The SpongeBob Movie: Search For Squarepants | The Deight Night Review
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| The SpongeBob Movie: Search For SquarePants (2025, Derek Drymon, Paramount) |
Despite being the first new SpongeBob film to release in cinemas for a decade, The SpongeBob Movie: Search For SquarePants is the third feature length film in the Bikini Bottom cinematic universe to release in the space of two years, with the two spin offs Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie and the mercifully titled Plankton: The Movie both going straight to Netflix respectively since 2024. Search For SquarePants returns the focus to the franchise's titular Sponge as he (played by Tom Kenny) grows to the height where he's now able to go on a roller coaster he and his best friend, Patrick Star (Bill Fagerbakke), have been excited for and can now call himself a "Big Guy". However, upon realising he's actually terrified of roller coasters, it's pointed out by his manager, Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown), that he may not be as much of a "Big Guy" as he thinks, leading SpongeBob to fall under the influence of the cursed Flying Dutchman (Mark Hamill) in the Underworld, who offers SpongeBob the chance to prove his bravery and make a man of himself. Little does SpongeBob know, that his youthful naivety is the key to releasing the Dutchman from his curse.
Since 2021, with the release of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge On The Run going straight to Netflix due to complications around the COVID-19 Pandemic, SpongeBob's cinematic animation style has been given a glossy 3-D makeover. A similar animation style was used in SpongeBob's second cinematic outing in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water, but this was reserved for the film's climactic sequence that takes place on dry land with SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, Mr. Krabs and Sandy all becoming superheroes to fight Antonio Banderas. The majority of that film retains the traditional 2-D look of the first 2004 film and the original television series. There's an attitude in cinema circles that 3-D animation is more cinematic and more worthy of the big screen than it's flatter counterpart. However, this couldn't be further from the truth and in fact, 3-D animation ends up looking cheaper and gives the film less personality. For an extreme example, just compare the styles of Despicable Me 4 to The Boy And The Heron - there is absolutely no question that the latter is far more beautiful and cinematic and the former is indeed a product and nothing more. The original look of SpongeBob SquarePants, especially in its first cinematic outing, is not glossy and gorgeous, but is filled with personality and quirkiness that adds to the absurdist humour that so many fans adore. Search For SquarePants continues the franchise's trend of stripping the show of its characteristic charm. With its glossy, "perfect" look, it turns SpongeBob into nothing more than a Minion with more vocabulary.
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| The SpongeBob Movie: Search For Squarepants (2025, Derek Drymon, Paramount) |
What's also lacking any sense of purpose is the film's utterly lacklustre plot which makes a brisk ninety minute runtime feel like three hours. The vast majority of the plot follows SpongeBob as he goes through the Underworld, completing a series of trials to prove himself as a "Big Guy". The trials themselves are rarely very entertaining or seem to have much weight and there are so many that the film decides to put in a montage sequence of more trials to move the plot along quicker, seemingly because the writers knew how stationary this story was becoming. To the film's credit, SpongeBob taking part in the trials is accompanied by a B-plot of Mr. Krabs coming to the rescue of his favourite fry-cook with the reluctant help of Squidward and Gary the Snail (who's forcibly shoehorned into the story for no obvious reason). The parts of the film that follow this gang are much more entertaining, mainly because it's not really something that's been done in anything SpongeBob SquarePants before. Having Mr. Krabs and Squidward essentially be the heroes of the story makes for a novel addition to the film and also leads to some rare funny moments. In a film that tackles SpongeBob trying to prove his bravery - something that's been covered quite a lot in previous episodes and feature films - it's most definitely a welcome addition and shows a level of vulnerability to Mr. Krabs that's rarely seen by audiences.
The film's humour does try to replicate that of the show's time under its legendary and sadly passed creator, Stephen Hillenburg. There's one cut away to a grimly realistic frame (which is more than in any of the films since Sponge Out Of Water) but a lot of references to buttocks and rear ends, otherwise though, the jokes are just trying to be silly, rather than attempting to be more witty and absurdist. As a result, the jokes, as well as the simplistic story, a script that treats its audience like idiots (it likes to constantly remind viewers of characters' motivations) and the basic animation, the film is aimed almost completely at children rather than families and adults - excluding one recurring joke about lucky bricks dropping out of trousers, which will definitely go over the heads of younger viewers. This isn't inherently a bad thing, but it's disappointing when it comes from a franchise with such a legacy as SpongeBob's. SpongeBob SquarePants premiered in 2000, so has been around for a quarter of a century and it always has been a kids show at heart, but in its earlier years, it knew adults would be watching and still has adult fans to this day. A franchise like Paw Patrol or Peppa Pig can get away with having a processed and bland film for parents to put on for their kids to just keep them busy for a while, but SpongeBob has more of a reasonability to be a family franchise. Since Hillenburg left the show, and especially since he died, SpongeBob SquarePants has more and more become a product and Search For SquarePants, as well as its Netflix spin-offs, are irrefutable proof of that.
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| The SpongeBob Movie: Search For Squarepants (2025, Derek Drymon, Paramount) |
It would be a mistake to write about this film and not talk about Big Guy - Ice Spice, the film's accompanying single. While this dreadful song is only played twice in the film, (once at the beginning and once again in the credits) its influence can be felt throughout the entirety of Search For SquarePants, after all, SpongeBob spends the whole film wishing he was a "Big Guy". It's hard to tell whether the song came before the script or the other way around, but either way, there's rarely a scene that goes by without someone saying the words "Big" and "Guy", which is all the more egregious when you consider that the lyrics of the song are essentially just the words "Big" and "Guy" repeated over and over with short breaks for phrases like "Pants Ok". Additionally, of course, Ice Spice has a cameo in the film as a roller coaster attendant, which is inserted with no sense of irony or any form of humour. There's a slight element of a good idea here, if the film had been more self aware, making fun of the simplistic nature of the title "Big Guy", it could have been much funnier and less annoying. Instead, you're expected to wholeheartedly dance along to the beat of "Big Guy" and emphatically cheer on SpongeBob in his quest to become one without any sense of a tongue in a cheek. This adds to the facile nature of the film, not attempting to challenge its youthful audience and instead panders to them and treats them like buffoons.
With the return of the original cast (excluding the questionable addition of Mark Hamill), The SpongeBob Movie: Search For SquarePants still somewhat feels like a SpongeBob adventure, albeit one that's less funny and charming and more reductive and derivative. However, where deep and beautiful films like Train Dreams and Jay Kelly get released straight to Netflix and a film like this, that's clearly designed to just have on in the background, gets a full cinematic release, it throws into question what distributors really consider cinema worthy.
★★
The SpongeBob Movie: Search For SquarePants releases in UK Cinemas on December 20th
