There’s been a lot of Odyssey talk since the announcement of Christopher Nolan‘s upcoming adaptation of the influential epic poem. Even if you’ve never read it, you’ve likely enjoyed one of its numerous adaptations, like O’ Brother, Where Art Thou? or Black Sails. But often forgotten in discussions of Odyssey adaptations is the 2004 Annie Award-nominated feature The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. Directed by cartoon legend Stephen Hillenburg and starring the vocal talents of Tom Kenny, Bill Faggerbakke, and Clancy Brown, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is indeed an adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey (fight me).
How Is A ‘SpongeBob’ Movie An ‘Odyssey’ Adaptation?
In an interview with the East Valley Tribune, series creator and film director Stephen Hillenburg referred to The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie as a “road trip adventure”. In a broader sense, The Odyssey was the first road trip adventure. But The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie draws more than just 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 equivalent to Poseidon. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie pulls a similar move with the character of Princess Mindy (Scarlett Johansson), who aids SpongeBob and Patrick (Faggerbakke) on their journey. While Mindy is never referred to by her full name in canon, “Mindy” is a common nickname for “Minerva”, who is the Roman equivalent to Athena, the Greek god that aided Odysseus on his journey.
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The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie also takes its own spin on the myth of the siren. Sirens are usually portrayed as attractive women whose voices draw sailors to their watery graves. But The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie presents SpongeBob and Patrick with a demonic-looking frog fish that draws in its prey by deceiving it with what appears to be a nice old lady serving ice cream. In reality, neither the ice cream nor the old lady are real, and SpongeBob and Patrick barely escape with their lives. But it’s a fitting change from Odysseus and his men circumventing the Sirens by plugging their ears with wax. SpongeBob might not be drawn in by a song, but he certainly is by the promise of ice cream.
The ‘Odyssey’ References Get Even More Direct
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is very unsubtle with its Odyssey inspiration. Princess Mindy gives SpongeBob and Patrick a bag of wind to aid in their journey home, which is just straight up from The Odyssey. SpongeBob and Patrick, like Odysseus, also battle a cyclops in the form of a human in an old-fashioned diver suit. The film even adapts The Odyssey’s meta-narrative of being a story-within-a-story through its pirate subplot. Just as Odysseus’ epic adventure isn’t simply a direct account of events, but a poem relating Odysseus’ story to an audience, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is not simply a movie, but a movie-within-a-movie that the pirates are also watching.
While it’s easy to dismiss The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and all of its child-like whimsy, it makes a lot of clever and artful choices in adapting The Odyssey and its surrounding Greek mythology. Hillenburg understood, implicitly, the audience he was writing for. The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie holds up spectacularly in the 20+ years since its release. And, no, that’s not just the nostalgia talking. Though not the most accurate of adaptations, The Odyssey’s influence on the film is undeniable.
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
- Release Date
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November 19, 2004
- Runtime
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87 Minutes
- Director
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Stephen Hillenburg, Mark Osborne
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Tom Kenny
SpongeBob / Narrator / Gary / Various
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Rodger Bumpass
Squidward / Fish #4
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Bill Fagerbakke
Patrick Star / Fish #2 / Chum Customer / Local Fish
