.
The first-time foray into stop-motion is a welcome change for the 13-year-old SpongeBob, Kenny said.
"It's fun that after all these years we can still do stuff that's a little different. It's like reinventing the wheel a little bit - if you can refer to a square character as a wheel," he added, unable to resist the quip.
The actor looks back fondly on childhood memories of Rudolph from the Rankin-Bass studio and other stop-action projects. Even the TV commercial that put Santa on an electric razor subbing for a sleigh gets a Kenny shoutout.
Asked if young viewers might be fazed by seeing the familiar characters in a new guise, Kenny paused before saying: "The characters act the same, the recording process is exactly the same. Our job is exactly the same. ... There's still plenty of the animated mayhem and anarchy that happens in the 2-D version of the show."
Check your television listings for upcoming airtimes of It's a SpongeBob Christmas!
