SpongeBob: Re-Hydrated (partially lost "SpongeBob SquarePants" animated short; 2003)

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Revision as of 21:25, 15 April 2017 by Kobochat (talk | contribs) (As I said on the Discord I was already in the process of re-writing this when you posted your edit. Given that it *still* contained misinformation and was formatted like a diary, I'm vetoing it aside from a few sections. Sorry.)
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SBSPLMWMatrix.PNG

Screenshot from the short.

Status: Partially Lost

SpongeBob: Re-Hydrated is a CGI-animated SpongeBob SquarePants short that was made in 2003. It was made in the style of a teaser trailer, and features SpongeBob dressed as Neo from The Matrix fighting an army of Patrick Star clones dressed as Agent Smith.

The exact nature of the short was unknown for a long while, with people speculating it to be a game cutscene, a commercial, a fan-animation, or even a full SpongeBob "episode" that slipped through the cracks. However, in 2017 it was clarified that the footage previously found was actually the entire short, minus the original audio.

History

The 2003 Nicktoons bumper with brief clips of the short.

Attention was first brought to the short in early 2016 after a few seconds of footage were discovered in a Nicktoons channel bumper from 2003. A thread was made on 4chan's /co/ board in an attempt to find more information on it, and one anonymous user claimed it to be a 10-minute short called The Spongetrix that was included on a Jimmy Neutron VHS. This was quickly debunked as a hoax, but regardless, the rumor and fake title persisted for a quite some time.[1]

After, the search spread to sites such as the Lost Media Wiki and SpongeBuddy Mania. In April of that year, 30 seconds of footage were found in the 2013 portfolio of a Nick Digital animator named Goopy Rossi. This revealed the true title of the short as Spongebob: Re-Hydrated, and also confirmed the connection with The Matrix Reloaded.[2]

However, the find also left many unanswered questions about the nature of the short, and Rossi himself remained unresponsive. Other SpongeBob crew members were contacted, such as Vincent Waller, who claimed to know nothing about the short and even accused it of being fake.[3]

Status

The search continued for a few more months, but began to stall later that year due to a lack of any solid leads. However, on April 15, 2017, a YouTube user named Vailskibum94 created a video on the topic. Despite containing a good deal of outdated information and inaccuracies, the video revived interest in the short, and later that day animator Randy Gossman posted a public message to the wiki Encyclopedia SpongeBobia to clarify these rumors.

Gossman stated the short was nothing more than a short extra made by the animation team for the game Employee of the Month which may have aired on Nicktoons in its early days, and that no more footage existed than the 30 seconds that was already found. The short was made without involvement from the writers of the main series, and reused 3D models from the game Operation Krabby Patty.[4]

Though the entirety of the video footage is now confirmed to be found, Gossman also stated that short originally had a different audio track with sound effects. This audio has yet to be found.

Gallery

Mirror of the full short, albeit with generic audio.

Vailskibum94's video on the short (contains misinformation).

References

  1. Archive of the original /co/ thread Retrieved 15 Apr '17.
  2. Goopy Rossi's demo reel Retrieved 15 Apr '17.
  3. Tweet from Vincent Waller Retrieved 15 Apr '17.
  4. Randy Gossman's blog post on the short Retrieved 15 Apr '17.