BassWard
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The original description of this episode mentioned Squidward and Bubble Bass traveling to Shell City instead of Jetsam City. While there is another location In-Universe with that name, this seemed to imply that it would be a retelling of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie with Squidward and Bubble Bass replacing SpongeBob and Patrick. This confusion could possibly be why the change was made.
Squidiot Box
- It's the Same, So It Sucks: While being intended as an anniversary episode and a Sequel Episode to a fan favorite, this is yet another episode where SpongeBob and Patrick are oblivious idiots who constantly put Squidward in danger, with that being the entire focus of the plot and comedy. The last season had plenty of these ("Squidward's Sick Daze", "Plane to Sea", "Yellow Pavement", "Friendiversary", "SquidBird"), which range from divisive to outright hated.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The episode has been criticized by longtime fans for explicitly portraying the box from "Idiot Box" as a special "imagination box" capable of conjuring up worlds and objects by the use of imagination, which many feel misses the point and joke of "Idiot Box", where the box was just a generic brown box that was only made "special" thanks to SpongeBob and Patrick's active imagination.
