Nickelodeon Unveils First 'The SpongeBob Movie: It's a Wonderful Sponge' Poster at SDCC

Nickelodeon has unveiled the first poster for Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Movies' The SpongeBob Movie: It's a Wonderful Sponge at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2019! Check it out below!

Designed by BLT Communications, LLC, prints of the limited edition poster are currently available at SDCC 2019.

The poster features the updated aesthetic for the underwater patty flipper, which shows the character's latest foray into CGI animation on the big screen.

In SpongeBob Movie: It's a Wonderful Sponge, the third SpongeBob SquarePants movie based on Nickelodeon's iconic animated series, reads, SpongeBob and Patrick go on a rescue mission to save Gary, who’s been kidnapped by Poseidon and taken to the Lost City of Atlantic City. The movie will reveal the first time our beloved characters (as kids) met at Camp…a magical moment that brings meaning to the power of true friendship. The movie is going to be a total trip!

The plot of SpongeBob Movie: It's a Wonderful Sponge will be an origin tale with a bit of an homage to the Frank Capra holiday classic It's a Wonderful Life. Mireille Soria, president of Paramount Animation, revealed at the VIEW Conference in Turin, Italy in October 2018 that "for the first time ever, we're going to get to the origin of how little SpongeBob met the rest of the Bikini Bottom gang at summer camp," adding that "the film's opening will take place at Camp Coral when all of our favorite characters meet for the first time."

In addition to delving into SpongeBob's character history, the film is also set to depart from previous films as well as the television series in terms of how it's made as well. It's a Wonderful Sponge will be the first SpongeBob feature film not to be animated by the South Korean studio behind the TV show, Rough Draft Korea. Instead, Montreal-based Mikros Image will animate the film. The film will also be the first SpongeBob movie to feature entirely computer-generated animation as the first film was hand animated while the second, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, featured a mix of hand animated and CG-animated scenes.

SpongeBob Movie: It's a Wonderful Sponge is scheduled to be released in theaters on Friday, May 22, 2020, to coincide with the Memorial Day Weekend, and as the culmination of Nickelodeon's the “Best Year Ever” event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of SpongeBob SquarePants, which kicked off Friday, July 12 with the premiere of “SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Blowout,” an original mixed live-action and animated special that will feature for the first time the celebrated voice talent behind SpongeBob, Patrick, Mr. Krabs, Sandy, Squidward and Plankton playing live-action doppelgänger versions of the animated characters they voice. In the one-hour special, Patrick and SpongeBob journey to the surface world, where they come across a few familiar characters during lunchtime rush at The Trusty Slab restaurant. Meanwhile, the Bikini Bottom residents set up a surprise party for SpongeBob.

Sitting in the director's chair for the movie will be Tim Hill, known for his work on the TV series, who will be directing from a screenplay by Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger and Michael Kvamme. Additionally, Hill co-wrote the script for The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie in 2004. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice cinematographer Larry Fong boarded the project in December 2018. Expected to lend their voices to reprise their roles as well are voice actors Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, Clancy Brown, Mr. Lawrence, Jill Talley, Carolyn Lawrence, Mary Jo Catlett, and Lori Alan. Composer Hans Zimmer will also be providing the music.

Sadly, this movie marks the first SpongeBob SquarePants production to follow Stephen Hillenburg's death. The creator of SpongeBob passed away in November after a battle with ALS, ans is expected to receive an "In Memory Of" credit in the movie.

The film will be the third in the series with The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie having been released in 2004 and its sequel, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, in 2015.

Both The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water were box office successes for the studio, bringing in a combined $465.3 million on a budget of $104 million between the two films.

Since its launch in July 1999, SpongeBob SquarePants has emerged as a pop culture phenomenon. The series has been the most-watched animated program with kids 2-11 for more than 15 consecutive years, and over the past several years, it has averaged more than 100,000,000 total viewers every quarter across all Nickelodeon networks. SpongeBob SquarePants is the most widely distributed property in Viacom International Media Networks history, seen in more than 208 countries and territories and translated in 55+ languages. The Paramount Pictures feature film The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water premiered Feb. 6, 2015, landing at #1 opening weekend. The character-driven cartoon chronicles the nautical and sometimes nonsensical adventures of SpongeBob, an incurably optimistic and earnest sea sponge, and his undersea friends in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom. Among those friends are SpongeBob's best friend, a pink starfish named Patrick Star, his neighbor and co-worker octopus Squidward Tentacles, and Sandy Cheeks, a squirrel from Texas.

SpongeBob SquarePants has been renewed through to at least the show's 13th season, will be celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2019, has its own critically acclaimed Broadway show, which is set to tour the U.S. from Fall 2019, and has a third upcoming movie, The SpongeBob Movie: It's a Wonderful Sponge, set to be released in Summer 2020! Nickelodeon is also developing spin-off's inspired by the series, including the recently greenlit CG-animated Kamp Koral (working title)

.@TheJacWac has found a #SDCC exclusive poster of the upcoming third @SpongeBob Movie, "It's a Wonderful Sponge!" pic.twitter.com/bpeeZgQMDc

— Geeks WorldWide @ #SDCC (@The_GWW) July 18, 2019

More Nick: Nickelodeon Marks 20 Years of "SpongeBob SquarePants" with the "Best Year Ever"!

Originally published: Thursday, July 18, 2019 at 22:18 BST.

H/T: Special thanks to @wfairchild72 for the news!; Poster via IMP Awards; Additional source: ComicBook.

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