Another season, another “SpongeBob SquarePants” DVD release. Since the seasons are less and less like seasons now, with new episodes appearing sporadically, fans have to take what they can get. With Ghoul Fools we get the double length Halloween episode from last year along with a random sampling of episodes from throughout the entire run of the series – one of the selected episodes is from the first season even!
What makes this collection different is the theme – all episodes feature The Flying Dutchman (voiced by Brian Doyle-Murray). While it doesn’t feature all of his appearances, it does present a good cross section of the series. One of the more recurring characters, it is a natural he would be the subject of an entire DVD release.
The titular episode, “Ghoul Fools” was last year’s Halloween special, a double-length affair that sees SpongeBob and Patrick meeting Lord Poltergeist (Chris Elliott) and we get a sort of battle between Lord Poltergeist and The Flying Dutchman with SpongeBob, Patrick, Mr. Krabs, Squidward and Sandy caught in the middle. If that makes you wonder what is going on, then go check out a different “SpongeBob SquarePants” DVD first or an episode or two on television because this isn’t the best introduction to all the characters. It is, however, funny.
Other episodes on the disc include:
“The Curse Of Bikini Bottom”
“Ghost Host”
“Born Again Krabs”
“Arrgh!”
“Your Shoe’s Untied”
“Money Talks”
I’d go into these a bit more, but many, if not all, have been released already on previous “SpongeBob SquarePants” DVDs. A few have The Flying Dutchman (or “Dutchie”) take a significant role, some are just cameos. It’s a shame, really, because there are other episodes where he does figure more prominently that would have been nice to include.
Also missing is any sort of special feature. This is the sort of DVD release that doesn’t really offer up much new, so there’s not a lot of reason for consumers to pick this up. To really sweeten the pot (so to speak) Nickelodeon and Paramount should have offered up something, anything. An audio commentary? An interview with Brian Doyle-Murray? Oh well.
SpongeBob fans will enjoy this.