SpongeBob SquarePants

[AquaGGR]

Squidward has been the in-universe Scrappy ever since the first season, in an early episode ("Jellyfishing"), his tentacles get stuck in his bike wheels causing him to fall off a cliff and explode. The poor treatment of Squidward got worse in later seasons, but sometimes it seems like it compensates for his Flanderization.

 

[AquaGGR]

It could be because one of the pre-movie writers, Mr. Lawrence, contributed to the script.

Once, Mr. Lawrence did audio commentary for the episode "The Big One" as Plankton, and it was much funnier than the episode itself, because he wrote the whole thing himself.

The only redeeming part of SpongeBob now is the Plankton episodes. Pre-movie, barely any episodes focused on just Plankton (with a few exceptions like "Plankton's Army"), and Karen was just an annoying computer wife. Now, she's a Deadpan Snarker that usually points out the flaws in Plankton's plans. I personally like that version of the character better.

Plankton is treated just as poorly as Squidward in recent episodes, though.

 

[AquaGGR]

SpongeBob always advertises episodes as being a huge extravaganza, like a made for TV movie or somethin' , but they end up being very underwhelming and having a very barebones plot. The western one, the gladiator one, the Atlantis one, the surfing one, the sled race one, etc...

The only one that got close to a big episode was the Truth or Square one, that's one of the only new episodes I'm fond of. I liked the homage to '30s cartoons, the Will Ferrel cameo, and the stop-motion opening sequence.

 

[Sgt Floyd]

Ugh...the sled race one just...

Actually, no, I think Atlantis was more facebashingly cringeworthy...David Bowie...why? Just WHY?

 

[AquaGGR]

The only entertaining part of the Atlantis one was the 8-Bit game sequence with Sandy and the giant nose.

The musical-powered bus should've become a series mainstay.

 

[Drtooth]

Plankton is treated just as poorly as Squidward in recent episodes, though.

Now that I think of it, some of the episodes I've seen recently, Plankton seems less like a devious, determined mad villain and more like Wile E. Coyote pathetic.

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

The episodes involving Mr. Krabs and Plankton are funny. My favorite is where Plankton and Mr. Krabs both end up in court together.

 

[Mo Frackle]

After Hillenburg and the majority of the original writers left, the series slowly shifted from clever stories involving likable characters to one cheap laugh after another, involving Flanderized characters.

SpongeBob went from the squeaky clean, somewhat naïve, but still clever at times to an annoying pain. Patrick went from a character that merely performed tasks on his own logic to someone incapable of doing anything. Sandy largely went from the likable, clever, but tough squirrel to a major science geek. The only 'Sandy/science' episode from the Hillenburg era that comes to mind is "Sandy's Rocket".

The "Squidward Torture Episodes" are extremely painful to watch; unlike the 'torture' episodes in the Hillenburg era where Squidward (or any character, for that matter) would get punished as a comeuppance, now Squidward (and occasionally other characters) get tortured just for the sake of a cheap joke.

Even greedy Mr. Krabs had a likable quality to him in the Hillenburg era. Now, not so much. And having every other episode be a Krabs/Plankton story is a tad repetitive, especially since a few of these stories were more or less re-workings of previous Krabs/Plankton episodes.

Hillenburg was naturally a lover of the ocean. And his era regularly featured parodies of underwater life. It seems that at first, the writers tried to emulate Hillenburg's sea-parodies ("Shell of a Man"), but after awhile largely ignored the fact that the characters live underwater.

And in some cases, apparently forgot that the characters live underwater and aren't the size of a human being... (0:13)

But the voice cast still enjoys doing the show, which is a positive. And even with unfunny material, one can still sense that Tom Kenny and the gang are having a ball in the recording studio. On another plus side, Hillenburg and some of the original writers are apparently returning for the next SB theatrical film.

 

[AquaGGR]

I noticed that the characters voices changed as they were Flanderized. If you watch Season 9, and then Season 1, the characters sound almost nothing alike.

 

[Mo Frackle]

I noticed that the characters voices changed as they were Flanderized. If you watch Season 9, and then Season 1, the characters sound almost nothing alike.

Character voices develop considerably throughout the years. SpongeBob's certainly not the only show where this happened. But the fact that Kenny started using a much higher-pitched voice for the sponge right after Hillenburg left is definitely ironic.