Cast: Tom Kenny, Clancy Brown, Rodger Bumpass, Bill Fagerbakke, Carolyn Lawrence, Mr Lawrence, George Lopez, Isis “Ice Spice” Gaston, Arturo Castro, Sherry Cola, with Regina Hall and Mark Hamill.
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Director: Derek Drymon
In Irish Cinemas: 20th December 2025
More than twenty-five years after debuting on Nickelodeon, SpongeBob SquarePants remains a pop-culture mainstay, its longevity mainly owed to the infectious appeal of a hero defined by wide-eyed innocence and inexhaustible, often reckless optimism. Derek Drymon’s The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants marks the character’s fourth theatrical outing and the first since 2020’s Sponge on the Run. Where that previous entry suggested the franchise might be running low on creative fuel, Search for SquarePants functions as a timely course correction. Its renewed emphasis on visual inventiveness, elastic slapstick, and boldly nonsensical humour restores the sense of surprise and irreverence that once made the series feel singular.
This time around, fan favourites like Sandy Cheeks and Plankton are pushed to the margins, leaving SpongeBob (Tom Kenny), Patrick (Bill Fagerbakke), Gary (also Kenny), Mr Krabs (Rodger Bumpass), and Squidward (also Bumpass) to carry the story. The narrative also ventures far beyond Bikini Bottom, plunging into an underworld bursting with colour, texture, and grotesquely imaginative sea creatures. It’s here that the Flying Dutchman (Mark Hamill), the franchise’s ghostly pirate antagonist, holds court, hatching a scheme that hinges on SpongeBob’s unshakable eagerness and naïveté.
Visually, Drymon builds on the hybrid animation approach introduced in 2015’s Sponge Out of Water, blending glossy 3D models with bursts of hand-drawn animation that double as punchlines. The film delights in pushing its aesthetic to absurd extremes, whether through wildly distorted character designs, juvenile visual gags, or over-the-top fantasy sequences like SpongeBob’s apocalyptic daydream featuring a towering roller coaster he’s desperate to ride. The animators’ willingness to stretch and warp the medium underscores a clear desire to outdo the visual ambition of earlier instalments.
Thankfully, the spectacle isn’t empty. Beneath the kinetic visuals lies a densely packed stream of wordplay, puns, and off-kilter jokes that will feel instantly familiar and gratifying to longtime fans. The premise itself is a gag: SpongeBob has finally grown tall enough to ride a rollercoaster, only to panic at the last moment, triggering an identity crisis in which he becomes obsessed with proving he’s a “big guy.” That refrain ripples through the film, from musical needle drops to the Flying Dutchman’s gleefully mocking insults, reinforcing the joke while deepening SpongeBob’s comically misplaced sense of pride.
Predictably, SpongeBob’s insistence on his own maturity only lands him and Patrick in escalating danger, most notably during their trek through Challenge Cove, a gauntlet of video-game-style trials designed to test SpongeBob’s supposed toughness. While the relentless pacing and barrage of jokes slightly lose momentum as the underworld detour drags on, Search for SquarePants never entirely runs out of charm. Energetic, silly, and unapologetically unhinged, it ultimately reaffirms that SpongeBob still has enough creative wind in his sails to avoid being sent to the depths just yet.
Overall: 6/10
Movie Reviewer
