Ever since SpongeBob’s previous movie five years ago, everyone
– and media franchise, of SpongeBob SquarePants has continued and expanded.
Along with adding more episodes to the long-running television series, the
franchise has included a few spin-off shows and a different type of spin-off
movies. None of that matters to “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants,”
because everything about this realm is so simple and so simply silly that
anyone can settle in and know exactly what’s in store within a couple of
minutes or less.
Mark Dujsik said in his review, “Within that same
amount of time, it's also clear that the animation team has finally—at least
compared to the previous mainline movie—figured out how to bring the sea
sponge, which looks like one of the ordinary household cleaning variety, and
his pals and his world from the realm of traditional animation into
three-dimensional computer animation. The last movie looked like an
unconvincing compromise between the two forms.” This time, director Derek
Drymon and the animators accept the fact that SpongeBob, voiced by Tom Kenny,
and his friends now exist as 3D characters (for the purposes of these movies,
apparently). However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t still cartoons.
Dujsik said, “The style and the movement of the
characters in this film are fluid, which is vital for material that relies so
much on the characters' exaggerated facial expressions, bodies that change
depending on a gag, and the generally frantic energy of everything in this
world and story.” The plot in Pam Brady and Matt Lieberman’s screenplay starts
to simply that it’s difficult to keep track of each and every way where the
story keeps adding new elements, until the part where the climax is set in a
real world that still can act like a cartoon.
That’s part of the fun of this new film, because none
of the characters in the film even looks like they have an idea of what they’re
supposed to be doing (Dujsik noted, “At one point, a studio executive, animated
as a paper cutout of a picture of a fish, stops the film in its tracks to try
to put things back in some semblance of order, but that doesn't last long”). As
a character, SpongeBob seems to work best when he isn’t stuck in some routine
or predictable plot, because he responds to everything as if anything he stumbles
on is completely new to him.
According to the legend of an undead pirate called the
Flying Dutchman, voiced by Mark Hamill, SpongeBob is a completely innocent
soul, but the ghost pirate has a few less generous ways of putting it when he
realizes that SpongeBob might be the one to release him from a centuries-old
curse. Before any of that, our sponge friend is excited to wake up one morning
to see that he has finally grown to be 36 clams tall, meaning he’s a “big guy”
now, complete with a theme song.
At first, SpongeBob’s goal is to ride a roller coaster
as a nearby amusement park with his best friend Patrick, voiced by Bill
Fagerbakke, a pink starfish who might be even more “innocent” than SpongeBob,
given that he doesn’t recognize his best friend of many years just because he
grew half a clam taller. Dujsik said, “The little jokes here are steady and
sturdy, regardless of one's familiarity with or knowledge of any of these
characters. They wear their natures on their sleeves or, in Patrick's case, the
jock strap he adorns while dressing like a pirate (Apparently, he can only wear
a full top or bottom of any outfit).”
The same goes for Mr. Krabs, voiced by Clancy Brown
(who also appears as a pirate narrator at the start), SpongeBob’s boss at a
local fast-food joint. The roller coaster turns out to be too scary for
SpongeBob (Dujsik noted, “To be fair, the gigantic contraption is, quite
amusingly, a death trap at every turn, climb, and drop”), and Mr. Krabs
suggests that his employee might one day dare to get on the ride, if he earns a
swashbuckling certificate, like the crab did in his youth as a sailor.
All of this eventually leads to the Flying Dutchman
convincing SpongeBob and Patrick to join him on an adventure, traveling to the
Underworld so that SpongeBob can prove his courage. Dujsik said, “The pirate,
of course, actually wants SpongeBob to unwittingly sacrifice himself so that
the undead swashbuckler can become alive again.” When realizing that his
employee is in trouble (Dujsik said, “His old foe's diabolical laughter is a
dead giveaway, and on a side note, is there any actor currently working who
does a better diabolical chortle than Hamill?”), Mr. Krabs, the edgy Squidward
(Rodger Bumpass), and SpongeBob’s meowing pet snail Gary (Tom Kenny) go out to
rescue their friends.
There’s not much more to give here, since the film
does joke after joke, with a joke or two in between them. Dujsik said, “Some of
them are quite funny, and most of them are so silly that the whole film starts
to feel like an exercise in kid-friendly absurdism. The SpongeBob Movie: Search
for SquarePants is a good-natured bit of goofy fun, as well as a fine example
of how to bring the sensibilities and aesthetic of a two-dimensional cartoon into
the realm of three-dimensional computer animation.” Mostly, it’s for the fans,
but the film is a reminder that, when this material works as silly
entertainment, anyone watching it could and should become a fan in the moment.
From seeing all of the previous SpongeBob movies, this
one is very funny. I think fans of the show will get into this one no problem.
Sure, it might hit some of the notes as the previous film, like the characters
go above surface, which they have done in just about every one of the movies,
but they come up with new reasons for them to go above surface, so that’s good.
This is one that I can see parents taking their kids to seeing. Check it out
and enjoy yourself in the theaters during the holidays this year.
Thank you for joining in on this review tonight. Tune
in tomorrow for more reviews for “Disney Month 2025.”
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