SpongeBob SquarePants S5E12 "Atlantis SquarePantis" - TV Tropes

Original air date: 11/12/2007 (produced in 2006)

SpongeBob and Patrick find half of an ancient amulet which helps them and co. get to the lost city of Atlantis. While there, the king gives them a tour and SpongeBob and Patrick anticipate the appearance of the world's oldest living bubble.

In a Framing Device, Patchy comes home to find Encino has mysteriously disappeared.

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"Atlantis SquarePantis" contains examples of:

• All Just a Dream: Patchy is guided by a SpongeBob hallucination that he is "back in Encino"... except that he soon realizes he is still trapped in the desert. Lampshaded when Patchy recovers from his dreams and Potty comes with food for him.
• Appointment Television: The conflict of Patchy's segments is that he's trying to get home in time to catch a new SpongeBob episode, only for him to get lost in the desert. After discovering that Encino was shrunken by aliens, they regrow the town and he gets home in time to watch the new episode, only for an enlarged Potty to step on the house.
• Artistic License – Physics: Since when do camera flashes pop bubbles?
• Art Shift: Features several, including the 3D bus interior, an old video game, and several different painting styles.
• Atlantis: The place where the gang goes to.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: Lord Royal Highness says this when he warns SpongeBob and Patrick of the Oldest Living Bubble’s sacred history:

  LRH: It is our people's most beloved and treasured ancient relic. But most importantly, remember to…have fun!

• Big Damn Movie: Sort-of. While commercials advertised this special as "the very first SpongeBob TV Movie", the episode only clocks in at 32-45 minutes with/without commercials on the initial airing, (and 40-60 minutes with/without commercials in reruns).
• Big "NO!": Done by Patchy when he realizes he's lost in the middle of nowhere.
• Big "WHAT?!": Done by Patchy when he finds out that Potty threw out his old Betamax machine.
• But Now I Must Go: The gang leaves Atlantis at the end, and only SpongeBob is excited about returning home.
• The Cameo: SpongeGar, Patar, and Squog appear during Squidward's musical number.
• Charlie and the Chocolate Parody: The plot plays out similarly to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, as every time a character discovers their favorite room, they go in, perform a musical number and stay behind, causing the group to grow smaller and smaller until only SpongeBob and Patrick are left.
• Department of Redundancy Department: "The oldest living bubble ALIVE?!"
• Deus ex Machina: Just when it seems our heroes are doomed and it seems Plankton's about to take over Atlantis with its own weaponry, he finds out the hard way his tank only shoots ice cream, much to his frustration. So he loses the conflict by default, but then LRH mistakes Plankton for a talking speck and put him up as a museum exhibit, all the while letting SpongeBob and co. off the hook for popping their Oldest Living Bubble (albeit while taking measures to ensure the group never return to Atlantis.)
• Disco Dan: Patchy is shown to use incredibly outdated technology, with him owning an 8-track tape of Frampton Comes Alive! that ends up spontaneously combusting, and him recording the new SpongeBob episode on a Betamax machine that Potty ends up throwing in the garbage.
• Disco Tech: The fact that the Atlanteans have evolved beyond petroleum fuels and use song to power their vehicles instead kicks off the Excuse Plot for the musical.
• Does Not Like Spam: Patchy hates mayonnaise so much that when a sandwich with mayo is the only food he receives in the desert, he tries to feed it to a vulture.
• Dropped Ice Cream of Sadness: Patchy's "back in Encino" moment is spoiled when his ice cream drops on the ground, which causes him to realize it was All Just a Dream.
• Equippable Ally: Sandy uses SpongeBob as a shield, Patrick as a boomerang, Squidward as a gun, and Mr. Krabs as a sword/chainsaw against the Atlantean guards.
• Extra-Long Episode: The first episode that's 40-60 minutes long (with/without commercials). It was shorter on the initial airing and the Patchy segments were added for reruns.
• Eye Pop:
  • Patchy's eyes pop out when he sees that Encino is gone and he's stranded in the middle of nowhere.
  • Mr. Krabs' reaction when Squidward tells him that the lightbulbs in Atlantis are made of diamonds.
• Family-Unfriendly Violence: SpongeBob and Patrick's flesh melt off when they are surprised after they pop the fake Oldest Living Bubble.
• Floating in a Bubble: This is how SpongeBob and Patrick enter the cave where they find the Atlantean amulet.
• Framing Device: The episode is framed by a subplot where Patchy comes home to find Encino disappeared.
• Gainax Ending: The live-action framing ends with Patchy discovering Encino had been shrunk by an alien, whose parents show up to set things right, accidentally turning Potty into a giant in the process.
• Ground Pound: Sandy does it to one of the germs during her musical number.
• "I Want" Song: "The Bubble Song" deals with SpongeBob hoping to blow a long-lasting bubble. Also "Fueling the Bus", which shows everyone's desires.
• Living Museum Exhibit: Plankton becomes this at the end of the episode to replace the recently-popped World's Oldest Bubble.
• Lost Food Grievance: During Patchy’s mirage where he believes he is back in Encino, the ice cream he was eating falls onto the grass, which snaps him out of his mirage.
• Money Song: Mr. Krabs discovers a room full of money and sings a song about it.

