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10-Year-Old Spongebob Will Star In CG Spinoff Series ‘Kamp Koral’

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Earlier this year, Nickelodeon announced plans to “expand the SpongeBob SquarePants universe.” What that meant became clear yesterday when the network announced its first new series set in the Spongebobverse: the cg-animated prequel series Kamp Koral (working title).

The 13-episode first season will introduce 10-year-old Spongebob during his summer at sleepaway camp. Per the network, SpongeBob and his pals will “spend the summer building underwater campfires, catching wild jellyfish, and swimming in Lake Yuckymuck at the craziest camp in the kelp forest, Kamp Koral.”

“Spongebob has an incredible universe to expand upon and the greenlight for Kamp Koral is a testament to the strength and longevity of these characters known and loved by generations of fans around the world,” said Ramsey Naito, EVP animation production and development, Nickelodeon.

Marc Ceccarelli and Vincent Waller (co-executive producers on the main SpongeBob series) will also co-exec produce Kamp Koral. The series is beginning production this month at Nickelodeon Animation Studio in Burbank, California.

While it’s too early to offer an assessment of the series, the basic concept of de-aging these characters and placing them in a kids’ summer camp has raised eyebrows from fans of the show. A key part of Spongebob’s success throughout the years has been the show’s cross-generational appeal, managing to entertain everyone from kids and teens to adults with its weird, surrealist style of humor. It remains to be seen how the new series will remain true to this inherent core value that defined the creative approach of Spongebob creator Stephen Hillenburg, who passed away last November at the age of 57 following a battle with the neurodegenerative disease ALS.

One person who has already expressed doubts about Nickelodeon’s intentions for producing the series is Paul Tibbitt, a close collaborator of Hillenburg’s who was involved with the show from its first season, and later directed The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water and served as showrunner until 2015. “I do not mean any disrespect to my colleagues who are working on this show,” Tibbitt wrote on Twitter. “They are good people and talented artists. But this is some greedy, lazy executive-ing right here, and they ALL know full well Steve would have HATED this. Shame on them.”

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