'The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water' Trailer is Better Than Expected

Ever since the teaser poster and first still for The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water were released a while ago, fans have been up in arms about the film’s new CGI look. Today, we got our first teaser trailer for the 2015 animated film, and we must say, it doesn’t look half bad.

The film has a goofy and wacky premise, which can only be expected from a SpongeBob movie: a pirate has an book that will make whatever evil plans he writes in it come true. The problem is, it’s missing a key page, which happens to be located in a little pineapple under the sea by a “legendary hero”. SpongeBob and gang realize they have to come up to the human world to retrieve the book in order to save their world from destruction. They finally get their hand on the book and rewrite their story, turning them into ridiculously buff superheroes.

The first thing of note is that the film will not be entirely CGI animated. Fans of SpongeBob‘s iconic 2D animation will still be m somewhat satisfied as it seems the first act or so will be traditionally animated. Regarding the characters’ new CGI designs and animation, they actually look pretty decent when mixed with the live-action footage and backgrounds. The studio made an effort not to make the CGI characters super realistic looking, but rather they look more like life-size figurines or stop-motion maquettes. It seems to work pretty well, except when the characters turn into their buff counterparts.

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water hits theatres February 13, 2015.