The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants

Beloved animation icon SpongeBob SquarePants learns there’s more than derring-do involved in becoming a “big guy,” and while that’s a wonderful idea in the era of toxic masculinity, the messaging never overwhelms the wacky comedy that makes The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants a goofy delight from stem to stern. This fourth feature-length adventure about the good-natured fry cook and all his undersea pals maintains the charm and wildness of the previous movies and the long-running TV show.

It’s a big day for SpongeBob (voiced by Tom Kenny): he’s finally grown just tall enough to ride on Bikini Bottom’s most fearsome roller coaster, but at the moment of truth, he realizes that while he may have the stature, he lacks the bravery. His boss Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown, who also appears on camera in a hilarious live-action opening bit) thinks that SpongeBob and his best friend, Patrick Star (Bill Fagerbakke) are a pair of “bubble-blowing baby boys” who lack the courage, moxie, and panache to be swashbucklers like Mr. Krabs was in his youth.

Vowing to prove himself as a big guy, SpongeBob summons ghost pirate The Flying Dutchman (Mark Hamill), who promises to turn SpongeBob into a tough, brave he-man, even though the spectre’s real agenda involves exploiting his new protégé’s naïveté for his own purposes. Along the way, SpongeBob and Patrick overcome obstacle after obstacle with their silly, playful ways, but will SpongeBob abandon Patrick — and his beloved bubbles — in the pursuit of manliness?

This is a narrative that queer kids, or anyone who doesn’t strictly follow entrenched gender norms, know all too well: SpongeBob and Patrick are giddy with life’s possibilities, often expressing enthusiasm over the tiniest things with full-bodied flourishes. In real life, there’s always that moment when some parent or teacher or coach makes a young boy feel bad about clapping with glee or jumping up and down with excitement, but Search for SquarePants comes down vigorously on the side of exuberance.

It’s also a film that’s very much pro–butt-comedy: seemingly every undersea creature on display here, be they fish, mammal, or mollusk, has a laugh-inducing tush moment, and director Derek Drymon (Hotel Transylvania 4: Transformania) and writers Pam Brady (Hot Rod, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut) and Matt Lieberman (Free Guy) mine endless comedy from them all. (The animators’ use of big, sparkly eyes to express excitement, and quick shots of ugly, moldering gross stuff, will ring a bell for old-school Ren & Stimpy fans.)

The veteran SpongeBob SquarePants players have had these characters locked down for decades now, and the movie allows them their moments to shine, whether it’s Squidward (Rodger Bumpass) jamming with some treacherous light-jazz sirens or Sandy Cheeks (Carolyn Lawrence) being summoned to the film by a Paramount executive (George Lopez) who thinks the plot has derailed. Newcomers Hamill and Regina Hall (as the Dutchman’s long-suffering second-in-command) fit in just fine.

The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants offers viewers of all ages a counterpoint to the worst of what the internet has to offer, and so does the attached Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles short, Chrome Alone 2: Lost in New Jersey, in which the foursome takes on a walking, talking AI engine that lives to borrow, badly, from existing IP for its own purposes. The Turtles end the short by deleting Chat GPT from their phones, and it’s a moment of leading by example matched only by SpongeBob and Patrick learning that bubbles, big hugs, and broad hand gestures are perfectly acceptable big-guy behavior.

Director: Derek Drymon
Screenwriters: Pam Brady and Matt Lieberman; story by Marc Ceccarelli & Kaz and Pam Brady, based on the series created by Stephen Hillenburg
Cast: Tom Kenny, Clancy Brown, Rodger Bumpass, Bill Fagerbakke, Carolyn Lawrence, Mr. Lawrence, George Lopez, Isis “Ice Spice” Gaston, Arturo Castro, Sherry Cola, Regina Hall, Mark Hamill
Producers: Lisa Stewart, Pam Brady, Aaron Dem
Executive producers: Marc Ceccarelli, Vincent Waller, Pete Chiappetta, Anthony Tittanegro, Andrew Lary
Director of photography: Peter Lyons Collister
Production design: Sean Haworth, Pablo R. Mayer
Editing: Wyatt Jones
Music: John Debney
Sound design: Will Files, re-recording mixer/supervising sound editor
Production companies: Paramount Animation, Nickelodeon Movies, Domain Entertainment, MRC
In English
96 minutes