The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants (dir. Derek Drymon)
Certificate: PG
Running Time: 96 mins
UK Distributor: Paramount
UK Release Date: 20 December 2025
WHO’S IN THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS?
Tom Kenny, Clancy Brown, Rodger Bumpass, Bill Fagerbakke, Carolyn Lawrence, Mr. Lawrence, George Lopez, Ice Spice, Arturo Castro, Sherry Cola, Regina Hall, Mark Hamill
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Derek Drymon (director), Pam Brady (writer, producer), Matt Lieberman (writer), Aaron Dem and Lisa Stewart (producers), John Debney (composer), Peter Lyons Collister (cinematographer), Wyatt Jones (editor)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
SpongeBob SquarePants (Kenny) embarks on an adventure to the very depths of the ocean…
WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SEARCH FOR SQUAREPANTS?
It’s been well over twenty-five years since SpongeBob SquarePants first became a pop culture icon, and to this day the franchise remains extraordinarily popular, having produced now fewer than four theatrical films, as well as various spin-off shows, video games, theme park rides, and even a Broadway musical. That’s a lot of mileage for a show about a sea sponge who lives in an underwater pineapple with his pet snail, works as a fry cook at a fast-food restaurant run by a money-obsessed crab, and spends his free time blowing bubbles and chasing jellyfish with his dim-witted starfish best friend.
But perhaps a key reason that SpongeBob remains so beloved to this day is because, in all honesty, he’s still a funny character. Sure, he has his fair share of detractors who can’t stand his eternal childlike optimism (much like his ever-grumpy neighbour Squidward Tentacles), but for others that giddiness often leads to physical and visual comedy that is so impressively silly that it’s enough to make anyone of any age giggle like children, all as his innocent approach to some truly outlandish mishaps makes it surprisingly endearing in addition to being laugh-out-loud hilarious. These qualities are very much present in The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, the franchise’s latest theatrical movie which knows full well of its own silliness and runs with it, in ways that will have most children and even a fair number of adults genuinely enjoying themselves.
The film opens with some backstory surrounding the series’ recurring character of the Flying Dutchman (voiced here by Mark Hamill), the terrifying pirate ghost who has haunted the ocean for centuries thanks to a curse placed upon him that can only be broken by a pure and innocent soul. Unfortunately for him, that soul turns out to be SpongeBob himself (Tom Kenny) who, in an attempt to prove his bravery as a “big guy”, unintentionally summons the Dutchman who transports him and his best friend Patrick Star (Bill Fagerbakke) to the Underworld, a dark and menacing abyss within the very depths of the ocean where they must undergo a series of trials to test their mettle. Luckily, they’re pursued by SpongeBob’s boss Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown) who along with Squidward (Rodger Bumpass) and the sponge’s pet snail Gary (also Kenny) races to save his best employee before it’s too late.
Similar to the other SpongeBob movies, Search for SquarePants often feels like an episode of the show that’s been extended to the length of a feature film, but that isn’t really an issue here because, again, this movie is quite a strong expansion of what people still love about the show, namely the comedic timing, the lovability of the characters, and the speed at which the animation is set. It helps that it’s directed by Derek Drymon, who not only worked as a creative director and writer on the first three seasons of the show (an era considered by most fans to be the peak of its run) but also has experience within the Hotel Transylvania franchise having directed the fourth film. By having someone like Drymon in charge that understands almost as much about this character and his universe as the late creator Stephen Hillenberg, not to mention has had a taste for the kind of kinetic fast-paced energy present in the animation of the Hotel Transylvania movies, the film does at times feel like a lost episode from that earlier run in terms of the jokes it’s throwing out, the visuals that it flaunts (right down to the realistically drawn close-up shots that would often make for extremely funny imagery on the show), and even how pure-hearted and organically silly many of these characters are, least of all our favourite sponge/starfish duo.
The film nails so much of what the show is renowned for, except for one crucial aspect: the animation itself. Rather than going with 2D hand-drawn animation like the series and the first two movies, Search for SquarePants opts for a blockier CGI look which doesn’t quite match the tone or vibe of this world. It’s not all-around terrible animation, for it is colourful and energetic in enough of the right ways, but it is noticeably restrictive in how some of the characters move as well as how they’re designed at times, things that the much more freeing realm of 2D craftmanship would have had greater fun with. It doesn’t even do what the fully CGI third film Sponge on the Run did by stylising its animation with a slower frame rate so that it at least had the illusion of looking like the traditional 2D in parts, leaving this one with an aesthetic that gives it the look of a streaming-exclusive TV special that somehow scored theatrical distribution.
It’s a shame that the animation isn’t quite up to speed – literally, in some cases – because there are a lot of really funny moments throughout that make Search for SquarePants one of the most purely fun SpongeBob movies. Beyond the giggle-inducing humour and visuals, there is a neat sense of adventure as we travel on this ghostly pirate ship across numerous creative landscapes and monsters, and although some of the show’s more prominent characters like Sandy Cheeks and Plankton are completely sidelined (then again, they’ve just starred in their own Netflix spin-off so they shouldn’t really complain that much), it makes good use of core figures that bring as much lively energy as SpongeBob himself.
For kids, it’s bound to be a big-screen delight, and for adults – some of whom may have been with the show throughout these past twenty-five years – it’s another chance to laugh along to the inherent silliness of this buck-toothed sea sponge.
SO, TO SUM UP…
The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants is an enjoyably silly ride that kids and adults can easily enjoy for its level of silly humour that matches the cartoon show’s best years, though the blocky and restrictive CGI animation feels out of place within this particular universe.
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