Tuesday, October 27, 2009

SpongeBob SquarePants

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SpongeBob SquarePants is the principal character in the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants, which first aired in July 1999 on Nickelodeon. The character was designed by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg, and is voiced by Tom Kenny.

SpongeBob SquarePants Appearance
SpongeBob is an anthropomorphic, yellow, porous, sponge with a face. He has disproportionally thin and short e
xtremities extending from his body (arms and legs), and resembles a kitchen sponge more than a sea sponge. SpongeBob has the ability to transform into other shapes at will, absorb physical blows as well as large amounts of water, and reassemble pieces which fall off of him. His arms can become variable in length and shape at will, are retractable, and can be re-grown at will. He has six long black wiry eyelashes, and his eyes have sky-blue irises with very dilated pupils. Like the rest of SpongeBob's body (excluding his eyes, mouth and brain), his hands and feet are made of sponge.


SpongeBob SquarePants typically wears a white business shirt, red tie and brown pants, although he has been known to run naked or in his underwear. As a part of the attire, his shoes are shining black, with a spheric bulge at the front (although still a part of the shoe proper, unlike the balls of the clown shoes). He usually wears a pair of white briefs underneath his pants, although he has been seen wearing blue, green, and red briefs (all at the same time, nonetheless) and even pink to honor his best friend, Patrick. At night, he sometimes has a green bathrobe on but mostly goes to sleep with his underwear and nothing else. When he goes "swimming", he wears a pair of blue swimming trunks (although he still wears his underpants underneath). He also wears a red bowtie in exchange for his necktie on special occasions, such as his house party or at the Krusty Krab telling Squirrel Jokes

General SpongeBob SquarePants info
SpongeBob SquarePants is extremely sweet, generous, friend
ly, and most of all, trusting. He has a buck-toothed grin, tremendously expressive face and square body that complement his pure and good nature. SpongeBob SquarePants will rarely knowingly do wrong or harm to anyone and never without remorse. However, he has been known to shout and curse (even "obscenities") when angry or frustrated. He dislikes scary things and stinky things. Although he is an adult, he has a very childish nature.

Although a good-natured and loving sponge, many characters seem to avoid him. SpongeBob SquarePants is very easily overexcited about almost everything, like many different or simple/regular tasks, or even things he doesn't know what they mean (like when Squidward invited him to a strike, SpongeBob celebrated for it although he never heard the word before). This, along with his repetitive talking and loud dolphin-like laughter makes him a huge annoyance to others, especially Mrs. Puff and Squidward Tentacles.

Although malleable, SpongeBob's body is generally incredibly weak. He has been known to have enormous difficulty lifting even the lightest of objects. Normally though he can function at a reasonable level. SpongeBob's insides and skeleton have been shown various times (eg. when he appears 'dead' in some future 'flashbacks'), but every time they appear different. His skeleton varies from a simple spine to a perfect square.

SpongeBob SquarePants has one pet, a snail named Gary (the analogous of a cat on land, it is also thought that a worm is the analogous of a dog on land). Gary's meows are generally understood by most all residents of Bikini Bottom. Gary and SpongeBob live together in a pineapple under the sea.

SpongeBob SquarePants Job and Leisure
SpongeBob has a career as a fry cook at the Krusty
Krab restaurant, home of the Krabby Patty. He takes his job very seriously and is very good at it. He was employee of the month over twenty six times, which would mean he has worked there at least two years. Then, in The Spongebob Squarepants Movie, he has had 374 consecutive employee-of-the-month awards, which would mean he has worked there for at least 31 years and 2 months. Because of labor laws, this puts his minimum age around 52 years, 2 months. He works alongside Squidward (much to Squidward's dismay), who manages the cash register for his money obsessed boss, Mr. Eugene Krabs. SpongeBob, in some episodes, seems to have attained a celebrity like status in Bikini Bottom for his masterful fry cooking. In an episode where SpongeBob and Squidward go on strike, he is referred to as a "legend" by a young fry cook who wants to take his job and is asked to sign the young boy’s spatula. In another episode, he is offered a job as Neptune's fry cook, but turns it down because Patrick couldn't come too. And SpongeBob has never been a minute late ever for his job (except in "Hooky" he was two minutes late because he got hooked, and in "Have You Seen This Snail" he was fifteen minutes late because he was so tired from searching for Gary.).

He spends his free time with his friend Patrick Star (a rather dimwitted Starfish), and especially enjoys practicing karate with his other friend Sandy Cheeks (a squirrel from Texas who wears a space suit to breathe underwater), as well as catching jellyfish at Jellyfish Fields. To date, he has caught (and let go) every jellyfish in Bikini Bottom.


