The end of November brings the start of everyone’s favourite holly jolly specials! This year, SpongeBob gets his first stop motion animation special with a holiday theme! In IT’S A SPONGEBOB CHRISTMAS, Plankton has a Christmas wish to turn everyone in Bikini Bottom bad. After he feeds them his special jerktonium-laced fruitcake, only SpongeBob can save Christmas. This special is set to be a classic, so be sure to catch it on YTV and include it in your holiday lineup.
Wondering how they managed to turn regular 2D SpongeBob SquarePants into a cool stop motion special? According to creators, instead of drawing SpongeBob in different poses, they built puppets of all the SpongeBob characters, plus detailed sets. Then, moved them manually frame by frame! It was very important that the puppets looked exactly like the animated versions of the characters so that they could be easily recognized by SpongeBob fans.
Interestingly, the creators felt that SpongeBob needed a place among other stop motion holiday specials like RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER and SANTA CLAUS IS COMIN’ TO TOWN.
“As a kid growing up, all my favourite specials were stop motion,” says animation supervisor Chris Finnegan. “Hopefully, the SpongeBob special will join that group and continue that tradition.”
Check out more behind the scenes details in this video! Don’t forget to watch IT’S A SPONGEBOB CHRISTMAS when it premieres on YTV on Friday. November 23 at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT! Plus, watch the official trailer below!