It’s almost October, which means Halloween is just right around the corner. So prepare yourselves to be terrified with maniacal laughs, ghoulish frights, and horrific haunts. And SpongeBob SquarePants? That’s right, everyone’s favorite creature who lives in a pineapple under the sea will have his own Halloween special episode called The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom which will debut on Friday the 13th at 7 PM (est/pst) on Nickelodeon.
The stop-motion special with the premiere of SpongeBob SquarePants: The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom will center on the gang confronting Flying Dutchman (Brian Doyle-Murray), who comes to Bikini Bottom to make sure everyone in town is scared–especially SpongeBob, who seems to be unflappable in his belief that spooky things are actually funny.
Inspired by the visual style of classic stop-motion animation TV specials, Bikini Bottom is decked out for Halloween and features Sandy’s treedome as a mad scientist’s lab, including a giant remotely operated Acorn Monster; Mr. Krabs’ restaurant as “The Horrors of the Chum Bucket,” displaying scenes of Plankton torturing food; and Plankton’s restaurant as “The Horrors of the Krusty Krab,” telling the story of Mr. Krabs turning customers into Krabby Patties and more.
The characters wear Halloween costumes, with SpongeBob as a flower, Patrick as a knight, Sandy as a mad scientist, Mr. Krabs as a dollar bill, Plankton as a devil, Squidward as himself, and Karen as a cat. SpongeBob SquarePants: The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom features an original song, “The Scare Song,” written by Mr. Lawrence, music by Eban Schletter and performed by the Flying Dutchman’s crew of pirate ghosts.
The special features various production techniques including: stop-motion puppet animation, marionette puppeteering, hand puppets and 2D hand-drawn animation designed by Sally Cruikshank.
SpongeBob SquarePants is voiced by Tom Kenny as SpongeBob SquarePants, an incurably optimistic sea sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea; Bill Fagerbakke as Patrick Star, SpongeBob’s silly best friend; Roger Bumpass as Squidward, an aloof cashier of The Krusty Krab and SpongeBob’s neighbor; Clancy Brown as Mr. Krabs, SpongeBob’s boss and greedy owner of The Krusty Krab; Carolyn Lawrence as Sandy Cheeks, Bikini Bottom’s only resident rodent aquanaut and scientist; and Mr. Lawrence as Plankton, owner of the Chum Bucket and chief rival of Mr. Krabs.
The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom was produced at Screen Novelties, a Los Angeles-based stop-motion animation production company, where miniature puppets and sets brought Bikini Bottom to life in three dimensions. The production featured 27 unique sets, across five stages, where15 boxes of breakfast cereal were used to create texture on Bikini Bottom’s coral reefs; eight pounds of glitter were used to decorate SpongeBob’s Halloween pineapple house; hundreds of popsicle sticks created the planks of the rollercoaster track that Patrick and SpongeBob ride; and “black lights” were used to create a fluorescent glow across the puppets and sets.
This is the second time Nickelodeon has partnered with Screen Novelties on a SpongeBob SquarePants stop-motion episode. SpongeBob SquarePants: It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! debuted December 2012 and featured Plankton turning everybody in Bikini Bottom from nice to naughty.
Marc Ceccarelli and Vincent Waller are co-executive producers on SpongeBob SquarePants. The special was written by Mr. Lawrence, with Brian Morante serving as the storyboard director and Jennie Monica as producer. The special is being directed by Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh, and produced by Chris Finnegan of Screen Novelties.
A new trailer for the upcoming episode has just appeared, and if you’re a fan of the character or the stop-motional animation medium, then you might want to give this trailer a look, because its chalk full of SpongeBob and stop-motion animation goodness.