SpongeBob SquarePants has yet to keep a boating license (analogous to a driver's license) because he fails every driver's test at Mrs. Puff's Boating School, mainly due to a tendency to become nervous once behind the wheel (he has been shown to know what he's doing everywhere but inside the boat). Despite this, he perpetually and continuously attends boating school in an attempt to get his license (and because he enjoys it), much to the woe and frustration of his boating instructor Mrs. Puff. At one point, Mrs. Puff becomes so frustrated she gives SpongeBob his boating license by allowing him to do "extra credit". She then takes it back realizing how much chaos he could cause with his license.


In several episodes, most SpongeBob SquarePants video games, and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, it is suggested he has brilliant guitar and singing skills. Many times he sings some songs in a different voice, probably by a different voice actor. He also likes to blow bubbles, surf, sun bathe, play the ukulele, watch his favorite TV show, The New Adventures of Mermaidman and Barnacleboy and do his job at the Krusty Krab.

All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Awards and nominations

Year Association Award Category Notes Result
2000 Golden Reel Award Best Sound Editing in Television Animation — Music Episodes: "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy" and "Pickles" Won
2000 Golden Reel Award Best Sound Editing in Television Animation — Sound Episode: "Karate Choppers" Won
2001 Annie Awards Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in an Animated Television Production Mary Jo Catlett as Mrs. Puff in "No Free Rides" Nominated
2001 Annie Awards Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Male Performer in an Animated Television Production Tom Kenny as SpongeBob in "Wormy" Nominated
2001 Annie Awards Outstanding Individual Achievement for a Song in an Animated Production Peter Straus and Paul Tibbitt for the song "The Very First Christmas" Nominated
2001 Golden Reel Award Best Sound Editing in Television Animation — Sound Episodes: "Rock Bottom" and "Arrgh" Won
2001 Golden Reel Award Best Sound Editing in Television Animation — Music Episodes: "Fools In April" and "Neptune's Spatula" Nominated
2002 Emmy Awards Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour)
Nominated
2002 Golden Reel Award Best Sound Editing in Television – Animation Episodes: "Secret Box" and "Band Geeks" Won
2002 Golden Reel Award Best Sound Editing in Television Animation — Music Episodes: "Jellyfish Hunter" and "The Fry Cook Games" Nominated
2002 Television Critics Association Awards Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming
Won
2003 Emmy Awards Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour) Episodes: "New Student Starfish" and "Clams" Nominated
2003 Golden Reel Award Best Sound Editing in Television Animation — Music Episodes: "Wet Painters" and "Krusty Krab Training Video" Won
2003 Golden Reel Award Best Sound Editing in Television Animation Episodes: "Nasty Patty" and "Idiot Box" Won
2003 Kids' Choice Awards Favorite Cartoon
Won
2004 Emmy Awards Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour) Episode: "SpongeBob B.C. (Before Comedy)" Nominated
2004 Golden Reel Award Best Sound Editing in Television Animation — Music Episodes: "The Great Snail Race" and "Mid-Life Crustacean". Won
2004 Golden Reel Award Best Sound Editing in Television Animation — Music Episode: "Mid-Life Crustacean". Nominated
2004 Kids' Choice Awards Favorite Cartoon
Won
2005 Annie Awards Best Animated Television Production
Won
2005 Emmy Awards Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour) Episodes: "Fear of a Krabby Patty" and "Shell of a Man" Nominated
2005 Golden Reel Award Best Sound Editing in Television: Animated Episodes: "Pranks A Lot" and "SpongeBob Meets the Strangler" Nominated
2005 Kids' Choice Awards Favorite Cartoon
Won
2005 Satellite Awards Best Youth DVD Complete Second Season DVD Nominated
2005 Television Critics Association Awards Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming
Nominated
2006 Annie Awards Best Writing in an Animated Television Production C.H. Greenblatt, Paul Tibbitt, Mike Bell, and Tim Hill in "Fear of a Krabby Patty" Won
2006 Golden Reel Award Best Sound Editing in Television: Animated Episode: "Have You Seen This Snail?" Nominated
2006 Kids' Choice Awards Favorite Cartoon
Won
2007 Emmy Awards Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour) Episodes: "Bummer Vacation" and "Wigstruck" Nominated
2007 Kids' Choice Awards Favorite Cartoon
Won
2007 Television Critics Association Awards Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming
Nominated[43]
2008 Annie Awards Best Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production Tom Kenny in "Spy Buddies" Nominated
2008 Golden Reel Award Best Sound Editing in Television: Animated Episode: "SpongeHenge" Nominated
2008 Kids' Choice Awards Favorite Cartoon
Nominated
2008 Emmy Awards Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour) Episodes: "The Inmates of Summer" and "The Two Faces of Squidward" Nominated
2008 Philippines Kids' Choice Awards Favorite Cartoon
Won
2009 Kids' Choice Awards Favorite Cartoon
Won
2009 Annie Awards Direction in an Animated Television Production Episode: "Penny Foolish" Nominated
2009 Golden Reel Awards Best Sound Editing: Television Animation Episode: "Suction Cup Symphony" Nominated
2009 Teen Choice Awards Choice TV Animated Show
Won
2009 Emmy Awards Special Class Animated Program Episode: "Dear Vikings" Nominated
2010 Golden Reel Awards Best Sound Editing: Television Animation Episode: "SpongeBob vs. The Big One" TBA
2010 Annie Awards Best Home Entertainment Production "SpongeBob vs. The Big One" DVD TBA
2010 Annie Awards Best Animated Television Production for Children
TBA
2010 Annie Awards Best Voice Acting in a Television Production Tom Kenny in "SpongeBob's Truth or Square" TBA

