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SpongeBob SquarePants: The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom promises to be “mind boggling, teeth chattering, eye popping, and very, very adorable,” in Nickelodeon’s stop-motion halloween special.
The episode features various production techniques including stop-motion puppet animation, marionette puppeteering, hand puppets and 2D hand-drawn animation designed by Sally Cruikshank.
Set to launch on the unlucky day of Friday, October 13, it tells the tale of the Flying Dutchman (Brian Doyle-Murray) coming to Bikini Bottom to make sure everyone in town is scared—especially SpongeBob, who seems 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.
The characters are of course dressed up, 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 also 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 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, where 15 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.
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.
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.
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