★★★☆☆ 3 out of 5

If you are anything like me, you miss your childhood television shows and wish that they would return on television. One show that never went away from the 2000s era was “SpongeBob Squarepants.”

SpongeBob started airing in 1999, and is still airing new episodes on Nickelodeon. Spongebob had a few changes over the years, and the most recent change is to the CGI. In “The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water,” Spongebob and his pals do something they have never done before and have an adventure on dry land. The movie follows the classic “Spongebob” storyline with Plankton, the villain, trying to steal the secret Krabby Patty formula, but this time there is a new character in this story that also wants the formula – Butter-Beard the pirate.

Butter-Beard steals the secret formula from above land, which leaves the town of Bikini Bottom with no Krabby Patties. Things get crazy in the town and it is up to Spongebob and his nemesis Plankton to team up and try to go find the formula. The only way of doing that is to make a time machine and go back in time.  By going back in time, the team learns the only way to get the formula is go on land and beat Butter-Beard himself.

If you have seen any promotion for this movie, you might think that the entire film is in CGI, and the movie directors are ruining your original 2D cartoon that you loved. I’m here to tell you that the previews are false advertising. At least an hour of this movie is the original Spongebob of the 90s that we all grew up with and loved, and only the last 30 minutes is the new CGI Spongebob.

When I watched this film, I really appreciated that they decided to stay true to the original 2D Spongebob, and did not redraw the cartoon around the new Spongebob and CGI technology. This movie is a great nostalgia trip, mostly because it’s actually pretty trippy for some parts of the film.

Without ruining too much of the movie, there is a scene where characters going back and time and meet a dolphin that makes Spongebob look really strange. The soundtrack actually works very well in that scene. There is a song performed by the band N.E.R.D titled “Squeeze Me” that plays a big role in that scene. I may be a kid at heart, but I really enjoyed this film as a college student. It made me appreciate the old style of cartoons, and long for more time with the yellow sponge. It was also neat seeing how Spongebob looks in modern day with the new CGI.

I would say that if you were or are a fan of the original Spongebob episodes and if nautical nonsense be something you wish, take a trip to Bikini Bottom one more time and see the Spongebob Squarepants movie.