Patchy the Pirate subplot

Patchy the Pirate is stuck in traffic on US 101 near Encino and becomes angry that he is going to miss the new SpongeBob episode. His cell phone rings, and Potty tells him to hurry because the episode is about to start. Patchy tells Potty to record the episode, but Potty tells him that he threw the CD player in the dumpster, angering Patchy. The traffic line moves, but Patchy soon discovers that some Canadians have pushed Encino during the Ten Second Tidy.

Later, Patchy hallucinates finding a tall man voiced by Tom Kenny, who tells him that he is SpongeBob SquarePants. He then tells him he will return to Encino if he "believes." Potty wakes him up but learns that Encino is still missing.

After the end of the SpongeBob special, Patchy finds Encino shrunk to a tiny size and meets three aliens, which explains that their son, Norbluck 5, was playing with his shrink ray. Patchy demands that the aliens return his town to full size, and they do so. After gratefully returning to his house in Encino, Patchy gets stomped by a giant Potty the Parrot.

SpongeBob plot

SpongeBob and Patrick are trying to take photos of bubbles they blew but fail to do so. SpongeBob blows another bubble they can fit in, and they end up floating away in it to a cave, where they find a piece of a medallion to the lost city of Atlantis. Unaware of what it is, they take it to the Bikini Bottom Museum and run into Squidward, who thinks they stole the other displayed half of the medallion. He soon realizes they found the missing half and tells them it is the key to Atlantis. After hearing the story of Atlantis, the only thing SpongeBob and Patrick want to see is the city's attraction, the "World's Oldest Bubble." Squidward reconnects the amulet's two halves, opening the "path to Atlantis," a bus that runs on "song fuel." The trio is joined by Mr. Krabs and Sandy, with the characters crash-landing into Atlantis. The group is unknowingly followed by Plankton, who plans to use the city's powerful weapons for his ends.

They meet the Atlantean Emperor, Lord Royal Highness, inside Atlantis, who shows them a grand tour of the fortress. During the tour, Mr. Krabs, Sandy, and Squidward each get distracted by places in Atlantis. Mr. Krabs by the treasury room, Sandy by the science laboratory, and Squidward by the art gallery. Meanwhile, Plankton enters the armory vault and steals a tank. SpongeBob and Patrick get to see the world's oldest living bubble, but Patrick takes a picture of it, horrifying the pair as it pops.

As Mr. Krabs, Sandy, and Squidward relate their experiences to Lord Royal Highness, SpongeBob and Patrick attempt to conceal the bubble's destruction until he blurts it out. Lord Royal Highness reveals that the bubble they popped was just a prop for the tourists and shows them the real oldest bubble, which Patrick pops. Angered, Lord Royal Highness summons the Atlantean Royal Guards to attack the group, but they manage to escape. Just as they flee outside, Plankton arrives in the stolen tank and fires at them, only to discover that it shoots ice cream. Lord Royal Highness captures Plankton and decides that "a talking speck" would be a fantastic replacement for the bubble. SpongeBob and his friends leave for Bikini Bottom on the bus, as Lord Royal Highness takes the medallion and orders one of his guards to throw it away.

Marketing

The film begun production in May 2006, and was delivered to Nickelodeon roughly a year later, allowing time for the network's marketers to promote it.^[21] A SpongeBob marathon was a key part of the channel's effort to stave off increasing competition from Disney Channel, Cartoon Network and other rivals.^[10] Cyma Zarghami, then president of the Nickelodeon networks, said "We do know that kids like events as much as adults do [...] There's a certain amount of water-cooler talk that goes on among kids."^[10]

The video game of the same name that was based on the film was released for PlayStation 2, Wii, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS.^[22] It was released on November 12, 2007 for Wii, and on October 27 for the PS2, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS.^[23] The game was developed by Blitz Games and Altron, and was published by THQ.^[24][25][26]

Ratings

Atlantis SquarePantis was broadcast on November 12, 2007 on Nickelodeon, and was preceded by an "Z-A" countdown of SpongeBob SquarePants episodes picked by viewers. It attracted 9.22 million viewers,^[27] the largest audience of a series broadcast at 8:00 p.m. show on November 12, 2007, with the exception of Dancing with the Stars,^[28] and currently the highest audience in the series' history.^[29][30][31]

Critical response

Ian Jane of DVD Talk said "[the season five DVD] is a fun selection of solid episodes and [the film] is excellent [...] Paramount has done a nice job on this release and SpongeBob SquarePants: Atlantis SquarePantis comes recommended."^[33]

In her review for About.com, Nancy Basile's review was mixed and gave it a score of 2.5 out of 5. She wrote "Kids will enjoy this, but adults, who love the crazy antics, tongue-in-cheek humor and naive blunderings of early SpongeBob will be disappointed."^[34] Jerry Vonkramer of ToonZone gave the episode a score of 7/10 and wrote "Atlantis SquarePants [sic] is not a masterpiece, but neither does it deserve the awful reputation it seems to have."^[35]

Tom Shales, a television critic of The Washington Post, lambasted the film in a November 11, 2007 review. In his review, Shales wrote that "the funniest thing about the film is its title" and "a typical episode has about as many laughs as this inflated version does." Shales also criticized the musical numbers in Atlantis SquarePantis, calling them "numbing." He concluded the review saying that the special was "flat" and "unimpressive".^[32]