The SpongeBob SquarePants Movies Ranked
SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS (1999-present) is one of my favorite cartoons of all time. I have many fond nostalgic memories of watching the show as a child and I’ve written about how the show represents a maturation of cable children’s programming. What I mean is that SPONGEBOB perfectly hit the nexus of the anarchic Nicktoons that preceded it and a mass appeal; it could appeal to children and adults. After five years on the air, SpongeBob got his first feature film treatment. It’s strange to me, in hindsight, because I remember feeling like it had taken forever for a SPONGEBOB movie to come out. Nearly 20 years has now passed, with the show continuing (perhaps past its expiration point) and the movie franchise receiving four installments in that time.
EDIT 8/8/24: Added SAVING BIKINI BOTTOM: THE SANDY CHEEKS MOVIE.
#4 — SAVING BIKINI BOTTOM: THE SANDY CHEEKS MOVIE (2024)
D: Liza Johnson
I haven’t watched the show in many years but from all accounts it’s gotten as bad as SAVING BIKINI BOTTOM: THE SANDY CHEEKS MOVIE. But then, it’s also not quite for me, although Stephen Hillenburg was able to imbue the original run of the show with a different kind of heart and humor. SAVING BIKINI BOTTOM, the first in a planned series of spin-off movies focusing on other characters (although SpongeBob is still very much present) doesn’t really have either and is as tiring as the voice actors themselves sound depleted. There are a couple of good gags and a strange reliance on body horror at the end, but the live action bits are leaden and many of the sequences purely based on mile-a-minute overstimulation that the original episodes of the show really effectively toed the line of. The 3D animation is also a regression from the previous film, which was already inferior to the peak of SPONGEBOB’s 2D art style. SAVING BIKINI BOTTOM is clearly the worst movie in the series, but at least it has pug representation, which my own appreciated judging by his fascination with the TV when the kin-dog appeared on it.
#3 — THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SPONGE ON THE RUN (2020)
D: Tim Hill
If there was some lack of clarity in the length of time between this and SPONGE OUT OF WATER, it’s because COVID-19, as it did with every aspect of life, messed things up for SPONGE ON THE RUN. It was released in a limited fashion to Canadian theaters in fall 2020, but just yesterday [at the time of this writing] in America to accompany the release of Viacom’s new streaming service Paramount+. But all this business stuff should be irrelevant to the content of the movie, right? Well, you’d hope so. The knowledge of this business stuff manifests in the content of the story itself, as the climactic scene is dragged down by an out-of-place series of flashback sequences that set up the first SPONGEBOB spinoff (something Hillenburg staved off during his lifetime), the prequel “SpongeBob Babies” KAMP KORAL: SPONGEBOB’S UNDER YEARS (2021–2024). It is part of a general sense that SPONGE ON THE RUN doesn’t feel like a full “movie-scale” adventure, in spite of the full 3D animation and extended live action sequence. The animation is actually quite good, although I wish there was a bit more of a commitment to the character’s clay-ish looks. There is still a communication of the show’s anarchy, but it feels a bit more reined in, less strange. Perhaps that’s a function of where the show itself is at currently (I must admit I haven’t watched the most recent seasons), or just a function of being a (intended for) wide-release movie. Regardless, SPONGE ON THE RUN has some good, funny moments; I laughed out loud multiple times. There are some clear dragging moments, however, and the movie somehow doesn’t feel incredibly special in spite of the wait for it and its novelty as a fully 3D SPONGEBOB movie (although the latter doesn’t inherently give it a positive bias for me and in fact leans me the other way).
#2 — THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SPONGE OUT OF WATER (2015)
D: Paul Tibbitt
I remember dreading SPONGE OUT OF WATER’s release. A long-awaited sequel to THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE (which came after the biggest gap between films at about ten-and-a-half years) was pitting the characters against a live action Antonio Banderas and bringing them to land in not only 3D animation, but also strange, more-than-human-sized superhero characters? The good news is that the whole 3D part is not too bad (although the quality would be improved for SPONGE ON THE RUN), and the superhero part simply concludes the movie. However, I can’t say SPONGE OUT OF WATER is some great success as compared to its successor. If it is better than it, it is because of SPONGE OUT OF WATER’s use of the traditional 2D animation and a general sense of consistency to the jokes and above-water sequences. It is forgettable in a sense, like SPONGE ON THE RUN, but it’s a good, “movie-sized” adventure with the iconic characters.
#1 — THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE (2004)
D: Stephen Hillenburg
The supremacy of THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE over the two film sequels to follow is clear. Perhaps it’s the nostalgia, or the novelty of SpongeBob coming to the big screen, or creator Stephen Hillenburg’s direction and indeed, his greater involvement in the show itself as compared to 2015 or, of course, 2020 (Hillenburg died in 2018). But no, I think THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE is a tremendous animated film, one that twisted the character and universe dynamics that were so familiar to audiences of the TV series. It’s paced well and it brings that “movie scale” I’ve mentioned a couple of times to a franchise that was typically only offered in 11-minute segments. THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE is beautifully animated; you can see the bigger budget. And it has great jokes, so many that have been turned into memes because of their lasting, memorable appeal. Indeed, THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE might have heralded the end of an era, a peak of those classic early years of a once-fantastic animated show.
