Fans outrage as Paramount Studios takes down a SpongeBob SquarePants fan project titled The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie Rehydrated on YouTube.
The hashtag #JusticeForSpongebob trended on Twitter as the people behind the project announced that Paramount has taken down the project. This was a two-year project with new animations, voice acting, music, etc, and had over 500 people involved. Every two seconds of the film has a different art style, with a mix of 2D and 3D animation, live-action, and small references to other popular pop culture titles such as Nintendo, other anime projects, and Disney.
According to the Twitter account behind the project, the video was taken down by Paramount Pictures, which distributed the original film series, within an hour of its upload. At the time, the makers of the film assured viewers that they were trying to get the issue sorted.
Fans went on to social media, pouring outrage against Paramount for taking down a film that didn’t rip off the original film and wasn’t made for commercial purposes.
Some are questioning the production house’s decision to exercise their copyright claim on a fanmade film that includes fresh creations.
The SpongeBob Rehydrated team later announced at 5 PM PST that the movie has been re-uploaded to Newgrounds in two parts, with part one currently sitting on 6,605 views and is scored 4.80/5 on the platform. For now, the film is not available on YouTube, though efforts are being made to get the full movie re-uploaded on the platform.
SpongeBob The Movie Rehydrated is a recreation of the 2004 animated film SpongeBob Squarepants The Movie, with brand new assets produced by fans. The fan project was created in honor of Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of the original film.
Paramount Studios has not shared any comments on the sudden takedown or whether they will allow the original upload to be restored on YouTube.