He’s yellow, he’s porous, and he’s racing wildly across the ocean! In the Apple Arcade game SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit, Bikini Bottom’s superstar jumps, bounces, slides, and fly-kicks through colorful levels. His mission: to recover the Krabby Patty formula stolen by the evil Plankton!
In this classic story line, Patty Pursuit delivers all the ingredients of the show’s quintessential humor. We caught up with Tom Kenny—the voice of SpongeBob—to find out what makes the game so...absorbing.
How was voicing SpongeBob for a videogame different than for a TV show or feature film?
In videogames, there’s a myriad of different outcomes, so we have to voice everything—like if the player goes here, then down another path.
And SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit is action-oriented, so there’s all these exhortations: “Woo!” “Oh boy!” “We’re getting this!” You want that enthusiasm, even in those little exclamations.
When you play through the game, SpongeBob really comes to life.
We didn’t just want sounds grabbed from random episodes and plugged into the game. I’ve worked in a ton of other studios where they would just grab a soundboard of stuff that the characters have said. But players notice that. We want you to believe that SpongeBob and Patrick are running around.
What’s your process for capturing the spirit of SpongeBob?
Each recording for each iteration of SpongeBob has its own method, its own biology. We can’t sound sleepy. I’ve gotta have all the energy SpongeBob does! It’s fun to get in that zone.
You’ve been the sole voice of the character for, what, more than two decades now?
Yeah, and it’s pretty much just us, the same voice actors for every videogame, every commercial, every toy. It’s not like James Bond, where there are seven different guys who’ve played him.
Most TV shows run their course after a handful of years. How does SpongeBob SquarePants keep going strong?
SpongeBob reminds me of a warm fuzzy feeling I get when I make this dish that my mom used to cook. There’s something about animated characters that you love when you’re a little kid, and they give you that feeling for the rest of your life.
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