#(there's only so many angles you can screencap that interaction from XD)

[micrathene-w]

By bedtime, she has officially entered her second trimester.

Raine rightly gets the first invitation to feel their growing baby.

[bluezey]

A piece by piece study of the Macy’s Parade SpongeBob performance

I can’t help it, but I’ve watched the SpongeBob SquarePants Macy’s Parade performance at least once a day.  Mostly because the song is so uplifting and energetic it’s like musical caffeine.  If you’re out of coffee or energy drinks (like I was this morning) just plug Bikini Bottom Day into whatever device plays your music.  But another reason is the idea of a SpongeBob Broadway production is so bizarre, yet they appear to pull it off so surprisingly well, that the performance to me is so fascinating it’s almost hypnotic.  So much that I can do a piece by piece study of what I’ve noticed so far in the performance.  And here they are now.

- the pre-taped narrator voice is the original voice of the narrator in the show, aka Tom Kenny, nice touch

- I may be wrong, but according to what little footage I could find of the actual Broadway production, the prop of SpongeBob’s neighborhood/house may have been made specifically for the Macy’s parade number

- it was a nice effect to pull off live that it appeared SpongeBob was sleeping underneath that flat piece of cardboard that was the neighborhood/house prop, but, after many reviewings, and sorry to ruin the magic for some of you, I caught SpongeBob’s foot during the transition

- they push Gary in on a skateboard

- I do believe that it was the actor playing SpongeBob who does Gary’s meow, but, due to either the meow or the entire vocal number being prerecorded, SpongeBob doesn’t move his mouth to make the meow

- and no, I cannot confirm or deny if the singing was prerecorded, as they are usually prerecorded for Macy parade performances, but watching the mouths as they’re singing, I’m not seeing any sign of lip syncing, but this could also be due to, after so many rehearsals, they can lip sync to the track like it’s second nature to them by now, so unless someone has a keener eye than I do, whether the singing was live or prerecorded is still up in the air

- a keen Macy’s parade watcher noticed it, and I rewatched it to confirm it, and it’s true, instead of giving the spatula back to the hand behind the background prop, SpongeBob literally throws his spatula offscreen, he had to have thrown it hard to give it enough distance for someone off the street “stage” to catch it, so a mean part of me is wondering if he accidentally whipped the spatula into the audience (if I caught it, I’d probably try to keep it until they asked for it back)

- it took me more time than needed to realize why SpongeBob paused to talk about his dental hygiene, but eventually I noticed this attempt to pull off cartoon effect with live action stage magic, cute (if you don’t see it, look to the left in this screenshot)

- I also think to pull this off, they needed two toothbrushes back there, one for SpongeBob to grab, and a second one for someone on the other side to hold out during the offstage “stretch” and that thought is kinda funny to me

- though SpongeBob sings about being extra careful with his dental hygiene, he brushes Gary’s eyes with the toothbrush

- SpongeBob is so nice he waves to someone who kidnaps his pet snail

 - what’s also funnier is that, immediately after this, SpongeBob walks through a prop door, signifying him leaving his house, so this took place in his house, someone broke into his house and took his snail, and he’s just fine with it XD

- someone who’s seen the Broadway show, are the houses actually this small?  I mean, I saw a small video of the stage production where SpongeBob, Patrick and Squidward were standing in front of their prop houses, and the houses were that small, but they didn’t show how they walked out of them, is it just like this in the show, or did they just walk out from behind the houses?  I know some Broadway performances need a little bit of stretching the imagination, but I’m just curious how they did it in the stage show

- wow, look how in character they all are!  and those tiny touches to stretch the imagination so you can tell who each human is playing!  even Squidward is placing his hands on his hips like Squdward in the show would!  yeah, now that I noticed it, Squidward doesn’t place his fists on his hips when he stands around grumpy, he just stands with his hands unfolded like that

 - while some choices are great, some choices are still kinda odd to me.  like, Squidward is human now, and has hair, so why give him four legs??  don’t get me wrong, it’s one of my favorite costume choices in the show now, but still, he’s human now!  why four legs??

- I don’t want to bog down this thing with screencaps, so I’ll list all the characters I could make out in the cast, not coutning SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward and Sandy:  Mr. Krabs, Pearl, Plankton, Karen, Mrs. Puff, Larry the Lobster, Old Man Jenkins

- SpongeBob at one point walks under a character wearing pogo stilts, I won’t question why she’s wearing shorts, but I will question why SpongeBob walked between her legs

- SpongeBob has sunglasses for one moment, but I’m trying to figure out where he got them, I think Mrs. Puff handed them when they met

- oh yeah, during the number SpongeBob interacts with almost everyone in the cast when he’s not singing the lead, my favorite part is when he waves to Plankton and Plankton waves back, SpongeBob is such a happy dude

- SpongeBob isn’t the only character I can’t help but watch, Squidward is fun to watch too, he kinda toddles/marches along on his four legs, the actor has so much experience on those prop legs and he walks around like they’re still cumbersome, it’s kinda funny in a sad way

- Plankton wears a snappy green suit, an evil eyepatch and a cool ponytail, but wears sneakers, kinda cute and funny (maybe it’s a subtle nod to die hard fans that despite Plankton’s intelligence and sophistication, his family are bumpkins?)

- it makes me smile how everyone stops to pledge allegiance to the town, even evil Plankton and grumpy Squidward, everyone loves this town and it makes me smile

- apparently the salute to Bikini Bottom is the same hand gesture for “hang ten” how adorable

 - what the f**k is that??

- is that Old Man Jenkins dancing??

- no matter how many times I watch this, I’m still finding new things, for example, while screen grabbing, I found this guy

- this is the band geek in me for noticing this, and it’s hard to notice in screen grabs, but when they pause when the song ends, it looks like Squidward nudges his feet forward, either he missed his spot or he was about to fall over and he was regaining balance, without us noticing of course, but sorry dude, I noticed, it’s okay, it amused me, you can try and catch it yourself by rewatching the performance, and see Squidward when the camera angle switches to overhead

- one final note, look at that overhead shot! they are trying like hell to sell this bizarre show, and I think they succeeded like hell! I especially love Plankton in this, it’s like he’s trying to steal the show in just that one pose