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Animated adventure comedy film The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants is out now in theatres.
Based on the SpongeBob SquarePants television series, it follows the titular character SpongeBob (Tom Kenny) on a quest to prove his bravery by adventuring with the ghost pirate, The Flying Dutchman (Mark Hamill), through The Underworld.
This is the fourth theatrical release based on the Nickelodeon show, following Sponge on the Run (2020).
Director Derek Drymon, who also worked on the series since 1996, shared what the creative process was like in an interview.
“When we were making SpongeBob, it was always with the idea of just making each other laugh,” he said.
“A lot of it started in the writing room. We would pull from each other’s childhoods, things that happened to us as kids, and then try to translate that into a universal experience, so it’s not so specific to one person, but something that anybody as a kid could relate to,” Derek added.
“A lot of it is about friendship and fitting in and wanting to belong. No matter what generation you happen to be in, we all want the same thing. So, I think that’s kind of the core: what does SpongeBob want? He’s this innocent kid who’s kind of naive, dances through life, and what he really wants to do is he wants to belong to his friends, and he wants to fit in with his friends.”
First aired in 1999, the ongoing television show is the fourth longest-running American animated series in history, and the longest-running American children’s animated series as of 2025.
It was created by the late marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg, who combined his interests – the ocean and art.
Widely praised for its appeal to various age groups, the show garnered Stephen a number of accolades including two Emmy Awards and six Annie Awards. Sadly, he passed away in 2018 at the age of 57 after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