Sunday, October 11, 2009

History

Creation

Creator Stephen Hillenburg initially conceived SpongeBob SquarePants in 1984, while he was teaching and studying marine biology at what is now the Orange County Ocean Institute. During this period, Hillenburg became fascinated with animation, and wrote a comic book entitled The Intertidal Zone starring various anthropomorphic forms of sea life, many of which would evolve into SpongBob SquarePants characters, including "Bob the Sponge", who was the co-host of the comic and resembled an actual sea sponge as opposed to SpongeBob.In 1987, Hillenburg left the institute to pursue his dream of becoming an animator, and began to envision the possible concept of a project involving anthropomorphic sea life, drawing several rough sketches. In 1992, Hillenburg began to attend the California Institute of the Arts to study animation, having been accepted into the institute by Jules Engel, who was impressed with Hillenburg's previous work.

While attending animation school, Hillenburg received a job on the children's TV series Mother Goose & Grimm, and worked on the series from 1991 to 1993. When attending the California Institute of the Arts, he made his thesis film entitled Wormholes, which was funded by the Princess Grace Foundation and was later displayed at various animation festivals. In 1993, Hillenburg graduated from the institute, earning a Master of Fine Arts in experimental animation. In 1995, Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life, met Hillenburg at one of said animation festivals, and offered him a job as a director of the series.animated series as a writer, producer, and storyboard artist during the series' third season, continuing his position for much of the fourth season. The third season episode "Fish-N-Chumps" (November 12, 1995) was directed by Hillenburg, and involved Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt going on a fishing trip, oblivious to the fact that a pair anthropomorphic fish are attempting to catch them from underwater. While working on Rocko's Modern Life, Hillenburg became friends with Tom Kenny, who was later approached by Hillenburg to become the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, and future SpongeBob SquarePants collaborators Doug Lawrence, Paul Tibbitt and others. Hillenburg then joined the Nickelodeon

Rocko's Modern Life ended in 1996.Shortly following this, Hillenburg began working on SpongeBob SquarePants, teaming up with several Nickelodeon veterans and Rocko crew members. To voice the character of SpongeBob, Hillenburg approached Tom Kenny, who had worked with him on Rocko's Modern Life. Originally SpongeBob was to be named SpongeBoy but this name was already in use. This was discovered after voice acting for the original seven minute pilot was recorded in 1997. The Nickelodeon legal department discovered that the name was already in use for a mop product. Upon finding this out, Hillenburg decided that the character's given name still had to contain "Sponge" so viewers would not mistake the character for a "Cheese Man." Hillenburg decided to use the name "SpongeBob." He chose "SquarePants" as a family name as it referred to the character's square shape and it had a "nice ring to it".

Whilst pitching the cartoon to Nickelodeon executives, Hillenburg donned a Hawaiian shirt, brought along an “underwater terrarium with models of the characters”, and Hawaiian music to set the theme. The setup was described by Nick executive Eric Coleman as "pretty amazing". When given money and two weeks to write the pilot episode (“Help Wanted”), Derek Drymon, Stephen Hillenberg, and Nick Jennings returned with, described by Nickelodeon official Albie Hecht, “a performance (I) wish (I) had on tape”. Although described as stressful by executive producer Derek Drymon, the pitch went “very well”; Kevin Kay and Hecht had to step outside because they were “exhausted from laughing”, making the cartoonists worried.

Season one

SpongeBob SquarePants aired its first episode, "Help Wanted/Reef Blower/Tea at the Treedome," on May 1, 1999, following the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. The series later made its "official" debut on July 17, 1999 with the second episode "Bubblestand/Ripped Pants."

