They say inspiration comes from anywhere. But, as much as we might believe this, some sources of inspiration can still surprise. Case in point, The Callisto Protocol took inspiration from a certain pineapple-living sponge from under the sea.
Although Nickelodeon isn't above the very rare creepy and scary SpongeBob SquarePants episode, you don't typically associate the squishy yellow rascal with gore. However, Glauco Longhi, the game's director, told The Sun that he used cartoons for inspiration. Specifically, he used SpongeBob as an example of what the studio used for the animations and enemies in The Callisto Protocol, saying:
Even some cartoons, like SpongeBob. We look at cartoons on stylization and movement because, although it's super real and immersive, we stylized a lot of things to make them more appealing. So some of the movements, and in the case of the gore, the blood, and how we remove the limbs, there's a push of style to emphasize some of these actions. Cartoons do that very well. Disney, Pixar, or whatever – they give you the message right away. If there's a fast character, you get it right away [from the] strong silhouettes.
It's certainly interesting to hear the perspective of someone using something we commonly associate with children and applying it to something literally banned in other countries.