  Mr. Krabs: Industrial accidents can cause quite a mess
  Unless you fall right into a money press!
  Make me into money, Mr. Wonderful Machine!
  I always knew that me true color was green!

• Mood Whiplash: The closing song "Goodbye Atlantis" starts out with SpongeBob tearfully voicing their departure, before immediately becoming happy again as he sings his excitement of returning home, much to the depression of the others.
• Musical Episode: It's justified (partially), though, in that Atlantean technology is powered by singing. Despite having David Bowie play a character, he never sings a single line (due to how late his casting was).
• Negative Continuity: Despite Plankton being imprisoned in the Atlantean Museum to replace the Oldest Living Bubble towards the end of the special, he's back in Bikini Bottom the next episode he's featured as if nothing happened.
• Oh, Crap!: SpongeBob and Patrick have this reaction when they realize they've just popped the Oldest Living Bubble.
• Pooled Funds: Mr. Krabs dives into a pool of coins at one point during his musical number.
• Running Gag: Every time Patrick takes a picture of a bubble, it pops.
• Shout-Out:
  • The citizens of Atlantis resemble the Blue Meanies and Mark Chang.
  • Mr. Krabs' "I Hate Mondays" shirt is a reference to Garfield.
  • Lord Royal Highness' orange hair, long eyelashes, and glossy red lips visibly take after the even more androgynous Ziggy Stardust, the most famous of David Bowie's characters. Lord Royal Highness' heterochromia additionally nods to a popular misconception that Bowie had the same condition (in reality, it was anisocoria, caused by an injury sustained during a high school fistfight).
  • Just like Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, whenever a character spots an area of Atlantis that has things that they love, they go to the area and start playing in it, a song is sung, and the other characters move on, leaving one character behind each time while the group grows smaller and smaller until there's only one character left.
  • There are many video game references with Sandy:
    • The way Sandy warps into the video game is similar to the way some of the characters in Mega Man enter or exit levels.
    • Sandy fighting the germs is a parody of Dr. Mario.
    • Sandy dancing is a parody of DanceDanceRevolution, complete with a reference to the Konami Code.
    • The warp pipes and Sandy ground stomping the germs are a reference to Super Mario Bros..
  • Patchy tapping his peg leg to his other shoe and stating "There's no place like home." is a parody of The Wizard of Oz.
• Sistine Steal: Appears at one point during Squidward's musical number.
• Special Guest: David Bowie as Lord Royal Highness.
• Trailers Always Spoil: This episode spoiled the climax where Plankton finds out he stole a tank that shoots ice cream. It wasn't like it was in a montage or anything either, they blatantly displayed it up front because they thought the punchline was funny enough to include. It got even worse when they put a Commercial Break Cliffhanger right before this moment.
• Two Halves Make a Plot: SpongeBob and Patrick find half of an amulet and bring it to a museum, where the other half coincidentally resides.
• Villain Song: Plankton gets a full-blown Villain Song in this episode, simply called "Plankton's Song".
• Word Salad Lyrics: Alongside the abysmal rhyming, the lyrics of several songs make you wonder if the writers just cut corners.

  Squidward: Ask your mama or your dada: To tell you about the uh, schism: Between minimalism and cubism.

• Word, Schmord!: "Harmony schmarmony, when do we get to see the treasure?"

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