This year has been a pretty good one for family friendly movies, with options like The Minecraft Movie, KPop Demon Hunters and the SpongeBob spinoff Plankton (streaming with a Netflix subscription), to name a few. But before we flip over to the 2026 movie calendar, there’s one more animated option — and it’s one that might appeal to viewers of all ages — The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants. Critics have seen the latest movie based on the popular Nicktoon, and they say we’re in for some “nautical nonsense.”
The previous SpongeBob SquarePants movies have been a lot of fun, and in his latest adventure, the titular sea sponge goes on an adventure through The Underworld with ghost pirate The Flying Dutchman in order to prove he’s a “big guy.” Hold on to your lucky bricks, because Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert rates the movie a perfect 4 out of 4 stars, calling it “sublimely silly” and writing:
