Spongebob Squarepants Is Getting His Very Own Spin-Off Prequel
It's going to focus on a 'pre-teen' Spongebob, which conjures up weird images of a sponge going through puberty.
If, 20 years ago, you predicted that a little cartoon about friendly aquatic animals called Spongebob Squarepants would soon be one of the biggest entertainment properties on the planet, then congratulations: you are a clairvoyant.
After all, there is nothing about Spongebob that necessarily screams out surefire hit. Sure, it’s whip smart, and funny, and outrageously creative — but there are a lot of whip smart, funny, outrageously creative children’s shows that haven’t become the sheer content behemoth that Spongebob Squarepants has (Rocko’s Modern Life, Ren And Stimpy, Catdog, etc etc).
Over the two decades since it first aired, Spongebob Squarepants has spawned an acclaimed Broadway musical, generated over $13 billion in marketing and merchandise for Nickelodeon, won pretty much every children’s TV award it’s possible to win, and become a version of internet parlance unto itself. Every other week there’s a new Spongebob meme, so deep is the show etched into the grey matter of the viewers who grew up with it.
Me after using the restroom while on the clock pic.twitter.com/efqK0wm681
— NOEL, the nonbinary wonder (@noelnievesleon) June 2, 2019
Anyway, it doesn’t seem like the sheer Spongebob content machine is slowly down any time soon either — season 12 is still crowding up TV screens around the world, a movie (ingeniously titled The SpongeBob Movie: It’s a Wonderful Sponge) is in development, and now Nickelodeon has announced a spin-off prequel, focused on the life of the young sponge.
Called Kamp Koral, the show will follow a pre-teen Spongebob (kinda disturbing to imagine that he’s ever gone through puberty in the first place, to be honest) as he and his friends navigate the perils of Lake Yuckymuck.
The real kicker is that Kamp Koral will be entirely CGI. That’ll set it apart from the original series, which has been a leading force in 2D animation for almost 20 years now.
Kamp Koral is still a little while off — probably best not to expect it ’til 2020 — but hey, there’s a lot of sponge-related content to saturate yourself in before then.