‘SpongeBob Squarepants’: ‘Kamp Koral’ Prequel Gets New Trailer Ahead of Paramount+ Launch

The first full-length trailer for the SpongeBob SquarePants spin-off, Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years, was released on Tuesday. The new show will debut with Paramount+ on Thursday, March 4. It came with a number of other big announcements from the new streaming service this week.

Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years is a prequel to the main series, putting all the main characters together in a summer camp. It is animated in a CGI style that fans have had glimpses of before, but not a clear look. The new trailer changes that, showing SpongeBob and his pals in action in 3-D. The results have been generally well-received so far.

Fans have some major questions about Kamp Koral and how it will weave into the canonical story of the main series, such as it is. Many are wondering if the series will explain why Sandy Cheeks is at the summer camp when she supposedly met SpongeBob for the first time in the main series. Others are preoccupied with the enmity between Mr. Krabs and Plankton.

Still others are wary of the animation style. Kamp Koral is a big departure from the style of the main series, and some think it will be too visually distracting in the long-term. Some critics question why the spin-off couldn’t be done in a traditional 2-D style, and others proposed their theories.

The bottom line for many, however, was the exclusivity. Kamp Koral will only be available on Paramount+, the new streaming service from ViacomCBS. The platform is a re-branding of CBS All Access, which was the first OTT streaming service offered by an American broadcast network. Now, it will fold in productions from all of the company’s different brands including Nickelodeon, BET, MTV, Comedy Central and more.

As a launch title, Kamp Koral is clearly intended to draw subscribers in right away, and many commenters said they would join up to check the show out. Others hoped to find another way to watch, but so far none has been announced. In the age of the “streaming wars,” exclusive content like this is jealously guarded.

The first six episodes of Kamp Koral will premiere on Thursday, March 4 — the same day that Paramount+ itself launches — along with The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run. Subscriptions are available now at a discounted rate. Disclosure: PopCulture is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.