The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

"The SpongeBob Movie" redirects here. For the film series, see SpongeBob SquarePants (film series). For the video game, see The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (video game).

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
Film poster showing SpongeBob SquarePants (center right) and Patrick Star (center left) on a car shaped like a sandwich, ready to save the world. Below them are various Bikini Bottom residents watching the pair, including Mr. Krabs, Squidward Tentacles, Sandy Cheeks, and a frustrated Plankton catching up to them. In the upper left side of the image is the title. Below is shown the text "Hero. Legend. Sponge." above the credits and the production details.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byStephen Hillenburg [a]
Screenplay by
Story byStephen Hillenburg
Based onSpongeBob SquarePants
by Stephen Hillenburg
Produced by
  • Stephen Hillenburg
  • Julia Pistor
Starring
CinematographyJerzy Zieliński
Edited byLynn Hobson
Music byGregor Narholz
Production
companies
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release dates
Running time
87 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$30 million[2]
Box office$141 million[2]

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is a 2004 American animated adventure comedy film based on the television series SpongeBob SquarePants. It was co-written, co-produced, and directed by series creator Stephen Hillenburg (in his feature directorial debut)[3] and features the series' regular voice cast consisting of Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Clancy Brown, Rodger Bumpass, Mr. Lawrence, Jill Talley, Carolyn Lawrence, and Mary Jo Catlett. Guest stars Alec Baldwin, Scarlett Johansson, and Jeffrey Tambor voice new characters, and David Hasselhoff appears in live-action as himself. In the film, Plankton enacts a plan to discredit his business nemesis Mr. Krabs, steal the Krabby Patty secret formula and take over the world by stealing King Neptune's crown and framing Mr. Krabs for the crime. SpongeBob and Patrick team up to retrieve the crown from Shell City to save Mr. Krabs from Neptune's wrath and their world from Plankton's rule.

Hillenburg accepted an offer for a film adaptation of SpongeBob SquarePants from Paramount Pictures in 2002, after turning it down multiple times the previous year. He assembled a team from the show's writing staff, including himself, Derek Drymon, Tim Hill, Kent Osborne, Aaron Springer, and Paul Tibbitt, and structured the film as a mythical hero's journey that would bring SpongeBob and Patrick to the surface. The film was originally intended to serve as the series finale, but Nickelodeon ordered more episodes of the series as it had become increasingly profitable, so Hillenburg resigned as showrunner, with Tibbitt taking his place.

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie premiered in Los Angeles on November 14, 2004, and was released in the United States on November 19. It received generally positive reviews and grossed $141 million worldwide, becoming the seventh highest-grossing animated film of 2004. Two theatrical films based on the series have since been released: The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (2015) and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run (2020), with a fourth film, The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, set to be released on December 19, 2025.


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  1. ^ "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie". British Board of Film Classification. Archived from the original on June 30, 2015. Retrieved February 7, 2015.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference BOM was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Detail view of Movies Page". American Film Institute. Archived from the original on May 26, 2015. Retrieved May 26, 2015.