The fourth-ever SpongeBob SquarePants film debut soon, and with Tom Kenny's iconic yellow sponge not being the main focus of the new film, there are some things that fans need to know regarding the upcoming title.
Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie will be yet another spin-off film from the ever-popular Nickelodeon series, SpongeBob SquarePants. This time, the movie won't be shown in theaters, however, instead airing solely on Netflix.
Fans are still patiently waiting for any new information regarding the film, but The Sandy Cheeks Movie's star-studded cast and synopsis were already released. Unfortunately for Netflix and the movie's cast and crew, the entire film was also recently leaked.
When Is The Sandy Cheeks Movie Releasing?
As of writing, Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie has no specific release date, but it is expected to come out sometime in the 2024 calendar year.
Initially, the plan was for The Sandy Cheeks Movie to be released in February 2023. However, for undisclosed reasons, it was delayed until sometime in 2024.
Another upcoming SpongeBob movie (The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants) was also officially delayed last year.
According to Deadline, Search for SquarePants was originally supposed to be released on May 23, 2025, but was delayed until December 19, 2025, due to the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) strike that lasted multiple months. The fact that the movie will be split between animation and live-action likely made dealing with the strike much more difficult.
This strike could have very well been what impacted The Sandy Cheeks Movie as well, which would have most definitely caused a delay in the release date.
Since Search for SquarePants is not set to be released until December 2025, Netflix and Nickelodeon have the entirety of 2024 to release The Sandy Cheeks Movie without it feeling too close to the next film in the series.
However, Netflix released the first look at The Sandy Cheeks Movie via X (formerly known as Twitter) on April 25, 2023. This first look included a still capture of Sandy Cheeks and SpongeBob SquarePants flying through the air on purple seashells, a shot that will likely be showcased early on in the upcoming movie.
When also taking into consideration that multiple character models and fully rendered clips of The Sandy Cheeks movie were leaked in November 2023, it makes it even more likely to assume that it will be coming to Netflix sooner rather than later.
It is possible that the film could be released sometime in either June or July, as most children will then be out of school. This would allow Netflix to get the most possible viewers for the upcoming movie, meaning that if it is released in either of those months, it will likely look like a bigger success than it would if it were to come out in another month.
Who's Cast In The Sandy Cheeks Movie?
Most projects within the SpongeBob franchise have centered around the main character, SpongeBob SquarePants. However, as the title suggests, Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie will be more centered on Carolyn Lawrence's Sandy Cheeks.
Of course, SpongeBob and a lot of the other iconic characters such as Patrick Star and Squidward Tentacles will also be present, they just won't be as prominently featured as they normally are.
However, fans can rest assured that these iconic characters will be played by the same actors and actresses that have portrayed them for many years.
With that being said, here is the main cast of The Sandy Cheeks Movie:
- Carolyn Lawrence - Sandy Cheeks
- Tom Kenny - SpongeBob SquarePants
- Wanda Sykes - Sue Nahmee
- Jamaria Davis - young Sue Nahmee
- Johnny Knoxville - Randy Cheeks
- Craig Robinson - Pa Cheeks
- Bill Fagerbakke - Patrick Star
- Rodger Bumpass - Squidward Tentacles
- Doug Lawrence - Sheldon J. Plankton
- Clancy Brown - Eugene H. Krabs
- Mary Jo Catlett - Mrs. Puff
- Jill Talley - Karen Plankton
- Grey Griffin - Ma Cheeks, Granny Cheeks, Rowdy Cheeks, and Rosie Cheeks
- Matty Cardarople - Kyle
Was The Sandy Cheeks Movie Leaked Online?
As previously mentioned, character models and rendered clips of The Sandy Cheeks Movie were leaked online in November 2023.
However, more recently on January 21, the entire movie from the beginning scene to the end credits was leaked on X.
Paramount Global worked extremely hard to get the illegal copies of the film erased from the social media platform, but as many fans can imagine, a lot of damage had already been done.
Nearly every X account that posted the movie, or even snippets of footage from it, was struck with copyright infringement and had the videos removed from the accounts and the platform entirely.
While it is unfortunate that The Sandy Cheeks Movie made its way into the hands of fans before Paramount, Netflix, and Nickelodeon intended it to, the fact that the entire movie was put together could indicate that it is fairly close to being ready to be released on the streaming platform.
What Will Happen in The Sandy Cheeks Movie?
Even though the film has not yet been released, fans know the basic premise of The Sandy Cheeks Movie.
While most of the SpongeBob SquarePants universe takes place in Bikini Bottom on the ocean floor, The Sandy Cheeks Movie will instead feature Sandy and SpongeBob in the Lone Star state of Texas.
The pair will venture out of the water and over to Texas after Bikini Bottom is scooped out of the ocean by an evil CEO.
Because of that, Sandy and SpongeBob have to find the former's family and try to save Bikini Bottom (hence the name of the film).
Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie will be released on Netflix sometime in 2024.
