“Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie” is based on the famous animated television series “SpongeBob SquarePants,” and it combines CGI animation with live-action, starring the series’ regular voice cast along with new characters. The plot follows Sandy and SpongeBob as they venture to Sandy’s home state of Texas to save Bikini Bottom from the hands of an evil CEO. It is the first in a series of SpongeBob character spin-off films. Director Liza Johnson and star Carolyn Lawrence, who voices Sandy Cheeks, were kind enough to talk with us about their experiences making the film, which you can listen to, read, or watch below. Please be sure to check out the film, which is now available to stream on Netflix. Thank you, and enjoy!
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Liza Johnson was new to the world of “Spongebob Squarepants” when she first received the script for “Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie.” “I hope that actually contributes something to the film,“ she says. “There are a lot of elements that people haven’t seen before. And also, there’s a lot that I think will be really familiar, pleasant, and comforting.”
While she’s new to “SpongeBob,“ Johnson has been directing episodes of some of the most acclaimed series in recent years, including “The Last of Us,” “What We Do in the Shadows,“ and “Barry.“ Those projects seem quite different from the absurdity of “SpongeBob,“ but Johnson saw the connective tissue between them all. “The tone of ‘SpongeBob‘ is a world unto itself, and it’s not like any of those other things. But, there was knowledge from each of those things that I could use in this movie.”
Johnson is also quick to hail the work of the crew who helped make “Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie“ a reality. “Piero (Piluso, Animation Supervisor) and I and the story team boarded every single shot together in a way that was going to integrate with the photography,“ Johnson describes. “We developed a common language…It turned out to bea very joyful experience for me to get to learn what you can do in animation that you can’t do in live action.“
In a recent conversation with Next Best Picture, Johnson discussed the making of “Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie,“ the vaudeville origins of the film’s sense of humor, and how she translated her directing style to this unique world.
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity.*
DANIEL HOWAT: You’ve been directing some of the best episodes of TV in recent years on “The Last of Us,” “What We Do In The Shadows,” “The Diplomat,“ and many, many more. Those feel quite a bit different than “Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie.“ What led you to sign on to this film?
LIZA JOHNSON: That’s true. It is a very different project. But I learned a lot from people who watch television, and it made me know that I knew how to make this movie.
I read the script during COVID-19, and it was just the best script I read during that time. And I read a lot, because what’s a girl going to do besides read? I just thought it was hilarious. I have had just so many compelling vaudeville lessons from people who work in television. Things that I learned from Barry Sonnenfeld really helped us figure out what would be something we can shoot with a lens that we could also draw in a way that somewhat looks integrated with the world of SpongeBob, you know? Because it’s different. Things I learned working for him helped me figure out how to shoot this movie. When I worked on “Silicon Valley,“ Mike Judge used to call it “Alec Berg’s Comedy Knowledge Drops.“ He would tell me something, and then I would go use it with an actor, and the actor would be, like, “That’s vaudeville, baby.“ And everyone but me knew because they had done a lot of comedy. And “What We Do In The Shadows,“ I just really love those people, their openness to everything, and their responsiveness to an ensemble that knows each other well. That’s also something true in this franchise. The tone of “SpongeBob“ is a world unto itself, and it’s not like any of those other things. But, there was knowledge from each of those things that I could use in this movie.
That’s incredible. Yeah. The tone of “SpongeBob“ is so unique, the absurdity of it in a sense. But this was also your first time stepping into an animated world. The movie’s not entirely animated, but huge portions of it are. What were the biggest learning curves for you in stepping into the world of animation?
Oh, there was, very mutually, a lot of learning that went on. Because, even though the other “SpongeBob“ movies do have, like Antonio Banderas showing up as a short-order cook, the live-action is usually more like a real Brechtian break with the rest of the world. However, when I received this script, the live-action was much more integrated. So, for all sides of the live-action and the animation, we were really patient and spent a lot of time saying, this is the language we use to do this. There were a lot of things that were really fascinating and surprising. For example, in animation, they kind of never stop writing. They never stop trying to make it better. Like Piero (Piluso, Animation Supervisor) always says, “Let’s plus that.“ And, in live action, which is a field that’s more familiar to me, we don’t. Plus, we do the best thing that we can when we’re shooting. And then, that’s what it’s going to be. You can’t “plus it“ because you shot it, you know? And so, even when we first started storyboarding, I had to suggest that I start earlier than I was supposed to start because Piero and I and the story team boarded every single shot together in a way that was going to integrate with the photography. And that also was accountable to his work because it’s not really fair if he draws every single character and makes up every single frame, and then I’m the director of the movie, you know? So, I thought it was not only important to make this one coherent movie that we made, but also, just to be fair to him, I needed to contribute to that work. So, we developed a common language and kept talking, and over a period of time, we started to understand each other. It turned out to be a very joyful experience for me to get to learn what you can do in animation that you can’t do in live action. Like, we shot the live action parts in Santa Fe. And I remember we got in the car to drive there and a helium truck passed us. I had just been storyboarding for, like, three or four months, and in my mind, I thought it was going to lift into the air because that’s what would happen if it was animated. (Laughs). The idea that these kinds of fanciful physical comedy bits can happen really was expensive for me.
I was going to ask about the storyboarding process. It sounds like you did extensive storyboards. I also wanted to know about the process of shooting the live-action plates for animated sequences, especially for some of the more complicated fight sequences. For instance, I’m thinking of when Sandy is fighting the rattlesnakes, and her family shows up. It just seems so complex when you’re blending the live-action with the animation. What was your process for shooting a scene like that and making sure that you capture all the live-action pieces that you need to make this make sense?
