Brief Story Line
When SpongeBob (Tom Kenny - Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp etc) realized he just grew taller, he wanted to prove that he was a big guy by following the footsteps of his boss Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown - The Penguin TV series, Warcraft: The Beginning etc) and became a swashbuckler. SpongeBob somehow summoned the pirate ghost Flying Dutchman (Mark Hamill - The Wild Robot, Star Wars: The Last Jedi etc) who convinced him to go on a dangerous adventure to get the swashbuckler certificate. Together with his best friend Patrick (Bill Fagerbakke - Coach sitcom etc), SpongeBob went on the journey along with the Dutchman and his crew that included his assistant Barb (Regina Hall - Me Time, Think Like a Man etc).
Meanwhile Mr. Krabs who found out about SpongeBob's intention, asked Squidward (Rodger Bumpass - Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego animated series etc) and Gary the Snail to catch up and stop SpongeBob from following Dutchman.
So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Well that was fun. My wife and I might not be big fans of SpongeBob series, but both of us like Patrick whose goofiness always made us laughed. And though in this movie the focus was more on SpongeBob, but whenever Patrick appeared, it always brought us joy. There was one moment towards the end during SpongeBob's speech where Patrick gave a hilarious comment that I could not stop laughing.
Anyway, this movie's story was pretty standard and not that difficult to understand. However, it did seem like the plot might be a bit challenging to follow by the very young children. There was a father and his young daughter in the studio who left after half hour or so. Perhaps she felt it was too long compared to the less than half hour short of each episode in the series (the film had a duration of 96 minutes without mid or post end credit scene).
The voice cast were mostly regular from the series. My wife did notice that several of the usual characters only appeared very little here such as Plankton (Mr. Lawrence - Camp Lazlo animated series etc) and Sandy Cheeks (Carolyn Lawrence - Jimmy Neutron animated series etc) and few others. Apparently this part was highlighted as a downside by one of the critics, though for us it did not matter so much. In any case, the best part for me and my wife were always the silliness of SpongeBob and Patrick and their really close friendship. It was fun looking at them enjoying themselves behaving like children. We also liked the jokes here and the way they were never afraid to exaggerate in a lot of things such as during the roller coaster scene.
The movie itself was directed by Derek Drymon (Hotel Transylvania: Transformation etc) based on screenplay by Pam Brady (writer of Smurfs, Hot Rod etc) & Matt Lieberman (writer of Free Guy, Scoob! etc). From what I read, this is the fourth theatrical release film though it was only the second one that my wife and I saw in the cinema after the 2004 The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie (which I remembered clearly because of David Hasselhoff appearing in it). This film received positive reviews from critics and seemed audience embraced it too, likely due to having a nice enough message and the delightful ending.
Overall this was something that was enjoyable for me and my wife, though it might not be the case for people who are not accustomed with SpongeBob Squarepants series. Even the very young children might not be able to enjoy this entirely. So if you love Spongebob and Patrick, then I think you would still have fun seeing the film. But if you prefer your children to see high quality animated movie with deeper story and comedy that are not too absurd, then this one might not be too satisfying. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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