The SpongeBob Movie: Search for Squarepants

In the fourth theatrical adventure, The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, our ever-optimistic yellow hero is desperate to shake off his “bubble-blowing baby boy” label and prove his “big boy” status to the skeptical Mr. Krabs. Teaming up with best buddy Patrick, SpongeBob dives headfirst into a swashbuckling quest alongside the eerie ghost pirate Flying Dutchman (voiced by Mark Hamill), venturing into the spooky depths of the Underworld where ghostly curses, wild challenges, and hilarious hijinks await in a bid to become the ultimate “big guy.

The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants MINI-Review

One of SpongeBob’s selling points is that both adults and children can sit down together and each enjoy something different about the ridiculous series. Just like a Krabby Patty without the secret sauce is nothing more than smushed, fried kelp, without SpongeBob’s secret sauce, the show would be nothing more than brightly colored noise. The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants forgot the sauce.

Like much of today’s cinematic content, which is stuffed full of scattershot subplots to cushion and bolster the fragile emptiness of its core narrative, ‘Search for SquarePants’ has an anorexic plot, far too thin to support even an hour-long special, let alone a 90-minute feature-length film. However, unlike its contemporaries, this SpongeBob Movie opts to forgo the extras and instead slows the action, making its 90 minutes feel like an epic-length snooze.

The movie isn’t without its entertaining moments, but it is a surprisingly low-energy offering from a studio that has delivered almost two decades of saltwater-encrusted ADHD.

The studio’s choice to render the film in CGI instead of the traditional 2D format for which the series is known is likely intended to give the impression of being a “real” film, bigger and more sophisticated than its TV cousin, and therefore worth the price of admission to watch something that you can just as easily stream on the toilet at home. In practice, it harms the film immeasurably. It strips away much of the property’s charm, giving Search for SquarePants a rubbery, dollar-store-knockoff feel.

In the end, The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants isn’t offensively or even memorably bad—it’s just strangely inert. By sanding down the anarchic energy, visual identity, and layered humor that once made Bikini Bottom a rare meeting place for kids and adults alike, the film settles for a hollow imitation of its former self. What should have been a celebration of one of animation’s most resilient characters instead feels like a corporate echo, loud in color but quiet in spirit. SpongeBob may still be smiling, but without the secret sauce, there’s nothing here that sticks.

PARENTAL NOTES

They Can’t Help Themselves

• I don’t even remember exactly what the exchange was, but Capitalism is called out as something bad. Someone says, “Capitalism strikes again.” It’s fairly innocuous, but it’s there.

Shamone

• SpongeBob gives a series of crotch thrusts in one scene.

Poopy

• SpongeBob says, ” poo poo, pee pee in your pants” as he thrusts his pelvis on screen.
• SpongeBob is startled, and a brick seemingly drops out of his pants. Even though the joke (he s### a brick) will go over the head of most kids, it’s still there. That is the joke.

Horse Shoes and Hand Grenades

• It’s not a curse, but it sure is close.
  • A character exclaims, “Son of a perch.”
    • I think the inference is pretty clear.

WOKE REPORT

None

• Nada