Well, first of all, I love that scene. So, thank you for thinking of it. And it’s actually not any harder than any other visual effects movie. I think it might have been more surprising to the animation team about the things we had to go through to achieve it, but we did it the same way you would do any VFX shot. So, first, we storyboarded it. And together with these really excellent and seasoned animators, we knew what every single shot was. Then, we went and shot the plate that goes behind that shot. And we did that for every single shot that you see. It wasn’t really that hard because we knew all the shots from the storyboard. In that sense, it was, I would think, the same as if you do a “Star Wars“ movie or any other big VFX movie where you have to know what’s going to happen in the frame. But, once you know that, it’s possible to execute it. You can be, like, okay, we have to have green here, but not here. And once you can see it from the work that we did with the animators, it makes it very easy to execute because they’ve already said what all the frames are. And also, as in other VFX movies, like, I’ve never made a “Jurassic Park“ movie, but I’m assuming that if you do, you’re like, “Oh, there’s a raptor coming,“ or whatever. You have to say that to the actor because actually there’s nothing for them to react to, right? And, depending on what kind of actor you’re working with, that can be very hard because some people really rely on reactivity for their craft. We really lucked out with these actors because they were all really able to imagine it. Like, “Oh, I’ve got a squirrel in my shirt,“ or whatever. I would stand there and be like, “Okay, you’ve got a squirrel on your shirt. She’s going around the back. She’s coming down, swinging at you on a rope,“ in the same way that I assume you would do if a velociraptor wascoming at you.
Well, that’s interesting. I read a quote from you from last year where you talked about how you prefer not to over-rehearse things with your actors and just make sure the cameras are on to capture an authentic moment. I figured that must be a lot more difficult in the context of a “SpongeBob“ movie, a live action/animation hybrid. How were you able to translate the directing style that you’ve honed over many years into a very different film like this?
It actually isn’t as hard as it sounds because it doesn’t take any longer to set the shot up or do anything that makes the actor more exhausted. So, the same practices that you would do to keep it fresh in a live-action movie are the same practicesyou would do here. And, in a way, I think it’s easier because, in a big ensemble piece like this, 50 out of 53 characters are animated, so you can’t exhaust them or ruin their performance by taking too long or whatever because that was stuff that we made later with Piero.
“SpongeBob“ has been around for 25-plus years now. What was your relationship like to “SpongeBob“ before jumping onto this film? Were you a newbie to the world, a diehard fan, or somewhere in between?
I was (a newbie), and I hope that actually contributed something to the film. I had so much support from people who’ve worked on it for so long. Piero knows the world really well, and Vince (Waller, executive producer), Marc (Ceccarelli, executive producer), and everyone who works for Nickelodeon knows the franchise in and out. You know, like, the executives would be like, “Yeah, but he’s very porous.“ (Laughs). They all know things, even visually, like how much he can expand and contract, or how his holes should be surfaced, or what kind of surface Sandy should have, and when we’ve ever talked about her family before in the whole sweep of 25 years. So, I had a lot of support learning about everything I needed to know about Sandy. But I didn’t know it before I read the script. So, it’s a very pure reading experience where I was just like, “This is hilarious.” That was my experience (reading the script during Covid). And I thought, “I like things that are hilarious.“ It was a little bit of a dark time, not so much personally, but in the world when we’re all stuck in our houses, and everyone is lonely, and I just thought, this is joyful. I didn’t grow up with (“SpongeBob), which would be very surprising because of my youthful beauty. (Laughs). But I actually didn’t grow up with it. I mean, it’s impossible not to know about it because it’s ubiquitous. I live in the world, and they have t-shirts and stuff, you know? But I didn’t really know the world until I started working on it. The day I read the script, I was in a hotel, and we were watching linear television. “SpongeBob“ came on, and I was like, well, maybe that’s a sign. When you tell any story for 25 years, people have made a lot of efforts to create freshness, you know? And so, I think that what the writers did when they conceived of the Cheeks family and what we did when we designed the Cheeks family—there are a lot of elements that people haven’t seen before, but also there’s a lot that I think will be really familiar, pleasant, and comforting.
“SpongeBob“ has been around for so long, and has been so influential for so many people, myself included. I did grow up with it, and it’s shaped, for better or worse, my sense of humor, and same for a lot of other people that I grew up with. What are the shows or movies that helped shape your sense of humor growing up, the things that just kind of stuck in the back of your brain that you’ve held on for all these years?
The one that I thought about a lot that was very popular in my first TV viewing years was “The Muppet Show.” There are a lot of common vaudeville elements like something’s happening in the foreground, but then Gonzo will fly by because he just got shot out of a cannon or whatever. I love that show so much. I loved all those Muppets. I felt really passionate about it. I have that book where Miss Piggy is a glamorous model, and she wears Sophia Loren hats and other stuff. I really identified with those characters, and although they’re quite different as characters, the way that they occupy their stage is not the opposite of how we shot this film and how the film is drawn. There are definitely things that we changed and maybe freshened, or we just had to do because there’s more live action. It’s not just Antonio Banderas in his truck, right?
You have to be able to film the world with a lens and draw it. So, there are things that are different. But I think I knew that tradition from “The Muppet Show.” It’s a much longer tradition than that, but that’s where I knew it.
Well, I can’t wait for more people to see “Saving Bikini Bottom.“ Your work is great in it. I appreciate your time this morning.
Thank you so much.
“Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie” is now available to stream on Netflix
You can follow Daniel and hear more of his thoughts on the Oscars and Film on Twitter @howatdk
