Bill Fagerbakke

Something nefarious is afloat in the depths of Bikini Bottom: King Neptune's crown has been stolen, and the prime suspect is Mr. Krabs, SpongeBob's boss at Mr. Krabs' Krabby Patties. Despite the overwhelming evidence against Mr. Krabs -- not to mention having been turned down for a long-awaited promotion at the restaurant -- SpongeBob (voice of Tom Kenny) refuses to believe that his boss is responsible and teams up with his best friend, Patrick (voice of Bill Fagerbakke), on a mission to Shell City, where he hopes he can exonerate Mr. Krabs and return the crown to its rightful owner. Of course, this is no easy task; once outside the safety of Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob is faced with the overwhelming dangers of the sea, not the least of which being a cyclops that many believe to be responsible for the deaths of countless other unfortunate sea-creatures who ventured outside county lines. Among those who lent their vocal chords to the film include Scarlett Johansson, Jeffrey Tambor, and Alec Baldwin. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Filmmaker Larry Clark reunites with Kids screenwriter Harmony Korine, with some additional directorial assistance from cinematographer Ed Lachman, for this look at a group of troubled teens and their guardians living in Southern California. Ken Park takes its name from the skate park where an ancillary character takes his own life in the film's opening moments, and then proceeds to chronicle the somewhat-interrelated lives of his classmates. The audience is introduced to Tate (James Ransome), a young man living in relative misery with his board-game-playing grandparents. Also tormented by his living situation is Claude (Stephen Jasso), a quiet, shy teen constantly henpecked by his brutish father (Wade Andrew Williams). Meanwhile, the vapid Shawn (James Bullard) occasionally trades verbal spars with his mother, in between leaving the house for sex sessions with his girlfriend's mom. Finally there is Peaches (Tiffany Limos), living alone with her devoutly religious father as she covertly experiments with her boyfriend (Mike Apaletegui). Though Ken Park played at such festivals as Toronto and Telluride in the fall of 2002, it would languish on the shelf for months and months afterward, as its explicit content made finding a U.S. distributor near-impossible. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Disney's 1955 classic Lady and the Tramp is revisited in this new animated family video. The story finds Lady and Tramp the proud parents of a litter of pups that includes three well-behaved girls and one rambunctious boy puppy named Scamp (voiced by Scott Wolf). In search of adventure and a "real" dog life, Scamp strays far from home and meets the cute Angel (voiced by Alyssa Milano), Buster (voiced by Chazz Palminteri), and Buster's gang of Junkyard Dogs. Although he found the adventure he was looking for, Scamp finds his thoughts returning to home and the loved ones he left behind. ~ Jessica Frost, All Movie Guide

The world's most popular invertebrate TV-cartoon star, SpongeBob SquarePants was the brainchild ofStephen Hillenburg, who graduated CalArts with two degrees: one in Marine Biology, and the other in Animation. A cheerful, yellow-skinned denizen of deep who was shaped like a common bathroom sponge and who wore a shirt, necktie and belted shorts, SpongeBob SquarePants lived in a pineapple shell in the underwater community of Bikini Bottom, where he worked at the Krusty Krab restaurant and sometimes commiserated with a land squirrel who lived in a nearby biodome, and whose name was Sandy Cheeks (and for the benefit of those viewings who are always on the lookout for "hidden meanings" in the series' million-and-one jokes and references--well, we've just listed three of 'em in the last sentence). The relentlessly cheerful SpongeBob had a habit of coming up with the most complex of solutions to the simplest of problems--in direct contrast with his best friend Patrick Star the starfish, who was not the brightest bulb under the sea. Other characters on SpongeBob's half-hour animated TV series included his boss at the Krusty Krab, curmudgeonly Eugene V. Krabs, who jealously guarded the secret of his fabled "Krabby Patties"; SpongeBob's pet snail Gary, who behaved more like a cat; his grouchy neighbor Squidward Tentacles, a clarinet-playing octopus; and Mr. Krabs' hated business rival Plankton, who ran a spectacularly unsuccessfully eatery called the Chum Bucket. Boasting superb animation, imaginative background art, and a veritable library of "in" jokes, looney nonsequiturs and obscure pop-culture gags, SpongeBob Squarepants may well have been even more popular with adults (especially college students) than with children. Certainly it was one of the most marketable cartoon series of its era, spawning zillions of dollars' worth of dolls, video games, novelty clothing, sportswear, beach toys, and so on and so forth. Offering two fifteen-minute adventures per half hour episode, SpongeBob Squarepants made its Nickelodeon cable network debut on July 17, 1999, remaining in production until put on temporary hiatus so that Stephen Hillenburg could concentrate on the SpongeBob Squarepants theatrical feature that opened to great audience and critical acclaim in the summer of 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season One of the wild and crazy cartoon series SpongeBob SquarePants dishes up 20 half hour episodes, each containing two to three short storylines. The opener relates how cheerful