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Description
Although FOP was my favorite cartoon growing up as a kid, I can safely say that as of now, SpongeBob SquarePants is my personal favorite cartoon of all time. The first season truly showed just how great this show would be.

One very appealing aspect of this season is how down-to-earth it is. While a lot of later seasons have more crazy or wackier antics, this season favored a more calm and esthetic approach, which is something I dig with this season. A lot of the episodes here showcase a nice sense of underwater fun, whether it'd be cleverly using the environment for the episode's benefit, or the characters just having plain fun for 11 minutes. Most of these are very simplistic, simpler than even the usual SpongeBob plot, but they work thanks to the character interactions. The amount of gags the writers making through simplistic dialogues is immense. One random example would be in Employee of the Month where in the beginning, SpongeBob and Squidward have a little feud over whether the EOTM award is a sham or not. It's a simple dialogue but it works thanks to clever writing and pacing of the gags.

I noticed that the characters have characteristics here that are not present in later seasons, and these characteristics are very enjoyable. For example, Plankton is much smaller yet more menacing, Mr. Krabs showcases a fatherly side to SpongeBob, Patrick acts a lot more wise (but his "wiseness" isn't actually all that wise...), and more. I don't mind these aspects being removed but it gives this season a unique charm and in-general feels really welcoming with all the likable characters and simplicity.

Animation is also great. SpongeBob generally has standard animation in a good chunk of the seasons up until Season 9 (there is one other exception outside of this season), but thankfully this season actually had some really nice animation. This is the only season to use cel-animation, and it's actually quite fluid and creative when it comes to expressions (Bubblestand comes to mind). Although the drawings can be quite rough, the animation makes good use of itself to be as lively as possible. Plus, its liveliness allows for a good atmosphere and truly makes the audience feel like they are actually underwater with the world of SpongeBob.

If there's one small issue I have with this season which is why it's not higher than it currently is, it's that it is a pretty slow season. That's not to necessarily say that this season has bad pacing, because outside of occasional instances the episodes are actually well-paced, but in certain episodes this season just felt like it was dragging a bit too much, or the episode would be really boring. Ripped Pants is an example of this, since most of the episode repeats the single joke of SpongeBob ripping his pants, alongside being quite a generic story about a character doing something stupid and loses their friend, and doesn't play out all that creatively. Then we have MuscleBob BuffPants, my least favorite of pre-movie SpongeBob. This is the most boring episode from this era, as most of this one plays out without much conflict, sparse jokes, and the conflict itself is dragged out and has barely any payoff. In-general, this season can go moments without much jokes or interesting things going on, but this is still something that doesn't occur too much but it's still worth bringing up since it does make it weaker than seasons coming up.

Overall, solid start to the show introducing memorable characters, a great sense of humor, and creative animation. There's nowhere to go but up.

Description
Although FOP was my favorite cartoon growing up as a kid, I can safely say that as of now, SpongeBob SquarePants is my personal favorite cartoon of all time. The first season truly showed just how great this show would be.

One very appealing aspect of this season is how down-to-earth it is. While a lot of later seasons have more crazy or wackier antics, this season favored a more calm and esthetic approach, which is something I dig with this season. A lot of the episodes here showcase a nice sense of underwater fun, whether it'd be cleverly using the environment for the episode's benefit, or the characters just having plain fun for 11 minutes. Most of these are very simplistic, simpler than even the usual SpongeBob plot, but they work thanks to the character interactions. The amount of gags the writers making through simplistic dialogues is immense. One random example would be in Employee of the Month where in the beginning, SpongeBob and Squidward have a little feud over whether the EOTM award is a sham or not. It's a simple dialogue but it works thanks to clever writing and pacing of the gags.

I noticed that the characters have characteristics here that are not present in later seasons, and these characteristics are very enjoyable. For example, Plankton is much smaller yet more menacing, Mr. Krabs showcases a fatherly side to SpongeBob, Patrick acts a lot more wise (but his "wiseness" isn't actually all that wise...), and more. I don't mind these aspects being removed but it gives this season a unique charm and in-general feels really welcoming with all the likable characters and simplicity.

Animation is also great. SpongeBob generally has standard animation in a good chunk of the seasons up until Season 9 (there is one other exception outside of this season), but thankfully this season actually had some really nice animation. This is the only season to use cel-animation, and it's actually quite fluid and creative when it comes to expressions (Bubblestand comes to mind). Although the drawings can be quite rough, the animation makes good use of itself to be as lively as possible. Plus, its liveliness allows for a good atmosphere and truly makes the audience feel like they are actually underwater with the world of SpongeBob.

If there's one small issue I have with this season which is why it's not higher than it currently is, it's that it is a pretty slow season. That's not to necessarily say that this season has bad pacing, because outside of occasional instances the episodes are actually well-paced, but in certain episodes this season just felt like it was dragging a bit too much, or the episode would be really boring. Ripped Pants is an example of this, since most of the episode repeats the single joke of SpongeBob ripping his pants, alongside being quite a generic story about a character doing something stupid and loses their friend, and doesn't play out all that creatively. Then we have MuscleBob BuffPants, my least favorite of pre-movie SpongeBob. This is the most boring episode from this era, as most of this one plays out without much conflict, sparse jokes, and the conflict itself is dragged out and has barely any payoff. In-general, this season can go moments without much jokes or interesting things going on, but this is still something that doesn't occur too much but it's still worth bringing up since it does make it weaker than seasons coming up.

Overall, solid start to the show introducing memorable characters, a great sense of humor, and creative animation. There's nowhere to go but up.