The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants was bad, not in a bad way either. The movie was released to cinemas on December 19, 2025 and on streaming through Paramount+ on February 17, 2026. The movie lasts one hour and 28 minutes, which honestly felt pretty long to me. I remember that the marketing for this movie was crazy, there were advertisements all over social media and they even put him in Fortnite just to get people to watch the movie.
Obviously the movie is based on the SpongeBob SquarePants television series created by Stephen Hillenburg. The main cast remains unchanged, with the most prominent in the movie being Tom Kenny, Clancy Brown, Rodger Bumpass and Bill Fagerbakke. What’s interesting is Mark Hamil replacing Brian Doyle-Murray as The Flying Dutchman, which I remember seeing some internet kickback from. The film was directed by Derek Drymon and produced by Lisa Stewart, Pam Brady and Aaron Dem.
Despite the name of the movie, SpongeBob isn’t actually lost and is on the screen for most of the movie. SpongeBob wakes up one morning to realize he is finally able to ride the roller coaster meant for adults. After being too scared to follow through, Mr. Krabs tells Spongebob about “swashbucklers” and how he became one. SpongeBob decides that he will become one as well which leads him to blowing the Dutchman’s horn. The Flying Dutchman realized that he can take advantage of SpongeBob to relieve him of his curse. The rest of the movie follows SpongeBob unknowingly helping the Dutchman while Mr. Krabs and Squidward venture through the Underworld to stop him. Patrick was also there but he served little to no purpose.
This is clearly a movie made for children, but then they marketed to everyone they possibly could. The first 20 minutes are so overwhelming, my guess is to keep children entertained till they get committed to the actual movie. I also hated the animation, it felt unnatural and there was never really an open area; I’m guessing because all the budget went to promotion. It’s just so weird that they keep trying to make SpongeBob so different while keeping every stupid internet meme that was only there to reel millennials in. The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants gets a 2/5 from me. I do think kids would like this, but it seems like they advertised this to everyone but kids. Also, for some reason they got Ice Spice to make a song for this movie, and then she showed up to the premiere in a very revealing dress; not really my first choice for a SpongeBob movie.
