|
| “ | Oh, chancellor. When will you learn to focus on what really matters? A monarch's regime is only as powerful as his skin-care regimen. | „ |
| ~ King Poseidon |
| “ | It IS! I look like an old avocado that was left and forgotten in the fridge! (Chancellor: Here it comes...) I'M UGLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! | „ |
| ~ King Poseidon overreacting about a wrinkle on his face. |
| “ | SpongeBob, few possess the courage to stand up to a powerful king. You, sir, are among those few. I salute you. | „ |
| ~ King Poseidon saluting Spongebob for his courage, redeeming himself. |
King Poseidon is the main antagonist of Nickelodeon's 33rd theatrical feature film The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.
He is the king of the lost city of Atlantic City who believes his physical appearance is most important and uses the slime of snails to keep the skin on his face clear of wrinkles, and when one runs out of slime, he imprisoned them in the dungeon and gets a new one. When he uses up almost every snail in the kingdom, he gives a reward to anybody who can give him one. When Plankton learns this, he abducts SpongeBob's snail, Gary, and gives him to Poseidon to get SpongeBob out of Bikini Bottom, so that he could steal the Krabby Patty formula.
He was voiced by Matt Berry, who also played Douglas Reynholm from The IT Crowd, The Butt Witch in Twelve Forever and Allen, from Aqua Teen Hyper Force. In the Spanish dubbed version, he was voiced by Mario Vaquerizo, who also voiced Lord Nooth in Early Man.
Personality[]
King Poseidon is a vain, flamboyant, self-centered monarch whose life mostly revolves around his looks as he believes that his facial features are what makes him a true king. He is also somewhat comedic as he overreacts to one unrecognizable wrinkle on his face in an over-the-top manner. He also had anyone who dare stand up to him executed in a flamboyant stage show.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Long before the events of the movie, King Poseidon became the king of the lost city of Atlantic City. He became extremely focused on his looks in his rise to power and used the slime from sea snails to make the wrinkles on his face go away. When the royal snail ran out of slime, he would discard it and send it down a chute to a snail dungeon, which they would be enslaved.
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge On The Run[]
King Poseidon is first seen admiring his looks and talking about them to his Chancellor. Suddenly Poseidon notices a wrinkle on his face and requests his royal snail, so he can use the slime to get rid of the wrinkle. He puts the snail on his face and learns the snail is out of slime. He sends the snail to the dungeon and orders the Chancellor to bring him another snail at once. The Chancellor then informs him the snail population has been depleted. Poseidon then has the Chancellor write a decree for a boon for whoever brings him a snail. The Chancellor sends the decree to Bikini Bottom where it catches the attention of Plankton, who has once again failed to steal the Krabby Patty formula because of SpongeBob. Knows SpongeBob has a snail named Gary, he helps Poseidon kidnap Gary so Poseidon can use his slime and Plankton can finally steal the formula without SpongeBob getting in the way. After SpongeBob returns to his house and discovers Gary has taken by Poseidon, he and Patrick head over to rescue him.
On the road to Atlantic City, SpongeBob and Patrick watch Poseidon use Gary on his face through the Mirror of Meanwhile. When SpongeBob and Patrick finally arrive at Poseidon's lounge in Atlantic City, Poseidon thinks they are an act in his show and asks them to perform something. They quickly start singing a song together but suddenly SpongeBob spots Gary near Poseidon and rushes over to him. SpongeBob tells Poseidon that there's been a mistake about Poseidon disagrees and the two of them get into a tug-o war fight over Gary. Poseidon pulls Gary away from SpongeBob and has him and Patrick locked in his dungeon to await trail. Meanwhile back in Bikini Bottom, Sandy, Squidward, Mr. Krabs and Plankton hear that SpongeBob and Patrick have been arrested and are to be executed, Sandy and Mr. Krabs agree to save them. Plankton comes along feeling guilty about having gotten SpongeBob into this mess and Squidward comes along to see Kelpy G perform. The gang quickly drives to Atlantic City in a sandwich car.
Poseidon is later seen over seeing the trail of SpongeBob and Patrick with Gary at his side. Luckily Sandy, Squidward, Mr. Krabs and Plankton arrive just in time to save the day. When Sandy asks Poseidon to let her and the others hear some nice things about SpongeBob, he agrees to let them proceed. Sandy, Patrick, Squidward and Mr. Krabs all share some nice stories about how SpongeBob changed their lives, making SpongeBob so happy. Then thinking quickly, the whole gang performs a musical number for Poseidon and quickly up to his booth and take Gary from him and run away.
