The SpongeBob Movie: The Great Patty Caper

The SpongeBob Movie: The Great Patty Caper", also known as "Mystery with a Twistery", is the ninth Paramount Animation film based on the American animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. The film released in theaters in the United States on November 11, 2010. The movie follows the adventures of the title character in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom. In the episode, the key to the vault holding the Krabby Patty recipe gets lost and SpongeBob must locate it before the recipe is lost forever.

Plot summary[edit]
At the Krusty Krab, SpongeBob goes into the freezer to get Krabby Patties, only to discover that none are left. He and Mr. Krabs try to make more, but Plankton comes out of the vault with the formula. Mr. Krabs catches him and sends the formula to a bank, before realizing that he needs it back to make more Krabby Patties. He gives SpongeBob the key to the vault in which the recipe is hidden, and he and Patrick board a train to the bank for the safe deposit box. Eventually, the key is stolen and SpongeBob and Patrick must find the culprit. Just then, Plankton walks up and Patrick searches him, but finds him clean. The duo stop the train and uncover multiple thieves, none of which hold the key

SpongeBob begins crying when Patrick reveals that he has found the key, which was in SpongeBob's pants. They board the train again, and Plankton steals the key and throws them out of a window. SpongeBob morphs himself into a hang glider and he and Patrick fly back onto the train to pursue him. Once they land, Plankton disconnects the coaches and tender of the train, leaving SpongeBob and Patrick in the engine. Patrick try to stop it, but destroys the brakes and causes the engine to go faster. Patrick stops the engine by throwing a boulder on the track, causing it to flip over and nearly collide with a retirement home. Next, Patrick accidentally breaks the throttle. Meanwhile, Plankton is seen trying to steal the formula, but is stopped by Mr. Krabs. The engine crashes into the bank, and Mr. Krabs has to pay for the damages. 75 years later, SpongeBob, as an elderly man, finishes telling the story to his grandson, who responds with a cheer in excitement over his video game then SpongeBob responds by saying "kids today" before going off to sleep.

Charactersedit | edit source

 * SpongeBob SquarePants
 * Squidward Tentacles
 * Incidental 42
 * Incidental 104
 * Incidental 107
 * Incidental 40
 * Eugene H. Krabs
 * Sheldon J. Plankton
 * Gary the Snail (mentioned)
 * Realistic Fish Head
 * Perch Perkins
 * Highway Speed Patrol
 * Karen Plankton (cameo)
 * Patrick Star
 * Incidental 48
 * Fred
 * Orin J. Ruffy (debut)
 * Incidental 64
 * Love train motorman (debut)
 * Alternate-Universe Patrick
 * Mary's grandson
 * Jewel Triplets Gang (debut)
 * Woman and baby
 * Lady in teal (debut)
 * Incidental 14
 * Incidental 37A
 * Old Man Jenkins
 * Incidental 7
 * Incidental 60
 * Incidental 41
 * Incidental 49
 * Incidental 73
 * Incidental 152
 * Incidental 45
 * Incidental 92
 * Incidental 37B
 * Incidental 150
 * Incidental 106
 * Incidental 8
 * Incidental 108
 * Incidental 105
 * Incidental 27
 * Incidental 115
 * Keystone cops (debut)
 * Brown keystone cop (debut)
 * Green keystone cop (debut)
 * Purple keystone cop (debut)
 * Incidental 107
 * King Neptune (mentioned)
 * Plankton on and in PQ (debut)
 * Incidental 102
 * Incidental 84
 * Incidental 90
 * Incidental 81
 * Bank teller (debut)
 * French Narrator
 * SpongeBob's grandson (debut)

Production[edit]
"The Great Patty Caper" was written by Casey Alexander, Zeus Cervas, Steven Banks and Dani Michaeli, with supervising director, Alan Smart and Tom Yasumi serving as animation directors. Alexander and Cervas also functioned as storyboard directors. The episode originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on November 11, 2010, with a TV-Y7 parental rating.

