Breathlessly enthusiastic trailers and cheeky online promotional campaigns (“This Christmas, They’re in Deep Ship”) have been popping up everywhere for the new SpongeBob SquarePants movie and it doesn’t even open until December 19. The enduring popularity of the long-running TV series and feature-film franchise with kids, teens, Gen Z and even Millennial fans would seem to make such intensive outreach almost unnecessary, perhaps even redundant.

But SpongeBob represents Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures ’ most valuable property, with countless merchandise products, TV series spinoffs, video game adaptations and even a 2017 Broadway musical version to date, so clearly nothing can be left to chance. Even with this impressive legacy to uphold, The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePan

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