The cartoon is usually 2D, but this new movie is fully 3D and made for theaters. This isn’t totally new for SpongeBob fans, Sponge Out of Water in 2015 and Sponge on the Run in 2020 also used 3D ...

The first SpongeBob movie to hit theaters in a decade - 2020's 'Sponge on the Run' was waylaid by Covid - will be released on December 19.

The movie could be part of the deal Netflix stuck with Nickelodeon in 2020. Over the past few years, Netflix has released several Nickelodeon movies exclusively based on established Nick IP.