Trivia / The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run

• Adored by the Network: Paramount+ is obsessed with this movie, to the point where they took ad space on any website that showcases ads, as well as on television, to promote it. It helps that it's the main draw of the service after its rebranding from CBS All Access.
• All-Star Cast: Like the first movie and Sponge Out of Water, this film features big names, consisting of Keanu Reeves, Snoop Dogg, Awkwafina, Danny Trejo, Tiffany Haddish, Reggie Watts and Monsta X.
• Creator Backlash: Not the movie itself, but director Tim Hill was very dissapointed the movie was released on Paramount Plus, instead of a release in theaters.
• Delayed Release Tie-In:
  • The film had a Wendy's promotion that was supposed to come out around the time of the original release date (May 2020), but got delayed itself until late June. It ended up counting again when the film was pushed back into 2021.
  • Several tie-in books came out around the original May release date.
  • Some 7-Eleven locations in the United States ran a promotion for the film in May.
  • A Pop-Tarts tie-in was released for the spring of 2020, with specially-marked boxes offering discounted tickets for the movie if you bought a certain amount between March 16 and July 31. Not only did the movie get delayed past those dates, but it cancelled its theatrical release (except in Canada and South Korea) in favor of streaming, making any ticket discounts pointless.
  • Aeropostale, Spencer's and Kohl's ran SpongeBob-themed promotions ahead of the film's original May release.
  • Cereal based on the movie (itself a remake of the SpongeBob cereal from the heyday of the franchise) appeared in stores in April 2020, one month before the original May release.
• Demand Overload:
  • When the trailer was first uploaded to YouTube, the site went down for three minutes.
  • When the film was added to Paramount+, viewers who attempted to watch it got error messages.
• Kids' Meal Toy: Wendy's had a set of keychains based on the "Kamp Koral" scenes of the film, released in May of 2020, when the film was originally scheduled to come out.
• In Memoriam: The end of the movie shows an image of SpongeBoy (the prototype SpongeBob) with the words "In Memory Of Stephen Hillenburg."
• Missing Trailer Scene: The scenes of SpongeBob asking Mr. Krabs, Sandy and Squidward if they've seen Gary and him screaming Gary's name to the sky are not in the movie.
• Posthumous Credit:
  • This was the last SpongeBob SquarePants related production to involve Stephen Hillenburg who was credited as executive producer, as he died when it was in pre-production.
  • Despite his fatal heart attack in May 2019, Chris Reccardi is still given a credit as a storyboard artist.
• Real-Life Relative: In the Brazilian dub, both SpongeBob and Young SpongeBob are voiced by father and son Wendel and Enzo Bezerra. Wendel’s daughter, Melissa, also joined the voice cast as Young Sandy.
• Release Date Change: The movie was originally set for release on May 22, 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic pushed it to July 31 and then August 7, 2020, before being changed to a video on demand release set for March 4, 2021 in the United States, while Canada managed to release the movie in theaters on August 14, 2020. It was also released on Netflix internationally on November 5th, 2020.
• Sequel Gap: Sponge on the Run releases 17 years after The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and 6 years after The Sponge Bob Movie Sponge Out Of Water^note 16 and 5 years, respectively, if you count the theatrical release in Canada.
• Short Run in Peru: The American release of the film was pushed to March 4, 2021 in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic, as a health precaution to keep people from contracting the illness in theaters. The film still released in Canadian theaters on August 14th, 2020, though (even becoming the #1 film at the domestic box office), with a subsequent international Netflix release occurring on November 5 of the same year.
• Swan Song: This movie marks the last work on the show for Chris Reccardi, who passed away in May 2019.
• Time-Shifted Actor: In the flashback of SpongeBob meeting Gary at Kamp Koral, SpongeBob was voiced by a real child actor, Antonio Raul Corbo, instead of his usual voice actor Tom Kenny. Likewise, the same flashbacks have Patrick, Squidward, and Sandy voiced by Jack Gore, Jason Maybaum, and Presley Williams rather than Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, and Carolyn Lawrence.
• What Could Have Been: Leaked storyboards of an earlier version of the movie involved SpongeBob and friends fending off an invasion of cat-like aliens.
• Working Title: The title was originally going to be "It's a Wonderful Sponge", as a reference to It's a Wonderful Life. It even got an official teaser poster◊ at Comic Con.
• You Look Familiar: Matt Berry, who voiced Bubbles in Sponge Out of Water, voices King Poseidon here.