Trailer: ‘SpongeBob’ Stop-Mo Special Premieres Friday the 13th

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom

Nickelodeon has unwrapped a tasty treat fans, revealing that the previously announced stop-motion animated Halloween special SpongeBob SquarePants: The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom will make its spooktacular premiere on Friday, October 13 at 7 p.m. ET/PT. The debut date was dropped in our candy buckets along with a new trailer.

In The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom, the Flying Dutchman (Brian Doyle-Murray) comes to town to make sure everyone is scared — especially SpongeBob, who seems to think that spooky things are actually funny. For the occasion, SpongeBob is costumed as a flower, Patrick as a knight, Sandy as a mad scientist, Mr. Krabs as a dollar bill, Plankton as a devil, Squidward as himself, and Karen as a cat. The special features an original tune, “The Scare Song,” written by Mr. Lawrence with music by Eban Schletter, performed by the Flying Dutchman’s pirate ghost crew.

Harkening back to old-school holiday TV specials, this new scale-raising adventure sees the town of Bikini Bottom decked out for Halloween: Sandy’s treedome becomes a mad scientist’s lab (included remote-operated Acorn Monster); Mr. Krabs’ restaurant becomes a terror tour of Plankton’s culinary torture as “The Horrors of the Chum Bucket”; and Plankton in turn whips up “The Horrors of the Krusty Krab,” which claims to tell the scary truth about Krabby Patties.

Los Angeles-based Screen Novelties produced the animation for The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom. The final result features 27 unique sets shot across five stages. Fifteen boxes of breakfast cereal were used to texture Bikini Bottom’s coral reefs; eight pounds of glitter were used for SpongeBob’s Halloween pineapple house; hundreds of popsicle sticks were used to make a rollercoaster track, and black lights create an eerie fluorescent glow on puppets and sets. Screen Novelties previously collaborated with Nickelodeon on SpongeBob SquarePants: It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! (2012).

On top of stop-motion puppet animation, The special also features marionette puppeteering, hand puppets and hand-drawn 2D designed by Sally Cruikshank. Marc Ceccarelli and Vincent Waller are co-executive producers on SpongeBob SquarePants. The special was written by Mr. Lawrence, with Brian Morante serving as the storyboard director and Jennie Monica as producer. The special is being directed by Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh, and produced by Chris Finnegan of Screen Novelties.

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom