It might fly under the radar when talking about the most influential animated shows of all time, but the reality is that some 25 years after it first debuted in 1999, SpongeBob Squarepants deserves to be in that conversation.
The absurdist family-friendly comedy is raucous fun, and its main characters have become completely iconic around the world, all of them instantly recognisable. Now, one of its unsung heroes is getting her own Netflix original movie in Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie.
In case that didn't make it clear enough for you, Sandy the squirrel is in the spotlight this time around, as she takes centre stage to lead SpongeBob, Patrick and more on a journey out of the ocean to rescue Bikini Bottom from corporate thieves.
In Finding Nemo-style, it looks like their whole hometown is going to get abducted and moved, right down to its famous buildings and houses, leaving our ragtag heroes to jump out of their familiar locations to go and get it back.
The movie also looks set to repeat one of the most successful choices previously made by SpongeBob movies – having the animated characters superimposed into the real world for sections. So it's both live-action and computer animation.
Rather than either making the whole thing animated or trying to create more photorealistic CGI versions of the characters, this lets the movies ham it up and place real actors in sets with SpongeBob and company careening about them. Hopefully, it'll bring plenty of funny moments.
The trailer gives plenty away, too, not least the fact that Sandy will discover her flying squirrel heritage at one point, but you'll be able to sink your teeth into the whole thing when it hits Netflix on 2 August – so in just a few week's time.
Netflix will doubtless hope that it helps to strengthen its case to be named the best streaming service for family-friendly content. Its main competition on that front is obviously Disney+, which has a huge library of shows and movies to fall back on, but Netflix is trying its level best to produce more originals.