invertebrate SpongeBob SquarePants lands a job at the Krusty Krab restaurant (his lifelong goal!), how he shoos a pesky clam shell away from the front lawn of his pineapple home, and his first meeting with Sandy Cheeks, a cute land squirrel who resides in a nearby biodome. All, this, plus a musical performance by Tiny Tim. In later episodes, SpongeBob goes into business teaching his friends how to blow bubbles; the evil Plankton attempts to steal the closely-guarded secet recipe for Krabby Patties; SpongeBob's grouchy neighbor Squidward tries and fails to drive a wedge (or a wedgie?) between SpongeBob and his best friend Patrick; a simple pizza delivery turns into an "Apocalypse Now" moment; former McHale's Navy costars Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway make their first voiceover "appearances" as testy retired superheroes Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy; SpongeBob celebrates "Opposite Day", almost as if there really were an "Opposite Day"; Squidward invokes the name of Allen Ginsburg during a talent show at Krusty Krab; the legendary Flying Dutchman makes one of his rare TV appearances; a peek into the future reveals that they'll always be a few million SpongeBobs around to aggravate Squidward; and the long-suffering Mrs. Puff gives SpongeBob his first driving lesson, and lives to tell about it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After the critical and commercial success of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, the Walt Disney Pictures animation studio embarked on their most serious and ambitious animated feature to date with this adaptation of Victor Hugo's classic novel Notre Dame de Paris. Quasimodo (voice of Tom Hulce) is a grotesquely deformed but kind-hearted young man who was abandoned by his parents as an infant and thrown down a well; he was rescued by the priests of Notre Dame, the massive cathedral in the heart of Paris, and he lives there, earning his keep as a bell ringer. Quasimodo has become the ward of Judge Frollo (voice of Tony Jay), an outwardly pious but deeply hateful man who treats Quasimodio with indifference and violently loathes the Gypsies who spend their days in the cathedral's courtyard. Frollo hopes to clear the Gypsies out of Paris with the help of Phoebus (voice of Kevin Kline), leader of the troops under Frollo's command. However, Phoebus does not share Frollo's racist views and harbors no ill will against the Gypsies. When Quasimodo is crowned King of the Fools after leaving Notre Dame during the annual festival of Topsy Turvy Day, the hunchback is ordered beaten by the guards as punishment, but Esmerelda (voice of Demi Moore), a hot-blooded but compassionate gypsy beauty, shows pity on him and helps free him from his chains. The lovely Esmerelda is the first woman to show kindness to the unfortunate Quasimodo, and the hunchback soon falls in love with her. However, the dashing Phoebus is also infatuated with her, and Esmerelda is attracted to Phoebus as well, though she feels a motherly affection for the hunchback. Judge Frollo finds that he also desires Esmerelda, which only inflames his hatred for the Gypsies when she refuses his proposals. Darker and less outwardly comic than most of Disney's features, The Hunchback of Notre Dame does feature comic relief in the form of Victor (voice of Charles Kimbrough) and Hugo (voice of Jason Alexander), a pair of gargoyles who befriend Quasimodo, as well as several songs from Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Originally aired as a television mini-series, this all-star filmization of Stephen King's gripping epic of good versus evil chronicles the episodic adventures of a disparate group of people who struggle to reestablish civilization after a man-made catastrophe wipes out most of the world's population. The world abruptly ends when a deadly virus accidentally escapes from a government sponsored biological warfare laboratory. Soon people are dropping like flies from the plague, but a few survive and find themselves strangely compelled to head into the West. Good-hearted people follow the voice of an ancient black woman and head for Boulder, Colorado. Bad people follow the enigmatic Walkin' Dude to Las Vegas. It is only a matter of time before the two sides are forced into a climactic battle over the final fate of humanity. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Comic actress Jackee serves double duty in this made-for-TV comedy. A top female FBI agent is injured in the midst of an important assignment, and a look-alike replacement is needed in short order, so her superiors are forced to enlist her identical twin sister for the job. Unfortunately, she lacks her sister's skills as a crime fighter, and the bulk of her work experience is as a waitress; will she be able to save the day? Also screened as Double Your Pleasure, The Reluctant Agent co-stars Dan Hedaya, Richard Lawson, and Cynthia Stevenson. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Chevy Chase stars as Andy Farmer, a sportswriter who moves with his schoolteacher wife Elizabeth (Madolyn Smith) to the country in order to write a novel in relative seclusion. Of course, seclusion is the last thing the Farmers find in the small, eccentric town, where disaster awaits them at every turn. The veteran production staff features the likes of composer Elmer Bernstein, cinematographer Miroslav Ondricek, production designer Henry Bumstead, and director George Roy Hill (The Sting, The World According to Garp). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide