FIRST LOOK: Nickelodeon’s The Patrick Star Show Stop-Mo Halloween-Themed Special

FIRST LOOK: Nickelodeon’s The Patrick Star Show Stop-Mo Halloween-Themed Special

October 19th, 2021

Jerry Beck

Here’s our first look at Nickelodeon’s Halloween-Themed Special for The Patrick Star Show, “Terror at 20,000 Leagues”. In the show, Patrick goes on a spooky adventure, premiering Friday, Oct. 22, at 7:00 p.m. on Nickelodeon. The half-hour special features stop-motion, puppets and 2D animation. Screen Novelties, the Los Angeles-based stop-motion animation production company, produced the stop-motion animation in the special, where miniature puppets and sets brought the series and characters to life in three dimensions. You know its gotta be good:

Marc Ceccarelli (SpongeBob SquarePants), Vincent Waller and Jennie Monica (both of SpongeBob SquarePants) are co-executive producers of the series. Longtime voice of Patrick Star, Bill Fagerbakke lends his voice as the young adult Patrick alongside new cast members: Tom Wilson (SpongeBob SquarePants) as Cecil Star, Patrick’s fun-loving, happy-go-lucky dad who always puts his family first; Cree Summer (Rugrats) as Bunny Star, Patrick’s loving sea star mom who is a kooky oddball; Jill Talley (SpongeBob SquarePants) as Squidina Star, Patrick’s eight-year-old little sister who drinks her coffee from a sippy cup; and Dana Snyder (The Penguins of Madagascar) as GrandPat Star, Patrick’s genius grandpat, the most intelligent member of the Star family. Summer also voices Grandma Tentacles, Squidward’s grandma. Additional cast members include veteran actors Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants), Roger Bumpass (Squidward Tentacles), Carolyn Lawrence (Sandy Cheeks), Clancy Brown (Mr. Krabs), Mr. Lawrence (Plankton).

Fun Facts
· It took two main stages and two ancillary stages running for several months to create the nearly 12 minutes of stop-motion footage in “Terror at 20,000 Leagues.”

· Dr. Plankenstein’s castle is a sandcastle somewhere on the spooky outskirts of Bikini Bottom and the “forest” around the castle is made of those “drip castles” often made on the beach as kids.

· The special features oatmeal! It took about six different formulas to come up with visually satisfying animatable oatmeal.

Real oats were mixed with wax, classic “elementary school science project” slime, and other secret ingredients. Then the animation took days to accomplish, so it had to hold its shape for many hours at a time.

Author
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Jerry Beck

Writer, cartoon producer and author of more than 15 books on animation history. A former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney; currently on the faculty at both CalArts in Valencia and Woodbury University in Burbank, California.