Realizing the trick that has been played on him, Poseidon orders his guards to hunt down SpongeBob, Gary and their friends. After a long chase, Poseidon and his guards have the gang surrounded outside. Poseidon then applauds their musical performance and agrees to let the gang go on the condition that SpongeBob returns Gary to him. But SpongeBob refuses, saying he loves Gary too much. SpongeBob then gives praise to his friends for all they did to help him get Gary back, such as defying Poseidon and humiliating him in front of his subjects. Angered, Poseidon raises his trident and prepares to zap SpongeBob and his friends with it. But before he does, SpongeBob says Poseidon would understand if he had such great friends like them. A confused Poseidon lowers his weapon and tosses it aside, saying he has all sorts of friends. Poseidon then asks the Chancellor for his friend count and to his shock he has zero friends because, despite being so popular, he's always been so selfish and self-dramatic all the time over the little things.
Devastated over the fact that he has had no friends all this time, especially his Chancellor, Poseidon starts crying everywhere like rain. Taking pity on him, SpongeBob offers to be Poseidon's friend, providing he lets him have Gary back, telling him that friends don't steal from each other. But Poseidon says he needs Gary to get rid of his wrinkles. SpongeBob tells him that looks don't matter. Inspired and overjoyed, Poseidon strips down to his true form, giving up his vanity and having a change of heart. He then allows SpongeBob to have Gary and has all the snails set free. Unknown to what happened after but Poseidon is most likely to be a better king to everyone from now on.
Trivia[]
- King Poseidon is the third villain to be the main antagonist of the SpongeBob SquarePants movie trilogy. The others are Plankton and Burger-Beard. He is followed by Sue Nahmee and Karen Plankton.
- King Poseidon is the first villain in the SpongeBob SquarePants movie trilogy to be redeemed.
- King Poseidon is the second SpongeBob SquarePants movie villain to be animated after Plankton in the first movie. Burger-Beard and Sue Nahmee are live-action, although it was later revealed that Sue was a cyborg and Burger-Beard was a regular human.
- King Poseidon is occasionally referenced as the deity of the sea in the show. However, the role often goes to King Neptune, who is far more cruel than Poseidon.
- Because of changes like this (though Stephen Hillenburg was involved in production of the third film before his death in 2018), such as taking place after Kamp Koral which has a timeline that contradicts the original show (i.e. How SpongeBob met Sandy, and even Patrick and Gary) the film, and Kamp Koral by extension, can be considered non-canon to the original show. In fact, Kamp Koral implied in one episode that this and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run take place in a alternate timeline. Though some explanations were explained for the contradictions bere.
- His voice actor, Matt Berry, previously voiced Bubbles in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.
- Poseidon is over 3,000 years old.
- It's unexplained how a deity and god could age like a human or a mortal and even so significantly, as seen especially in the final part of the movie, considering that his TV show counterpart, King Neptune, is 5,000+ years old and looks rather youthful.
- King Poseidon is currently the only villain in the SpongeBob SquarePants film series to not self-directly steal any of the protagonists' belongings.
- Plankton stole King Neptune’s crown and retrieved it to Shell City.
- Burger-Beard used the magic book to write on the page to use by vanishing the secret formula, so that he can receive it.
- Sue Nahmee used a giant claw machine to capture Bikini Bottom with all the citizens, including SpongeBob’s allies.
- Poseidon re-naming Gary as "Fred" is likely a reference to the episode, "I Was a Teenage Gary", where Squidward confused Gary's name to be Fred.
- King Poseidon is so far the only main antagonist in the SpongeBob SquarePants film series to never instantly rule over the Bikini Bottom.
- Plankton not only just brainwashed the citizens into his Chum Bucket helmet henchmen, but has later ruled over the Bikini Bottom by renaming the town "Planktopolis".
- Burger-Beard has caused the Bikini Bottom into a wasteland after using the magical book to magically get the secret formula from the Krusty Krab.
- Sue Nahmee used a giant claw to kidnap the entire Bikini Bottom to use the citizens as selling pets for children.
- Karen Plankton turned all of Bikini Bottoms infrastructure into a massive battle station, leaving the city desolate.