The episode was branded by Nickelodeon as a television special called "Mystery with a Twistery" in which:

"The Great Patty Caper" was released on a DVD compilation of the same name on March 8, 2011 by Paramount Home Entertainment. The DVD includes the episode itself, "Growth Spout", "Stuck in the Wringer", "Someone's in the Kitchen With Sandy", "The Inside Job", "Greasy Buffoons", and the "Model Sponge". On December 6, 2011, "The Great Patty Caper" was released on the SpongeBob SquarePants: Complete Seventh Season DVD, alongside all episodes of the seventh season. On June 4, 2019, "The Great Patty Caper" was released on the SpongeBob SquarePants: The Next 100 Episodes DVD, alongside all the episodes of seasons six through nine.

Reception[edit]
Upon release, "The Great Patty Caper" ranked as basic cable's top entertainment telecast for its release week with total viewers, drawing 6.1 million viewers. The episode also ranked as the week's number-one telecast with kids 2-11 on broadcast and basic cable. The premiere ranked as the top program for Thursday, November 11, night with all children and tween demographics, posting double- and triple-digit gains for Nickelodeon. The special also averaged 1.4/1.6 million in the adults demographics ranging from 18-49, drawing more adult viewers than TBS' Conan for the night. The episode had a total of 6.6 million viewers (+122%), making it as the year's top animated telecast with kids 2-11.

The episode received mostly positive reviews. Nancy Basile of About.com gave the episode a 3.5 out of 5 rating, saying "'Plankton Chugs Along' would have been better at regular episode length rather than stretching it to a special. With some of the slower, duller parts edited out, the whole episode would come off as clever, slick and fast-paced funny." Sandy Angulo Chen of Common Sense Media gave the episode 3/5 stars and wrote "There's still no hidden educational purpose to the series, but it does expose kids to plot structure, character development, predictability, and the various ways that humor is used in a story."

Paul Mavis of DVD Talk positively reacted to the episode and said the episode "is certainly one of the more energetic entries I've seen from the series in some time." Mavis added "'Plankton Chugs Along' picks up a good head of steam to a satisfying conclusion (SpongeBob as an old geezer is also foolproof)," but was disappointed "that someone didn't exploit the obvious Agatha Christie Murder on the Orient Express-flavored train sequence by having SpongeBob adorned as Poirot or even Miss Marple as he went about his inept sleuthing (SpongeBob in drag is always a solid winner)."

Marty Shaw of BSC Kids, on the ratings, said "SpongeBob SquarePants has been on the air since 1999 and the November 11th episode was the eight show of the eight season. What exactly does that mean? With 6.102 million viewers watching, it means that the adventures of SpongeBob SquarePants never get old." Billy Gil of the Home Media Magazine said "'Plankton Chugs Along' is one of the better SpongeBob episodes in recent memory[...]" Roy Hrab of DVD Verdict was not positive towards the DVD and said "Wow, this is probably the most boring set of SpongeBob episodes I've ever seen."

Generaledit | edit source

 * There are two online games based on this episode named The Great Patty Caper 2 and Mystery Train.
 * There is a book based on this episode called The Great Train Mystery.


