Above the sea, an old man narrates the story of The Flying Dutchman and how only one individual can defeat him. That is none other than SpongeBob SquarePants, himself.

The scene then switches to beneath the water—specifically the town of Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob wakes up and measures himself. He thinks that he got taller.

Then he greets Patrick, Squidward, and Sandy before going to a local amusement park with Patrick. Although he meets a particular roller coaster’s height requirement, he is too scared to ride it. But because he doesn’t want to disappoint Patrick, SpongeBob lies about promising to go on the roller coaster with Mr. Krabs.

At the Krusty Krab, Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob the story about how he was something called a swashbuckler when he was younger. He would go on lots of dangerous missions but make it through all of them.

SpongeBob is heavily inspired and wants to be a swashbuckler, too. While in the bathroom, he sees that Patrick has Mr. Krabs’s old map from his swashbuckler days.

Then a bizarre green light shines from a hole in the wall. SpongeBob goes into it and discovers a room full of treasures. He blows through a horn, which summons The Flying Dutchman. The Flying Dutchman claims that he can help SpongeBob earn his Swashbuckler certificate by completing different challenges and blowing the Dutchman’s horn.

Patrick wants to go, too, even though The Flying Dutchman and his assistant, Barb, don’t approve. Nevertheless, they both go, and the tasks begin.

Meanwhile, Mr. Krabs finds out about SpongeBob’s goal with The Flying Dutchman and worries. He has Squidward and even Gary the snail join him on his quest to save SpongeBob.

SpongeBob completes the different challenges and even makes time to be silly with Patrick, annoying both The Flying Dutchman and Barb.

At some point, The Flying Dutchman can’t take Patrick’s childish attitude distracting SpongeBob. SpongeBob tells him what his plan is, meaning that he can no longer have fun with him. This breaks Patrick’s heart and makes him cry.

When SpongeBob almost makes it to the horn, Mr. Krabs finds him and warns him that The Flying Dutchman is actually trying to hurt him. But SpongeBob ignores Mr. Krabs and blows the horn.

At last, The Flying Dutchman has come back to life as a fully-fledged man, and SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs become bearded ghosts. What will that lead to for all of them?

As a fan of SpongeBob SquarePants, it was no surprise that this movie kept me engaged all the way through. It also made me laugh several times. After all, SpongeBob is supposed to be very funny.

The characters were true to their usual selves. But there were also some twists and turns with them. A big one is how Mr. Krabs got worried about SpongeBob and drove several miles away from Bikini Bottom just to rescue him. This differs from the TV series, where Mr. Krabs doesn’t treat SpongeBob as well. Rather, he cares more about making lots of money.

The concept was also strong and out-of-the-box. I admire the idea of having a character complete different challenges to “get what he wants.” It’s a unique twist. Instead, the protagonist is giving the villain what he desires.

The pacing was quick, making all scenes flow as smoothly as possible and run at the right speed. The movie is also not even an hour and a half long, making it suitable for younger audiences and those with short attention spans.

That being said, I’m really not a fan of the fact that the animation was done in CGI. CG-animation is overdone these days. I understand why it’s used a lot now—one of the reasons is because it’s easier to edit scenes in CG-animation than with hand-drawn animation.

But the TV show is 2D-animated. It’s great that the 2004 movie was done with 2D-animation. But the CG-animation for this film strays away too much from the series.

Another flaw was that SpongeBob’s voice sounded different. It wasn’t as high as it is on the TV show. Even though he was voiced by the same actor, Tom Kenny, he sounded more like Ethan Slater, who portrayed him in the Broadway musical.

Now I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with Ethan Slater. He did a superb job depicting SpongeBob on Broadway. It’s just that I’m so used to his voice being higher on screen.

Then again, the TV series came out in 1999. So, it’s more than a quarter of a century old. And in that much time, people’s voices can change.

So, it’s likely that Tom Kenny experienced a voice change so much that he can no longer make SpongeBob sound the way he did in the late 90s or early 2000s.

Otherwise, I enjoyed The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants. It was a good watch with lots of humor and adventure.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.