As I figured, all good things had to come to an end. No, the Nickelodeon series Spongebob has not gone off the air, but for all purposes, it might as well have gone off the air. A few years ago, I caught a few minutes of Spongebob just out of curiosity to see what my kids were watching and laughing so hard at. One thing led to another, and I ended up enjoying it myself. So, why don’t I enjoy it lately?

The Spongebob Movie ruined the franchise. Yes, I said it: the movie ruined the franchise.

Earlier on, I bought some of the Spongebob DVDs as they came out, and eventually sprang for the box sets of the first three seasons. They’ve been in constant rotation here at the house, in fact, being family favorites. Aside from the subtle humor that adults can relate to, there are some fantastic laugh-out-loud moments that get all of us chuckling. Another appealing aspect for me is that the Spongebob animation is all classic old-style animation. No CGI involved. Yes, I do like the Pixar films (except for the dyspeptic “Finding Nemo”), but they have their own visual style that is Pixar. Spongebob still uses good ol’ animation, and has a fine cast of voice actors behind the scenes.

The movie itself was also very enjoyable: they journeyed to Shell City, they rode the Hasselhoff, and they rescued the crown for King Neptune who is bald…err…thinning! So, why did the movie ruin the franchise? Apparently, the show’s creator and producer, Steve Hillenberg, left the show. The fourth season of Spongebob, from what I’ve seen on the lone DVD I own (“Where’s Gary?”), misses the mark completely. The plots are too convoluted, and the characters are too wordy. There is just an information overload with some of these scripts, and they lost a lot of the essence that made the pre-movie versions of Spongebob special. In short, I don’t enjoy it as much, and I feel like the show is just going through the motions until it gets cancelled.

Fortunately I have the first three seasons, complete, on DVD. And one of these days for the Corner, I’m going to recount some of my favorite episodes, like “Nasty Patty,” “Gary Takes A Bath,” and other favorites. But it is sad that the series has declined, and even the fourth season is only available split between two box sets, so I have no real motivation to buy it. That’s OK though…I’m saving up for the third and fourth Looney Tunes box sets.