What are the best and worst Nickelodeon movies?

The most successful show in the history of Nickelodeon is, naturally, about a sponge in trousers. “SpongeBob SquarePants” became a legitimate cultural touchstone, one that has stood up for generations at this point. Naturally, they decided to make a SpongeBob movie. Multiple, in fact. They range from “decent” to “quite good,” and the first one is somewhere in the middle. Don’t worry, another one will pop up later.

Originally, “Snow Day” was going to be an “Adventures of Pete & Pete” movie. It was even written by the co-creators of that show. Alas, instead of using that cast and those characters, the film got reworked into “Snow Day.” Chris Elliott is having fun, but this is a movie from the year 2000 that has Chevy Chase in a major role, which is to say it was a bummer both on screen and off.

Speaking of “Pete & Pete,” Michelle Trachtenberg first popped up on that show as Nona F. Mecklenberg. That led to her starring in the first Nickelodeon movie, “Harriet the Spy.” Based on a novel from the 1960s, Trachtenberg played the titular Harriet, an 11-year-old girl who fashions herself a spy. Does it fully hold up in adulthood? Maybe not, but it aimed more for the Nickelodeon audience and to that end, it succeeded, with Trachtenberg deserving a lot of the credit.

“Avatar: The Last Airbender” has a passionate following. The animated show got a live-action adaptation, though, that became one of the worst movies ever made. This was at the nadir of M. Night Shyamalan’s career, before he realized he should just make kind of dumb pulpy movies a lot of people find fun. “The Last Airbender” was a total snooze. In fact, it has the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score of any Nickelodeon Movies production. Even the CinemaScore is a C, which is about as bad as it gets. A C is worse than an F, because Fs go to ambitious, polarizing movies that try something.

“Good Burger” is profoundly silly, even stupid. That is to its benefit. “Saturday Night Live” has spawned several movies, and the return has been erratic. “All That,” Nickelodeon’s answer to “SNL,” brought us “Good Burger.” Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell had great chemistry. That’s why they worked together so often. “Good Burger” isn’t comedy gold, but that’s an unfair level to hold a movie like this to. It’s enjoyable. The sequel is…fascinating in its existence.

World’s colliding! They made three “Rugrats” movies, and two “Wild Thornberrys” movies, with this being the last one for both of these entities. This was a case of oil and water. They had run out of ideas and having the world of these two shows join forces just made everything feel worse. At least we got to hear Bruce Willis voice Spike, the Pickles’ dog.

The first three “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movies are not Nickelodeon movies. Nick did not have the rights to the characters at the time. Eventually, though, “TMNT” would come to fall under the Nick umbrella. “Mutant Mayhem” was a reboot, and this one proved totally justified and worthwhile. People loved the animation style and, frankly, just enjoyed the movie in general. With a 96-percent on Rotten Tomatoes, this is the best-reviewed Nickelodeon movie.

And now, we can talk some trash about one of the movies that made that reboot so necessary. This was the second of two live-action “TMNT” movies with CGI turtles. Also, Krang, Bebop, and Rocksteady are in it. Remember when Megan Fox was in those movies playing April O’Neil? Probably not, actually. It’s for the best.

We did not see this one coming. “Dora the Explorer” is a show for young kids, a Spanish-infused version of “Blue’s Clues.” “Dora and the Lost City of Gold,” though, took the world of Dora and tweaked it for people who had grown up watching “Dora the Explorer” before heading off to kindergarten. The film is live-action, and Dora is now a teenager in an adventure comedy written by one of the screenwriters of “The Muppets” and directed by the director of that movie. It’s surprisingly substantive, and even got good reviews.

Instead of making a movie based on a TV show, “Barnyard” was used to set up an upcoming Nickelodeon show, “Back at the Barnyard.” The poster features a bunch of (poorly-animated) barnyard animals on motorcycles. Yeah, it’s that kind of movie, and yeah, it’s as bad as it sounds. Courteney Cox voices the cow that is the love interest of Kevin James’ protagonist steer. It’s a real misfire.

That’s right, “Rango” was a Nickelodeon Movies production. It was released by Paramount, the studio that owns Nickelodeon, and actually led to Paramount founding Paramount Animation. Maybe to avoid having Nickelodeon’s name attached to “loftier” fare. The cache of “Rango” is remarkable for an animated movie. It was directed by Gore Verbinski, written by John Logan, has music from Hans Zimmer, and cinematography from Roger Deakins. That would be 16-time Oscar nominee Roger Deakins. “Rango” polarized audiences – perhaps expecting a breezy Nickelodeon movie – but critics lauded it, and it won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

Nickelodeon may wish its name wasn’t attached to this remake of a 1968 film about a blended family with a bunch of kids. If you are planning to make a family comedy in 2005 and your stars are Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo, maybe you should stop and think if it’s really worthwhile. The film flopped and, with a six percent on Rotten Tomatoes, only “The Last Airbender” is ranked lower.

Yes, this was a TV movie, but we wanted to include it. One, it is a proper movie(ish) at 81 minutes. Two, it’s good. Three, it serves as the definitive, intended finale to “Hey Arnold!” over a decade after the show’s original run ended, and that’s cool. Four, we wanted to say something nice about “Hey Arnold!” before we get to…

The theatrical “Hey Arnold!” movie wasn’t very good. It’s notable for being the first PG-rated animated Nickelodeon movie, and also for only being 76 minutes long. That’s right, the made-for-TV “Jungle Movie” is longer than this theatrical release. The plot, about the kids trying to save the neighborhood from, no joke, a crooked developer looking to turn it into a shopping mall, feels like a parody of a plot. Except, alas, it was not.

There have been a few “SpongeBob” movies, so it’s worth mentioning a second one. Plus, “Sponge Out of Water” is the best-reviewed of the movies based on the show. It does something obvious but also something that needed to be done and was executed well. Namely, it features SpongeBob and company coming to our world for an extended period of time, and even saw them animated in 3D through CGI. It was a gimmick, but a worthwhile one.

Ahh, the bad days of Eddie Murphy’s career. “Imagine That” isn’t even remarkably bad. It came during a run including “Norbit,” “Meet Dave,” and “A Thousand Words.” Comparatively, it’s practically “Beverly Hills Cop,” but in and of itself, “Imagine That” is a dull movie not worth watching.

This one is entirely for the young kids. However, we have it on the authority of both critics and relieved parents that “Paw Patrol: The Movie” is tolerable to adults and enjoyable for children. The dogs do their thing, kids learn lessons, and all is well. Apparently, a dinosaur-infused sequel is coming in 2026, which seems weird but also entertaining in concept.

“Legends of the Hidden Temple” is neither good nor bad and it’s only kind of a movie. That’s why we’re leaving it for last and sort of in its own category. Unabashedly, this was a nostalgia play. “Legends of the Hidden Temple” was a game show in the 1990s. That game show was used to craft film based on its trappings. Olmec, yes, but the temple guards, the pendants of life, even oddly-colored animals. They stuck an actual green monkey into the mix! And, yes, Kurt Fogg makes an appearance. It’s fun that this movie exists. It’s so slight, but it’s not totally phoned in. They did it. They brought the red jaguar to life. That’s worth shouting out.