SpongeBob SquarePants:
The Complete 2nd Season
Picture: B
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episodes Overall: A-
Back in the early 1990s, Nickelodeon was still a
struggling basic cable station trying to make a name for itself as a bona fide
channel with original programming. Up
until this point, they mostly aired reruns of old kid’s shows from various
nations around the world. It was great,
as it introduced kids to the raunchy humor of You Can’t Do That on
Television to the educational awesomeness of Mr. Wizard’s World. As far as original programming, all
Nickelodeon had was a couple of game shows including Double Dare (and
all its incarnations with host Marc Summers) and Wild & Crazy Kids. But then something happened in the early
1990s that established Nickelodeon as the number one basic cable channel for
kids: the invention of the NickToon!
The first three shows to be produced for Nickelodeon were Doug, Rugrats,
and Ren & Stimpy. Kids took
to these shows instantly and adored them.
Soon after, Nickelodeon kept their original programming coming with the
creation of SNICK, or Saturday night Nickelodeon with awesome shows for
kids. More NickToons soon came with Aaaah!
Real Monsters and Rocko’s Modern Life, both of which became as
popular as their predecessors. Little
did people know, though, that there was an animator/writer/director at Rocko’s
Modern Life who was concocting an idea for an animated show that took place
under the sea. The man was Stephen
Hillenberg, who after a lot of hard work, brought the world SpongeBob
SquarePants, a kooky series about a sea sponge and his adventures under the
sea.
The series became an instant hit and became synonymous
with the Nickelodeon network. While it
occasionally has episodes that get a little too out there (an entire episode
devoted to SpongeBob relearning to tie his shoes?), the majority of the
episodes are pure hilarity, and strike a chord in today’s kids as well as the
adults who were kids who grew up on Nickelodeon. The show has blossomed into one of Nickelodeon’s top shows, and
as of now (thankfully!), there is no end in sight. The writing and directing are brilliant, and the sight gags are
spectacular and come out of nowhere but still make perfect sense. What it must be like to be in the heads of
those people?
The set comes in a nice box that resembles SpongeBob’s
pineapple home. The box itself has a
nice texture, where certain parts are raised giving it a semi-pineapple
feel. Inside that box is another box
containing the three Amaray cases which house the DVDs. This second box is covered with original
artwork featuring all the popular characters from the show, including some
well-known ones that appeared in season two.
Each DVD comes with animated menus, which look quite nice. There is a “Play All” option or you can
select each episode individually. What
they also did nice was that under each disc’s “Special Features” menu, they
included the credits for each episode separately, instead of tacking them onto
each episode. This allows the viewer to
dive into each episode without having to see the opening theme song each time,
or view credits at the end. Also
included in the set is a free movie ticket to see the SpongeBob SquarePants
movie in select theaters (which I recommend all fans to see).
The video is presented in its original TV aspect ratio of
1.33 to 1. The colors are rich and
vivid suffering from no fading at all.
All lines are thick and solid, with no breaks at all. The image looks wonderful, as there is not a
single hint of dust, grain, dirt, or anything that would tarnish the
image. The combination of cel and
computer animation works well for this series, and is preserved quite nicely in
this set. Alas, it is not 100% perfect,
as there are some interlacing errors, which are quite noticeable.
The audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Surround, similar to what is heard when viewed on Nickelodeon. The viewer has the option to listen to the
episodes in either English or Spanish.
The quality of the audio is great, as there is no muffling of sound or
any hints of imperfections. It is a
decent mix for a television show that utilizes only the front speakers. They could have done a 5.1 mix, but for a
show like this, it would have only been used to amplify directional sound. Unfortunately, the set is marred by the
exclusion of any subtitles or closed captioning.
The extras included in this box set are far from
fantastic, and in fact, bring this entire box set down. Available for seven of the episodes are
audio commentaries from each particular episode’s writers and animation
director. There really is not much to
be said about these commentaries, as most of time the people who are doing the
commentaries do not say a word. These
long periods of silence make the viewer forget they even have the audio
commentary option on! When they do
talk, they do not dispense any pearls of wisdom. More often than not, they just laugh at what they see on screen,
or even remind the viewer what is happening in the episode, which is not
helpful at all. They sometimes delve
into the creation process on the whole, but do not go into detail about the
particular episode. The commentaries
are the worst part of the set.
Other extras include a multi-language featurette entitled
“Around the World with SpongeBob SquarePants.” It is really just the opening credits featuring audio tracks in
English, Portuguese, French, Japanese, German, and Spanish. It is interesting to hear the way the show
is translated into these various languages, but other than that, not too
interesting. The episodes “Christmas
Who?” and “Mermaidman & Barnacleboy III” can be viewed entirely
as a storyboard, so you can get insight into what the episode was like in the
planning stages. The only other extras
are a demo for a SpongeBob SquarePants trivia video game (which isn’t that
great a game) and a script viewer that can be accessed via DVD-ROM on the
computer.
All in all, this set pales in comparison to the season one
release, which featured some great interviews with cast and crew members. The episodes themselves are hilarious and
well done, but when the set is all boiled down, it probably would have just
been better off to release the set “episodes only.” Extras for DVD releases are meant to enhance the original content
of the episodes, and clearly, these extras do not. Here’s hoping the next season set brings back the quality of
extras seen on the season one box set.
- Antonio Lopez
