SpongeBob’s Underwater Search Starts Now — Watch the Exciting First Trailer of the New Film

Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Movies have unveiled the first trailer for their upcoming SpongeBob adventure, The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants. This film marks SpongeBob’s fourth feature since the franchise’s debut on Nickelodeon in 1999. The story follows SpongeBob on an epic quest across the ocean depths as he confronts the Flying Dutchman, a familiar villain from the TV series. While Brian Doyle-Murray traditionally voices the Dutchman on television, Mark Hamill takes on the role in this movie, bringing his distinctive vocal talent to the character.

Visually, Search for SquarePants departs from the traditional 2D animation style of the TV series. Instead, it adopts a vibrant 3D cinematic look—continuing a trend seen in previous SpongeBob movies like 2015’s Sponge Out of Water and 2020’s Sponge on the Run, both of which showcased full CGI animation. The recent spin-offs Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie and Plankton: The Movie also embraced this style.

The film is directed by Derek Drymon in his feature debut. The story is crafted by veteran writers Marc Ceccarelli & Kaz and Pam Brady, with Brady and Matt Lieberman penning the screenplay. Brady also serves as a producer alongside Lisa Stewart and Aaron Dem. This movie marks SpongeBob’s first major theatrical release in over a decade; his previous big-screen outing, Sponge Out of Water, was delayed multiple times during the pandemic before premiering directly on Paramount+. The last theatrical release before that was in 2015, which opened to $55 million domestically.

Search for SquarePants is scheduled to hit theaters on December 19.