 * The original name for this episode was "Krabby Patty No More," as seen on some of the original character storyboards on Facebook.
 * SpongeBob SquarePants is the first Paramount Animation film to become a franchise, followed by Hoodwinked.
 * This episode is also known as "Mystery With a Twistery." Amazon Prime lists the other name of this episode.
 * This is the second episode whose title contains all of the names of another episode; it contains the words "Patty Caper," which contain all the letters of another episode named "Patty Caper." The first instance is in "The Play's the Thing," which contain all the letters of another episode named "The Thing."
 * Coincidentally, both "The Play's the Thing" and this episode are season 7's episodes.
 * The rubber gloves Patrick wears in the episode are the same ones he wore in "Suds."[1]
 * This is said to be the first-ever SpongeBob mystery even though "Patty Caper" was also an episode involving a mystery.
 * In this episode, a few of the Krabby Patty formula ingredients are revealed. They are flour, barnacle shavings, turmeric, and either sea salt or land salt.
 * There are three shorts associated with this episode. The shorts are bundled with the episode on iTunes.
 * In this episode, Perch Perkins reveals that the Realistic Fish Head's real name is "Elaine."
 * The only time card shown is "75 Years Later," implying that SpongeBob will live to be at least 99 years old.
 * The time card is similar to the title card of "Pizza Delivery."
 * Plankton is seen reading a book on mitosis, which is the process in which cells make copies of themselves.
 * The process on how the formula went to Far-Out-Ville:
 * A small safe truck.
 * A big safe truck escorted by cops on motorcycles.
 * A Bikini Bottom Movers truck.
 * A bullet train with the moving truck on it.
 * A helicopter takes the platform from the train to a big jet.
 * The attempts Patrick makes in an attempt to stop the train are:
 * Putting a stop sign, gets ignored by;
 * Building a lemonade stand, still gets ignored;
 * Putting a rock on the rails, the train does a front flip and then goes "drifting" before it stops just before hitting the retirement home
 * This episode marks the second time someone says the line "Cops! I need you!" In this episode, it was said by Patrick. The first time was in the episode "Banned in Bikini Bottom" where the line is said by Plankton.
 * This was the second special that aired on Remembrance Day. The first one was "Have You Seen This Snail?" in 2005.
 * It is revealed that Patrick knows his letters, but still cannot read.
 * Patrick mentions finding the key while cleaning SpongeBob's shorts earlier, implying he defecated himself.
 * This marks the second double-length episode where SpongeBob wears his Krusty Krab employee hat throughout the majority of the episode, the first was "SpongeBob SquarePants vs. The Big One".

Cultural referencesedit | edit source

 * SpongeBob's question "Where were you on the night of January 16th?" is a reference to the courtroom drama play The Night of January 16th, where said question was asked to the witnesses.

Errorsedit | edit source

 * The number of passenger cars keeps changing throughout the episode.
 * When Patrick gets knocked over at the lemonade stand, his mouth is closed while he is talking.
 * When SpongeBob and Patrick are chasing Plankton, they pass Nat Peterson, who is asleep on the train, but when they call for help, Nat is at the Railroad Depot, even though he was supposedly on the train.
 * When Mr. Krabs is banging his head on the wall, his lips do not move when he says "it."
 * When the runaway train engine goes through the tunnel, it flips around when it comes out to the other side.
 * When SpongeBob and Patrick look for Plankton in the train, the people themselves change seats.
 * When the Butler, who was later revealed to be Orin J. Ruffy, was first about to be blamed, a full moon showed up during the daytime. This is not possible since a full moon can only be seen the day the moon rises at sunset, and the whole episode takes place long before sunset.
 * When the werewolf fish appears, he is not wearing a shirt. However, after turning into a werewolf, he strangely has a shirt on.
 * During the scene when the cops arrive after the train stops, the lady in teal is one of the suspects. She was not arrested or searched as the other two suspects were searched first and Plankton was found to be guilty but she disappears after the cops find the Triplets gang.
 * When Plankton uncouples the tender from the engine, the steam engine still keeps moving. However, by uncoupling the tender, the steam train engine would come to a complete stop, as it would involve disconnecting the water pipes and vacuum brake pipes between the cabin and the tender, preventing water from coming to the boiler. Furthermore, tender engines do not store coal behind them: they store it in the tender.
 * When the engine lands back on the rails after hitting the rock Patrick put in its way, its coupling rods suddenly vanish.
 * When Plankton knocks SpongeBob and Patrick out of the train, he is in the middle of it, but when he says "Thanks for the key," Plankton is in the caboose.
 * On Netflix, the episode's picture is actually a picture from "Patty Caper". This is probably due to the episodes sharing a similar name.