The series initially suffered in the ratings, and failed to attract a steady audience. Creator Hillenburg was confident that due to the low ratings, the Nickelodeon executives would cancel the series after its first season.Sumatra and noticed a schoolgirl carrying a bootleg SpongeBob SquarePants bookbag, convincing him of the series' cult following. However, he continued to believe that the series would be canceled after its first season, and was surprised when Nickelodeon renewed the series for a second season. However, during this period, Hillenburg visited

Season two through three

The second season began on October 26, 2000 with the episode "Your Shoe's Untied/Squid's Day Off," and during this time, the show propelled into stardom, with the help of a huge merchandising campaign that continues to this day. The growing popularity of SpongeBob led to Nickelodeon immediately ordering a third season, which began on October 5, 2001 with the episode "Just One Bite/The Bully."

In 2002, as the show's success continued to grow, production on a feature film spin-off began. The announcement of the movie led some fans to fear that the series was being cancelled and rumors of such were spread. Nickelodeon, having aired half of the third season by then, decided to spread the remaining episodes out over two years and the final episode, "SpongeBob Meets The Strangler/Pranks A Lot," aired on October 11, 2004.

Released in the U.S. on November 19, 2004, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie received generally positive reviews from critics and successfully grossed over $140,000,000 worldwide. The film was intended to be the series finale, and creator Hillenburg announced that he would resign. However, in 2005, it was announced that SpongeBobexecutive producer. The job now belongs to Derek Drymon, with Paul Tibbitt taking over Drymon's job as creative director. would be continuing with a fourth season due in May. Stephen Hillenburg was rumoured to have left the series; however, he did not actually leave the show but resigned from his position as the show's

Deleted scenes

"Just One Bite" was edited from subsequent airings compared to its original airing in 7 October 2001 because of a scene near the end of the episode. In the scene, Squidward opens a trap burglar alarm containing gas, a robot hand drops a match on the gas, causing Squidward and the room to go on fire. Squidward goes into the fry-cook room in panic, and the same process happens again. This scene was removed from later airings and DVD prints (including the "Complete Third Season" DVD) and in this case was replaced with another scene where the camera zooms into the Patty Vault without Squidward saying his censored lines, and Squidward enters the vault without getting burned by the traps. Nickelodeon did not explain the cause and reason of this, although similarities between 9/11 may have been why.

Another deleted scene was in the episode "Procrastination", where SpongeBob looks out the window and see everyone having fun, imagines a live-action racecar crashing to the side (most likely the reason why this scene was cut), and when he does calisthenics.

Season four through seven

The new episodes began airing on May 6, 2005. The first new episode was "Fear of a Krabby Patty"/"Shell of a Man". After airing three new episodes on Fridays from May 6 – May 20, Nickelodeon showed no new episodes until September 2005. For the first time in the series' run, Nickelodeon began airing 11-minute segments of new episodes separately, spread over two weeks. This practice began with the airing of the episode "Selling Out" on September 23; its companion episode, "Funny Pants," premiered the following week. The Star Online eCentral reported in December 2005 that Nickelodeon had ordered 20 more episodes, bringing the show’s total to 100.

In December 2006, SpongeBob was approved for a fifth season which began on February 19, 2007 with the episode "Rise and Shine"/"Waiting"/"Fungus Among Us." On July 23, 2007 Nickelodeon aired a special event, called the "SpongeBob New-New-New-New-New Week" in which from Monday to Friday, a new episode would air. This continued until the end of the second week. Later on November 12, 2007 a TV movie aired titled Atlantis SquarePantis, guest staring David Bowie as the voice of Lord Royal Highness. On March 13, 2008, it was announced that SpongeBob will have an additional thirty-nine episodes, which includes the remaining episodes of the sixth season, and a seventh season. The last remaining episode from the fifth season, "Goo Goo Gas", finally aired on July 19, 2009, completing the fifth season of the series.

Tenth anniversary

On July 14, 2009, a primetime SpongeBob tenth anniversary documentary titled Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob SquarePants, aired on VH1, discussing the history of the show, and its impact on popular culture. Starting on July 17, 2009 at 8:00 PM EST, Nickelodeon aired a 50½-hour marathon titled "The Ultimate SpongeBob Sponge Bash." The marathon included the premiere of 11 new episodes, countdowns of celebrities' and viewer-chosen top 10 episodes, and more. On November 6, 2009, a second TV movie debuted on Nickelodeon, titled Truth or Square, in which SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, and Mr. Krabs are accidentally locked inside the Krusty Krab freezer on the night of the restaurant's eleventy-seventh anniversary celebration. While trapped inside, the friends look back on their shared memories with "shocking" reveals. Several celebrities made live-action cameo appearances on Truth or Square, including Rosario Dawson, LeBron James, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Craig Ferguson, Robin Williams and Pink, while Ricky Gervais provided opening and closing naration for the special. Also Victoria Beckham was set to lend her voice as Queen Amphitrite, a Brit-accented goddess of the sea in an upcoming episode most likely to air during an hour-long special this summer.