The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants (2025)

Only just tall enough to go on the big boy’s ride, “SpongeBob” and his best pal “Patrick” are lured onto the pirate ship of the dreaded “Flying Dutchman” and promised an exciting adventure before he is rewarded with his swashbuckling certificate. Meantime, “Mr. Krabs” races in hot pursuit because he knows that his enthusiastic, but gullible, young protégé is being lead on a perilous journey that could end up releasing untold terror on the high seas. There are loads of semi-slapstick escapades here and by putting it all underwater, they gets to battle all sorts of menacing sea creatures too as he must accomplish a series of challenges before he can blow the magical horn that will signify his achievement - or, will it? There is humour for all ages here, but I’d have to admit that most of it is really only aimed at the younger audience. What there is for the older folks is limited, predictable and fairly unimaginative. All of that said, it races along and I heard loads of laughs from the children watching in a packed cinema and that’s never a bad thing, so perhaps not for those of us on the wrong side of fifty - but with it’s messages of loyalty and devotion mixed in with borderline farce, it’s an effortless ninety minutes of festive fun that for once doesn’t scream marketing exercise at us.