SpongeBob Swims Back to Theaters in New Movie With Mark Hamill as the Flying Dutchman – Trailer Released

SpongeBob is diving back into theaters this year with a brand-new movie called The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants. The trailer just dropped, and fans are already buzzing. This update comes straight from Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Movies.

This will be SpongeBob’s fourth movie since the show first hit Nickelodeon in 1999. In this new story, SpongeBob sets off on a wild sea adventure and faces the ghostly Flying Dutchman, a fan-favorite villain from the show. But there’s a twist this time, Mark Hamill will be voicing the spooky sailor instead of the usual actor, Brian Doyle-Murray.

The rest of the cast stays true to what fans know. Tom Kenny is back as SpongeBob, with Bill Fagerbakke as Patrick, Rodger Bumpass as Squidward, Clancy Brown as Mr. Krabs, Carolyn Lawrence as Sandy, and Mr. Lawrence as Plankton. Some new voices will join the fun too, including George Lopez, Ice Spice, Arturo Castro, Sherry Cola, and Regina Hall. They’re expected to play new characters in the movie.

One of the biggest changes is the way the movie looks. While the show is usually 2D animated, this movie will be fully in 3D. That might sound new, but it’s something SpongeBob has done before in Sponge Out of Water (2015) and Sponge on the Run (2020), both of which also used 3D animation. Other recent spinoff movies like Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie and Plankton: The Movie used 3D too, but they were made for Netflix.

This new movie is directed by Derek Drymon, who’s worked on the SpongeBob series before, but this will be his first time directing a full movie. The story was created by Marc Ceccarelli, Kaz, and Pam Brady, all longtime SpongeBob writers. Pam Brady also helped write the script with Matt Lieberman and is producing the film along with Lisa Stewart and Aaron Dem.

Even though SpongeBob has popped up in a few streaming movies recently, this will be his first movie in theaters in over ten years. The last time fans could watch SpongeBob on the big screen was back in 2015 with Sponge Out of Water, which made $55 million in its first weekend. The 2020 movie Sponge on the Run was supposed to release in theaters too, but because of the pandemic, it ended up going straight to Paramount+.

Now, Search for SquarePants is finally bringing SpongeBob back to theaters. The movie will hit cinemas on December 19. It’s been a long wait, and fans are ready. As one fan put it after watching the trailer, “SpongeBob’s back, and it looks like he’s bringing the fun with him.”

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