Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie
Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie is a 2024 American adventure comedy film based on the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants, created by Stephen Hillenburg. It was directed by Liza Johnson and written by Tom Stern and Kaz, based on a story by Kaz. Combining CGI animation with live-action, the film stars the series' regular voice cast and introduces new characters performed by Johnny Knoxville, Craig Robinson, Grey DeLisle, Ilia Isorelýs Paulino, Matty Cardarople, and Wanda Sykes. The plot follows Sandy and SpongeBob as they venture to Sandy's home state of Texas to save Bikini Bottom from an evil CEO. It is the first entry in a series of SpongeBob character spin-off films for Netflix, followed by Plankton: The Movie in 2025.
The film was first conceived during a pitching session for ideas for The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run. In March 2020, ViacomCBS announced that it would be producing SpongeBob spin-off films for streaming television. In May 2021, a spin-off film starring Sandy was announced, with Johnson, Kaz, and Stern attached. Moniker composed the original score.
Prior to its release, the film was leaked on January 21, 2024, as a video upload on X. Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie was officially released on Netflix on August 2, 2024. The film debuted with 12.8 million views during its premiere weekend, making it Netflix's most-watched title of the week and received mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
B.O.O.T.S. Laboratory in Galveston, Texas, where Sandy Cheeks works, scoops Bikini Bottom and its inhabitants out of the ocean. Confused about their possible motives, Sandy and SpongeBob SquarePants go to the surface to return Bikini Bottom to the ocean floor, but are blown off course by a tornado after hitching a ride on an airplane to reach B.O.O.T.S.At B.O.O.T.S., Mr. Krabs goes outside to see what is going on and is surprised to see a human woman; Phoebe, one of Sandy's closest colleagues at B.O.O.T.S. along with Kyle. After discovering that Sandy and SpongeBob were not captured, Sue Nahmee, the new head of B.O.O.T.S., demands that they capture them as soon as possible.
During a fight with a gang of rattlesnakes, one of them bites Sandy and she calls upon her family, who work as a traveling circus act, for help, and they agree to bring them to B.O.O.T.S. At B.O.O.T.S., Sue explains her plan to genetically modify the people of Bikini Bottom to breathe air and then clone them to sell as toy pets, experimenting on Mr. Krabs, Squidward and Patrick to test how well children will enjoy playing with them.
While Sandy's brother, Randy, shows SpongeBob how to do the Cheeks family whistle, the family gets into a car chase with the police because Randy used their van to illegally smuggle nuts. While they fend them off with the tornado, it does not work; as a last resort, SpongeBob and Sandy are launched out of a cannon to B.O.O.T.S. At the water park, Cuda, Sue Nahmee's pet pug, pursues them into the sewers, which leads to B.O.O.T.S. Sandy learns of Sue's plans and tries to attack her, but Sue puts her in a cage with a hamster wheel while SpongeBob is put on a roller coaster ride leading to the cloning chamber. Sue then rips off her lab outfit, and it is revealed that her neck was made of rubber, and peels off with her necklace in a flash. She is then revealed to have a cyborg body, masquerading as a human, with no neck. She explains that she was motivated by the desire to cuddle with fish, which she could not do because fish die when out of water. She also reveals that she used Sandy's life in Bikini Bottom to spy on its inhabitants, causing everyone to feel betrayed. SpongeBob arrives in the cloning chamber and is popped and divided into thousands of tiny versions of himself.
One of the tiny SpongeBobs motivates Sandy, telling her not to give up on saving Bikini Bottom. Sandy escapes from the cage and confronts Sue, who is defeated after she is decapitated and her head is fed to her pet fish. Mr. Krabs discovers that fusing the tiny SpongeBobs together will return SpongeBob to normal, and he, Squidward, and Patrick work together to bring him back. However, the stand holding the glass orb containing Bikini Bottom collapses itself over, and the orb cracks, causing all of the water to leak out. Sandy tries to call her family for help using the whistle, but is unable to because she lost a tooth while fighting Sue. Having learned the whistle himself, SpongeBob calls upon them to help rig a mechanism to launch Bikini Bottom back into the ocean. With Bikini Bottom back in place, everyone celebrates by having the Cheeks family circus perform at the Krusty Krab, by singing a song.
Cast
- Carolyn Lawrence as Sandy Cheeks and others
- Tom Kenny as SpongeBob SquarePants, Gary the Snail and others
- Mr. Lawrence as Plankton, Larry the Lobster and others
- Mary Jo Catlett as Mrs. Puff
- Clancy Brown as Mr. Krabs and others
- Bill Fagerbakke as Patrick Star and others
- Rodger Bumpass as Squidward Tentacles and others
- Dee Bradley Baker as Cuda, Video Voice and others
- Christopher Hagen, Rio Alexander and Ryan Begay as Cowboys
- Ilia Isorelýs Paulino as Phoebe
- Matty Cardarople as Kyle
- Wanda Sykes as Sue Nahmee
- * Jamaria Davis as young Sue Nahmee's body
- Jill Talley as Karen and various
- Craig Robinson as Pa Cheeks
- Grey DeLisle as Ma Cheeks, Granny Cheeks, Rowdy Cheeks, and Rosie Cheeks
- Johnny Knoxville as Randy Cheeks
- Kari Wahlgren as SeaPals Kid
- Jersey Johnston as Girl
- Miles Hall as Boy
Production
Conception and development
Executive producer Marc Ceccarelli pitched Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie during a session of pitching ideas for The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run. The idea got passed on, but a few years later, when the team wanted to do a Sandy Cheeks-centric story, he brought it back up and it was put into development. Director Liza Johnson was a newcomer to the world of animation. She was hired to direct the film because of her work on a season 2 episode of What We Do in the Shadows, "The Curse", which had Ceccarelli's favorite joke in the series. Carolyn Lawrence, the voice actor of Sandy, had heard whispers at work of a Sandy-related project in the works and described herself as being in shock when she received a phone call confirming it. Lawrence praised Johnson's vision for the film and immediately loved the script.In March 2020, it was reported that ViacomCBS would be producing two spin-off films based on the series SpongeBob SquarePants for Netflix. In May 2021, a spin-off film with Sandy as its lead character was announced to be in development from Nickelodeon for streaming television, to be directed by Johnson from a script written by Kaz and Tom J. Stern and described as a hybrid feature that will put the animated title character into a live-action setting. In August 2021, it was revealed that plans to film Saving Bikini Bottom in Los Alamos were scrapped due to rewrites of the script.
In February 2022, during an investor call, Nickelodeon CEO Brian Robbins said that three SpongeBob character-driven spin-off films were in the works and that they would release exclusively on streamer Paramount+, with the first one premiering in 2023. However, in April 2023, it was reported that Saving Bikini Bottom would instead debut on Netflix in 2024, in consistence with Nickelodeon's previous deal with Netflix. That same month, in addition to a first-look reveal, it was revealed that Wanda Sykes, Johnny Knoxville, Craig Robinson, Grey DeLisle, Ilia Isorelýs Paulino, and Matty Cardarople were part of the cast. Series regulars Carolyn Lawrence, Tom Kenny, Clancy Brown, Bill Fagerbakke, Mr. Lawrence, and Rodger Bumpass were also confirmed to reprise their roles.