The SpongeBob Movie: The Search for SquarePants (2025)

Once again I find myself sitting down to attempt the rather fruitless task of reviewing a SpongeBob SquarePants film. This is sort of the second SpongeBob movie we've had this year actually, although technically that was Plankton: The Movie, and perhaps that makes sense because Plankton gets rather short shrift in this one, briefly turning up after being stepped on. The Search for SquarePants takes shape when SpongeBob reaches a height that now means he can ride 'The Shipwreck'- a rollercoaster at Captain Booty Beard's Amusement Park, only to find that he is scared senseless when he sees it in the flesh. Desperately searching for the courage he's missing, and to prove his 'Big Guydom' to Mr. Krabs, SpongeBob and his best friend Patrick set off on a journey to recover Mr. Krabs' 'swashbuckler certificate', a piece of paper that apparently proves Mr. Krabs was once a swashbuckling pirate from the Underworld- a place of horrible evil and terrifying creatures run by the Flying Dutchman, rather wonderfully voiced by Mark Hamill. The Flying Dutchman is cursed, and tricks SpongeBob into helping him lift his curse- not informing him that if SpongeBob does provide him with help (having been told this will prove his chops) our yellow sponge friend will be dispelled to the Underworld cursed forever. So, The Search for SquarePants is what it is, a SpongeBob movie. What does that mean exactly? Whatever you want it to really. Is it any good? Well, it would be a most hard hearted person to claim there's nothing to like in here. There's plenty to like, much of it amusing, all of it creative. Whoever thinks up the plotlines and minute details within the world of SpongeBob is either a genius or needs their head looking at, quite possibly both. What you get out of this film is purely dependant on how much you enjoy the lunacy of the world. The gags fly so thick and fast you've got absolutely no time to digest them all, and of course some of them aren't supposed to be funny- they're genuinely just nuts. This is a film in which, if you exit hating it, it's entirely you're own fault. SpongeBob is so universally loved that you feel almost everyone will get something out of this, whether that's pure joy or utter bafflement- it's difficult to think of someone who really takes against it. The original SpongeBob film still stands as the best of them for me, but much of that is down to the fact that it was the first time I was properly paying attention to it. The sequel, Sponge Out of Water, despite not having the barnstorming originality of the original, places the characters in our world in a rather brilliant move that is hugely effective especially in terms of its effects. The Search for SquarePants doesn't hit the heights (whatever that means when comparing SpongeBob films) of the first two films, but there's more than enough in here to both justify its existence and have people wanting more. I for one, would have no problem with another film. 6.8/10